This era of gaming was sort of a bloodbath for Japanese games that tried to chase western trends only to end up being generic, often baffling messes that ended up alienating their audiences, most of whom were never interested in the games they were chasing after in the first place.

Vanquish was absolutely not one of those cases. It's a perfect example of taking a genre that was feeling horribly over-saturated and done to death (namely, cover based third person shooters) and putting an inventive and wildly fun spin on it, turning it into an absolutely manic and entertaining joy that's basically just a "character action" game (as horribly vague as that genre term is) disguised as a shooter.

I love the aesthetic as well. Like the game itself, it feels like a smart, well-realized mashup of the gritty, realistic art direction that games of this era loved, but meshing it with a certain sci-fi look and styling that almost feels like its descended from the Dreamcast in some ways. The soundtrack, though not really anything I'm hankering to listen to outside of the game, fits this vibe quite well too.

There's a few slow, boring bits in the already brief campaign, the story is pretty boring (though it has its moments) and if I'm telling the truth, in retrospect the lack of any multiplayer does genuinely feel like a bit of a missed opportunity. But overall, this is a genuine classic from Platinum, and definitely one of their finest hours.

Shame the initial release sold like shit, though. In another timeline Sega and Platinum could've had a genuine franchise on their hands.