Strength: The gameplay and map design stand out.

Downside: Almost everything else feels lackluster or poorly executed.

I liked this game. It is not the all time best game I have ever played, but it is solid enough that I can recommend it, when it is on sale.

For the current asking price it is way too high. Wait for 50% sale or that it is dropped permanently to half of its full price.

Story was okay-good but had an issue that annoyed me a lot, storytelling felt a bit clunky mainly because sometimes I felt stuck in cutscenes and slow moving areas for a while (mainly because main city hub doesn't allow parkour, only sprint). Other than those parts, I was very much looking forward to learning the rest of the story as well as what lead to status quo, finished story very quickly because of this and can say I enjoyed it very much.

My only issue with the story was the fact that Sussurus was back to being what he was from the beginning, despite major issues in how his behaviour should have shifted to more agressive. Yes, he's biding time and trying to drive her mad, but that's not the vibe the player is getting all game, reducing him to a giving-up kinda guy destroys the whole I drove the Tantas mad vibe he ought to be giving us. I expected a shift in his demeanor, more poisoning our mind, less constantly being sarcastic.

I don't get why people trashtalk the game for bad dialogues, they felt realistic and relatable to me, those would have been my reactions in most of those situations as well. Frey felt relatable and I did enjoy the back and forth with Cuff Vambrace . Both had good character development and the player can see their psyche shifting due to the events of the game.

Combat gets enriched as the game moves forward giving you access to more and more stuff.
I do like a difficult game but in the beginning, being stuck with few spells in a fight where the enemy just deals a lot of damage and has a lot of HP felt unrewarding to beat, so I switched to Easy for a while to get a bunch of spells, then switched back to Hard to enjoy combat at its fullest. I think that was the best decision, for me at least, or I would have dropped the game.

Parkouring through the world is very enjoyable, especially when acquiring multiple mobility spells, despite scenery having little to offer.

What I enjoyed the most was exploring every place of interest post-game and defeating the tough bosses. Felt very rewarding and kept me going easily to 100% it.

Also, something I didn't know and found out and was excited; game supports adaptive trigger and haptic feedback for PS5 controller. Also, some other stuff that are combat and gameplay related give you feedback through customized PS5 layouts, like the colour shifting depending on what type of magic you're using.

I eyeballed this game since E3 trailer, then got majorly dissappointed by release trailer like everyone else and forgot all about it, especially when the negative reviews started coming in. Decided to give it a try and persist despite everyone telling me to basically blink twice if I'm playing the game against my will.