After getting 100% with almost 60 hours of play time, I feel comfortable calling this game one of my absolute favorite games ever (like top 5 material). Even after getting all achievements I will be coming back to this one just because of how damn fun it is. It's been some time since I became so invested in a game's world (I adore every one of the main cast), and if this is a one-and-done from Tango then I'm glad to have been part of the ride (and not gonna lie, seeing the final achievement pop up left a pit in my stomach, I didn't want this to ever end).

What a journey it was, indeed.

I was able to get the first 4 endings, but the path to getting all weapons was so tedious and being forced to replay substandard gameplay in specific conditions broke my patience and I ended up watching the final ending on YouTube. Can't say I'm proud of it, but I feel I've seen all this game has to offer.

Anyways, I don't have much more to add on that wasn't already said a million times before. The gameplay ranges from mediocre to abysmal, the story is pretty fantastic (I love endings B and D the most, and path E has a pretty unnerving atmosphere), and I actually like the OST's repetition as it makes for an uncomfortable atmosphere. If the gameplay was better, this would be an all-timer. The story is definitely going to stay on my mind for a while.

I've had an itching to get back into this game since the sequel looks really cool, so it made sense to get back into it.

I can't believe I forgot how good this game is. One of the most creative combat systems ever made, a much better story than you'd expect, and it's absolutely addictive, the item/food grinding doesn't feel tedious. There's also an absurd amount of stuff to do after finishing it, and I know I'll be playing this for a while. I think this is a top 10 favorite game now, definitely my favorite game on a handheld system for sure.

Can't wait to play NEO!

Just got the platinum trophy! While I don't think it's quite on the level of its predecessor, it's a worthy sequel with a lot to offer in its own right. I'll try to be vague as to avoid spoilers.

I'd say the story and gameplay are pretty much on par with the previous game. The game actually feels like there is much more at stake and it feels relatively larger in scale. Obviously since we're playing with one screen here, pins are assigned to the face and shoulder buttons which does take a bit getting used to, but after getting adjusted the combat is very fluid with an impressive amount of depth. Admittedly you will need to go through the motions early on, but the combat REALLY opens up when you get more teammates.

Characters are pretty close in quality to the first game, but I think the cast slightly edges out (I prefer the villains there to the ones here). Honestly don't have too much to criticize other than my preference for the first game.

Basically, I adore this game and maybe it'll grow even more on me. I'm currently feeling a strong 9/10 on this one, but it could be a 10 some day. I'll definitely be playing this one for a while.

Just got the platinum trophy so some (potentially rambly) thoughts.

Yes, the story is pretty good. The performances are superb, everybody by now knows Chris Judge plays the role of Kratos phenomenally, but Richard Schiff as Odin unexpectedly became one of my favorite gaming villains in a long while. It has some of the best graphics on any game out there (even with the less-than-optimal PS4 performance it's still wonderful to look at).

The gameplay is obvious why we're here, and it's mostly great but I have a sort of complicated feeling toward these current GOWs. I've been a fan of the series since around the time GOW2 came out, and I fully understood why the combat needed to evolve. My biggest gripe is the leveling system, you'll often find yourself with gear underleveled by one and getting curbstomped by enemies, then spend a few hours getting better gear and curbstomp them back, which I know is a carry over from the previous title but I'm still not a fan of it, I felt really underpowered a lot of the time.

New to this game is the ability to play as Atreus. Most of his sections are shorter and story contextual, and while his second section was good from a story perspective I know it'll be a buzzkill when I tackle new game plus (I did really like his final section though, it was a nice set piece that acted as a capstone to his gameplay).

GOW2018's biggest letdown for me was the lack of bosses, the few it had were mostly great but I wanted more. Thankfully there are a bunch more here, plenty of them throwing back to the PS2 games' epic scale monsters. Like GOW2018, there are a bunch of optional side bosses that lead to their leader (unlike 2018, this isn't the true superboss), who is the type of super aggressive boss that I love in action games and might be my favorite encounter in the game (the actual superboss is also much easier than 2018's, still took a little while to down her).

