TL;DR: I recommend this game on a sale. I got my copy for $20 and thought that was a great price, would've even paid $30.
It's a game that feels like a PS5 launch title, for better or worse. It's extremely nice to look at in terms of both fidelity and style--I'm always a sucker for traveling around an extremely detailed Japan--complete with "next gen" particles and ray-traced lighting.
However, other than looks and the great emotional payoff at the end, it's not really great. It's good, but not much to write home about.
The combat is shallow and often lacks satisfying feedback, and that's before you realize you only have three abilities (spirit guns), and only 2 are truly worth upgrading. A few talismans and a bow can spice up (or trivialize) most fights, but nothing about the gameplay pulled me to want to go for map completion. Enemy variety was weak, if creatively designed, and map the open world was pretty but shallow.
That last part can really stand as the thesis for this whole game: exceptionally pretty and awe-inspiring at first, but quickly loses it's luster and becomes quite dull. I ended up getting 50% of the 240,300(!) spirits and felt that if I kept going I would quickly want to drop the entire game. I made the wise decision to screw completion and push through the story, which is often--again--shallow and somewhat nonsensical until the end, which I very much enjoyed.
I know it sounds like I'm being overwhelming negative, so all I can say is don't go into this thinking it'll reinvent any sort of wheels or scratch any long-term gaming itches. This is a compelling experience for the spectacles alone, a spectacle which was good enough to carry me to the end and across more than two dozen hours of mostly fun gameplay. Tango Gameworks is a fine studio, and this is one I recommend trying at least once.
It's a game that feels like a PS5 launch title, for better or worse. It's extremely nice to look at in terms of both fidelity and style--I'm always a sucker for traveling around an extremely detailed Japan--complete with "next gen" particles and ray-traced lighting.
However, other than looks and the great emotional payoff at the end, it's not really great. It's good, but not much to write home about.
The combat is shallow and often lacks satisfying feedback, and that's before you realize you only have three abilities (spirit guns), and only 2 are truly worth upgrading. A few talismans and a bow can spice up (or trivialize) most fights, but nothing about the gameplay pulled me to want to go for map completion. Enemy variety was weak, if creatively designed, and map the open world was pretty but shallow.
That last part can really stand as the thesis for this whole game: exceptionally pretty and awe-inspiring at first, but quickly loses it's luster and becomes quite dull. I ended up getting 50% of the 240,300(!) spirits and felt that if I kept going I would quickly want to drop the entire game. I made the wise decision to screw completion and push through the story, which is often--again--shallow and somewhat nonsensical until the end, which I very much enjoyed.
I know it sounds like I'm being overwhelming negative, so all I can say is don't go into this thinking it'll reinvent any sort of wheels or scratch any long-term gaming itches. This is a compelling experience for the spectacles alone, a spectacle which was good enough to carry me to the end and across more than two dozen hours of mostly fun gameplay. Tango Gameworks is a fine studio, and this is one I recommend trying at least once.
VeryIngenious
1 year ago