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Makes Tekken 7 look hideous. It's just classic Tekken to be honest. Online is better now but not ideal.

Not sure if I like the heat system, it just makes your health bar feel so small. and a lot of heat moves just turn you into Goku and force 50/50s randomly. Probably will make the game more interesting at a high level so players don't just run and play timeout.

After playing about close to 100 hours. I think the heat mechanic can only exist because the recoverable health mechanic exists, which is a mechanic that I'm a huge fan of. Yes, you can get steamrolled harder if you can't recover but the comebacks always feel possible and satisfying.

My only problem with heat now is that some characters abuse it so much harder than others. Lars, Ling, Devil Jin are huge offenders that come to mind. Some characters are just like "I do chip now", which isn't comparable to just flying across the screen and getting frame advantage for free.

This review contains spoilers

Will update score and entire review when I'm finished with the entire expansion (it will probably trend towards a more positive impression). Currently just did the Vauthry/Innocence trial.

Here are my impressions ~30 hours in:
The post Stormblood patches straight up kept me from quitting this game and the beginning of Shadowbringers was the most invested I've been with this story. Emet-Selch's introduction was perfect. The Chrystarium felt like the best hub instantly and I really liked the setup of your companions predicament.

However, things started to sour a bit when I came to the realization, after fighting the first lightwarden, that I would repeat the task of: going to a zone, gain the trust of the inhabitants of the ~2 settlements (by doing pedestrian filler quests) so they can help me reach the lightwarden and then fight the lightwarden... 4 more times. The stories told about the minor NPCs in each zone were almost all uninteresting so it just felt like inane filler. The only thing keeping me interested were the tiny scraps of the actual story they would feed to me after each lightwarden fight.

It just frustrates me that I have to play a boring 3 hours so that they can show me the ACTUAL well executed part of the story. Like Emet-Selch is already extremely interesting but over 30 hours played and I've heard this guy talk for about 30 minutes in total. The only times I stop the auto-advance were to actually hang on the words Emet says. I can feel so much potential and I know he will only get better. On the other hand, The Crystal Exarch hardly becomes a character with any personality until right before the Vauthry fight. This will probably change as I progress further but I just don't really see any point in his secrecy act other than to delight the player with a surprise, but it was obvious who he was like 30 minutes before the expansion even started... I really like most of the characters but I just can’t get myself to care that deeply about Ryne, Ardbert, Exarch, Alphinaud. Which is weird because I gel’d with Graha in crystal tower (writing this right after his reveal, I will probably end up warming up to him), and Alphinaud during Heavensward. Honestly, Alisiae has much wider tonal range then Alphinaud, who only really ends up being good boy or mad that someone else isn't being good boy, in stormblood and beyond.

One last thing, some of the music is the best in the entire game (which is a pretty high bar) BUT then some of the music gets so repetitive that its grating. E.g. Kholusia part 2, ardbert music, that one choral part of shadowbringers in all its different variations.

I really hope the end part of 5.0 and post patches really changes things because so far I'm just a little disappointed. I just can't love the aspect of doing inane shit for 4 hours then being extremely engaged with the game for 20 minutes when the actual good shit happens. It's alike to FF16 in the aspect of feeling like I'm waiting in a long line for a rollercoaster ride.

6.5/10

Update (writing this after completing the post-patches):
I was right, it did get a lot better. From the beginning of Amaurot to 5.3, other than 5.1, was awesome. A lot of it had to do with the ascians finally becoming your focus and not the lightwardens.

(Negatives, rants, thoughts. Skip to positives next paragraph)
I still strongly dislike the lightwardens story arcs other than Vauthry, who I thought was okay but not worth everything else that came with him (Ranjiit was boring). They all felt like same-flavored primals from ARR. Although everything clicked back for me during the end of 5.0-5.3, I'm starting to come to the conclusion this game isn't for me. I'm hitting the breaking point when it comes to the vertiginous pacing, and the nature of it being an MMO. The pacing, which I had already ragged on in the 1st part of this review, has almost felt like a cheap way of making you love the huge moments more. The MMO-ness of the game has also gotten on my nerves. The 20 minute queues for the trials, the limited technical/visual presentation in most cutscenes, the way you get a random 8 man party to fight some trials even though, canonically, the WoL is fighting by himself (other than the two best trial fights with the lightbeams). You know that one scene at the end of 5.3 where all the characters were just chilling a couple days after they came back from the first? That shit made me sad because 1. Your group is finally just chilling 2. G'raha 3. The animations, expressions, personality of the characters were crazy enhanced. You only get a handful of moments, per expansion, like that. I understand it's impossible to do that but it made me sad regardless.

On to the positives: Crystal Exarch finally became a real character after his reveal and, for me, probably the most standout next to Emet. Both were easily the most endearing in all expansions. I could probably write 1000 words on each without thinking. I do wish Crystal Exarch was more like G'raha before it was revealed but whatever. All the scions either became a real character (Urianger wasn't one other than that one patch in heavensward), or were just more, but better. And the music got better. Neath Dark Waters, Eldibus fight music, La Hee, Ahm Araeng, and that one sad ass song that plays when Exarch is being nostalgic. All those definitely getting added to a playlist.

I know it looks like I have more negative to say than positive but I promise it's only because I find it easier to write my criticisms than my praises.

8/10