I am aware my thoughts aren't very structured, but this is pretty much how I feel as a whole. I do love this game and consider it to be at least on par with GOW2018, but I'm going to do a NG+ playthrough before I cement my final thoughts.

Feeling a decent 9/10 on this one.

Just finished NG+ and honestly the game is starting to grow off me. Atreus' life and rage meters are story locked, so being forced to fight his early missions with lower life and rage againast beefed up enemies really puts a damper on the experience.

I mostly loved the finale my first run, but it ended up really annoying me this time around (mostly because it reveals some of my fundamental disagreements with the current iteration of the series). Still a pretty great game in many ways, but I'm probably not going to revisit this for a while.

I think playing this on PS4 really tarnished my experience, there are a surprising amount of bugs in my playthrough (after the Kashyyyk boss, the screen went black for at least 5 full minutes), the load times were pretty awful (I usually try to play games at least on normal mode, I switched to story mode because I wanted to see the load times as little as possible), the frame rate dipped whenever the action was getting chaotic, and it sometimes loaded mid-level which ranged from not-to-bad to pace-killing.

The gameplay is a mixed bag that uses ideas from tons of established titles but the results kind of annoyed me at points. Exploration because much more fun after getting story upgrades, but the combat felt way too clunky, stiff, and delayed to feel Souls-like as its influences imply (again this might be better on current gen consoles but it was my experience).

That being said, the saber duels are the highlight of the combat and are genuinely lots of fun. The story appears to be the most loved part of this game, and I personally thought it was decent enough to keep me engaged, and I did end up growing to really like this cast of characters (coughalso Trilla is best and hottest Star Wars charactercough).

Going for 100% completion was more enjoyable than I expected, Zeffo was my least favorite planet during my story run but it ended up being my favorite to clean up (Dathomir was pretty bad both rounds, took me way longer than I hoped for).

Long story short, I'm extremely conflicted with my thoughts on this game but I'd say my experience was more positive than negative. I don't have a PS5 yet so I won't play Jedi Survivor for a little while (might also be a good idea to wait until its bugs get patched out, I've read about a few), but from what I've read and seen it fixes quite a few of my issues here.

Giving this one a 6/10, ended up being an enjoyable Platinum Trophy.

We have another case of I-should-have-played-on-PS5, but this time I doubt it'd make the game THAT much better.

Like everyone else who played this game, I'm a huge fan of Dead Space and its sequel (never got around to 3). I was excited for this game for obvious reasons (and the fact I'm a massive Karen Fukuhara simp made me optimistic in spite of the mixed reception), and it appears waiting a few months after release was a good idea since it patched a lot of what people disliked (i.e., skippable cutscenes, faster healing).

First, some positives: the atmosphere did remind me of Dead Space in flashes, the combination of melee + firearms felt visceral and satisfying, and even the PS4 version has pretty good graphics.

However, the game really screws itself in the last few chapters, and these flaws amplify if you're aiming to beat hard mode for the Platinum. There is an enemy introduced that is blind, and instead of interesting placements it litters the entirety of that chapter (plus as long as you're crouched and don't physically touch them, they won't acknowledge you). This sets the tone for the rest of the game, it throws mob after mob of enemy at you, wearing down your life and ammo, in a game where the combat shines most in 1-on-1 (maybe 2) encounters.

This even affects the handful of boss fights near the end of the game. You fight the Two-Head in the tunnel and end up fighting THREE more, one later on in the same chapter. This encounter is made worse by having random adds to divert your attention and doge, leaving you vulnerable to an instakill if you're on hard mode. It ends up making the final act of the game very repetitive, and even when I was enjoying the game I was practically begging for it to end. And this is without going into the woeful final boss.

Needless to say, it did not recapture the magic of Dead Space. A big shame too, since there is a lot of potential here and could have been pretty cool. I will not revisit this game anytime soon (unless the tiny offchance the DLC is leagues above the main game), and getting the Platinum Trophy did not feel satisfying, but a relief that this slog is finally over.

5/10

Sometimes revisiting old favorites is a good way to deal with gaming burnout, even if it loses a bit of the magic.

