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.

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 came in with fairly high expectations for this and it managed to surpass them.

Great weapons, great gameplay, great music, great bosses, and a surprisingly good story. You have to piece what is happening together but I think you'll find something interesting if you do. Hint: This is all about Selene.

If I had to give some critique, I think the level design for fighting areas is somewhat cluttered and tight. I think more could have been done to give you breathing room and allow your combat abilities to shine.

Amazing game and it is one of my top 10 all time. Highly, highly recommended.

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.

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 think the game has some lovely art aesthetics and a few cool in-game moments. Unfortunately, that is where the pros end.

It is rather unengaging mechanic wise and even the small amount of them aren't utilized in any memorable way.

I also found the level design to be messy in spots and some of the general ideas from the game are all over the place, disjointed and random.

If you're not looking for something gameplay focused, and you mostly want to scroll through some rather well done artistry, I suppose this is a short burst of that.

If you're looking for anything beyond that, I wouldn't be able to recommend this.

What a game.

It looks fantastic visually. The image quality is superb and the color palette is great. You can have a ton of things happening on screen at once and it all holds up.

I like the additions that were made to traversal and the weapon selection is solid. The general gameplay is quite enjoyable with the DualSense adding to the gunplay.

Rivet is good here, and I like where things went with all the characters involved.

It is my second favorite Ratchet and Clank game ever. A not too far second from my fave in the series (A Crack in Time).

This game does a good job of making you want to go back for more. Once you die, you'll more than likely be thinking, "I'll give it one more try".

The combat is rather basic and straightforward. The experimentation with the Boon system is what will be most interesting in combat. You get a lot to play around with and see what works for you.

The music is pretty good. There is one particular song that you'll hear during one of the levels that had me stop in my tracks just to listen to it. It sounds so lovely.

The story is cool. It is enough to make you want to root for the protagonist.

I also appreciate the sexuality teases throughout from some of the men. And how they can be explored more if you're willing to look into it further.

This is probably my second favorite Supergiant game (Transistor -> Hades -> Bastion). Good game. thumbs up

I had to drop this one.

I don't think the game is bad. I stopped playing for a bit and tried to get back into it, but I just ended up getting bored with it after trying to jog my memory. I would recommend getting through it in as few sittings as possible.

The traversal mechanic (the main draw of the game) is cool but marred by the charge bar that goes with it. I think I would have preferred something more free in that regard.