Thank you to @duhnuhnuh_duhnuhnuh for the game code.

Overview:
A very pleasant experience that is certainly worth your time. My experience can be fairly well summed up by the three B's: Breathtaking, Buggy, and Boring. The game is jaw-droppingly BEAUTIFUL at times, and some of the quests and environments are incredibly well-made. However, there seems to be a little bit of an issue of 'style over substance' here. The game is pretty BORING for a regrettably large portion of the experience and basic gameplay with incredibly mundane quests (most of the time) did not lend itself to anything particularly unique. The unique nature of the game comes in with obviously, the artstyle, and the beautifully crafted world and environments within the open world that just bring you to your knees. I found myself sitting and looking over jaw-dropping vistas in basically every major area, as each area had their own unique, enticing vibes that just made you want to stare. I did have to kinda look past all the texture and lighting glitches that were happening in my FOV at basically all times to enjoy these views, but it's not as big a deal as it may seem. The game is BUGGY as heeellll though... I encountered constant, and I do mean constant, audio, visual, or gameplay bugs. Just be prepared to be torn out of your immersion every other minute, because I know I was. The game would be significantly better without the bugs, but is still certainly playable even with the missing frames, constant lighting issues, annoying camera, and countless other frustrating bugs that I encountered throughout my playthrough. Still definitely a good game that I can personally recommend overall. More details on my time with the game below----

Sights and Sounds
-The artstyle is incredibly beautiful and unique (very screenshot-able)
- Looks good up close (as long as the camera isn't clipping through the entire structure you are in) and is breathtaking far away
-Camera issues and TONS of graphical pop-in took me out of my immersion quite frequently
-Sounds were usually very weighty and satisfying
-But there was a pretty consistent trend of audio bugs like where music suddenly cuts in or out, chimes banging together loudly, or random loud sounds that are very clearly unintentional for the given moment
-Specifically my engine sound on my bike actually hurt my ears
-Very beautiful and fitting score, though

Gameplay
- Movement on the bike is super unpredictable and feels pretty goddamn terrible, honestly
- Movement on foot is much better, and you have a lot more control when NOT climbing (diff story)
- The BOTW influence was very apparent, and having played it just earlier this year, was a nice refresher
- Still much less fleshed out and the gameplay was much more boring overall
- Introduction of new mechanics and the whole 'gliding ceremony' thing felt a little bit tonally conflicting but important to the continuation of the mechanical improvement overall
- ALMOST all quests are laced with tedium and are painfully predictable
- A bunch of fetch quests or quests where you go solve an annoying, basic puzzle for a reward you didn't really care about
- My time with the game was shorter than most, but I still thought the borderline-hour-long intro in the introductory area was way too long. Let me go explore the world please
- Speaking of exploring the world, that was by far the best part
- Exploring caves, ruins, and ships weren't particularly fun nor did they yield enticing results
- But just finding the new, incredibly distinct areas within the world was soooo cool
- All the different areas were super unique and breathtaking in their own ways
-Specific moments like climbing the bones, going to the lightning plateau, and leaving the Ewer were what made the game as special as it ended up being
-Dialogue with other characters was repetitive, but still usually quite interesting because of each character's own, special characteristics and personalities


Narrative/Story/Goal
-Despite the annoying length, the intro was a good way to set up the overall narrative and goal
-Concept of collecting a bunch of different masks was very enticing and interesting at first, but became much less interesting when I learned HOW you go about collecting the majority of the masks (boring)
-The characters all felt very real, very similar to BOTW in that way
-A sentimental story overall with leudo-narrative dissonant elements, but a mainly conjoined story + gameplay
-Rare unique quests were hidden among a sea of boring, monotonous, and repetitive ones
- These unique quests do make the game worth it, however.
-In general, the open nature of it all overwhelmed me a little bit, and kind of pushed me to want to just get the story over with, which I do regret a little bit now, looking back
- Most quests being boring also turned me away from doing as many quests as I could've

