29th Jan - These knighthood missions to gain basic traversal mechanics are a chore. Everything in this game is so slow and the hostage bomb type crime sucks. The stealth doesn't work and isn't implemented in gameplay (you cannot stealth the bigger foes). It's so spongy with combat. The knighthood system disincentivizes to play as anything but the character I main. The open world stuff is so bad that for crime types I do not like, I simply disengage with them and ignore them completely. The fact that I am a superhero matters not since I could not be subjected to more spongy slow combat after spongy slow traversal. If the whole game was on a 2x speed timer, I wouldn't complain.

30th Jan - That Harley battle with the Basher and the other big dude while also stopping 3 bombs from detonating every 10 seconds while solo along with elements of the Freeze fight (the random Lazer patterns) truly make this game horrendous for single player.

31st Jan - I do think it bears mentioning but civilians are just everywhere in this game. Even in the middle of the open world crimes and they are just chilling on a park bench and droning on random pedestrian dialogue while a hulking figure is getting molly whopped.
5th February - Finally got really annoyed at the game and after the first battle it Man-bat which the game asks you to do 3 more times in the open world, I said screw it and set the game on the easiest difficulty just to get rid of this thing. The battles were becoming so spongy on Medium difficulty that it was not even difficult but frustrating due to how slow and stiff the whole game is. Decent story though all things considered. Talia's betrayal is too sudden and the court of owls well and truly do not have anything left to give plot wise after killing Jacob Kane. Finished all case files (main story and side quests).

Completed the main story, bounties and all side quests.

Great story, music and combat. I think from a story perspective, the writing borrows a lot from game of thrones, the Eikons being analogs for dragons, the blight and aetherflood being akin to the white walkers, the map looks right out of the opening theme of said show and the general medieval fantasy setting as well as the stuff between Barnabas and his mom, as well as things like this being a book in universe by Joshua named after the game akin to the GoT finale and many other big and small similarities. But as the SkillUp review mentions, a lot of what makes final fantasy itself, is forgone in a push to make the game more appealing to a mainstream audience like turn based combat, a party system etc. The game does retain themes of the nature of our very being, our purpose, environmentalism etc. but also has blood and curse words but thankfully, it is implemented with a deft touch. The "open zone" world is a bit of a calamity in both traversal and function. It also bears mention that the game is an absolute stone cold stunner in terms of graphical fidelity and makes you actually feel like it is a gaming experience on a new console, one that only this new device is capable of performing.

A really sweet game about the immigration struggle that many face, particularly from a cultural point of view. As someone living one side of that equation, it is hard not to feel your heart strings tugged (the little kid version of Kavin saying "I will never leave you or appa." And hugging the mom as well as the end where he is resting his head on his mom's lap hits very hard). The one real neat beat in the writing of this game is the cyclical nature of delusion from both Venba when she left her mother and Kavin when he left for college. There's so many little things I also love like the use of a different font to indicate different languages (straight out of a comic book) as well as Venba saying that while she understands Kavin's choices, she also bluntly calls them incorrect which is a very Indian thing. I'm glad the Game Awards is providing a spotlight for this beautiful game. One thing I did not realize was that South Indian people ate beef. But perhaps the most important lesson is that I might finally be able to make a dosa correctly (apparently I need to heat the stove then switch it off, sprinkle water to cool it, put the batter and flatten it, switch on the heat and add oil around the edges to flip).

I have absolutely no qualms with the length of the game. In many ways, this game perfected the cinematic game that so many other games this generation chased. The length is akin to that of a movie. The world building is immense and very well fleshed out. (I don't like the fake Indian accent that Jhansi ki Raani has and the implied romance is worse considering the real world history). The exposition about the world is also slowly drip fed instead of just dumping it in the beginning.

The twists and betrayals are very predictable however that is made up by some really fun enemy AI and weapons. I also appreciate how open Ready at Dawn was about the development of this game and their pioneering of physical based rendering has led to so many materials looking and feeling as realistic as they do.

Another aspect that this game perfects in my opinion is that the game truly looks filmic. The grain is dialed in perfectly and the depth of field is among the best ever. The various camera effects like lens flare and dirt and grime on the game camera are nice touches as well. The game is also extremely polished so much so that there isn't even a single low-res texture (to the naked eye) and everything feels immaculately built in a way that feels tangible. I personally did not like the combat encounters with the werewolf creatures at all and felt like it wasn't designed around those levels, aspect ratio or weapons. I wouldn't mind another game or even a comic that deals with the fallout of these events but barring the post credit scene, the game is pretty final.

Played on Normal difficulty on the PS5 at 1920*800 at 30 fps.

22 hrs to complete main story
39 hours to complete platinum.

Played it on Jedi Knight difficulty (3 out of 5 difficulties).

Meaningfully expands on the abilities of the last game without having you to buy the same skills again. Story is kinda weird and feels smaller in scale than the last one. Koboh is bigger than all the worlds in the last game but everything else except Jedha is smaller.

Played it on PS5 at the 4K 30fps mode but the 4k is just upscaled and the internal res is really low and maybe the removal of RTGI and reflections would have improved the resolution and the FSR2 is super ghostly and the 60fps mode is mainly between 45 and 50 and the resolution is <720p.

6 Trophies away from the Platinum, I may get to them when I get the DLC.

I think some of the character interactions are blown out of proportion. Having said that, it definitely is the weak point of the game, as is Hunter, the non-descript protagonist. I couldn't care less about the story and skipped most of the B-tier cutscenes (the ones in engine) but stuck around for the horribly low-res low bitrate cinematics. But towards the end with Chthon (in a truly epic fight) I even skipped the cinematics. The busy work is super busy and with 48 hours clocked, I'll say the day night cycle and the day-to-day system hinders the game. As does some of the unskippable action scenes when you play a card which is cool the first few times and at the end of a turn but some cards take forever. This was my first turn-based-card-based game but I was heavily hooked. The heroes all operate differently and I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't a fan of the friendship system. It's a bit of a shame that it is essentially window dressing and that there is no real romantic system that you can build with these characters even if they are professing their hyper platonic love for one another. Played on the PS5 in the normal difficulty mode at 1440p 60 fps (although any major damage effects or alpha effects tank the frame rate to the teens and even below as well as the traversal in the small map of the game).

Overall, I would recommend it to any Marvel games fan or anyone who likes this type of games provided with the caveat that they escape every cutscene and focus only on the gameplay.

Played on the Chill difficulty with Leonardo, the blue sword guy. The game plays great and I never lost any of my lives except during boss fights and even those I was able to prevent when replaying to get collectibles.

I just hate that the direction of the roll and then attack does not obey to what direction you choose and is always a bit of a gamble. The switch version drops frames regularly and I actually did underclock for battery purposes.

The game has multiple endings and unlocks Cassie Jones after you beat the story mode. Not a bad game to always have installed at all times and I'm sure I'll finish it with all characters to get all the endings with all characters levelled up.

My ending was punk frogs being declared the saviors and Leonardo saying he has more training to do with the Statue of Liberty having a red bandana added to it.

What a story telling masterpiece that moves the visual novel genre forward with brilliant music and story and a likable cast of characters with ever escalating stakes and nail-biting endings.

Played the remastered version on switch.

Case 5 is super long though and I do like the more puzzle and blood stain and fingerprint and jar assembly and basic 3D bits in there along with checking evidence. That was fun and added more depth to the game.