This isn’t even remotely as morbid a failure as it’s being made out to be (imo this is far from being the worst platformer of the year, let alone of all time), and they clearly responded to what criticism about the demo they could in the small window of time they had, but this is still a very disappointing release from someone of Yuji Naka’s pedigree. There are some real easily corrected choices here that totally perplex me: why do you need a key to unlock the costume pickups when these keys are, without fail, placed directly next to the box pickups and mindlessly accessible? Why are Balan’s Bouts dreary, maliciously unforgiving QTE sequences instead of cute little rhythm games that would enhance the game’s theatrical motifs? Why do you have to “stock” costumes instead of just being able to swap to them once encountered? Like almost everybody, I have LOTS of problems with the game, but it feels a little cruel and incurious to see people hammer so hard on BW for not being this conventionally engaging mechanically tight platformer (none of Yuji Naka’s games really are lol) when to me it seems like Balan’s priorities… clearly aren’t to be that? I agree that the game fails on its potential in a myriad of frustrating ways, but I’d much rather discuss those briefly glimmering unique elements that could have been pushed further rather than rail on it for feeling “dated” while simultaneously condemning it for not being kinesthetically identical to a legacy platformer series that’s pushing 40.

I think, ideally, the game’s one-button input philosophy and limited level design are intended to create a hyper-accessible fanciful spree of cutesy quick changing aesthetics and encouragement--a sugary character randomizer musically shifting between different flavors of low-stakes whimsy--and thats a vibe outline I can definitely see merit in. Sometimes this almost kind of works: a lot of the costumes are goofy and adorable! It’s genuinely kind of fun to get a new suit and wonder what it can do! There are a few rare moments where the level design and powers are in great harmony and the whacko dancing npcs appear and seem to be cheering just 4 u--u go girl!!! Unfortunately, the levels and costumes rarely feel as exuberant and symbiotic as they should to make something like this work, and the game REALLY underestimated just how meaningful any ability that overwrites your jump function needs to be in order to not feel completely disempowering. It can feel patronizing and dull, but it’s absolutely not some utter atrocity of design; The game is internally consistent and it functions coherently within its own parameters, despite them being pretty mystifying and insipid at times--it’s not some Sonic 06 level technical failure in any regard. I was let down by the mechanics, sure, but my real problem is that the game is rarely as bold and engaging an aesthetic experience as something like Nights or Chu Chu Rocket. However, there are still some bits of genuinely quirky individuality I really enjoyed.

The musical theater aesthetic is a totally bonkers camp delight. Some of the scenarios leading to these redemptive dance numbers are hysterical and charming (I particularly love “girl and her dolphin friend had a falling out (???) and need to reconcile”) Seeing the motion-captured choreo kind of poorly translated onto all these wonky deviantart original character costumes has a synthetic but silly sort of jankiness that fully circled back into an earnest and endearing place for me. The cutscenes are genuinely lovely, and the craftworld sort of cgi stuff they do is great. I kind of love the enigmatic stupidity of the Tower O’ Tims and its ever-expanding marshmallow peep Rube Goldberg device that appears to do nothing but exist for its own sake--I couldnt help but laugh when I spent 10 minutes watching the dumb little critters revolve around in their weird merry go round in order to unlock a third “tim trampoline” i literally never saw any of them use. The soundtrack is unequivocally pretty excellent, although it definitely feels a bit slight on tracks.

I have to wonder what a kid playing this would feel like, someone with a looser outlook about what the genre should do, someone with a less claustrophobic understanding of competence/quality than me--someone who can play games and not even compartmentalize them into genre expectations at all! I’m not even sure those kids exist or would care about this game, but the kind of frustrating letdown experience of Balan was still memorable to me despite itself, and playing it had me thinking about my own processing and approaches to design when playing games. And hey, my partner and I have been swinging our little terrier around and belting the game’s wannabe Idina Menzel gibberish anthems to her for the past week so that’s gotta be worth something right!!!

The theory on Lightfall being split up into "Lightfall + The Final Shape" would explain why this version of Lightfall at some points explores the most interesting subjects in the universe of the series, and other points refusing to go any further in this exploration. Instead focusing on telling a story about us discovering Strand. A power that doesn't seem necassary for us to (fail to) stop The Witness.

