Despite all that was happening with Bungie and the community during this time, Season of the Witch is one of the better experiences Destiny has delivered in quite a while. For starters, this seasons story is the best one we have gotten in a while. Eris continues to be the best written character in the series, and the overarching narrative with the power struggle of her usurping Xivu Arath was compelling and well executed.

Gameplay this season was not lacking either, with two great seasonal activities in Savathuns Spire and Altars of Summoning. These built upon Deep Dives introduction of Rougelite ideas in a very fun way, with the latter including elements from the vaunted (for some reason) Court of Oryx of Destiny 1...but this time it was actually good! Seasonal activities aside, we also had the enigmatic Imbaru Engine which delivered some of the best puzzles this franchise has seen to date, especially the last one which is quite a mind-bender that's extremely satisfying to solve.

Season of the Witch also saw the reprisal of Crota's End, which was absolutely phenomenal. Many doubted the ability for CE to translate to modern day, but Bungie went above and beyond in making sure this raid would be difficult enough for modern standards while also keeping its identity. Easily the best reprisal and honestly a top 3 raid for me overall.

All and all Season of the Witch is one of the best seasonal experiences this game has ever put out, but in the end it's just that; a seasonal experience. Fatigue is at an all time high, and getting more of the same is only exemplifying it.

Probably some of the worst loot ever from a season...none of the weapons are at all desirable. The overarching seasonal story was very boring. "Collect coral and listen to sea monster," is not a compelling narrative experience, even if it had some really cool and good lore revelations (revelations that shouldve been in lightfall!!)

Ghosts of the Deep is an alright dungeon, fun gameplay with TERRIBLE pacing issues. Salvage is the worst "menagerie like" seasonal activity period, but Deep Dives were actually a really cool and interesting experiment on what an activity could be. Plus, the secret Whetstone mission and boss fight was extremely cool and refreshing to see, albeit the exotic reward itself is meh.

Overall this season did nothing to help the damage lightfall did, only made the game feel it was really in a freefall

Coming into to Lightfall, Bungie had all the momentum in the world. The general quality of content and story they were delivering was above and beyond nearly anything we'd seen from them in the past. Witch Queen and Year 5 definitely had their flaws gameplay and balancing wise, but Lightfall was looking to bring massive improvements to the games systems while still keeping the narrative going at full speed. This was the beginning of the climax for an 8 year old franchise, and the entire gaming world had their eyes on Bungie.
With the spotlight on them, they fell flat. Lightfall delivered us an extremely disappointing campaign that left me more confused than anything. Strange narrative pacing, little to no explanation for major plot details, backseating of main characters, extreme focus on Strand, all for it to amass in an ending that made the entire campaign feel like a filler arc.

Calus was one of my favorite characters heading into this expansion, and I was excited to see him take the role as a major antagonist. He stole the show every time he got screentime. That being said, I truly wish he got more here. The irony of the selfish Cabal Emperor who spent his life treating his own family and subordinates with no care becoming nothing but a pawn in The Witness's scheme is not lost on me, but that doesn't mean they didn't have room to do more with him.

Neomuna as a setting is...fine. I love the look and aesthetics of the location a lot, and do believe it can become an interesting place narrative wise over time. However, the game itself did not do a great job at fleshing it out as a breathing, wartorn city. the most we get is the occasional "Neomuna Civil News™" and the occasional citizen with the most annoying dialogue you've ever heard in the patrol zone. speaking of annoying...

Nimbus. They're...ok. Their lighthearted and high energy attitude isnt the worst idea in concept, but they did not match the tone when they needed to. I like their development in the LMG quest however, and I am generally ok with their addition to the Destiny roster.

Let's talk some gameplay. Firstly, I want to give Bungie praise with Strand. Strand is such a great addition to the games sandbox, feeling extremely powerful and fun while not being too overpowered. No complaints there. The campaign gameplay wise was pretty good. it had a lot of fun and memorable encounters, the last stand with Caiatl being the highlight personally. Tormentors are a fun addition to the enemy sandbox as well. The loot is good, I could not give less of a shit if they're reskins or whatever. Neomuna patrol is weirdly challenging, and not to an annoying extent. I enjoy it as a patrol space, but it's strange for it be a level capped activity of all things. That can be applied to a lot of the system changes that came with Lightfall.

No complaints with the loadouts. I do not like the new mod system however, its overtly simplified to the point where it killed a lot of builds (RIP elemental shards). Commendations and Guardian Ranks are kinda lame, I don't think they're too far from being in a decent place though. People were way too worried about the difficulty changes making the game too hard, it is still braindead easy. On that note...

