As beloved as it is for its interconnected world design, I found this to be the most unnecessarily cruel and poorly designed Souls game. Even Demon's Souls didn't let me die with 10k souls from a boss before reaching the next bonfire (thanks Tomb of the Giants). Each successive FROM game has been better about explaining obfuscated mechanics and onboarding new players, but Dark Souls relishes in never telling you what kindling a bonfire does or the difference between hollow and human form. In my obdurate quest to avoid looking things up for the sake of experiencing this paradigm shifting game with fresh eyes, I had a miserable time getting stuck in dead end level design and mechanical time wasters. The pinnacle of which was getting the curse status effect while fighting one of the four lords – a status which persists after death and requires trekking across the world map to remove. To that I said, "f*** this," and put the game down for good.

Ornstein and Smough were pretty neat though. A shame the runback is so irritating.

More Breath of the Wild, warts and all.

The skinner box grind is still entertaining enough and I ended up completing more of the game (90% of shrines) than I expected given how little they did to address issues I had with BotW - lackluster dungeons, storytelling, and progression systems all remain. But it's impossible to deny the charm of even a phoned-in Zelda title.

I think my bitterness is more a reflection of Aonuma's claim that this is what the future of Zelda games looks like. It's neat enough and it has mass appeal, but the "every solution is valid!" nature of open-ended puzzle design in these BotW-era Zelda games means there's fewer "a-ha!" moments in finding intended puzzle solutions (not that any of the puzzles are remotely challenging anyway). So much of the game is (still) defined by the dominant strategy of climbing and gliding everywhere - and for being such a long game it's pretty sad that there's less modulation in your traversal and puzzle solving abilities than earlier Zelda titles. I just need to accept that Nintendo will never make a dungeon with the complexity of Stone Tower Temple again - especially not now that Zelda sells more copies than Mario. This is not a franchise to do weird experiments with, anymore.

If you enjoyed The Witness but wish it had more of a story to grasp onto like Braid, then you might find Tunic weirdly cathartic. This is a really special puzzle game that inspired a sort of lean-my-head-back-and-stare-at-the-ceiling-since-I-can't-comprehend-how-cool-what's-on-screen-is wonder that I hadn't felt in a very long time - not even while playing Outer Wilds.

There's also passable Souls-style combat if you enjoy that, but if you don't then don't be afraid to use the difficulty modifiers! The game's not perfect but it's worth the struggle - don't look anything up and if you do make sure it's a gentle spoiler free guide.

Also the soundtrack is god-tier. Lifeformed already had some bangers on the Dustforce soundtrack but they really outdid themselves here (along with Power Up Audio's gorgeous sound design). "Flux Is On" has been top of the playlist for over a year now.

Really neat gameplay concept brought down by aggressively bland writing. There are some bright spots (everyone loves the screensaver joke), but the game would benefit tremendously by cutting 75% of the script. It suffers from every character annoying you on the radio at all times as well as unskippable cutscenes where the boring writing just can't be ignored.

As for the core rhythm-action gameplay, I enjoyed it enough but I think the Devil May Crys and Bayonettas of the world might not be for me. I'm pretty slow at picking up their combo cues and feel myself button mashing more than anything, and that paired with the precision of a rhythm game meant my timing always felt inadequate (plus the reality of modern HD TV's introducing a noticable amount of input lag). And then the score judgements after every fight just make me feel like shit, even if I was getting A-ranks for the majority of my normal-difficulty playthrough. The combat also gets pretty hard to read in the late game, with loads of characters blocking your view on-screen and getting little info on enemy attack patterns amongst all the overstimulation. It's definitely something I could get better at (Kamiya always says the first playthrough is the tutorial), but I just didn't really feel the motivation to get better. I wonder if this was structured more like a typical rhythm game (just pick a song from a menu, no continue points, no sweat if you fail just try again) if I'd get more invested into it.

So after all the hype this received earlier this year, I'd still temper expectations for people who are rhythm fans but not stylish action fans. It really commits to its core concept which is why I respect the game so much, and at the end of it all I was left wanting more. Although just like my reaction to Edgar Wright's Baby Driver, I'm not sure if I wanted the same thing but with faster, more intense music, or the same thing but with a more compelling narrative.