It's incredibly hard to shake the sense of diminishing returns with this one.

I liken it to Powaqqatsi, another collection of stunning images upon stunning images that feels like it borrows too many tricks from its immediate predecessor while missing the core of what made that work such a magical and essential addition to the artistic canon.

To continue this metaphor, I'm going to steal some insights from Tim Brayton's review of the aforementioned film Powaqqatsi. Journey is structured in such an aggressively narrative way, that its abstractions read as some kind of a modern fable, a vague moral quest that never fully coheres but rings as valuable deep in your core. Abzu, in its determination for solid messaging, perhaps even presenting a specific argument on the natural world, finds its spell broken quite often.

Unfortunately, for an experiential piece like this to be truly glorious, that spell cannot waver for even a second. Nevertheless, you will likely find your jaw on the floor at least a handful of times at the beauty of this game, and that's never nothing.