I really didn't like the controls on the Wii, so I gave up on it. But I gave it another shot on the Switch with the updated control scheme...

I really didn't like the controls on the switch either, but at least it was playable.

That aside, the rest of this game was really great. Fantastic story, loveable characters, interesting dungeons, a unique flight mechanic, and loads of fun side quests. It may have been my favorite zelda game, if it weren't so damn hard to play.

Full spoilers ahead:

Alan Wake II is a game that immediatly defies analysis of itself by the player in virtude of the anomalous characteristics of it's main hypersticional plot device, the so-called Cauldron Lake. The plot becomes a surreal, Lynch-esque fight between the characters for control of it's literal narrative that sometimes utilizes real-life actors (and a real-life rock band, no less) in order to mirror this post-modern clusterfucky quest for authorship and the power to tell stories and manifest reality itself into the real, actual, real-life Cult of the Word, the game developers themselves.

This is enthralling storytelling to say the very least.

Remedy's own take of the SCP Mythos, the so called Federal Bureau of Control, is also a very present story backdrop and eventually joins the main plot as the "Twin Peaks-esque plot" develops.

On that note: It has a lot of Twin Peak references. Maybe it even goes a bit too far on them, relying on imagery and main plot points of Twin Peaks. Alan is Cooper, Scratch is Bob and so on and so forth. And even though the story feels a bit too much relying on Lynch to do it's heavy lifting, it is even more unoriginal in gameplay.

Ok, it's not bad. It was just an easy segway into the subject of gameplay: A really good mix of The Last of Us 2 and Resident Evil 2. But some UI elements lack crucial funcionalities. Navigation can also feel kind of wonky, especially in the less urban sections. But it's still a rock solid version of RE2 and TLOU2's gameplay, with it's very own surreal tone of dark, mystical (and yet sci-fi-esque) and downright philosophical.

Best Narrative of the Year, Baldur's Gate 3 be damned.

I’m not a FF loyalist, in fact I notoriously have a hard time finishing super-long JRPG’s because I get so invested in the plots that I will frequently barrel-ass my way through a game to experience the narrative, only to hit a wall where I’m under leveled and unable to proceed without starting over and re-grinding. Call that a skill issue, I’ve accepted it. Going into FF16, I assumed the switch from turn-based combat to all out action would be welcoming to me. Holy shit was I wrong.

In a year where HI-FI RUSH reinvigorated the 3D action genre with unique combat gameplay, dolled out at an exciting pace that allowed you to adapt and master it in equal time with the narrative, FF16 holds its combat mechanics hostage, giving you barebone options that take nothing to pull off and feel ineffective against the damage sponge enemies. Even as you unlock new abilities, there’s nothing about them that differentiates combat encounters. No elemental weaknesses across enemy types, no specific strategies for approaching certain mini or main bosses. They all take damage, stagger, and react to parry’s in the same universal manner. There’s no encouragement to experiment because every baddie can be killed the same way: Whack away until they’re dead. And that’s all aside from the fact that you don’t get a 2nd element, wind, or its accompanying upgrades until nearly 6 hours later. 6 HOURS between opportunities to freshen up combat.

I don’t want to undersell that pacing note, because it is brutal. Even if you wanted to try and increase the progression speed, the quest structure of this game is unbearable. Follow markers across linear, empty stretches of overly-detailed-yet-non-interactive maps to talk to an NPC, then repeat the process to go talk to another one. Fight mobs along the way, then repeat. Sucks that you can’t manually sprint between these distances (you have to rely on an auto-run which SOMETIMES works), instead you get to watch Clive trudge along at a half-jog. When you’re not following markers to conversations, you're watching cutscenes that don’t need to be as long as they are. I LOVE CUTSCENES! I make YouTube videos about how great they are! But FF16 has a lot of inconsequential, time-wasting cutscenes. Sometimes you watch a cinematic, walk 20 feet down a narrow route, and then another one starts. My worst offender was a fake-out of a character's death on an underground bridge, for no reason. It’s so much padding, to an end I can’t understand. The narrative is so long and drawn out in its presentation that, again, the fact that you don’t get combat upgrades until you hit story milestones feels rude.

