The combat in this one doesn’t have much depth but man is it fun. Just messing around with blade mode and seeing how many things you can cut in half is way more fun than it should be, and being able to heal yourself by cutting enemies precisely is super satisfying. The bosses are where this combat system shines, each one makes you use the free blade system in different ways, and their designs and characters make them incredibly memorable, which is complemented by the phenomenal soundtrack that ramps up when you get to the final stage of the fight. The only thing about the general gameplay that I really dislike is when they try to get you to be stealthy, but there’s nothing stopping you from just fighting everyone most of the time. In regards to the story, I’ve never played a mainline Metal Gear game so I didn’t really care much about the connections to the world or the commentary, but it has such a fun level of campiness that you’d expect from a platinum game. It’s the definition of mindless fun, but it’s not the best platinum game.

An incredibly charming game with pretty mediocre gameplay. The story, characters, and world are nice and simple in a way that taps into a feeling of childlike adventure by combining the supernatural elements with the contemporary setting. While the game’s really charming, the gameplay is kinda mediocre. You equip 6 Yokai to your team and they attack randomly, and while you have control over battles by rotating which Yokai are active, purifying them, and charging their soultimates, there’s barely any strategy involved. The only strategy comes from choosing which Yokai to use, but you can get away without much planning (unless you’re doing the postgame challenges) for most of the game. The bosses are definitely a high point, though, as they all have a special gimmick that adds a bit more thought to combat, and their unique designs make them exciting to fight. An enjoyable time, but not something I’ll go back to anytime soon.

This game has an absolutely gorgeous art style but underneath it I feel that the game itself is kinda overrated. The story’s pacing is really bad, instead of feeling like one story, it feels like three different stories packed into one game since it’s divided between into “arcs” that don’t really connect to each other. The combat, while not bad at all, can get repetitive, and the dungeon design doesn’t have as many engaging puzzles as I would’ve liked. None of these elements are outright bad, but they aren’t good enough for me to understand why so many people consider this one of the best games. The art style is really the only exceptional thing about it.