This game hit the highs of LA Noire but got sunk by bloated Online systems and a story that has such awful pacing that anyone who finishes it deserves a real medal. The story is stellar if you summarize it in bullet points, but it is stretched out far longer than it needed to be.

Ever since acquiring Team Bondi, the shooting mechanics in Rockstar games has been stellar and RDR2 really nails the cinematic cowboy shootout feel. That and the ending of Arthur's story and the Epilogue with more story of John and Abigail really is what pushed me to completion with this game. I felt like the game was trying to force me into the hunting and fishing mechanics but they are so dreadfully boring that it almost made me quit the game early on.

Overall, I had fun because I loved RDR1 and enjoyed the customization and the gun play and the story in parts. This is also the most graphically beautiful game I have ever played to date and it could be a long time until anything tops it on this scale. Just wish being out in this world was as enjoyable.

An interesting SRPG that has a surprisingly in depth battle system. The interplay between the magic system (and the oil item) and the abilities to move enemy units around leads to some really cool moments. Lighting oil on fire and then trapping an enemy on that tile to take repeated fire damage. Or putting a trap on top of a ladder to send a boss falling all the way back to the bottom. I really like that wind can spread fire, ice can put out fire, fire can make ice into puddles, and lighting can spread across water/iron. However, there did seem to be systems that were tacked on that, to me, never felt like they made sense what they really added.

The story was alright, honestly impressed that it was a tale of intrigue without some supervillian character wanting to end the world which is so often the case. There's a pretty okay love story in there too. However, it is just way too damn chatty and the game really feels like it wants you to play it multiple times and I am just not going to do that.

Overall, a fun game that does some things pretty well, but I don't foresee it having any long term staying power.

What a fantastic game! I really enjoyed this game immensely and it has so many elements of games I love that I can see myself replaying this game again in New Game Plus. Hopefully Nintendo consoles will also see the other entries someday as well.

I found that the "Git Gud" crowd largely misunderstood the game's design and were the loudest about it, which scared a lot of new players away. Thankfully I had a lot of support with tips to help me through and I grew to love this game. The Ornstein and Smough fight, however, is such a massive difficulty spike in such an otherwise perfectly paced game and briefly caused me to shelf the game.

Definitely a game that the whole is better than the sum of its parts. The story is not the strongest, a slightly weaker fusion system than the previous game, and visual hiccups (I only noticed it in the Compendium honestly) might make it feel worse, but those things wrapped in an absolutely perfect exploration system make for a stellar game. I just finished it and plan on starting a NG+ run soon, something I rarely, if ever, do.

Definitely a game I could see putting in my top favorite games list.