There’s a line that stands out to me where Barret refers to the ‘Gilded Saucer’, emphasising how the bright lights and supreme extravagance of the Gold Saucer serve as a distraction, a veneer for the true ugliness of the world and the ugliness and exploitation beneath the surface. This ought to be what the game is about, but it feels more like the whole game experience has become its own gold saucer, each region like another ‘square’ full of amusements and distractions.
I must admit I had a hell of a lot of fun with this game. It kept me playing for weeks, about 150 hours, with plenty more postgame challenges and tedium left over. The game is bloated as hell with filler and busywork, but also packed with fun mini games and delightful combat. Aside from some tweaks like more aggressive AI for party members or range and jumping attacks for everyone, I don’t have any issue with the combat and it kept me coming back for more.
The main story doesn’t match up to that though, so the overall package is frankly disappointing and frustrating. Despite much speculation and hints from the creators at something big and meaningful, it doesn’t follow through. All the narrative weight goes into plot and driving to the next big spectacle, rather than saying something or really focusing on the characters. Characters are sometimes reduced to love interests, magical plot devices and comic relief in their vastly expanded, stretched out journey. So many opportunities to dig into their feelings and connections are wasted in favour of brief feel good moments and affection gauges going up. Sephiroth no longer feels at all unnerving or threatening. Big lore dumps are added in attempt to add history to the game’s world but I find they lack flavour.
When they’re not competing for ‘best girl’ the leads do feel engaging. It’s clear they have their own relationships not just the one they each have with Cloud, so it’s a bit sad not to see more of that, which could’ve been a better use of the side quests and even the various times the party splits up in main story chapters.
The game suggests some great positive influences from other titles like Yakuza series and even western RPGs. It’s also got some bad habits from them too like some annoying cinematic button presses which don’t provide the emotional weight intended.
Having said all that I really appreciate the scale of this game and the effort and love poured into it; it certainly shows more than other recent entries to the franchise. I hope the same level of passion and fun can go into an original story for the next mainline FF or even a separate IP. The final chapter seems divisive but I actually found some intrigue in it. In recent years the multiverse concept has quickly moved en vogue to cliche but there’s actually a few crumbs of excitement for me there. Maybe they can pull it off, maybe we’ll never learn.
I must admit I had a hell of a lot of fun with this game. It kept me playing for weeks, about 150 hours, with plenty more postgame challenges and tedium left over. The game is bloated as hell with filler and busywork, but also packed with fun mini games and delightful combat. Aside from some tweaks like more aggressive AI for party members or range and jumping attacks for everyone, I don’t have any issue with the combat and it kept me coming back for more.
The main story doesn’t match up to that though, so the overall package is frankly disappointing and frustrating. Despite much speculation and hints from the creators at something big and meaningful, it doesn’t follow through. All the narrative weight goes into plot and driving to the next big spectacle, rather than saying something or really focusing on the characters. Characters are sometimes reduced to love interests, magical plot devices and comic relief in their vastly expanded, stretched out journey. So many opportunities to dig into their feelings and connections are wasted in favour of brief feel good moments and affection gauges going up. Sephiroth no longer feels at all unnerving or threatening. Big lore dumps are added in attempt to add history to the game’s world but I find they lack flavour.
When they’re not competing for ‘best girl’ the leads do feel engaging. It’s clear they have their own relationships not just the one they each have with Cloud, so it’s a bit sad not to see more of that, which could’ve been a better use of the side quests and even the various times the party splits up in main story chapters.
The game suggests some great positive influences from other titles like Yakuza series and even western RPGs. It’s also got some bad habits from them too like some annoying cinematic button presses which don’t provide the emotional weight intended.
Having said all that I really appreciate the scale of this game and the effort and love poured into it; it certainly shows more than other recent entries to the franchise. I hope the same level of passion and fun can go into an original story for the next mainline FF or even a separate IP. The final chapter seems divisive but I actually found some intrigue in it. In recent years the multiverse concept has quickly moved en vogue to cliche but there’s actually a few crumbs of excitement for me there. Maybe they can pull it off, maybe we’ll never learn.
