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.
I watched some gameplay videos and the start of a Let's Play, couldn't get into it either. The beginning is somewhat intriguing, but once you're out of the prologue it just looks boring and weird in a bad way, like there's something about the visual style that I just don't gel with. I didn't see enough to say much about the story, though.
Maybe the issue with the awards is that the competition wasn't that strong? Most AAA games don't put much effort into telling an interesting story, if nothing else Expedition 33 at least tried.
That's a fair point! I do appreciate the devs trying something unique with both the gameplay and story. Of the other GOTY nominees, it is an understandable pick. In terms of general reviews I'm surprised to see so many 9s and 10s though.
My least favorite thing about the game is the visual style. If you told me a lot of it had to do with AI I’d believe it. It’s weird to look at and a lot of people just chalked it up to being a AA game, but it’s never quite sat right with me.