"Love will tear us apart" is the perfect way to describe this and it's also one of the rawest slogans ever lol.
I'm too weak to an author's self indulgence i'm afraid, and for me this is the peak of that when it comes to videogames, sitting between that indie personality and its status as an iconic franchise.
Shoutout to the gameplay being pretty good!! i missed some of the game design from the previous games due to the way this one is structured, but it leaves the tedious stuff for side content so i dont really mind and those are fun to play as well so it balances out i suppose.
Its new perspective on its characters and themes is actually kinda perfect, and while i think the first games' are a lighting in a bottle type of case with their cynicism and critique, this here is the result of years of legacy and experiences coming together and going all out in the most maturely juvenile expression there is.
You can tell the vision here was constrained by budget and lack of focus sometimes, but that doesn't undermine how beautiful it is that this game even exists in the first place.
At the end of the day there's nothing quite like seeing creatIve minds having fun and being at their best again.