On the obstructive narrative: FF16 wants to be GAME OF THRONES at its best, but instead, it somehow makes GoT Season 8 look competent. You know what’s great about season 1 of that show? The fact that they were able to use the Stark kids to explain complicated world building elements to the audience. It’s a brilliant storytelling tool: Use the uneducated child characters to teach the uneducated audience. FF16 opens with members of 3 different unidentified governments negotiating how to fight the armies of a 4th unidentified government. We then go BACK in time to meet a 5th government with its own set of rituals and family members, all of them talking about impending war, and bloodline betrayal, and destined spiritual awakenings, and none of it has any clear context. These are characters talking about things THEY know, setting up conflict that WE’RE supposed to care enough about that we’ll resolve it through gameplay. Only the conflict reads like you’ve walked in on your nephew watching season 14 of an undubbed, unsubbed anime.

There’s a lot of broad emotional ticks throughout the plot that ring like SOMETHING is happening (Forbidden lovers, doomed men on a mission, children vying for their parents approval), but none of it is clear on a STORY level. Characters talk about things like curses and treaties, and we’re shown cutscenes of battles between nations we haven’t met yet. Context doesn’t start to emerge until a point where you can speak to a Historian in the central hub, who will give you access to reading materials on game lore (but only lore that is concurrent with the time at which you ask to see it). Who wants to stop their fast paced action combat to read wiki entries that explain a plot because the game won’t? WHO?! Show yourself!

Once the game does start to come into focus, dozens of hours later, its world emerges as so shoddily constructed that it confused me all over again. FF16’s commentary on the serious subject of slavery is paper-thin, and the logic behind how the slavery works within the socioeconomic structure of Valesthia makes very little sense. The fact that this world only exists at a level of pre-industrialized medieval fantasy despite the fact that its ruling class are subjugating magic users, The Bearers, in place of technology shows a lack of imagination. Conversely, the fact that the enslaved Bearers can wield magic (and in some cases, become gods) but don’t fight back because they seemingly never thought about it/they don’t want to rock the boat, reveals a complete lack of interest in saying something meaningful about the systems in which slavery exists. It’s just a mess

The game has 2 play options: “Action Focused” and “Story Focused.” I started this on what sounded like “Normal Mode” (Action), and held true for about 10 hours. Eventually I got tired of how simplistic the combat was, and figured the only way I was going to unlock more combat options was to speed up the plot. So I switched to story mode, threw on every auto-fighting mechanic the game had to offer, and found that the enemies STILL took forever to kill and the story STILL refused to shape itself into something cohesive. Time jumps! Major character arcs happening off screen! The best character in the game dies!

And then I just tapped out. Life is too short.

I usually can’t beat JRPG’s because I’m so eager to enjoy the story that I slack on the gameplay progression. Here, the gameplay and story slack so hard in their delivery that I was eager to stop. Shame.

(SPOILER: For real, how did the empire of Sanbreque not instantly fall into the hands of its magic using Bearers once its Mothercrystal was destroyed? Without the ability to use magic by proxy of crystal shards, how is that nation even still standing? The game doesn’t confront this possibility, it just skips ahead 5 years so we’ll forget about the fallout of such an action).

I absolutely adored Fallen Order and genuinely thought it was nigh miraculous that a Star Wars game that good was made under EA. It resonated with me quite a bit, and while Survivor didn’t hit the same way, I still thought it was incredibly solid if a little disappointing in parts. Ultimately, I had the same problem with this game as I did with God of War Raganrok, which is that I really didn’t like the direction they went in terms of area and world design. I still firmly believe that bigger isn’t always better, and much prefer linear and tighter level design. Survivor, sadly, loses a lot of the tight level design Fallen Order had in favor of more open areas with a larger focus on exploration. What’s there is good and there are moments where Survivor manages to recapture the tightness of Fallen Order’s areas, but it’s extremely lacking in that area in general. Aside from that, Survivor is just as good and even better in some areas. The combat still feels incredible, the music is great and the story is solid (though Trilla is infinitely more interesting than Dagan Gera). This game also introduces some platforming challenges that are genuinely exhilarating to play through.

There’s very obviously going to be more and I’m genuinely excited for what’s coming, but I do hope they go back to the way Fallen Order was desgined. If not, I hope the team at least manages to find a happy medium between the two.

So far I have gotten 6 hours played time in this game, and to be honest it's great. It honestly reminds me of the old schools AC games but some parts I do feel bored and the gameplay does get repetitive sometimes, overall it's decent from story to gameplay and to other parts of the game. Wonder if Ubisoft will do good DLC's or just let down DLC's that end up ruining this game. Maybe my review will change once I fully finish this game but for now I will say it's decent and a 3/5 stars!

Edit: Just finished the story, and damn. My jaw was dropping. The ending had me going WOW. This made me feel like I was playing the original Assassin's Creeds and I had a lot of fun!