This is a remarkably well crafted RPG. The monsters are adorable. It’s very pretty. I’d avoid the switch version if you can as it’s all a bit blurry, but on PS4 everything is sharp and clean.
I understand this series is not known for doing anything particularly remarkable on the story front, so I didn’t expect much. But for such a long adventure I think you really need some kind of more powerful narrative to make it worth it.
The music is obviously well crafted too, but it really becomes bombastic here. You’re listening to the same dramatic orchestral tunes for hours on end in combat and exploring. When I reached my limit I had the same tune going through my head when I wasn’t playing and that pushed me away.
I understand this series is not known for doing anything particularly remarkable on the story front, so I didn’t expect much. But for such a long adventure I think you really need some kind of more powerful narrative to make it worth it.
The music is obviously well crafted too, but it really becomes bombastic here. You’re listening to the same dramatic orchestral tunes for hours on end in combat and exploring. When I reached my limit I had the same tune going through my head when I wasn’t playing and that pushed me away.
2023
After going through the first Alan Wake again I should’ve known, but my tempered enjoyment of Control, all the high praise and the new style in the trailers convinced me to give this a try. Honestly I just don’t know what everyone is seeing in this? Are we just that starved for games going slightly out of the ordinary that this gets praised as a masterwork?
The game certainly is a huge step up from AW1. It has a lot of style but there’s still not much substance behind it. Alan Wake is ostensibly about writing and literature, yet not that well-read.
Remedy has grand ambition and clearly some talent there, I’d love to see that be refined into something more focused. Get some writers involved that really know what they’re doing and are prepared to have something to say. I can’t help feeling like this would work better as a TV show. Not just because of the cool, fun live action scenes, but because it genuinely feels plotted like one, and it barely does anything with the medium it’s in.
There’s also a strange contradiction where Remedy seems afraid to use cutscenes, but still relies on that structure to tell its story, having both exposition and dramatic moments play out by having characters stand and talk to each other while the player can only pace back and forth.
I do want to commend the effort to have a stronger art direction and build an atmosphere. The live action scenes and some of the theatre sequence are genuinely interesting, but out side of that there’s a lot of the same back and forth, walking about and fighting the same old enemies.
The game certainly is a huge step up from AW1. It has a lot of style but there’s still not much substance behind it. Alan Wake is ostensibly about writing and literature, yet not that well-read.
Remedy has grand ambition and clearly some talent there, I’d love to see that be refined into something more focused. Get some writers involved that really know what they’re doing and are prepared to have something to say. I can’t help feeling like this would work better as a TV show. Not just because of the cool, fun live action scenes, but because it genuinely feels plotted like one, and it barely does anything with the medium it’s in.
There’s also a strange contradiction where Remedy seems afraid to use cutscenes, but still relies on that structure to tell its story, having both exposition and dramatic moments play out by having characters stand and talk to each other while the player can only pace back and forth.
I do want to commend the effort to have a stronger art direction and build an atmosphere. The live action scenes and some of the theatre sequence are genuinely interesting, but out side of that there’s a lot of the same back and forth, walking about and fighting the same old enemies.
2022
Norco is a brilliantly written story with strong themes and some phenomenal pixel art. There were several times I was just wowed by the prose. The writers were able to say a lot about the characters, their world and their message in only a few words or lines. The game has a sense of humor too, even when it’s dark, without getting edgy or letting a joke get in the way of the rest of the narrative.
The player like the characters will spend much of the game confused, lost, but always with a few pieces to put together to stay determined to continue. Clearly this is also a passion for the writers too, a lot of care going into recreating their thoughts and experiences of growing up in a town like this. The story builds to a dramatic ending which goes more for an emotional closure, leaving some things ambiguous. This leaves you with lots to reflect on but I can see that rubbing some people the wrong way.
Gameplay is a fairly straightforward blend of text adventure choices, simple mini games and puzzles. It’s standard stuff but one part I particularly liked was the use of an app to record certain lines of dialogue, to play it back to other characters later. It might have been interesting to take this a little further, as there were a couple times I used this but then there was no need for them.
