Ironicamente acabo tendo mais problemas com esse jogo que com o 3.

Ele definitivamente evolui muito o 3 mecanicamente, os social links são muito mais divertidos e envolventes como um todo, além de todas as atividades e seus status também serem mais interessantes. E as dungeons embora ainda não terem muita variação em gameplay, são muito mais interessantess por serem relacionadas aquele personagem em específico, o que adiciona carisma a elas.

Meu problema é justamente com o que é melhor no persona 3, a história. Ainda acho que é uma história divertida e que te prende bastante em acompanhar, mas acaba tendo muito potencial desperdiçado. Você acaba tendo muitos arcos de personagem onde você tem uma ideia muito interessante, mas pouco aprofundada, como o arco da Naoto e do Kanji, que são os mais interessantes tematicamemte, mas que são pouco aproveitados, todos os arcos são muito resumidos nessas dungeons, diferente de Persona 3, onde os personagens tem arcos que duram o jogo todo, e mesmo em momentos onde eles estão de férias e sem grandes coisas acontecendo, você ainda tem o desenvolvimento deles, e você sempre vai ter pontos chaves onde eles mostram a evolução, enquanto o 4 apenas rusha seus arcos nas dungeons.
Além do próprio jogo esquecer do arco do personagem, o Kanji passa pela aceitação de ter um gosto considerando feminino e que ele n deixa de ser homem por isso, mas ele continua querendo pagar de machão depois disso e ficando puto quando insinuam que ele é gay, sem contar que esse jogo tem muita homofobia, além de gordofoba e assédio sexual sendo tratado como piada, o que já tinha no persona 3, mas esse jogo tem MUITO mais, o festival cultural foi a parte mais difícil de passar por ser uma junção de todos os preconceitos desse jogo. É muito estranho que um jogo sobre se aceitar seja tão problemático nisso.

Com as minhas críticas, parece que eu odiei o jogo, mas eu amei, mesmo com todos esses aspectos ele me divertiu muito, mesmo com o desperdício de potencial, os personagens são fantásticos em carisma, muito mais carismáticos que os do 3, e o jogo acaba investindo mais nas relações dos personagens do que a profundidade deles, e é efetivo nisso. O assassino é bastante bem escrito mesmo com o resto só jogo falhando nisso, e embora a narrativa envolta do assassino não se manter tão bem pra desenvolver a investigação, porquê o jogador sempre tá muito a frente dos personagens nos passos, ainda é interessante acompanhar a investigação, a vibe e o clima geral do jogo são muito gostosos, jogar o dia a dia no jogo é muito gostoso, a cidade é um setting fantástico. Pode pecar em falta de profundidade, ainda mais comparado ao 3, mas a simplicidade dele acerta bastante como um todo apesar das falhas. Não tem como se despedir do jogo sem sentir falta desse elenco e esse clima.

Just wanna put this out here real quick ever since +R got rollback I think this has become my favorite Guilty Gear period and I have no idea why nobody ever talks about this game as one of the genre's best. Actually one of the coolest games ever made, this and like UMVC3 and MBAACC are one of the few fighting games where I discover something new about it every time I play it. Still has the dopest Sol Badguy to date and I think other characters here are at their most fun, even if I think Xrd utilizes their tools better in their combo game. I will forever be depressed that force breaks never returned after this entry, which I feel like it should be a series staple given how quickly you've always been able to build meter in these games.

I feel like when Xrd's rollback drops it'll be the more requested game to play among my peers since it's a lot more approachable and its balance is way more sensible (minus Johnny and Elphelt) but I have yet to play another FG where every match feel so free-flowing and chaotic like this, where you are given so many ways to execute your characters unique gameplan, and I think how completely open ended it is works the best for Gear where everyone is trying to play a one-player game on the opponent anyways. If you're gonna design your game to be unhinged, you may as well embrace its insanity and bullshit with open arms.

Verticality is mostly always seen as indication of good and creative level design in the video game sphere - this is especially true for platformers for which I can see the case being made but I do think that holding this as some sort of universal fact limits creativity and can make everything feel the same; when all the designers are striking for the same goal of verticality it can all start feeling ridiculous.

I wouldn't say verticality always conducts to good level design. Point in case is the DOOM franchise, where my favorite official maps to date are still those designed by John Romero for Episode 1 (1993) which do have this element but it's restrained to the point of working well with the nuances of classic DOOM gameplay or even Sandy Petersen's Mt. Erebus where most of the enemy encounters happen in a horizontal fashion.

When this element gets out of hand you get things like Industrial Zone for Doom II which I appreciate for existing for being so ridiculous, having enemies on top of skyscrapers shooting at you and then having to jump off buildings to reach the bit of land where you need to go is interesting but it's not fun on the whole - all of this in a game where you cannot look up or down.

On this same line of thought, corridor and maze-like levels in first-person shooters are often seen as something boring and indicative of bad design but I especially don't agree with this at all.

DOOM 64 had to work with the limitations of the N64 which is partly the reason that there's an emphasis on back-tracking, compact level design (which conduct to what people call corridor-like/maze-like) and even absense of verticality.

Instead of a "DOOM lite" coming out of these limitations, the developers justified these elements by giving DOOM 64 an atmospheric and survival horror spin. Whereas 1993 and DOOM II are a gamer fantasy of being an overpowered macho marine listening to heavy metal and blasting through hordes of demons (okay maybe DOOM II on UV not so much); 64 exists to oppress you, scare you and make you realize you had claustrophobia all along and need a big open space to breath some fresh air.

The soundtrack was changed from renditions of heavy metal classics to oppressive atmospheric sounds. Deciding not to go with these dopamine-inducing tracks was a great choice thematically for 64, it does play with the theme of you being somewhere you don't really belong. Just have a listen to Final Outpost for example

I love the art design for 64: the darker color palette, the environments, the weapons and enemy re-design were all done incredibly well. My favorite redesigns probably being the Imp and the Pain Elemental, Nightmare Imps are also a really cool new addition.

Difficulty is also really important for me, I usually enjoy challenging things. I would say the hardest difficulty level of 64 (Watch Me Die!) sits somewhere in between DOOM II's UV and 1993's UV (closer to the latter) so I was not disappointed in this regard. I did play Sunlust on UV (cbt) before this so my concept of difficulty might be a little distorted.

The only reason I'm not giving this 5 stars is because I did feel the levels had some predictability to them, maybe a byproduct of me already having beaten 1993, DOOM II and Sunlust so it's harder to surprise me. I still miss that feeling of wonder and surprise that 1993 gave me though so that one is still my favorite.