I can definitely recognize that the game's plot is biting off more than it can chew given there's a lot of nuance they refuse to get into in regards to the pokemon dog fighting allegory. I'd still say in a perfect world this would've represented the direction the series went into from here. I really love how the pokemon challenge plot and the team plasma plot are heavily intertwined to the point it interrupts the final challenge and becomes the final fight. I especially love how after several games of bad guys having huge earth shattering goals, the twist is they're actually closer to Team Rocket, a group of gangsters.
Anyways good game, greatmusic, fun characters, and Emboar is awesome, y'all are just mean.

I can totally understand this being something that doesn't bother a lot of people but the way the resolution works in this port drives me up the wall.
The way it handles turning this from a 4:3 to 16:9 and beyond resolution isn't to actually let you see more of what's going on in the horizontal space. It instead takes the lazy tv show remaster approach and zooms the screen in giving you less information then you'd normally be able to see. You can technically change the resolution to a 4:3 one but it's really only technically 4:3. It's technically a little wider than traditional 4:3, making the pixel art look a bit wider than it should. You also can't even seem to go beyond 1080p in borderless fullscreen so I really just get the impression something is just base level wrong with how this port handles resolution. All of this is ignoring the now optional "hd" Vaseline smeared blur filter, mind you.
I know a lot of people straight up won't notice or care nearly as much about the resolution but it really just makes this unplayable to me. It's a really pretty game, and I hate to see it's looks depreciated.

I was a little lukewarm on the combat gameplay at first due to a number of differences compared to P3 and P5 but I ended up coming around to a lot of it pretty quickly. For example, I originally didn't like how under powered the all out attacks were but as I progressed, I really appreciated how it wasn't always the best answer in ever situation. I can't speak for the other difficulty options, but on hard mode I found the game balance really tight. Most of the challenge felt like it built up at the right points and never really gets to the point of being frustrating. I do wish dungeons had a bit more going on with them design wise. The few that actually have problem solving gimmicks barely get off the ground before they're done.
As for the storytelling, I think it's really strong. Everything feels like it's building upon itself the whole way through and by the end it feels like no stone has been unturned. I probably don't like it as much as P3's plot but hey, maybe that's just the edgy SMT fan in me wanting things to be more spooky and sad. I also wanna appreciate the alternate endings but most of them are just less good and complete versions of the obviously best ending. They're also really easy to mess up. Like, one involves literally the 1st time I can recall in the Hashino trilogy where the dialogue choices outside of social links actually doing something to the plot. If you don't know what you're doing you can get a bad ending. On paper, it's fine, you can try again... except now you gotta watch all the cutscenes you just watched again. I already REALLY don't like how Atlus thinks a fast forward that barely makes it go any faster is just as good as a skip cutscene. It unfortunately makes me think I'd be having a better experience if I just played the game on emulator where I'd at least have a way better speed up button. There's also a point after that where there's 2 choices that sound like they're basically identical choices but one progresses the game further into the best ending and the other ends the game at a point that if I hadn't had the internet to learn it wasn't the end, probably would've left a really bad impression on the Golden content.

They had a year and couldn't fix the pop in. I also see people mentioning the dlc is tougher than the main game but I really think that's more a combo of bad level design and the new characters really not feeling any good to play. I'd keep playing but this game already took 30+ hours from me when I 100% the main game at the beginning of the year. I honestly don't think I would've even went that far with the main game without the mods making the gameplay feel better and I don't think I'll be waiting around for to get expanded into this content. I'm not exactly filled with hope but maybe Frontiers 2 will fill at least a bit less like an alpha build.
Oh, and I don't feel like I should have to say this but power to anyone who enjoyed this game and it's completely possible to dislike it without being influenced by a youtube review guy.

I think the stories pretty neat. Unfortunately, the gameplay gets pretty stale towards the back half. If it were a survival horror game I think it'd make up for the limited toolset you get throughout the game but unfortunately not only do you not keep gear between chapters but I could basically always count on being drowned in bullets and batteries by about midway through the chapter. I also just really don't like how every time an enemy appears it's gotta yank the camera away from you and do the scary violin.

