This is a game that I really had collect my thoughts on and sit on it for a while. There are a lot of problems with this game. The Cyberspace levels were mostly bad, it has tons of jank that leads to frustration, and the last few islands were clearly rushed. But the stuff that I enjoyed was able to keep me engaged despite all these shortcomings.

Once I go into the groove of things I found exploring all of the islands really fun. The base gameplay is still fun even if it can be janky. The writing, courtesy of Ian Flynn, is really good and this is the best that Sonic and the gang have been characterized in years. The character interactions are really well done and it does a good job keeping continuity with the rest of the series. The music is great, especially in boss fights. The boss fights are awesome spectacles even if they're mechanically pretty shallow. And the fishing minigame with Big is relaxing and pretty useful for farming items that I needed when I got tired of playing the Cyberspace levels or hunting for Memory Tokens.

This game is far from perfect but it still made me happy and it is a promising direction for the series. Just please let the next game cook for a bit longer Sonic Team. Also please keep Ian Flynn as the writer.

A really good sequel. It may not reinvent the wheel but the core is so good and what improvements it does make really enhance the gameplay. The improvements to stealth in particular have made it a lot more satisfying.

The story is also pretty good, although it's not perfect. In particular, I thought that the enemy factions could have been handled better. They probably should have shown Roxxon trying to do bad things more often. Some side missions where you have to save Underground members or regular civilians from Roxxon would have helped. As it is, Roxxon is definitely the greater evil but you fight the Underground way more. Fortunately things were still handled with a decent amount of nuance so I can't complain too much.

I didn't think this game was THAT bad. While the level design does drop off near the end and the physics do suck, there's still some fun to be had in some of the earlier levels. Calling this game Sonic 4 makes its flaws stand out more since such an unambitious and minimalistic game doesn't really seem like a worthy followup to S3&K.

I can understand hating this game back when it came out, since it really feels like several steps backward and an overcorrection after the disaster of 06. But after all this time, knowing that the series wouldn't continue down this path, it's hard to muster up a strong reaction to this one. It's just mediocre.

Hey everybody, for real, playing to frustrate each other is not a fun way to play because we're all on the same team and that team is to have fun together and to make it fun for all our audiences. And so when people make plays just to frustrate each other and just to troll each other, there's enough of that in the world today, of people trolling each other just to be mean and to be hurtful, and if we're gonna play in this space together we need to do it because we want each other to have fun and not because we're trying to frustrate each other, cause there's enough frustrating things in the world right now and there's enough we can't control, and one of the things we can control is that everyone is here to have fun and not waste each others' time and so when we make decisions that are meant to troll each other, that's something that bad people do.

I played this out of morbid curiosity and it was even worse than I expected. There's less story here than even Final Fantasy I and none of the characters have any personality. There isn't even an ending, if you defeat the final boss (who's just hanging out in the hub area) you simply return to the hub area as if nothing happened. I guess you have to imagine what would happen next.

The gameplay is boring as well. It's your basic RPG Maker combat with nothing to set it apart. The gameplay loop just involves going to several dungeons and grinding until you're strong enough to beat the final boss. All weapons and items are available to buy at the beginning so it's just a matter of getting enough money to buy the best gear.

And on top of all that it's buggy and sloppy in execution. For some reason I was unable to equip the witch character with any weapons, even the ones they supposedly could use. Many item descriptions don't match what they do, such as a shield that can only be equipped as a weapon or caps that are actually chest armor. The whole thing is a mess. I wouldn't be as harsh if the developer wasn't charging money for this crap and it didn't have tons of pay-to-win DLC. It's an absolute embarrassment of an RPG.

I was surprised by how much I disliked this game. The graphics are amazing and the combat can be fun sometimes but those are the only real positives here. While there are quite a few thoughtfully designed combat encounters, the game is also full of boring or pointless ones as well.

Between fights there are also long stretches of uneventful, paper-thin "exploration" that drag on for way too long or the occasional forgettable puzzle. Occasionally you will fight werewolves but the mechanics are pretty bad. Either a couple werewolves will take turns charging at you, giving you ample time to dodge and shoot them as they run away or you fight them in a QTE.

The story is also pretty nonsensical and would be resolved very quickly if people would just explain things to each other. The Order has one of the most unlikeable casts of characters that I've ever encountered. Pretty much everyone sucks for various reasons and Galahad is one of the worst protagonists I've seen in a while. Multiple missions involve murdering innocent people because "there's no other way" which reaches its nadir in one mission which involves trying to save a zeppelin by hijacking it and murdering the innocent guards before the rebels can I guess? It also has an unsatisfying ending that blatantly sets up a sequel that will never happen.

Tried this through PS Plus Premium and it was horrendous. Instead of putting the player through exciting set pieces to keep things interesting, the game instead has you slowly going through ugly and bland locations shooting hordes of brain-dead enemies. The levels also really overstay their welcome without properly escalating in intensity or stakes, you just do the same sort of thing until the level ends.

The game also has really obnoxious lens-flares at times that completely obscure enemies and just look like shit. The story is non-existent. You play as some Marine named Will and in between missions he narrates what is happening, there's no real attempt to build a plot or characters. If you want to play an entertainingly bad FPS on PS Plus Premium just play Rogue Warrior.

This is one of the most frustrating games I've played. The core concept of defending towns from rampaging giants is cool and can be fun in short bursts. The story is pretty bland but the characters actually manage to be fairly likeable.

That's where the positives end. The gameplay never evolves beyond introducing more frustrating enemy types as the game progresses. The controls are really bad, the main character is very slippery and will often get stuck on geometry or in the armpit of one of the monsters. Combat against the smaller enemies is just tedious button-mashing. Some later enemy types wear armor that must be removed to defeat them but the requirements to break the armor are really annoying and rely on the very spotty enemy AI doing certain attacks. Overall, despite a decent concept a lack of polish ruins the game.

One of my favorite games of all time and definitely my favorite RPG. The turn-based battle system is really well-done and allows for a good amount of strategy and decision making during encounters. The Sphere Grid is an interesting progression system that allows you to develop characters as you see fit while still giving them unique niches in the party. Blitzball is also a fantastic minigame.

I really love the story and characters as well. Some of the characters are a little divisive but I think they're all interesting and they all get time to shine and have decent arcs. I think Wakka in particular has a pretty interesting character arc. The world of Spira still looks really good to this day and it's a well fleshed-out setting with a distinctive look and feel.