Don't get me wrong, it's still a good game. But I'm not sure it deserves all the hype it got last year.
It does some very clever stuff in terms of gameplay, with each character having their own unique battle system that synergise with the others.
And yes, the soundtrack is incredible.
In terms of the story, whilst it was interesting, the way the game drip-feeds you knowledge in the first two acts quickly became frustrating. There were multiple cutscenes where characters speak in such a vague, superficially poetic way. In reality it just felt pretentious.
Major story spoilers:
spoiler
The overall metaphor for grief is unique. I liked the concept of the characters being creations in this painting, and how that layer of reality feeds into the one you begin the game in. But it felt like everything was revealed all at once in Act 3. The game gives you very little up to that point, so it's hard to emphasize with many of the characters. Perhaps replaying the game knowing what you know changes the perspective of it, but for a new player I'm not sure it's the best way to tell a story.
Perhaps this is an unpopular opinion but I found the game aesthetically quite ugly. Many landscapes had a feeling of copy pasted Unreal assets that looked so same-y at points they became confusing to navigate (especially given the lack of a mini-map). The characters had these blank, uncanny stares half the time and the designs for some of them (Esquie in particular) just didn't look good to me.
Oh and I'm really not sure why the devs decided to add entirely unnecessary platforming elements!
I found certain enemy attacks to be inconsistent and not well telegraphed, leading to some frustrating encounters were you had to memorise the parry timings rather than learn them from a valid cue.
I think the game deserves good reviews, but I'm not quite sure how it won so many GOTY awards. Perhaps it just wasn't the game for me.
Agreed with the sentiment, it's a good game, and a great work of art, but I thought it was sitting in a weird state halfway between a jprg and a souls like, without leaning fully into either, and thus not being that good at neither. I still appreciate their attemot at genre mixing and it felt fresh and release at the right time for succes.
What about it was Soulslike to you? I thought the gameplay was basically Super Mario RPG with the FF7 materia system stirred in.
I had just played Sekiro extensively, and this def had the Sekiro parry/block mechanic but less tight, more tricky timing, as in enemies get more challenging by having weirder parry timings
The gameplay looked to me even more like the Mario & Luigi games, where the timed defense is a full dodge or parry rather than reducing damage and it is necessary for survival.
More than the dodge/parry system, I felt that the exploration was reminiscent of early souls rather than the usual rpg
The exploration feels like running through corridors with the oft-side path that leads to an item. I’d say exploration was one of the game’s least interesting parts. I got very formulaic design vibes. I also just didn’t feel like a lot of the items you got were worth the extra time I took to go on the side paths or unlock the chests.