Finally beat the main story after taking my sweet time with it, and I have many thoughts. Above all else, God of War: Ragnarok is an excellent game, but not without its flaws.

In all things related to story and character, this game nails just about everything. I do think the overall narrative is maybe a little longer than it had to be, but that's a very minor complaint. I think the game starts out strong, slows down a bit, but then really picks up about halfway through and doesn't let go from there. The performances, the writing of these characters is pretty top notch within gaming. I love my Mimir, Brok & Sindri etc. but Kratos is the real star of the show here, having now felt like a fully developed character. Shoutout to Heimdall and the actor who portrayed him. Everything about this slimy, shithead character worked and I felt he singlehandedly brought the narrative up with him.

Gameplay wise it's really satisfying to play and never really lets up. Random enemy encounters are fun to go through but boss fights are where it really shines. They're spectacular.

Some of the gameplay mechanics that I didn't care for in God of War (2018) are here as well. I found some of the Uncharted-style puzzle solving to be annoying, interfering and really slowed down the gameplay unnecessarily. I think the fast travel system, while it makes sense is tethered to the previous game, is imperfect. I think the menus, while improved, are still a little cumbersome and overwhelming.

All that aside, God of War: Ragnarok absolutely nails so much of what it sets out to achieve. It's beautiful, with little to no technical flaws and really satisfying. Sony first-party titles are really special, something that gaming needs. Many of those games are must-play, and this is no exception.

This game is a fabulous, beautiful, genre-defining mess.

I absolutely understand why it has the high reputation it has, and I'm glad I came back to it to finish it. The art is phenomenal, the music sets the mood perfectly, and there's so, so many secrets and details all over every inch of Draculas castle as you roam its halls and dungeons. The story is not a huge element, but it was actually a bit more cohesive and nuanced than I expected. Not a tall bar, but it hit it.

I was a little disappointed that the PS4 edition had to get new voicework since they couldn't relicense the original recordings, but I will say the rewrite is a bit easier to take seriously. Though the "miserable pile of secrets" line actually should have been kept, and not for the meme — that's just a better line than what Dracula says here now, imho.

From the gameplay side, what surprised and hooked me when I first tried playing back in 2011ish on the Xbox Arcade port was how the combat felt like a proper action RPG and the platforming controls were smoother to operate than its peers. Having just played through Ys III, the strengths of the controls here were even more pronounced as I started it up again recently. Hollow Knight has since surpassed it to being the most tight and responsive action platformer I've ever played, but this is still in that ballpark.

The loot and artifacts you can find are also quite exciting. Not everything is useful, but a good amount of what you find will make a significant difference in advantage and gameplay style. What's more, is that many weapons have fighting game style motion commmands to activate hidden abilities. The spell system works off motion inputs too, and in-fact, there's no limit on when you can cast a spell — if you can perform the input you can cast from the very start of the game.

However, most people are only going to be able to engage in that level if they look up a guide because there is no standard set of motions. There's a few common ones, like quarter circle forward, but literally everything is on the table: charge inputs, 3/4 circles, cross inputs, double backs... and so on.

There's a few of these inputs mentioned in the game itself but they can be pretty missable. In fact, a lot of things are very missable. This is strength of the game to me as I like meaningful secrets, they make exploration worth doing and exciting. However, some of the weaknesses of the game started to spoil my ability to appreciate the exploration aspects.

The way I see it, the same thing that makes this game such a masterpiece is also something that makes it a bit rough to play in this day and age. Which is that they made content first and asked questions later. Core mechanics are polished, for sure, but particularly level and enemy design are a series of high highs and low lows.

The medusa head is only the poster child of this game's frustrating parts, it is far from the only one. That whole clock tower section as a whole is... shudder. Other sections are nearly as bad though with enemies that can get you into juggle states that, even if they're so low damage they aren't a threat to your life, will still waste a good 15 seconds of your time and kill your momentum traversing the map — which you will have to do a lot because there are only five, fixed shortcut points in the castle and plenty of intricate pathways in-between that you will have to backtrack around whether you missed something or not.

Thankfully, this is still only a PSX-era "large" map, so it isn't that big of a hurdle to retread some of the more annoying bits, but it adds up. The leveling system also provides some needed relief by gradually reducing the threat of old enemies while still being difficult to out-level new ones in the course of normal play.

On a more mixed point is the boss design. Incredible visual designs aside, I have no idea what the intended experiences with these bosses were supposed to be, because even without guides my winning strategy for almost every. single. one. felt like a cheese. Usually involving the Soulstealer spell, and then I learned about the legitimately broken weapons at the end. Like straight up there's a weapon pair that you can just casually acquire without much additional effort that gives you a win button. Cheat level win button.

But I'm not going to complain because it's a secret input and the boss that made me look it up deserved it.

So... yeah. As a game, my experience was a mess: strong core mechanics and beautiful imagery, but unhinged content design. I can't say it wasn't worth it, though. Even when it was wacked out I always felt right on the verge of wacking back with twice as much cheese (sometimes literally).

There were some things in my video game canon that felt absolute. That were either set in stone by the truth of their existence, or by my stubbornness to consider an alternative.

"Final Fantasy IX is my favourite JRPG" was one of those absolute truths. I've played loads of JRPGS since I first played FFIX as a 10 year old. I've always compared them against the measuring stick of Terra and Gaia. But now? Now I have played Persona 5, and nothing will be the same for me again.

I think this is a near perfect video game. Just throwing that out there now. I think it's an all timer. It's my favourite JRPG, that's for sure. Is it my favourite game of all time? It is far too soon after finishing it to say, but it's certainly up there.

I could go into how compelling the world, characters, story, music, and systems are. But honestly, all I can say is that this game took over my mind in a way games rarely do these days. It filled the spaces of all my idle thoughts, it pressed on me and pressed on me until it left it's imprint, firm and forever. It took my heart, fully.

Kena is a love letter to the adventure games of our past. When playing it, you can see plenty of inspirations from classic PS2-era games, but the most obvious inspiration is The Legend of Zelda. This game takes many notes from various Zelda titles, especially Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild.
The semi open world is gorgeous and breathtaking, and feels open enough to where you can feel the freedom in exploring without being totally lost. Combat can be iffy at times and the camera sometimes will fight you in specific bosses, but overall it was a fun treat, especially once you unlock all abilities. The story structure is very similar to BOTW but with a deeper narrative thrown in your face rather than told by world building NPCs.
The soundtrack and graphics are the biggest things to highlight. The soundtrack is mesmerizing and relaxing, while not being afraid to amp up the intensity for some of the most epic vocals I've heard in some time. The graphics... well, you know about those Pixar-like animations.
Kena is a game worth playing, especially if you go in blind. It's one of the best indie games ever made and should absolutely be experienced on the PS5. I would love a sequel.

A short experience, but a pleasant one. A light metroidvania with simple and sweet controls for combat and platforming. I did just finish Metroid: Dread and Hollow Knight, so comparatively much easier in both aspects, but since it's so lightweight there's also nothing getting in the way of letting you enjoy what's there and moving on. The art is rather pretty too.

If you like sidescrolling adventures and looking for a quick hit, this will probably do it. For most, this is probably something to pick up on a sale. At the $10 price, there are likely more compelling games to get unless this really is your kind of thing.