The PS4 game I played had a few issues with crashes and the interface disappearing, but it’s quick to jump back in and I didn’t lose progress. It’s fairly short and does invite a second playthrough if you want to review the story, make a few different choices and collect trophies.
One of my favourites of 2022 from what I played, definitely recommend it if this is your kind of thing.
The player like the characters will spend much of the game confused, lost, but always with a few pieces to put together to stay determined to continue. Clearly this is also a passion for the writers too, a lot of care going into recreating their thoughts and experiences of growing up in a town like this. The story builds to a dramatic ending which goes more for an emotional closure, leaving some things ambiguous. This leaves you with lots to reflect on but I can see that rubbing some people the wrong way.
Gameplay is a fairly straightforward blend of text adventure choices, simple mini games and puzzles. It’s standard stuff but one part I particularly liked was the use of an app to record certain lines of dialogue, to play it back to other characters later. It might have been interesting to take this a little further, as there were a couple times I used this but then there was no need for them.
The PS4 game I played had a few issues with crashes and the interface disappearing, but it’s quick to jump back in and I didn’t lose progress. It’s fairly short and does invite a second playthrough if you want to review the story, make a few different choices and collect trophies.
One of my favourites of 2022 from what I played, definitely recommend it if this is your kind of thing.
2023
After being apprehensive I really bought into the hype and loved the demo. The game starts so strong, full of potential, dipping into interesting themes. As it progresses it slowly falls apart. The action is fun, the bosses are spectacular, but even they peak with Bahamut. The story lacks depth particularly in the second half, letting themes and strong characterisation fall by the wayside. Two of the most interesting characters are written out early on. For one of them this does open up a very cool new dynamic with Clive adopting their persona and trying to fulfil their ideals, but this ends up feeling like an afterthought. Jill spends most of her lines either asking what is happening or telling us what just happened on screen. Her ‘big moment’ comes early on and is barely about here, then for a while she’s conveniently absent. Later she comes back to serve as love interest and that’s about it.
I see complaints that it’s not a JRPG, but like many JRPGs, the writing is all over the place, and it’s padded to the hilt with dull side quests and filler content. A few of these will provide a bit of ‘world building’ or have something sad happen, but it’s hard to care. Some players don’t connect with the action combat, but when it’s so straightforward, mostly revolving around repeated attacks, dodges and waiting for abilities to come off cool down, is it really that different from turn based?
My big problem with this game is it feels purely made to be a crowd pleaser, to sell copies and just walk the line telling an unremarkable fantasy story that satisfies the general fandom. Compare that to Final Fantasy at its best, where it clearly has more to say, where it feels like a work of love, an attempt to express something meaningful. Other FF games felt that way. 16 is probably a step in that direction and can be a lot of fun, but where is the substance? Where is the imagination? Will we ever get it back? I won’t give up just yet.
I see complaints that it’s not a JRPG, but like many JRPGs, the writing is all over the place, and it’s padded to the hilt with dull side quests and filler content. A few of these will provide a bit of ‘world building’ or have something sad happen, but it’s hard to care. Some players don’t connect with the action combat, but when it’s so straightforward, mostly revolving around repeated attacks, dodges and waiting for abilities to come off cool down, is it really that different from turn based?
My big problem with this game is it feels purely made to be a crowd pleaser, to sell copies and just walk the line telling an unremarkable fantasy story that satisfies the general fandom. Compare that to Final Fantasy at its best, where it clearly has more to say, where it feels like a work of love, an attempt to express something meaningful. Other FF games felt that way. 16 is probably a step in that direction and can be a lot of fun, but where is the substance? Where is the imagination? Will we ever get it back? I won’t give up just yet.
2016
I’ve been trying to work out how to write about this for a while. It’s easy to have a list of complaints when you don’t like something, or set out the pros and cons when something is just decent. When I find something truly exceptional and beautiful like this I don’t know what to say.
