i respect this game a lot. incredible art and atmosphere. they were going for a vibe and they nail it. the world is sorrowful and filled with sin and guilt. it's like hollow knight but all the bugs are replaced with european catholics.

but the gameplay just wasn't for me. the movement wasn't interesting and the combat was very bland. mechanics seem obtuse just because "lol dark souls did it" and i was constantly feeling like i was missing something major. felt like i was just mashing attack and then hitting dodge to mash it on the other side.

i might go back to it. but i don't know. i spent a lot of time with it and never got grabbed. might just check out a longplay to see the visuals towards the end.

ow1 was fun at the start but quickly became a miserable slog due to the way the meta evolved, horrible balance, and overly toxic player base that formed due to the prior 2 points.

ow2 is less annoying and i have fun with friends.

p2w is dumb, banning prepaid phones is dumb, gender verification is OMEGA dumb.

play team fortress 2.

my gut reaction to this game was just average. seemed solidly put together but didn't capture what i liked about guilty gear. after letting it breathe some and giving it more time, it's definitely grown on me. it's definitely different from old gear, but the dna is still there. it's still a blast to play. i think this is a sentiment more fgc players need to adapt. if you enjoy the old game, play the old game, and try to see the new as something new. if you still don't like it, well, the old games aren't going away and plenty of people will stick with the game that really hits for them, so you can keep playing what you do like.

the music truly is abysmal though. most of the character in the songs comes purely through the lyrics, with the instrumentation taking a backseat and largely sounding very samey, and naoki's performance is almost satirical, sounding like a theater kid playing the role of a metal musician in a high school play. a lot of the song structures just don't fit a high intensity fighting game either, with too many tracks having odd low energy interludes. i really like the themes of faust, baiken, and hc, but all of them just have terrible sections that completely kill the momentum during a round. i wish they had been chopped and edited so the in-game versions would've flowed better in a match, and left the full versions for the ost album. i love the lyrics as a lore fiend and think they do well at displaying the character they represent, i just wish they were performed better, or there were optional instrumental versions just due to my disdain of naoki's performance. i will admit that (most of) aisha's performances were really nice and shine through the sludge that is the majority of the soundtrack.

Played this when it originally released but got stuck in a quicksave death loop and abandoned it but finally came back so I could play Control.

Loved the story and all of the flavor around it. the manuscripts, the radio shows, the TV shows, all fantastic. Great cast and super engaging and was the main thing keeping me from dropping the game again.

Gameplay really wore thin and this is maybe the quintessential 360 era game of all time. Forced walk and talk segments, story beats undercut by having to walk backwards to pick up some mundane collectible, super simple gameplay loop stretched out 4 hours longer than it needed to be, unnecessary and boring vehicle segments, long "epic" holdout action segments, it's got it all.

This sure is "one of those" and yeah, it's fine. Not offensively bad, does what these games do but doesn't do any of it in a particularly interesting or banner way. Played 2 and a half hours of it and think I'm done. Thought I could play the bullethell-arena-roguelike genre or whatever the hell you want to call it forever but this squashed that thought. Best thing I can say about it is that I really liked the music. I don't think it fits the vibe of the game but it did make me very nostalgic for gameboy music in a way that most other chiptune stuff doesn't.

Fantastic game about early internet subculture and how much lives can change through tight-knit online communities. The websites and posts were incredibly authentic and nostalgic. Huge fan of the music as well, it was catchy, memorable, weird, varied.

This was the 3rd time starting this game though, because at a point the gameplay loop gets... tedious? It's hard to describe, I don't think the game is HARD necessarily, just, not enough changes for the amount of backtracking and scouring you have to do. There's a lot of pages in the game, a lot of secrets and tricks, and it becomes hard to parse what actually matters or not. The puzzle hints are vague, which is fine, but it often felt like they were leading me down paths that didn't actually exist.

Still, I liked the narrative enough to keep at it and I liked how the game made me feel. Really didn't expect this game to get me so misty-eyed when so much of it is dripping in irony and comedy, but they do a fantastic job setting up a world and setting up these characters. They all feel so real to someone who grew up with these kind of online experiences and it really got at my heartstrings at times. Looking forward to the next titles in this world.