Root of Nightmares. I am a pretty avid raider, done every raid numerous times, have some titles, and I generally think Raids are the best of what Destiny has to offer. I think this might be my least favorite raid in the Destiny 2. It's kind of the opposite of my complaints with the campaign. Lore and concept? Great! super cool stuff. Gameplay? Actual snoozefest. I think the fact a raid released in 2023 is solo flawessable is truly all that needs to be said about its difficulty. Extremely disappointing

All and all, this was another case of 1 step forward, 4 steps back with Bungie. Lightfall had it's ups, for sure, but the host of the aforementioned issues are too major for me to ignore. I didn't even mention Crucible or Gambit or the extreme technical issues that the game is currently facing, but hey neither has Bungie! If this is the direction the game is heading in, then I genuinely can't see me playing this game past Final Shape.

The quintessential hag-like experience. In a market so flooded with games describing themselves as "hag-likes" or "hag-lites" and failing to deliver, the developers at Switchpilot remind us of a time when genre didn't matter, and it was just about the game. Hags Castle is a true to form hag-like and is second to none in every category; other developers should take notes on game design and world building with this masterpiece. It is so rare that a game is able to completely immerse the player into its universe, and this game delivers on every front. The combat is phenomenal, the player systems they have in place are way ahead of the competition, the level design is absolutely enthralling, and of course, the enemies are aplenty, and I must say they are by far my favorite enemies in any game I have ever played. The puzzles are fun and engaging, and it is such a joy to be able to explore Hags Castle and find something new down every hallway and behind every door.

If I had to make one complaint (and it's really more of a request in a future update), is that there is no reticle on screen. I would love to see one implemented into the game. Even if it is a dynamic reticle that only appears when looking at enemies or an option that you could toggle in the settings menu, I think it would bring even more enjoyment to fans who are looking to enjoy a pure, unadulterated hag-like game.

9.5/10. Masterful

Though technically a spin off, I think this game sets up the frameworks for (what should be) the future pokemon formula. However, this is not to say it is perfect by any stretch of the imagination.
The story and characters are...serviceable. It's a pretty typical pokemon game story albeit with an ever slightly darker vibe. The only real standout character to me was Volo. I dont ever expect much from pokemon stories, and this, while better than the narratives of recent, did not do anything to awe me. All and all, it was fine.

Now, the gameplay. As mentioned previously; it is undoubtedly groundbreaking in its changes to the typical pokemon formula. Throwing pokeballs feels clean and smooth, the movement is a lot better than what I expected, and just being able to see a pokemon and battle them right on the spot..fills me with a certain happiness I cant quite describe. The battle system is simplified compared to that of the main line games, but still offers a surprising amount of depth with the Agile and Strong styles. The new Hisuian forms and evolutions are okay, my favorites being Basculegion, Zorua, and Kleavor.

All that being said, I have my complaints. First, I have to mention the graphics. I know I know, "graphics aren't the main focus!!!" I agree, graphics should not be the main focus of a pokemon game, but the game looks really, REALLY bad in some areas. It takes me out of the experience a lot of the times because of how laughably bad some of the environments are. This isn't just because of the Switch's hardware either, there's a lot of games on the Switch that put this game to shame in terms of looks(BOTW and Dragon Quest 11 come to mind). My main complaint however, is how repetitive the game play loop gets. Filling out the pokedex in this game is one of the most tedious things I've done in any game let alone a pokemon game. I'm fine with having to do multiple things to fill out the pokedex, but the amount you have to do for just 1 entry makes me want to slam my head into a cement wall. Even just doing the bare minimum to progress the story became such a slog towards the end of the game. This honestly might just be a me thing but it actually takes away from the game a lot in my opinion. Theres really not much else to do besides the pokedex either, sidequests are glorfied pokedex entry tasks and collecting all 100 some-odd wisps for Spiritomb also put me to sleep. The battle system was a welcome change of pace, but I still prefer the old battle system. it definitely was not the focus of the game, but as I mentioned I'm not a big fain of the main focus of this game either.

Overall, I think this game is a fine experience. I can definitely understand why it has gotten so much praise from the community, but I really hope GameFreak improves upon this formula instead of recycling it another 8 times for every region. I really hope they take the best parts of this game and implement them into future titles instead of abandoning ideas. (which they kind of have a track record of doing in case you didnt notice.)
7/10