A story about Strand wouldn't have to be bad, they just didn't find a way to make it meaningful. All the other parts of the game are actually great and its a shame that the discussion only revolves around the story. I'm talking about the buildcrafting changes, the aesthetic, the lore, Neomuna and Strand as a substantial evolution to the gameplay.

The raid Root of Nightmares is Bungie at its absolute best, absolutely blowing me away. Despite this, I'm left conflicted. And if The Final Shape isn't this grand finale that just needed more time to finalize, I'm at a complete loss.

The nature of Destiny is that of a "game as service" where the story unfolds in the seasons between expansions. This was brilliantly executed in Season of The Seraph. For the story to do this much unfolding over time, it needs a lot of questions that lead to other questions, answers and development of the world state. In Lightfall, there isn't enough development through, even though the question at hand is the most interesting one since the question about the insides of that big god ball machine arose.

This game is an enigma, if one game has the most lost potential, it's this game. In it's current state, my personal score is 3 stars, why? Am I insane? Yeah possibly, but I'm here to justify my stupid score anyway.

Gameplay

The game is split into three campaigns, Sonic, Shadow and Silver. Everyone's controls are serviceable, it's not perfect, but I think the controls get the job done, decently responsive and all.

Sonics levels are fun to speedrun, have a lot of shortcuts and generally fun level design. The mach speed sections are annoying but not impossible, except Crisis City, fuck that.

Silver is interesting, I thought I'd hate his gameplay but I like it because you can manipulate the environment around you to take cool shortcuts, it forced me to think creatively so I would say I enjoyed it. My only complaint is that he's way too slow on the ground.

Shadow's gameplay was mid because it has terrible vehicle sections and focuses on button mashy combat, but it's still ok most of the time because there are still cool shortcuts and platforming to contend with.

Amy, Rouge and Knuckles are TRASH. Bad physics, slow movement and poor combat options.

Tails is just decent, he's slow af on the ground but his air mobility is ok if not a bit gimped.

Omega and Blaze are top tier, great controls, move fast and Omega breaks the game with the infinite floating oversight which is fun to abuse.

"But what about glitches". Well you see, this was a replay, on my first playthrough, I ran into them constantly, but this time, I barely experienced any, and the glitches I did experience were very minor. These glitches shouldn't exist, but for me they aren't a big deal anymore.

Performance is mixed. Sometimes it's locked FPS but when physics and boxes get involved, you'll see major slowdown. Unleashed and Age of Calamity have worse performance and I still enjoy those games a lot. Loading times were a bit annoying, but installing the game off the disc onto the hardrive improves loading times for me.

Overall, I thought the gameplay was "ok", I had above average fun, and thats all that matters tbh.

Story

Sonics story sucks, just straight up sucks. I like his characterisation, but the shtick of rescuing Elise 50 times wears thin quickly.

Silvers story was decent, I like his character. He's like Future Trunks but more naïve, he's not super deep but I find his plight pretty investing and has a great ending.

Shadows story is straight up great. The previous game butchered his character, but this develops his character in meaningful ways. He truly feels like a three dimensional character in this game, the way he subtly shows off his feelings is really well done. And in general I just like the idea of Mephiles trying to tempt him towards revenge again but he rejects it. I liked his story, was the best part of the game. Modern Sega needs to copy this game on how to write Shadow, he's not an edgelord, he's so much more and this game proves it.

The plotholes are numerous... Time travel does that unfortunately. Do plot holes ruin a plot for me? No. I enjoyed Endgame's plot a lot even if the plot holes were just as numerous.

However, there are some frankly stupid story decisions here, like the kidnapping stuff. But also the "don't cry" rule or the damn kiss. Like there are some moments that just take me out of the story. Plotholes don't do this but Elise kissing an animal absolutely does. Ridiculous stuff.

Despite these story issues, the story elements I do enjoy ultimately justify the story for me. I mildly liked it.

Other stuff

The graphics I think are still pretty good, besides the dull hub worlds, the game looks pretty sometimes, the colours of Tropical Jungle or Crisis City are striking. The music is frankly incredible, some of the best music ever composed. The voice acting ranges from serviceable to excellent.

Conclusion - To conclude, I understand the hate towards this game, it frankly DOES deserve it, but I also understand why there are an increasing amount of people who admit they like this game. Instead of following the crowd and feeling guilty for liking this game, I'm just going to be honest.

Thanks for reading