I think this game sacrifices whatever unique style it had (have not played the others) to earn some Mainstream cred. It's got the Last of Us dynamic fit with somber dad and bratty kid, but the story works fairly well I will admit. The pacing helped a lot--I can't remember a section that dragged too long, either in cutscene or in gameplay. The father and son dynamic develops very naturally. It keeps the story moving forward, even through the oddly shoehorned open-world/multi-world design, which I didn't appreciate. If it wanted to be serious and bring the camera down so it's less of a gamey game and more of a Work of Art, a linear design (which the game admittedly has for most of it) is all you need to push people along. The bosses are mildly repetitive and the puzzles so easy/simple I wonder why they need to be there, but the axe mechanic is so satisfying I sat through a number of more meh stuff enjoying the feeling of swinging the axe.