I played through almost all of this game nearly two years ago and decided to come back to finish it right quick in the name of my recent productivity. Turns out I was even closer to the end than I realized - all I had left was what essentially amounted to an endgame boss rush.
The reason I dropped it back then was because this was an extraordinarily disappointing game that simply collapsed under the weight of its own ambition. Joakim Sandberg, the single-handed man behind the project, created a fascinating world and some really great characters in the seven years he worked on it. You know what he didn't create, unfortunately? A coherent, palatable story and gameplay experience that allowed those elements to shine. It's technically a Metroidvania, but it earns that classification by being juuuust non-linear enough for it; exploration and combat aren't fun enough to justify revisiting areas most of the time anyway. And there are undoubtedly some legitimately profound themes going on in its lore, but it's presented in such an awkward, esoteric fashion that I can't imagine the vast majority of players could ever actually figure out what the hell it's trying to say under the surface.
There's good things about Iconoclasts, but taken as a whole experience it's way too uneven and prone to getting in its own way to the point that even with its crazy long development time, it ends up feeling rushed at the end. Not awful by any stretch, but I think my ten hours could've been better spent elsewhere.
I can echo these feelings. I really did not care for the ending, even if I understood the "intent" behind it. I also really didn't care for what happened with one of the characters for the end, you probably know the one. Just... a lot of disappointment all around. I loved a lot of the game though, but I just left with a bad taste in my mouth from the end.
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