I don't think I'm surprising anyone by saying that PlatinumGames has made a fun action game here - at this point, it's something to be expected. My praise for Vanquish comes from concepts: it's a refreshing take on seventh gen third-person shooters, where speed and power management take precedence over hiding and waiting. After fumbling through the first few levels, the game finally clicked for me: I began to see new areas as gardens of opportunity rather than simple arenas to shoot through. Accelerating at top speed, slamming boots-first into a robot's face, slowing down time to shoot on the fall down... It's exhilarating stuff. There was never a time in the game where the combat felt explicitly unfair: the wide range of weapons, movement options, and open areas gave a ton of wiggle room. The tools are always there, and it's up to you to utilize them best. The upgrade system encourages the player to pick favorites, and helps cement a playstyle that works for you. I favored the assault rifle and sniper, but I can just as easily see someone maxing out heavier and/or more niche armaments. Definitely going to come back to this one someday and play it on a harder difficulty.

Gaming in 2023 peaks here, nothing is ever gonna top Hi Fi Rush and it's only January.

Honestly I wasn't actually excited for much coming out this year outside of two other games but then this got released and I bought it day one due to loving it's style and lemme tell you this is the best $30 I've ever spent.

So many options to customize the experience to your skill level, charming characters (Peppermint is my favorite), fluid and fast combo action gameplay, and an excellent use of music to make the experience even better. Absolutely in love with this game, please go buy it!

Genuinely one of if not the most frustrating action game i have ever played. I will just say now that i am fucking ass at this game so take what i am gonna say with a massive chunk of salt. But, this game is just filled with shit that feels like its designed to piss you off while having both not enough tools to feel like you can deal with the easily or the guidance to teach a struggling player if the tools are actually there. Sorry man i can't recreate evo moment 37 while fighting 100 enemies on a 2d plain so they all stack on top of each other so its not easy to see incoming attacks while an off screen sniper is shooting at me creating a massive blinking red reticle which obscures more of the immediate enemies i am fighting. Only to then introduce enemies with super armor.

This game feels like it has an incomplete movelist and certain moves and movement are weirdly stiff and don't flow into each other. Ex: Up+Y. Jumping feels like ass in this game and there are tons of situations where enemies are falling in the air but i can't catch them to juggle for some reason and the game has no made a clear distinction why. Sorry i am too stupid to break down the finer intricacies of the game and its mechanics and its too niche to have other people explain it because the game does a terrible job at this itself.

Incredible art direction that is truly inspired but i wish it was tied to a game that i found more fun to play

Will try again when they inevitably make more patches to tone down some of the shit that is a massive turn off.

The combat in this game is so freaking fun. Its unique as far as character action games go because it's less about stringing fancy combos together and more about using the environment to your advantage: kicking enemies down stairs, spilling liquid on the ground for enemies to slip on, ect.

It's such an innovative concept and I wish more games would do it, because it's really fun here. Unfortunately the game is a bit short, but it makes the most of that time with great fights, some fun, but easy platforming challenges, and an enjoyably silly tone throughout.

Armored Core VI is the moment where mech action games finally clicked for me and I fucking adore it.

I've tried about a half dozen games in the genre over the years, but I always felt overwhelmed by the abundance of options for outfitting your mech and ended up bouncing off because I never quite felt like I was building it optimally. I think part of the reason this wasn't as much of an issue for me here was because I've gotten extremely into building gunpla over the last year and now the idea of making a fucked up little robot is so extraordinarily appealing to me it superseded any other anxieties I was having. The speed at which you get new parts in AC6 also really helps alleviate that overwhelming sensation, there's never a feeling that there are too many options and it's very easy to switch stuff around and see what works best for you.

Okay all that aside once you actually build your AC the game feels like a fucking dream to play. It's fast, has a sublime balance of chunk and responsiveness in the controls, and the encounters are all designed with the exacting precision I've come to expect from modern Fromsoft. The fact that every encounter feels as good as it does despite the vast array of possible builds is astonishing. The second I finished my first playthrough I immediately booted into ng+, built a new little freak, and blasted through the game again. Love it to bits.

Currently my GOTY. The gameplay is incredibly smooth. Could use some better settings like being able to make subtilties bigger and a different color, same with the hud. The story was cool but i think i like some of the previous entries' stories a bit more

Coming back to add to this review now that I have completed NG++, got the true ending, completed the entire arena and all the missions. The game continues to be impressive in game-feel at every moment. Its so addicting to play and so easy to just boot up missions and have a blast with them. Even going back to the drawing board with builds in the lab is fun. There are a few stinker missions like Depths 1 which i despise and wish i didn't have to play through 3 times.

--Spoilers--

The story actually got even weaker for me now that i've seen everything. The Flames of the Raven ending feels like the one that got the most attention and is the only one i really liked. The other two felt both a little short with the narrative and gameplay. Final boss of the Liberator ending doesn't have a phase 2 for some reason? The true ending final boss was fun but its set piece was not nearly as memorable as some of the others moments earlier in the game which is kinda disappointing given how much you have to do to get here. I wish the story stayed more in the horrors of corporate proxy wars for resources like it was in the opening hours. The most memorable story moment for me is the mission where you go and kill a test pilot who sounds like he's just a kid getting caught up in all of this. I wanted more of those harrowing moments like this found in the earlier games

Taro's magnum opus, one of the greatest games ever written.

After a replay for the first time in over 5 years this still holds up as my favorite game ever and is still worth playing (it actually ran way better than i remembered, maybe drakengard 3 just scared me that much that i thought both were like that).

I legitimately do not understand people who say this game is unplayable. Don't get me wrong it has its flaws (horrible balance needing you to stand around during boss fights so you don't one shot them and miss all the dialogue, needless repetition for C and D when all the new content is in the final 15 minutes) but people who act like this game is a disaster outside of its story and see this as completely invalidated by the remake either haven't played the game themselves and are just parroting the common take or have not played an actual 1 out of 10 dogshit game. Hate to come off super elitist and harsh but this game gets a worse rep than it deserves.