I beat AC2 originally back in 2012, while I enjoyed the first game to an extent, the sequel became one of my favorite games and I was so invested in the story I did not want it to end. Obviously much time has went by since then, and the gameplay feels really dated to play in 2023.

The platforming feels clunky at times, and there are moments where the game demands precise and timely platforming that the mechanics do not have the flexibility for. I've have quite a few moments where I held the control stick in the direction I wanted Ezio to go and it did not respond until I went over it a few times. The timed missions are OBSCENELY tight, hell even the opening race needed a handful of attempts (not exactly a good first impression), and some of the stealth missions where detection meant failure demanded you deal with the AI in specific ways or face repeat attempts. The combat, while better than the first game, is still stiff and repetitive (I recall Brotherhood fixing my problems here, let's see how that replay goes).

However, when the platforming and stealth gameplay work, they REALLY work and it reminded me of my 2012 where I went through these games. The Florence assassin tomb, the final mission before my Platinum trophy, was easily a highlight and one of my favorite sequences in the game. The gameplay shines when it gives you freedom to parkour areas with interesting design.

Thankfully, the story and characters held up well, albeit more convoluted than I remembered. Ezio is still an extremely charismatic and entertaining character, perfect for a lead, even if the rest of the characters could go either way (although the scene when you get the reward for collecting all the feathers was WAY more emotional than I expected).

While the game certainly shows its age in a lot of areas, it was nice to revisit this game, and I hope to go through the rest of the series eventually (going to take my time going through the rest of them, since burnout was a factor in my losing interest). Getting the Plat really felt like getting closure after not properly finishing it after all this time.

Going with a strong 7/10.

After finishing Ragnarok on NG+ I was itching to revisit 2018 for the third time, and this might be a hot take but I think I prefer this game to Ragnarok, at least in many ways. The pacing works a lot more here for me, and there a few combat quirks that didn't make to Ragnarok that I wish did (delayed BoC combos are really cool). While Ragnarok has a stronger boss roster, I like the story here a lot more (it's been a while since I last played, I forgot how much colder Kratos was here to everything). While GoW2 will always be my favorite in the series (side note, I'm itching to revisit the classic GoW titles for obvious reasons), this is a closer second than I'd realize (need to replay original and 3 before I make a definite claim). Whereas I think I'll give Ragnarok more time before I give it another playthrough, I could see myself returning to this in the near future (I just maxed out the Zeus armor and might do a GMGOW+ run).

9/10

I've actually beaten the Japanese release of this one a while back thanks to a translation stream (shoutout to Salty Yen on YouTube), and I've had the US release sitting around for a while and decided to finally go for the Platinum Trophy and it was fun for the most part.

Combat-wise, it's definitely the clunkiest in the Dragon Engine and was definitely a pain going back after playing Kiwami 2 and both Judgments. The combat is decent but certain encounters can really mess with the flow if you get an unlucky combination of enemies and attacks. Several of the boss fights are easily series highlights.

Story-wise it felt like a good swan song to the Kiryu era (this aged hilariously though lmao), even though it took some odd risks with how it primarily focused on new characters where most of Kiryu's buddies were offscreen following 5's events (thankfully this cast is full of compelling characters so it wasn't a waste).

Since you don't need to 100% the checklist to get the Platinum I decided to go for it, the side content is pretty beefy. There are the baseball, spearfishing (an awesome arcade FPS that is super addicting), the usual hostesses, the clan creator's debut (I prefer it here to Kiwami 2), the bar friendships, and of course the cat cafe. Some of these minigames are lots of fun, others felt tedious. The substories were pretty painless for the most part, a few that I expected to struggle with were not so bad (the batting center and darts were surprisingly fun when I knew how to play them). If you just want to fight Amon, you just need to finish out two roaming miniboss stories (I really dislike this game's Amon fight though).

The game is pretty great, the story might be a little standalone in the context of the series but I enjoyed it immensely, and you get to beat up one of the greatest living film directors.

PS, the Japanese version's main theme is light years beyond the US' version (localization and rights issues really suck sometimes).