the idea behind it is amazing and i really like the pointillism style! the first few times i tried to play it it gave me really bad motion sickness though, i think my brain somehow adjusted now but it took me like 3 tries to finally play this game lmao

i think the way the story unfolds is fun on top of the interesting concept, but it really could use some QoL... bookmarks are just not enough. being able to fast travel or sprint to corpse locations would be a big one. correctly identified fates being already identified as attackers etc would also make things faster bc i don't really see a point to constantly going back to memories to identify X but maybe i'm just too spoiled...

in any case i definitely started rushing it closer to the end the whole place made me feel kinda claustrophobic and i also really hate retreading things lmao sorry to the multilayered puzzles... but it's v v good

good:
- all of the new combat additions are awesome. placement and movement in fights mattering, combo attacks, back attacks, proximity meters etc. love that
- the way kiryu's combat was implemented in turn-based is honestly perfect... both his styles and elements of real time action. chefs kiss
- sooo much content... between main story, substories, dondoko island, walk&talk, party talk, table talk, new additions like tram talks i feel kinda overwhelmed with the amount of stuff there's to do
- hawaii is a fun and huge map and i love that we can swim there now
- remembrance mechanic and the way kiryu's bonds work are soooo emotionally charged wah
- some of the story battles and small mechanics like support characters are v fun
- substories are good as always and i feel like there was even more care put into the animations and cutscenes

the bad:
- laser level. why
- ngl the story is so middling... so little happens for such a long time
- i also feel like the way some organizations are introduced and the way they actually behave is at odds with itself. incompetent mfs everywhere /s
- my favorite character only joins in chapter 10. unforgiveable /s
- dungeons are still drab and boring and repetitive. did we not have enough of the boring sewer / abandoned building look last time... i don't even mind the corridors just can we add some color and justify it by ichiban vision??
- tying into the previous issue there's no true moneymaker minigame similar to business one in y7 and you have to go to the dungeons for mats and moolah. and the dungeons suck so!
- back attack hitbox can be flimsy if its not directly behind
- fishing minigame really sucks in that you need to ask the guy for his rod, pay $1, rinse repeat with redoing that dialogue everytime
- i also had weird performance issues with FPS dips even though normally the game runs flawlessly. it did get better after the new patch so maybe they fixed smth idk

edit upon completion: it had no chance to live up to y7 and its interwoven familial vs political conflict and i'm not sure if what they did here are good paralells or like. floundering attempts to recapture that magic... i guess i'm glad ichiban got to do a do-over successfully this time and he is the best boy of all time forever but. idk. not feeling it. on kiryu's side i feel like the sense of new bonds forming and new friends just didn't quite land... i felt weird seeing oomfs see that helicopter off but eh

i also feel very disappointed with the direction they took with saeko. it's not that ichi/sae is bad per se but they didn't even bother developing their romance. in fact they spend the entire game not talking to each other after ichiban's initial flub. and in the end they turn it into a joke about how over the top ichi is and saeko not liking it again bc funnie and just... i don't know man. we could have believable romance between two friends but ofc we have to devolve it into jokes. it's really sad to me considering saeko was the only (not counting the non-canon celebrity cameo) female companion for ichiban and her story was explicitly abt finding friends w the ichi gang and now she's just love interest #3498 again. i guess they added more women to the gang to balance it out now but. meh. very meh.

anyway at least it's not as bad as the worst entries in the series and there's no weird shit like mirror face so it's a 6/10 story and 11/10 gameplay yippie

edit2: ok why did they keep the shitty rape jokes for "romance" substories it wasnt funny the first 10 times and its not funny still. give it the fuck up

as expected of supergiant, the visual presentation and audio are fantastic, and ofc the story is fun. the map of the world is so gorgeous and traversing it with the ever-expanding blackwagon is amazing. i also just love this kind of storytelling where you are just dropped into this world and have to put the pieces together without ages-long lore dumps

generally enjoyed the interactions between story and gameplay a lot. sandalwood describes it outright at some point, but there's this delightful texture between the companions you use most gaining most exp -> thus being most likely to be sent off and hurt your chances later if you never git gud at others -> tenuous promise of freedom vs community you already built -> stories of your companions vs your adversaries'... i wouldn't call the decisions nailbiting but it was definitely memorable. i've lost one of the rites and didn't redo it bc it just didn't feel right. and my first choice of a sendoff was kinda terrible like i shoulda lost smh

progression is nice too, companions get two trees of talents and you also have talismans for additional abilities and boosts + serums and what not in later game

i do wish there was some kind of story mode though bc by the time of like rite 16 my left hand started dying so badddd but well we prevailed <3