From the start when I first met Trico, I was utterly enamoured. It’s such an amazing feeling interacting with this enormous mythical animal hybrid thing. It’s big, it’s beautiful, it’s adorable, but also dangerous, alien. Like a pet but not. Something that could never be in a zoo. I’ve spent a lot of time just watching him, seeing him play, scratch, roll around, like my own dog. Taking hundreds of pictures. Forgetting that this is just a ‘program’ or a series of numbers, triggers and scripted gestures. It’s easy to suspend disbelief when something is so immersive like this.
I love the tactility as well, climbing through its limbs and down, riding and petting it. Pulling out spears from its flesh and feeding it so it can heal. Of course there’s some issues with controls, camera angles, deliberate animal stubbornness and wild inobedience, but these frustrations were easy to move past.
The game has a great variety of puzzles and problem solving, even when Trico’s not around.
Some might find the narrative overly sentimental but I think it’s earnest, it was completely affecting for me, the same kind of open-ended, involving experience as the team’s other titles where you can find your own meaning to attach to it. SOTC had some standout moments to me and TLG has so many more. I’ll never forget this.
From the start when I first met Trico, I was utterly enamoured. It’s such an amazing feeling interacting with this enormous mythical animal hybrid thing. It’s big, it’s beautiful, it’s adorable, but also dangerous, alien. Like a pet but not. Something that could never be in a zoo. I’ve spent a lot of time just watching him, seeing him play, scratch, roll around, like my own dog. Taking hundreds of pictures. Forgetting that this is just a ‘program’ or a series of numbers, triggers and scripted gestures. It’s easy to suspend disbelief when something is so immersive like this.
I love the tactility as well, climbing through its limbs and down, riding and petting it. Pulling out spears from its flesh and feeding it so it can heal. Of course there’s some issues with controls, camera angles, deliberate animal stubbornness and wild inobedience, but these frustrations were easy to move past.
The game has a great variety of puzzles and problem solving, even when Trico’s not around.
Some might find the narrative overly sentimental but I think it’s earnest, it was completely affecting for me, the same kind of open-ended, involving experience as the team’s other titles where you can find your own meaning to attach to it. SOTC had some standout moments to me and TLG has so many more. I’ll never forget this.
This review contains spoilers
This was a lovely, sincere and moving experience. I loved the mechanic of destroying and regenerating your body to get past obstacles. It’s a little annoying when the character keeps crying in pain without actually reacting verbally to what is happening. The text conversations were occasionally saccharine but still engaging. Knowing this was a ‘trans story’ I was nervous about that becoming a twist, and not sure about using suicide as a climax, but it turned out it kept going. The final gameplay sections were really exhilarating, shifting to have the player ‘lose their way to victory’. I’ve heard narrative consultants had a lot of impact on this final result. I would love to know should we be giving them more credit, but I don’t think we can totally discredit SWERY for some of these great ideas.
Loved this dark fairytale game. A great blend of light and dark, cozy children’s storybook ideas mixed with dark and occasionally downright disturbing ideas. Fun use of Wonderland style shrinking of the main characters to enter a fantastic world that could maybe be right before our eyes or just under a leaf in your garden. A particularly memorable ‘boss fight’ where you confront an old crone’s disembodied head was a big highlight.
I’d heard so much praise for XIV I was shocked when I came to this the first time, tried it for 20 hours and found it completely dull. I was baffled by all the love for the game everywhere I went. I heard it “gets good” in the expansions but I couldn’t see how you could really build something great out of this? A while later a small community I’m in was starting a new play along and convinced me to try again. I started having a bit more fun. I fell behind the group a bit but kept going. The narrative was still poor. Characters have a lot of words to speak but little of substance to say. There are hundreds of basic quests often involving travelling or teleporting between two places, walking a bit, fighting some enemies (combat mostly consisting of slowly auto attacking and cycling through commands waiting for health bars to go down and cool-downs to refresh). Party dungeons are a little more fun for having people with you, but again it’s all repetitive and basic. I finally got to the credits and felt such a relief, only to find there was a whole ‘post-game’ storyline as long as the first part. Here came some more characters with the tiniest bit more personality, people actually doing things in cutscenes. Is this the good stuff I was promised? Apparently not. It climaxes in a series of 24-man party dungeons bigger and harder than the others, and these really highlight what a mess it is. The screen is already so full of icons, text, buttons, names, especially on PS4, and now surrounded by all these players all using their own flashy abilities, you can barely see what you’re fighting. It doesn’t really matter, it’s just the same thing of watching bosses terribly high health points slowly decrease til you win. I will say the AOE zoning elements are kind of cool, when your character’s slow little legs and lengthy sprint cool-down let you escape.
