TLDR: Best game. Video game reviewers with skill issues (Cuphead tutorial-style) abound. My life’s quest is to beat it.

I adored this game. The world and the characters in it are all so charming, and the visuals, soundtrack, and sound design are all exquisite. The puzzles were interesting (more on that later), the platforming was challenging, and the combat was engaging! The true star of this game is the world, no doubt about it. I’m a completionist and always scour my games for content (talking to every npc, finishing every side-quest, leveling everything to max, beating every challenge, getting every achievement, etc), and this game has tons of it. I loved the whole thing. I remember actually having the thought “this is my new favorite game,” while I was playing.

I’m not 100% sure why others here are so dissatisfied with the combat; I played on default difficulty/settings, and, yes, it was challenging, especially at the beginning when I was learning the system (I’d never played a game with stamina) and hadn’t upgraded my health or stamina yet. But I enjoyed needing to do more than just mash A to win a fight (I grew up on Kingdom Hearts and Pokémon, so…you know). P:A is supposed to be hard; that’s how it avoids being mindless, like a game you play while watching something else (nothing wrong with those, but that wasn’t what this game wanted to be). Having to become more skilled instead of just grinding levels is a core quality of this game!

Think of it in terms of balance. Gail is supposed to be weaker than her enemies, with “shitty” weapons (-), stamina limitations (-), and being toss-able (-) because she has the benefit of being piloted by a real person (+++). To give enemies any counter-play, which is needed to create any challenge for the player, their character would obviously need some limitations.

If you feel this game is more effort than it’s worth, maybe this game just isn’t meant for you; that effort is core to its worth. Maybe that isn’t what you expected or wanted, though. I get that; I use video games to escape my challenges, not add to them lol. But, to talk about the difficulty as a flaw in the game and its development is to misunderstand it as an accident.

About the puzzles though…I got stuck on the (probably) last puzzle in the very last area (I am so sure the final boss is just behind the stupid door I couldn’t figure out how to open!!!), and raked over the entire game to see what it was I had missed…nothing. I have no idea what I was missing, or where it might be. And, I couldn’t find a guide or walkthrough anywhere. I couldn’t even find a let’s play that had gotten that far. Probably narcissistically, I had suspected it was bugged. I even intended to contact the devs lol. But, I will conquer this game…it won’t end like this.