I keep telling my friends the funny joke that the only ps5 exclusive content I've experienced after owning one for half a year is FFVII Remake Intergrade, only to remember around roughly 30 minutes later each time that this game exists and that I bought and played it, which really goes to show how much of an impression it left on me.

Literally nothing made my heart sink more than when I switched to... Rivet? Is that her name? for the first time and her weapons and ammo were the exact same as Ratchet's was at the time. This game would have actually been good despite it's insanely boring story if only the two protagonists were different in any real and important way. Like, the fact they share one arsenal, first off, doesn't make any sense, and secondly, is probably the biggest missed opportunity in this whole series. It really did drain all my interest in the game immediately once I found that out. Usually games don't get ruined just by one mechanic or one design decision, but this one turned what was to begin with a mediocre Ratchet & Clank game into the worst one I've ever played.

Why even have two protagonists if you aren't gonna utilize it at all?

Also, within 5 minutes of gaining control, I got softlocked on the moving platform that takes you to the first battle of the game. Then, during the riding section, I keep going out of the intended play area and just had a blast trying to find the most glitchy piece of collision. This game feels so incredibly half-baked.

you guys need to cool it with saying everything looks like studio ghibli, if anything this game felt like watching a gobelins film (and stylistically looks like half of all gobelins films tbh), especially in its tone and its general theming and atmosphere and presentation, so basically all of it. This game really feels like a gobelins film.

But like gobelins, this game is quite short, which is good, and something so rare in this medium which is understanding how much time a game is worth. This game is simple and wants to tell you a short story and there's nothing wrong with that, that is infinitely more preferable to having it drag on longer than it should for sake of "content". Like there isn't enough content in the game already for it to be fully enjoyable and get across to you every emotion it wants to.

I just finished this game as of writing this, and I keep going back to everything in the game, stuff that I didn't get or otherwise stood out to me, and after putting them into the broader context of the rest of the game, not only do I understand them completely, but appreciate them greatly. Everything in this game is designed so expertly, the pacing the story the mechanics (besides the last puzzle that was really finicky), they all flow together perfectly and there's never a frame in this game that looks ugly, there's never a moment in it that goes wasted, and there's really nothing else I could seek to add to it, it is wholly and completely, well, complete.

I have an immense love for video games that take design seriously, the idea that you don't just need game design and stuff like replayability to make a good game. That games aren't just gameplay mechanics, they're stories, stories which are expressed cooperatively through an audiovisual medium. To ignore the design of how the camera can sit in every map in the game, or how the loading screen can sometimes separate the experience of playing a game into something akin to vignettes, actually taking into account the cooperate storytelling aspect of video games and designing the other aspects with it in mind and it with the other aspects in mind and the other aspects with the other other aspects in mind as well. It's something incredibly difficult for any piece of art, and especially hard for a video game to do, but it is always something to admire and love when a game even attempts to do it.