The player community, particularly help threads online and the novice chat (which the game takes a long time to put you in) is really this game’s only saving grace. I’ll probably never understand their enthusiasm for this game beyond a virtual space to hang out with friends, a Second Life without the sex stuff (mostly?).
Here we are 100 hours later. I know for the unlikely reader this all sounds terribly hateful, I know. Honestly I only hold enough hatred for the game to rant this negativity here rather than let it out where people are having a good time.
Somehow I am walking out of this still interested in trying the expansions, but for now, I don’t want to think about it at all.
The player community, particularly help threads online and the novice chat (which the game takes a long time to put you in) is really this game’s only saving grace. I’ll probably never understand their enthusiasm for this game beyond a virtual space to hang out with friends, a Second Life without the sex stuff (mostly?).
Here we are 100 hours later. I know for the unlikely reader this all sounds terribly hateful, I know. Honestly I only hold enough hatred for the game to rant this negativity here rather than let it out where people are having a good time.
Somehow I am walking out of this still interested in trying the expansions, but for now, I don’t want to think about it at all.
2022
This one has a pretty good story and some interesting, believable characters, occasionally cringe but fun. At its heights it reminded me of some fun teen horror films like The Faculty.
Like Until Dawn the game is let down by some really annoying walking sections. Even with the slightest ‘quick’ walk you move so slowly, in areas that feel too big and empty. The areas are occasionally littered with clues about the story and its history, but these are also easily missable.
The game is designed as a choose your own adventure and it is impressive that you can take different paths and get to a variety of end results. In that way it’s encouraging you to replay to see the other paths, but the developer insists on making that as arduous as possible. There’s no fast forward for parts you’ve already seen, and the autosave means if you make another mistake or miss something, you’re stuck and could be starting over again. Or just watch it on YouTube.
Take out the walking sections or make them much shorter, give the player a bit of respect for their time allowing them to move around the story a bit more, and this could be great. Take the writing a little further too and it could be really special!
Like Until Dawn the game is let down by some really annoying walking sections. Even with the slightest ‘quick’ walk you move so slowly, in areas that feel too big and empty. The areas are occasionally littered with clues about the story and its history, but these are also easily missable.
The game is designed as a choose your own adventure and it is impressive that you can take different paths and get to a variety of end results. In that way it’s encouraging you to replay to see the other paths, but the developer insists on making that as arduous as possible. There’s no fast forward for parts you’ve already seen, and the autosave means if you make another mistake or miss something, you’re stuck and could be starting over again. Or just watch it on YouTube.
Take out the walking sections or make them much shorter, give the player a bit of respect for their time allowing them to move around the story a bit more, and this could be great. Take the writing a little further too and it could be really special!
I picked up Sekiro about 2 years ago just to give it a try, in the middle of covid lockdowns. I didn’t know much about it, and I was fairly indifferent about fromsoft games at the time. Sekiro turned me into a huge fan.
So much of this game is well thought out and finely tuned. It’s a big challenge but unlike some soulsborne titles it’s consistently rewarding. Limiting you to the shinobi playstyle instead of dozens of weapons, spells and stats means every encounter makes you better. You’re constantly learning and training, and each boss you beat rewards with something useful, increasing health and posture or attack. The shinobi prosthetics provide a bit of variety and strategy. Where the game really shines is the parrying. It’s not just about quick reflexes, it’s a rhythm. It’s a dance. Learning your opponents move set feels less like memorising AI behaviour and more like executing choreography.
