Game unfinished (I got 2/3rds of the way through I think?) as it induced motion sickness in me multiple times, even though I'd literally never experienced motion sickness before anywhere else in my life. My actual enjoyment levels are substantially lower than my rating indicates as a result of this, but I'm trying to be fair to the game in my rating.

The story and philosophical portions of the game have some compelling moments, but also some bits that really don't work for me; most notably the choose-your-own-adventure portions force you to take very limiting answers that force you down philosophical paths that likely don't match up with what you really think. The in-game puzzles are mostly enjoyable, and there are some great a-ha moments, but I think a lot of the puzzles for the first half of the game are ultimately very simple and only appear to have any challenge to them due to their presentation (where you have to walk around/look around a large amount to actually see what is going on). Seemed like a fine game, but nothing special.

A spiritual sequel of sorts to Universal Paperclips. Has some fairly amusing moments early on with some cute jokes and worldbuilding, but all this is torched in Act 3 where the writing starts to alternate between very on the nose in the delivery of its message and somewhat frustration and annoyance with how the wacky hijinks of the various characters were mixed into all this.

Gameplay has a similar downward trajectory. Early on it feels like the game is aiming to subvert idle games, but the further you get the more lost in the mire of waiting around you get. The experience wasn't wholly without merit, but I left very dissatisfied wishing my time was spent basically anywhere else.

Bounced off this a reasonable amount; probably played about 10-15 hours over the course of the past week or so, and I anticipate playing it more once I'm able to travel again (it seems good for passing time during train/plane journeys) but I can't say I'm compelled enough to spend time on this whilst stuck at home.

There are a few things holding this back for me. I felt like a lot of the time I was having to choose between either engaging in a bunch of busywork or risking future feelbads (trying to balance out of the upsides/downsides of the myriad possible map routes, setting up turn/action-counting relics for the next fight, triple-checking the math on a really complicated turn before committing to either offense or defense). Removing cards (and to an extent upgrading cards) feels so much better than the other options presented that it's hard not to bias towards them in ways that make some choices straightforward/boring (I'd love to have seen one of the four core characters treat this part of the game mechanically differently somehow). Defect and Watcher, based on my initial experiences, felt dramatically more interesting than the other two characters. The game's aesthetic was kind of bland and unmemorable for me (though completely fine).

The biggest problem for me personally is that the game was just very easy, though. Across my first six runs I came close to dying once? I really wish there was a way to skip through ascensions, such that I could challenge ascension 5 even though I've only cleared ascension 1; make ascension 5 even harder for people who want to do things this way to discourage this behaviour if you want, but at least give me the option rather than making me grind for however many hours to get to the point where I feel like I am at risk of losing. I can get around this by just exclusively playing Custom Game mode, but not being able to engage with the main mode sounds unsatisfying enough to me that I'd rather just take a break from the game.

Anyways, the game is a perfectly solid attempt at mixing roguelite and deckbuilder. My rating is perhaps a tad harsh as I recognise the game will appeal to me more once I've unlocked higher ascensions, and that the gameplay with both Defect and Watcher is generally fun and has some great high-points. I do intend to play the game more at some point down the road with all this in mind, but my early experience has been soured a bit and I'd rather just do something else for now.

Individual ratings;
Spyro; 5/10
Spyro 2; 6/10
Spyro 3; 4/10

Was shocked by how poorly these held up to my memory of playing them in my childhood. You don't get to get away with not having much in the way of compelling gameplay by just stuffing a bunch of gems in worlds; exploration should be motivated by worlds being interesting to explore, not by having treasure spread out on every single inch of the floor. Most challenge presented by the game isn't intentional but instead due to poor game design; it's both frustrating that the games generally aren't remotely challenging and also frustrating that the bits where you do struggle are due to bad design.

The series in general seems like it doesn't believe its platforming is actually compelling enough on its own (correct) so inserts a bunch of underdeveloped minigames and side-distractions. This gets particularly bad with the third game where all five of the additional characters control and play much worse than Spyro does.

I entered Astro's Playroom a bit nervous that it would end up feeling like a cynical cash-in on nostalgia, but the experience was surprisingly joyous and those moments of nostalgia actually quite satisfying. It's mostly a glorified tech demo I suppose but a very effective one.

Overall I had a lot of fun throughout, though honestly the only vehicle section that didn't feel like a dip in enjoyment for me was the hamster ball one (which, fortunately, was delightful). The inclusion of a gacha mechanic being tied into the collectathon nature of the game was very frustrating, though the game gives you almost enough coins in a single playthrough to just about get everything anyways so it could be worse (though still sucks).