This is essentially the culmination of Remedy's previous works, both literally and figuratively. I really appreciated the chances they took with mixing in cinematics in such a neat way. It goes hand in hand with the game itself and the characters and narrative. The overall presentation is off the charts.

It has some lovely visuals, excellent lighting, and the combat is a notable step up from the last.

If I had to list some negatives, I would say the jump scares (one type in particular) is used excessively and it can get tiring and become annoying. I also think it is a bit too long.

Other than that, this gets my game of the year nod for 2023. It may not be the best game overall from the year, but it is the one that stands out the most to me.

I enjoyed this a lot. It is combat focused and lets you run wild with different sets and it encourages you to try as many styles as possible. This DLC actually made the spear become my fave weapon to use.

The boss fights with a certain character were challenging and fun.

I also liked the setup they did for future games, and the continued development for Kratos even after the events of the first two games. It shows SSM is being careful with Kratos' character and they aren't just rushing into anything.

Very good overall.

What a game.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time playing this. It has great music, nice locale variety, good level and game design with creative moments to keep the experience fresh, solid combat and mechanics, good humor/self-awareness, and just enough to capture your attention with the characters.

The only downsides would be game length (felt like it was dragging toward the end), and a somewhat abrupt ending.

Aside from that, I really enjoyed practically everything else about it. An easy game of the year contender.

Pros
- Nice music
- Combat is decent

Cons
- Poor level design
- Bad map
- Ability collection feels all over the place in relation to the metroidvania aspect
- Takes a while for combat to pick up

I randomly came upon one of the endings after beating a boss and I didn't feel the need to go back and collect the rest of the abilities and beat the remaining bosses. That moment kinda captured how I felt about the game overall.

The combat and boss fights are the strong points of the game. It does a good job of making it all flashy and full of spectacle, by far the best parts of the game. I think limiting it to two moves per Eikon made it annoying to keep picking and choosing between battle styles, but each power was neat in its own way.

Now, everything else basically drags down what could have been a very good or great game.

The cutscenes with the kingdoms feel all over the place and directionless. They aren't executed well enough to make me care about what is going on, and they are inserted at awkward points. The characters are alright overall, but Jill in particular is very poorly handled. Aside from one mission dedicated to her, she just becomes a background character for Clive's gain without any real agency or impact of her own. One particular scene with her and Clive, along with one of the last scenes in the game with her, were particularly bad. Very disappointing outcome for her.

The items obtained out in the world and for quests are redundant and useless. You get a bunch of minor items over and over again that you will barely, if ever, use. The side quests are pretty poor overall as well. They don't amount to much aside from getting those aforementioned pointless items. One side quest involving chocobo did stand out, however, and it was a really touching moment that ended up affecting gameplay. So I do have to shoutout that quest. Very well done.

The level design just isn't good. I usually appreciate linear games that can scale down and keep things concise. FFXVI's problem is that the design within that linearity is very shallow. There aren't any interesting side areas to draw your attention, or just some branching to keep things fresh. You quickly run into invisible walls when you do want to explore a bit, and levels just look like small, straight and circular areas. Mission design is also underwhelming with most amounting to storming an area, Torgal catching scent of a wave of enemies, and taking them down over and over until you run into the main boss. All the while running through unimaginative levels sprinkled with unneeded items.

Finally, the game just drags and drags, especially as you get into the latter phase of the game -- "Oho, you beat me but I have another form and more godhood nonsense to babble about!". It feels like a decent 20 hour game stuffed with filler to push it into the 50 hour range.

I could see the makings of a great game. Instead, I got an okay experience that is hopefully a one off for the series.

I think this could have been quite a bit better if it weren't for some odd design choices. The level design in particular is a sore spot with numerous ways being blocked off without an interesting way around them. It started to turn into a nuisance and made exploration annoying.

You also do not receive a few basic traversal/combat skills until later in the game. The sort of skills that games usually give you the ability to do from the start.

It started out well but it just got worse the more I played and I just wanted to finish it as quickly as possible. I suppose the best I can say is that the combat itself was decent enough to make me want to power through and beat it.

I feel that this is a very satisfactory end for the Norse mythology. It takes what God of War 2018 brought and expands upon it in a way that is to be expected from a sequel.

There are slower parts that seem less impactful or drawn out, but I think the delivery of the story was excellent. The combat provides more options compared to the first game (almost overwhelmingly so), and just enough was added to keep encounters from feeling 1:1 to the the 2018 game.

It has some unpredictable elements that were genuinely surprising and the ending nicely ties together some thematic groundwork laid throughout the game.

Another great showing from SSM.