The game’s world is interesting with touches of history and folk tales. The key characters are so real and memorable and have their own stories and motivations. My favourite is the sculptor.
Even when the game repeats some bosses it works; for some there’s reasoning in their story, some have new moves and forms; or they’re there to give you the satisfaction of seeing how far you’ve come and how you’ve improved, when an enemy that took so many attempts before makes sense now and you can take them down in a minute.
After the first time I spent a lot of time watching streams and challenges. I’m in awe of players who can do the whole thing in under 30 minutes, and especially those who can beat the game without taking a single hit.
Coming back to the game again myself in the last few weeks I have had such a good time with it and cemented my love for it. I got the platinum!
I’d love to see fromsoft revisit this someday, if not in a sequel, another new game with the same impeccable construction. This game helped me appreciate soulsborne games a lot more. It’s also had me playing other things and wishing they were more like this. Elden Ring is great but there’s something about the restraint here that makes it exceptionally good.
So much of this game is well thought out and finely tuned. It’s a big challenge but unlike some soulsborne titles it’s consistently rewarding. Limiting you to the shinobi playstyle instead of dozens of weapons, spells and stats means every encounter makes you better. You’re constantly learning and training, and each boss you beat rewards with something useful, increasing health and posture or attack. The shinobi prosthetics provide a bit of variety and strategy. Where the game really shines is the parrying. It’s not just about quick reflexes, it’s a rhythm. It’s a dance. Learning your opponents move set feels less like memorising AI behaviour and more like executing choreography.
The game’s world is interesting with touches of history and folk tales. The key characters are so real and memorable and have their own stories and motivations. My favourite is the sculptor.
Even when the game repeats some bosses it works; for some there’s reasoning in their story, some have new moves and forms; or they’re there to give you the satisfaction of seeing how far you’ve come and how you’ve improved, when an enemy that took so many attempts before makes sense now and you can take them down in a minute.
After the first time I spent a lot of time watching streams and challenges. I’m in awe of players who can do the whole thing in under 30 minutes, and especially those who can beat the game without taking a single hit.
Coming back to the game again myself in the last few weeks I have had such a good time with it and cemented my love for it. I got the platinum!
I’d love to see fromsoft revisit this someday, if not in a sequel, another new game with the same impeccable construction. This game helped me appreciate soulsborne games a lot more. It’s also had me playing other things and wishing they were more like this. Elden Ring is great but there’s something about the restraint here that makes it exceptionally good.
For a while I thought I’d found something special with this. There looked to be a decent story brewing. The characters seemed interesting and at the very least not just typical anime archetypes. They were young but not juvenile. There’s no crude sexualisation or objectification, but it’s hard to say was that a conscious choice to do better or did the world building force that.
I was waiting for a little more substance to come and then I hit the same wall I have with these games before. The world opens up, wide open space, with little in it. There are quests, and a huge network of NPCs with tenuous connections to each other. But none of these felt real or worthwhile. Before I knew it I was walking about, checking boxes, while the combat mostly played itself as long as I didn’t walk into something too high level. I got lost- should I proceed with the story or will I be unprepared or missing something good? By the time I came back to the main story, so much time had passed and my engagement went with it.
I’m still a bit sad it turned out like this, it was one of the most promising RPGs I’ve found in years. My search for another good one continues.
I was waiting for a little more substance to come and then I hit the same wall I have with these games before. The world opens up, wide open space, with little in it. There are quests, and a huge network of NPCs with tenuous connections to each other. But none of these felt real or worthwhile. Before I knew it I was walking about, checking boxes, while the combat mostly played itself as long as I didn’t walk into something too high level. I got lost- should I proceed with the story or will I be unprepared or missing something good? By the time I came back to the main story, so much time had passed and my engagement went with it.
I’m still a bit sad it turned out like this, it was one of the most promising RPGs I’ve found in years. My search for another good one continues.