my only issues would be:
- verticality is kinda hard to read and bc of that kinda annoying to either use or counter
- i feel like some ability trees could have gone further... but it's a short game so i Suppose it's ok. but smth about the balance feels off, maybe i just suck at some characters like [redacted] though
- this one is like 90% on me but switching between allies just doesn't... feel good... i would usually zero in on using one of my guys hsdfhs so the trials being like "you can only use one exile" was kinda funny Yeah well i do it anyway most of the time sorry... kinda blows bc of the whole three as one idea, but it's just so slowww
- why can't i kiss my companions smh. at least they learned and added romances in hades but i would sacrifice zagreus and megaera to satan for one cornchip for a chance to have crazy gay sex with jodariel

not much to comment in terms of technical side i guess its... a visual novel... the OST is probably the strongest part but even that has its pitfalls like. omg if i never hear march of time.mp3, cicio.mp3 and hex.mp3 for another hundred or even thousand years it will still be too fucking soon

i guess i expected more from it?
early chapters are relatively fun gothic horror-esque romps and i think the classic true final route was the strongest part after all that setup, but in the end something about it just didn't click with me

the experiment with the form in terms of backlog vs dialogue in chapter 4 was really good though

all in all a cool story about love and humanity and acceptance, but at the same time, idk how much i'd care if the big reveal had nt happened to draw me in

which also makes me feel kind of bad because i want to care about all kind of stories, and not only those i feel myself reflected in but... well...

i think without it i would have dropped it around chapter 3 because i was bored F. at some point it was just sunk cost fallacy keeping me going which is kind of sad

but i'm glad i stuck out because the final arc is quite good! and the message of the story as well as the characters were excellent

i guess i have some minor gripes with the art and female characters' treatment but eh

it's definitely overpriced but i think it's a good game to play on gamepass or smth, too bad thats not available in my country

the emotional story beats were well-done, particularly the ending and all sorts of y2/3/5/6 shoutouts. the way y7 moments are woven in is also nice. the final fight is fantastic, feels like an upgraded version of y5 one except with an antagonist that actually stands for something. i really liked the new characters all around except for nishitani who i think just doesn't have enough time or reason to exist besides redacted's backstory. but overall it was a very good and satisfying story

the gameplay varies though. i didnt like that one of the fights in the final chapter revolves around protecting a npc instead of going all out. overall while the new style, agent, is fun, some of the gadgets are boring (drones) and generally smth seems to be off with aiming and such again, going ham in agent ex mode would be more fun if you could actually congregate foes properly... maybe i need to unlock more spider settings idk. the group fights also seem really difficult, i played on lower difficulties bc my hands hurt a lot lately but i can't imagine how annoying it must be on harder ones. you might need to do a lot of coliseum stuff to get money and points for abilities. speaking of which, the whole money/points thing is... hm... i guess it makes the akame network/castle system tick, but i find it kinda frustrating that like. there's no NG+, so by the time you unlock all upgrades there's probably only the four kings to beat, and it's very limiting for main story if you do not aim to complete the castle for w/e reason

overall there's some padding and gameplay issues bringing it down but it's a nice 12-15 hr joint

i am also a little mad that my beautiful special princess didn't get a nod in the substory though he is playable in the coliseum :/ i dont care if he didnt hang out w the gang for 6 months or w/e i need to see him noewwwwww bad game very bad im so hurt :/

no deep thoughts bc im not even out of like tutorial-ish area yet but i feel kinda sick of chasing realism in videogames. all this in service of these uncanny creepy faces and an environment where i can barely tell what object is interactable and what isnt. i need game to become uglier and more readable noewww

edit: the more i play this the more confused i feel... everyone was hyping this as a 10/10 RPG that will change the industry and how RPGs are perceived but i feel. so bored? the writing is so trite, maybe it's my fault for expecting any sort of depth but the way the goblins are treated is just baffling. there's nothing fun for failing at all, even for critical failures - the thing you try to do simply doesn't happen, and there's no retrying it either, it's just gone. the locations are pretty, but the camera is so annoying that exploring is... not fun either? the "evil" option has like 0 reason for you to take it. be good or be bad is not an interesting decision in any game much less an rpg supposedly about playing how you want and being a person in the world or w/e. i don't know man. i will stick with it for a while bc i do like the companions and i want to know more about them, but i feel such a disconnect with everything, and worst of all, i'm BORED! i don't think games should make you feel bored...

