42 hours on normal to platinum on ps4. I'm a bit shocked at people calling this a "masterpiece." It comes closest to that description for me simply in its ability to juggle so much story at once. It's like a vast puzzle, and it is interesting and fun to help put it together. But a lot of the depth of the characters reduce to "I love her/him" with very little actual setup or pay off. I was hoping so much for some kind of emotional fulfillment from some of these storylines, but ultimately I just felt nothing. The game ends, it shows almost nothing from their new state, and then they just go back to where they were before. Too bad. The tower defense was fun. I actually got into trying to maximize the potency of the combinations of sentinels. One thing I think could have helped was if there was more variety in the sentinels that the game could have required me to use. Like if they were all distinct instead of having a few each of only four types. Art is beautiful, except the running animation looks a bit odd to me. Really nice soundtrack. I initially played with japanese voices (as I do generally in these kinds of games) but at a certain point I started noticing moments where the english dialogue seemed very different from the spoken japanese. That annoyed me, so I changed to english voices and was pleasantly surprised. But of course they include honorifics like "kun" in the english voices which is also irritating. I've seen this game described as a visual novel. I have no interest in visual novels, so thankfully this is more like an adventure game where I can freely interact and talk to people. Ultimately, I suppose I'm more moved by the smaller moments, like when Miwako, Kisaragi, and Iori hang out and eat together. I wish there was more of that, and with more meaning and impact.

Really didn't expect it but I guess a game like this (and maybe a game like God of War?) just isn't for me. After a few hours I have the irresistable urge to uninstall. I'm bored out of my mind and think it's about the dumbest thing I've ever seen. I may eventually go back and play Devil May Cry 3 but I'll probably never play this. Enemies take forever to kill and I just want to get through it. But what's the point since I don't have any idea who these people are or what's going on. I won't give it a rating because clearly I'm not the audience. Otherwise my experience would be about 1 star. It's unfortunate because the game looks and runs amazingly. I think my favorite thing in this game was when Nico "accidentally" looked at the camera in a cutscene, like it was a mistake that was left in the film.

Very bizarre game. It's like two different games bolted to each other. There's an open city to explore and find random crap that doesn't seem important, then there are 2D characters to talk to and commence the visual novel bit. The story is kind of interesting but it's almost like a madlib, where "normal" things are replaced by "wacky" things. Really weird, and yet oddly charming. The music has me grooving the whole time and the graphics are appealing, but on base PS4 there are areas where the framerate drops.

PS2 version sucked, aiming was way too sensitive. Got completely stuck on The Fury during my attempt at a non-lethal European Extreme playthrough.
360 version had better aiming for me and was just better all around. Unfortunately I had to bump it down to Normal difficulty and I don't see myself returning.
3DS version appears to be the best version with dual stick setup.
The song was easily the best part of the game.
Kojima should learn "show don't tell."
I really wanted to complete a non-lethal European Extreme play through since the game tells me the mission requires me not to be seen or leave any trace but could not for the life of me defeat The Fury.
A major problem particularly in non-3DS versions was getting stuck on level geometry like trees and walls while crawling.
Without the challenge of having to remain unseen like in the European Extreme difficulty, there was essentially no tension as I could just rush through everything.
It's really amazing how much better a game MGSV:TPP is.
The End is a terrible sniper: he's constantly vocally giving away his position.
Never in my life would I have discovered how to get past The Sorrow on my own.
The Fear was the only boss fight that felt really clever. Beating him non lethally required a particular non-obvious strategy that was satisfying.
My feeling is that the hunger mechanic is directly at odds with the kind of careful observational style of play that stealth invites.
Pretty much a dumb action movie with elevated gravitas and conspiracy theory nonsense.

Solid door-checking simulator.
It's an interesting story but it feels very padded out with unnecessary/uninteresting gameplay that ranges from dull to frustrating. If someone could turn this into a good novel that would be ideal.
All that being said, there's something to the depth and complexity of the characters and their motivations and the way these are metaphorically manifested that I just can't shake. I find the voices, dialog, and animations to be wonderfully weird and indelible. I like to think that the fatal act at the center of the story is not to be taken literally. James has enough to feel guilty about.

My experience of this game is that it's a real bad game. Seemingly endless repeating corridors and broken checkpoints that leave me with no health are just too much for me in 2023. There are too many non-disastrous experiences out there to be wasting my time on this. I really hate giving up on a game, but I've always heard about The Library and I haven't even gotten there yet and I already can't take anymore. There's clearly a version of this game that could be damn good with a few tweaks. I enjoy the graphics, the controls, the physics, and the setting. But as it is, I've just reached my breaking point.