I play video games for artistic experiences. Someone once described it as discussing what games made me think about as opposed to what I do in them. It's why I'm even on this website in the first place - I just like to write about games and think about games.

Vampire Survivors is not the worst offense to my creative sensibilities that exists, but it is representative of something larger: the idle game genre. I don't believe there is anything inherently morally bankrupt about the idle game or enjoying it (though I certainly find a lot of the following of this particular one disgusting due to the level of harassment people have received for criticizing it), in spite of what people would strawman detractors of Vampire Survivors as believing, but there is also no meaning to it. The idle game is simply idle. I understand it is useful for people who find it hard to listen to something on its own and concentrate, but what I come to games for is simply not present.

I do not understand the appeal and praise. It's just another empty idle game.

Coming from a native japanese person, this game is oblivious to actual japanese history. It dances with fantasies of japanese stereotypes like "honor" while ignoring the undercurrent of actual samurai life, which is both far less honorable and far more mundane than depicted. It would be one thing if this was designed to be fantastical, but it isn't. Sucker Punch designed this game with the goal of accurately portraying Japan's culture and history, and they failed at that. To say otherwise would be a disservice to the memory of the samurai themselves.

Besides, the game is just bland open world AAA kitsch with a big map and picturesque locations made by crunching underpaid developers and artists. Which is to say, it's a game that isn't bad, but isn't memorable either. A game that entices the senses but never the imagination, that gives the illusion of enjoyment while leaving you empty in the end. It's a AAA game in 2020 and that's all I really have to say.