edit2: ok got out of the goblin/grove stuff feeling less bored yay

edit3: it was aight. the main story is boring and act 3 is horrifically buggy so i ended up locking myself out of wyll's quest :( and the other quests that were there did not work correctly like the foundry... ah well. it's a 7/10 game with 10/10 moments at times but the scale and polish early on make it at least an 8. i'd throw in a 0.5 for astarion and karlach i enjoyed them but the clear disparity in companion content is wild ksjdfs they bet it all on their tumblr sexyman and i guess it worked... i like him but i dont want to see his fandom ever god bless anyway time to play smth else. also by god i hope they find a way to overhaul the inventory system that's just terrible, not being able to access everyone in camp without asking them to join / leave party is ridiculous. there are more QoL moments like that that pissed me the fuck off but well. w/e zzzz

edit4: girl how was the epilogue stuff Not there at launch its wild hsdhfsdf its good but like... omfg how did u guys launch it and not think that ppl will want this content come on

this is soooo cute ;w; the art is beautiful! and there's a certain sense of whimsy i got that made me nostalgic for platformers i played as a kid. i haven't got far yet, but just running and flying around looking for coins and treasure has been so fun

the controls do bother me a bit though, my right hand keeps acting up even after rebinding orz but we soldier on...

edit: completed now! it was very sweet, i like all the little things you can do on the island. i didnt manage to complete all the quests and i think the magic wore off by now so i won't, but it was nice while it lasted

finally done omg... 127 hrs to beat #127 game i logged on here...

coming off lobcorp i was really impressed by... everything really. the voice acting took me aback like whoa budget. the art is absolutely stunning (although given current limbco situation and how both wonderlab and leviathan artists spoke about their experiences, i wonder how much whoever drew this got paid lol). and expectedly the story about human nature, vengeance, living for ourselves yet needing to coexist and interact with others... /chefs kiss/

also seeing more details about the city was really enjoyable since lobcorp was mostly focused on l corp itself with some exceptions. the way the story is told is also fun. and ofc i enjoy the understated writing style where there aren't really any surprise shock twists, the writers don't treat you like some idiot nor go out of their way to make a Big Reveal, you can pick up on clues to piece the story tgt easily and it still feels satisfying to see it play out. i really liked that about lobcorp too, though i think it was more shocking since there isnt much you know before you can see the sephira's backstories, while here you get a lot of pieces of the puzzle. in a way roland even pokes fun at it in the end being like "you know what i must yabba dabba do" lmao. and ofc realizations are really cool, both in terms of writing and all the styled distortion appearances of the characters, theres so much excellent spritework here. i kinda wish there were more small stories abt librarians interacting </3

the gameplay is also pretty fun. unlike lobcorp where some parts of it felt like clunkiness and undercookedness, here the difficulty felt earned. im not great at deckbuilding so i started looking things up at around urban nightmare, but figuring what singleton etc do with others' help was fun. as well as eventually figuring out the unga bunga strats like msb gebura... i dont really have any major complaints this time like i did with lobcorp. theres def QoL stuff one could use but nothing as crucial as "more detailed info" was in lobcorp

this is a mix of gameplay and story, but seeing how each abnormalities abilities were shown in ruina was SO cool, i sometimes tried to predict what it would be like and was usually on the money, it was really fun and felt rewarding

oh and the ost goes hard too icb they removed it on spotify literally the day i completed this game God hates me run and tell that

my complaints are mostly minor stuff:
- to this day i do not comprehend why grinding is at all necessary in this game...? there are already limitations to how many times you can equip certain pages so like... just make all of them infinite... especially egregious since it doesnt even make sense in universe, those people are DEAD and BOOKS now??? i kept wondering if it would eventually make sense and it never did. waste of fucking time in a game that already takes around 60-80 hrs just to beat unless you are some kind of deckbuilding genius
- afaik some update broke the key page search function and it just doesnt. work. so the Key Pages and Passives page on steam was my only friend through all this lol
- moreover you cannot look up ranged pages in combat pages, nor does it have tags for stuff like ammunition for some reason?
- some of the later abnormality fights and realizations feel more like puzzle shogi... and while abnormality fights are at least short and not that much effort to replay, the realizations that had a new puzzle mechanic right at the end were just so evil. idk i didnt particularly enjoy that kind of design, it felt punishing in a wrong way. luckily at least the final floor saves progress between phases
- price of silence you are the worst wretched creature on this planet and im glad u r not part of the realization or id have to do something drastic
- the ending fatigue is real with this game omg. at some point i felt like this shit would never end. i guess they wanted to appeal both to ppl who like deckbuilding with the page lockout And to ppl who just want to go unga bunga with all the power they accummulated so far with all that effort... and that resulted in like 30 fights shitting christ by the end i wanted to be free more than angela did. and this doesnt feel like the kind of game where u can just play smth else and come back bc id just forget everything if i did that! so i had to soldier on. i still loved it but it really could have been a bit shorter... some of the fights were kinda lame too, like binah's... i expected more thematically. but well the abno fights and realizations were already generally so good, ig it would be hard to maintain that quality throughout

thaaaaaaats it i guess. no limbco for me so bye bye project moon i wish the ceo didnt double down on the worst possible take like a fucking idiot but he seems to be determined to burn that ship down. and its quite sad