Performance
- Good at best
- Mid-High range PC (3060 ti) struggled to run 1440p at 144 hz on high settings, ended up capping at 60
- LOTS of frame stutters/drops throughout but worst in the open world
- A BUNCH of pop-in
- Nothing game-breaking, but the camera, gameplay, visual, and audio glitches highly degraded the experience
- I would've been less critical overall if the game was less buggy
- The bugs were constantly taking me out of my immersion, alerting me to the problems of the game that would've been negligible if I was fully immersed

I do like this game in general. I didn't finish it because of a game-breaking bug, that would have only been fixed by starting an entire new playthrough (details in the community discussion tab), which was a major downside. Otherwise, I thought the idea was cool, of the multiple branching storylines happening through different people all at the same time in the same place. I also liked the setting. Unfortunately, I just don't think it was executed particularly well. Not only are the multiple different storylines and character ambitions a little bit too much to process at the speed and sheer number at which they are thrown at you, but the game is quite boring for a majority of your time playing, just watching characters have conversations, then moving across the room, reloading time, and listening to another two characters have a conversation. I do like walking simulators, i love firewatch and what remains of edith finch, but I had a hard time getting into tacoma. If the idea still sounds interesting to you, i would definitely recommend and pray that you do not run into any bugs. Just not really a game for me, necessarily.

I am extraordinarily conflicted with this game. Maybe more than I have been with any other piece of media, ever. I absolutely love the environments, enemies, the ecosystem, the visuals, the vibe, the characters, the complex enemy ai, and the absolute beauty of everything the devs have created. But it pisses me off so much. I have never really procrastinated playing a game until this one. The difficulty in figuring out what i need to do (i have no clue) and navigation of the world without dying just pisses me off so much. I have little to no direction, and I feel like I am going in circles, particularly after spending like 5 hours in one area that I don't know how I got into and do not know how to get out of. Also, the stupid Karma system... Do not even get me started. I do not want to have to systematically hibernate 4 times to be able to move onto another area. That does not enhance my experience, even in the slightest. It just wastes my time and frustrates me. I do not have a problem with how hard it is to survive in the world. I like how punishing the world is, and how hard the enemies are to survive against. I want a challenge in that regard. It helps to me feel immersed and it enhances my experience. But the nature of the layout of the world, and the fucking karma system just piss me off. I am shelving the game for right now, and will certainly come back in the future. I may come back and decide I want to keep playing on the default difficulty and just do my best to make it through despite the elements I do not like, or I may even play on the easiest difficulty so I don't have to deal with the aspects that directly degrade my experience. I want to love this game so bad, but cannot with my current experience.

This game is an experience. It is beautiful and janky. It is captivating and boring. It is scary and calming. It is a narrative about the most deep parts of life, but also explores the most insignificant. I love this game. It is the best walking simulator I have ever played. The story is incredibly captivating and interesting, keeping me on my toes the entire time. I loved both characters and the world as I got to know them throughout my playthrough, using the map to learn the world, and the shift key to learn more about Delilah. I also really enjoy the twists within the narrative that helped to keep me captivated. And the world is just oh, so beautiful and incredible. It has such a distinct artistic flare that just calms me down and satisfies me so much. I also liked the length of the game. While it wouldn't have suffered whatsoever from being any longer, I think that the short runtime helped the regrettably disappointing gameplay mechanics to not feel like they had stayed their welcome in any way. This game is a great walking simulator, but at its core, it is a very hand-holdey, particularly catered narrative experience. If you're looking for engaging gameplay beyond just clicking M or Shift to find where you are going and/or to talk to Delilah, you will be disappointed. However, if you are okay with that, this game will bring you large sums of joy. It is such a tasteful and enjoyable experience, from the beautiful and haunting intro cutscene, to the introduction of the forest, this is such a great game. I experienced a couple bugs and inconsistent performance, but nothing game-breaking.

DO NOT BUY
DO NOT BUY
DO NOT BUY

easily worst in entire series, all the other ones are quite fun, but this one is stupidly tedious and the puzzles aren't really even satisfying. You're just relieved that you didn't make a small mistake that set you back 5 full minutes of progress for the 30th time.
2/5 stars