I ended up with some love for this in the end, I kinda just wanted to blast through this game but I was punished by the game hardcore and just straight up had to reset my save, I had a great time but there's many.. many things that hold it back for me personally, I'll start with my positives. I absolutely love the settings, character, and enemy designs. Instantly recognizable and lovingly designed. I love how expertly detailed everything looks. Looting weapons and assembling new ones was pretty satisfying although a little overwhelming. The music perfectly sets the mood for many scenes and the ending is phenomenal. The things that hold this game back for me is it's gameplay. This is a 20 or so hour game (at least when I beat it) that feels like 40. Everything is so slow, as slow as molasses in some cases. The combat is also fun but in the midst of combat are super slow moments. For example, if you're tackling more than one enemy and each enemy's affinity demands different weapons, you have to quickly take out one with your current weapon, go through several menu screens to equip another weapon, and then you can do damage. It's definitely not on-the-fly at all and I wish there was a way to just quickly switch weapons. Most bosses were a joke given the right preparations and shredding through them was super satisfying once you find out what they are weak to. But I do have to talk about the final one, genuinely the most asinine, archaic experience I've had in this game. I almost hated it, only plus I give it is that it doesn't overstay it's welcome. I enjoyed backtracking to past areas with keys to previously locked doors to retrieve strong weapons, I felt badass, and when taking down multiple enemies with multiple weapon weaknesses, I felt super triumphant, and the story held my interest. Overall, a great experience that takes way, way too long to learn. once you get the hang of it though the game doesn't stop momentum at all even with all the complaints I had with the slow animations and menus.