Another great Bluepoint remake. Not nearly as hard as the original but still a fun and challenging platinum.

Just finished with the PS3 version and wanted to give the PS4 remake a try. I was motivated to finish the PS3 version (I had started in 2017 but gave up on around colossus #9) to then play the PS4 one because I wanted that awesome PlayStation Stars collectable for the Hard Game Club campaign. Was a pretty easy plat with experience from the PS3 version. In the end I clocked in around 22 hours played in the remake. I had 45h 22m in the PS3 version and I'm sure it took me about the same time to plat this as to get through the hard time attack trials on the PS3 version (specifically #3 colossus).

I enjoyed the updated visuals and QoL improvements such as the ability to carry save data from Hard to Normal and not having to get every lizard and fruit for a trophy. What I didn't like was the frustrating choice to allow only 4 preset button configurations instead of how the PS3 version let you remap buttons. None of the presets matched the one change I made on the PS3 (swapping jump to X and control horse to triangle). Ended up with modern controls but the amount of times I hit circle to interact with the shrine or pulled R1 to grip was too high. The Wanderer also felt way more wibbly-wobbly. Like he got smashed before getting enough courage to do these colossus again cause he tripped at the slightest breeze.

That being said, I'd probably recommend the remake over the original if you want to enjoy this classic game.

Played in 2016 and got a trophy but hated the controls and gave up on it pretty quickly. It’s been annoying me in my backlog since then that I didn’t give it a fair chance given its status as a classic of the hack and slash genre. Well I finally beat it today and it was just pretty whelming. It was motivating enough just to complete it for trophies to move it out of my E rank list on PSNProfiles. Definitely not fun enough to endure the hard mode or DMD mode for the platinum.

+ combos are pretty rewarding especially when you get a good “juggle” between weapon and gun
+ weapons felt unique and purposeful (though some seemed completely useless)
+ I didn’t mind the story especially viewed through the lens of its release date and platform. Definitely campy.

- camera is seriously a boss fight. The amount of times it switches angles therefore switching directions of your thumb stick press was too high.
- bad platforming in the sense that it’s unfun and not rewarding. Felt tedious and presented as a meaningless obstacle.
- horrific controls underwater and aerial combat. I tried both thumb stick and dpad and just couldn’t get the hang of it for some reason.

+ good pixel art graphics
+ nice concept with multiple playable characters

- overall felt a little confusing, unfair and frustrating, especially in the beginning
- combat is very basic and got really repetitive
- not enough difference in characters
- controls feel floaty and jump input doesn’t register sometimes
- uninteresting story… though some of the side characters were ok