2015
Absolutely fantastic experience from start to finish. It’s so enthralling to make your way through this undersea world, uncovering details through text, audio logs and your surroundings. Hiding and running from enemies has so so much tension. The game’s narrative explores thoughtful SF ideas the likes of which I’ve rarely ever seen in a video game, matching up to some great novels. The game format with its first person perspective makes this a unique experience and sets a great example for the medium.
Man what a fun ride. It’s easy to overlook when FPS games pull it off like this. It’s a great combination of intense, frenetic action and strong linear storytelling.
Let’s be clear. This is a game about a world where the nazis won and we’re part of what’s left fighting back. It’s an easy hook but it also embraces the absurdity of it all. It’s gruesome, it’s dark, it’s funny. It’s also amazingly poignant in places.
There’s a rather annoying joke at the start when you pick difficulty options, but that’s quickly forgotten as you get going. BJ is the perfect all American meat head, an absurd send up of masculinity whilst still being a lovable lead. The resistance hideout offers a nice break from the action, providing a sense of hope and camaraderie, even whilst it’s obvious level design tells you what’s inevitable.
The last few encounters become a little messy, but at that point you shouldn’t care. Just keep on blasting.
Let’s be clear. This is a game about a world where the nazis won and we’re part of what’s left fighting back. It’s an easy hook but it also embraces the absurdity of it all. It’s gruesome, it’s dark, it’s funny. It’s also amazingly poignant in places.
There’s a rather annoying joke at the start when you pick difficulty options, but that’s quickly forgotten as you get going. BJ is the perfect all American meat head, an absurd send up of masculinity whilst still being a lovable lead. The resistance hideout offers a nice break from the action, providing a sense of hope and camaraderie, even whilst it’s obvious level design tells you what’s inevitable.
The last few encounters become a little messy, but at that point you shouldn’t care. Just keep on blasting.
2022
God of War Ragnarok is a very safe game. It makes some attempts to fix issues with the last game, for example giving Freya a stronger character arc, and furthering Kratos’ story as he ages and finally starts to open up as a man. But there are no risks taken. Atreus’ sections make up most of the more compelling times in the story but I found myself wishing they made up a lot more of the game.
There is a lot of filler; even ignoring side quests, time spent in between dramatic moments is often just run of the mill combat, walking along corridors and climbing.
The game relies a little less on the one take over the shoulder camera but it still struggles with it, obfuscating characters emotional reactions and even in combat making it hard to see what’s happening around you.
Where GOW2018 held back introducing too many of the Norse gods, Ragnarok instead contains a very bloated cast. Some smaller characters get drawn in to the main story when we barely know them.
There are a couple of beautiful moments there towards the end, but they just don’t justify the time spent getting to them.
I know this has become a bit of a moaning list of complaints but I had to let this out somewhere. I would have loved the game to focus nearly entirely on Atreus; or even have Kratos cast off the Blades of Chaos and let go. The game would benefit from being a lot shorter. Perhaps it’s trying to deliver something like Witcher 3- it does share a lot of its themes and ideas- but it might do better to embrace a shorter, tighter adventure, as it feels more like a stretched out Naughty Dog game in a bigger world.
There is a lot of filler; even ignoring side quests, time spent in between dramatic moments is often just run of the mill combat, walking along corridors and climbing.
The game relies a little less on the one take over the shoulder camera but it still struggles with it, obfuscating characters emotional reactions and even in combat making it hard to see what’s happening around you.
Where GOW2018 held back introducing too many of the Norse gods, Ragnarok instead contains a very bloated cast. Some smaller characters get drawn in to the main story when we barely know them.
There are a couple of beautiful moments there towards the end, but they just don’t justify the time spent getting to them.
I know this has become a bit of a moaning list of complaints but I had to let this out somewhere. I would have loved the game to focus nearly entirely on Atreus; or even have Kratos cast off the Blades of Chaos and let go. The game would benefit from being a lot shorter. Perhaps it’s trying to deliver something like Witcher 3- it does share a lot of its themes and ideas- but it might do better to embrace a shorter, tighter adventure, as it feels more like a stretched out Naughty Dog game in a bigger world.