I thought for sure this was going to be one of those times where my memory of it being really hard wasn't going to hold up but man, was I wrong. It's nothing to do with the game's mechanics being hard to grasp or game feel. The rubberbanding ai is just not afraid to push you in the dirt and make you cry. I kept telling myself I hated it when this happened but then I just kept playing until I got it right.
I do however kind of question the way the story campaign is paced. You basically play the hero campaign for 6 stages, then the babylon for the 6 stages' variant. The last 2 stages of each have a sharp increase in difficulty. I'm not against it on paper but I think if you just alternated the campaign perspective and literally just treated as act 1/act 2 thing, it would've eased players into it better. It was pretty funny after all that struggle, the final boss was a complete push over.
I'm gonna be honest, I think the best way to enjoy this game is just grab a 100% save file so you have all the unlocks and then play in free play. That way while you're learning the stages and mechanics you can go "Oh cool, I got 3rd. I bet I'll do better next time" instead of regretting your slightest imperfections as the game stops dead in it's tracks as a big fat "Failure" notification comes on screen as the turbulence sound washes over you.

Between loving this and Cyber Shadow, I really feel like I'm overdue to actually play NES Ninja Gaiden. As for the game itself, the Messanger more or less starts as a traditional stage based platformer then about a 3rd of the way through it turns into a metriodvania. Admittedly, I'm more of a stage based platformer fan since I generally dislike having to figure out where I need to go in games. I think the switching between 8 bit and 16 bit aesthetics makes the experience a little more engaging though. Plus, it's during this portion of the game, you really get a chance to really get a feel for how much expression and quickness the game mechanics allow.
I will say, across my many playthroughs, I've never fully come to appreciate it's story all that much. At the start, it's just a bit too tongue in check to get all that invested. The plot picks up in the 2nd half but it never really gets out of the silly billy lol video games are weird attitude to really feel the build up of the parts that I feel work. This isn't to say I think none of the humor works but I kinda wish it took itself seriously more often then it did. I also wish it spread it's actual lore out more instead of dumping most of it at the very end. Anyways, if you're like me and find yourself caring more about gameplay than plot, this won't be the biggest issue. I'm just not going to act like, this isn't something holding it back a bit.

I didn't really follow the hype cycle for Cyberpunk when it was coming out. I did watch the funny glitch compilations though. Now that it's been 3 years since launch I can definitely say that I've seen just about every glitch in my playthrough albeit at (I assume) a less frequent rate. It didn't exactly ruin the experience for me though since pretty much everything else about the game was great.
I will say based on what I've heard, the way stats worked at launch sounds absolutely rancid with it all being tied to gear. It's been changed to be tied to level up choices. I cannot imagine enjoying it nearly as much in the original state. It's not quite the depth of customization compared to some other open world RPGs like say Vampire the Masquerade but as is it's enough to feel like the build I created was my build and not something generic.
The gameplay is pretty fun overall. The gunplay feels nice and most of the skills felt useful. I do find the way healing items work to be a bit questionable since it feels borderline impossible to run out. Most of the challenge (on hard mode at least) was just making sure you back off and heal when you're getting overwhelmed. I kinda see where some people are coming from on the cars feeling "bad" to drive. For me it's in this weird inbetween where it feels very sim racer but without a lot of depth like gear switching. I'd still take this over it being super smooth and arcade-y since it makes driving around town way more interesting to me compared to say GTA.
As for the role playing elements, I think this is something where it feels a little lacking. I feel like this is one of the draw backs to having a voiced protag since there's going to inherently be more railroading on choices. In most scenarios your choices are going to be whether or not you want to ask more questions to expand world building or just things to make you consider the theming of the game. The choices that matter are very specific major questlines and your ending choices. Besides that, you're essentially just playing the Project Red's Cyberpunk character, V, instead of your fun OC.
Anyways, liking Cyberpunk as much as I did was a nice surprise. I can honestly see myself returning to it when the DLC/Expansion drops in a couple of months.

Oh, and thank you CDPR for making (almost) all the walking and talking cinematics skippable. Every studio now has no excuse not to do this if they want their games to actually be fun to replay.