Care Bears: Unlock the Magic (Switch)

Care Bears: Unlock the Magic is a licensed game based on Care Bears, with the same title as the TV series. It’s a kids show, and it’s a cheap licensed game, so the quality is going to be hit or miss (and most likely a miss). Reinforcing this is that the game is basically full of minigames, and only minigames.

The game has a proper single player mode though and is only single player. It’s called Adventure Mode where you play as Cheer Bear and go along a track. Each section of the track is a minigame level, and each time you clear a minigame, you will gain one star. The aim is to reach the end of the track, and there will be progress blockers on every eight levels which requires a certain number of stars to pass. However, the requirements are very low and given that the minigames are so easy to clear, you shouldn’t have a problem getting through them.

The minigame levels will get harder as you go along the track. There are 104 levels to clear the Adventure Mode, which basically means getting at least 70 stars to help free the land. After this, it unlocks Master Levels, which are harder levels compared to the story, and some of them are legit difficult (even if it is mostly due to random chance rather than a skill issue). There are another 104 of them… but they’re the same minigames you’ve been playing all this time, so it’s very repetitive.

There are eight types of minigames, and most of them are based on well-known games. The first is Conga, which is a copy of Snake from the Nokia phone days. You play a conga line, going around the dance floor to collect more bears to add to the line. Next is Pass the Ball, which is a copy of Pong. You aim to clear the screen of rectangular pieces by having the ball hit it, and you keep the ball in play but not allowing it to fall to the floor. There are power ups such as a wider paddle, adding another ball, or allowing the ball to destroy the pieces in one go rather than in multiple hits.

This third minigame is Care Bubbles, which is basically Puzzle Bobble. This is quite fun, as you need to shoot the bubbles to match three of the same type to make them disappear. At the same time, the ceiling is dropping lower. The harder levels have you start off with more complicated patterns, closer to the ground, which can be annoying. The minigame Cloud Racer has you moving a vehicle up and down trying to collect the hearts along the level.

Cross the Rainbow is another obstacle course, where the Care Bear is on a pogo stick (not that it matters too much) as you cross rivers on platforms, railway tracks, and pass by rocks. Ball to the Hole is like a form of mini golf, where you try to shoot the ball into the hole, but making it difficult is that the angle of the ball constantly changes so you need to wait until it faces the way you’d want it to go.

Lost Whiffle is yet another obstacle course where you control a Care Bear as they reach the end of the course. The Care Bear is walking this time, and will constantly be moving, so you’ll need to avoid the traps on the ground, spinning fans and water barriers. The eighth and last minigame is Bouncy Heart, which is a copy of Flappy Bird. You reach the end of the course while being able to only control the height by pressing a button. If you don’t press anything, the Care Bear will immediately start descending.

A minigame collection as a concept doesn’t mean it’ll be a bad game. If you have variety, then it’s fine. Unfortunately, this game does not have that variety. With only eight types of minigames and requiring you to repeat 13 times in Adventure Mode, it quickly gets repetitive. Another problem is it is very predictable. Every set has one of each of the eight minigames, there are no surprises, and none of these minigames are particularly fun either.

Adventure Mode takes around two to three hours to complete. Free Mode allows you to replay any of those levels, plus the additional 104 Master Levels as mentioned earlier. The game is clearly built for younger players, and you’re rewarded with stickers are you progress. There are no high scores, nor are there any modes that allow you to play with unlimited time until you lose (which seems like an easy way to provide a fun mode).

Overall, Care Bears: Unlock the Magic is every bit the poor licensed game you’d expect it to me. It’s disappointing but not surprising that for a game that has such limited graphical assets (while bright and colorful, looking good, it reuses a lot of things), and only eight types of gameplays, that it sells for such a high price. It’s fun for around half an hour, but after that, you can’t wait until you can put it down and move on to the next game.

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Yoshi’s Crafted World (Switch)

Yoshi’s Crafted World is focused on Yoshi and is a spiritual successor to Yoshi’s Woolly World. Rather than set in a world made of wool, it expands on that idea and it’s a paper crafted world, very similar to Paper Mario in that aspect. However, Yoshi and the other characters still look very fluffy, so there is a bit of a clashing aesthetics at first. You’ll soon get used to it, and the bright colorful graphics, along with the paper craft theme make for a beautiful looking game.

This is still a Yoshi game though, so the gameplay remains familiar. It’s mostly a sidescroller platformer, but set in a 2.5D perspective, where Yoshi will be able to go between the layers at certain parts of the levels. Yoshi doesn’t gain too many new moves, he can jump and float, and while floating, there is a point where he can go just that tiny bit higher. To defeat enemies, he can either jump on them or shoot out his tongue to swallow them and then turn them into eggs. The eggs trail behind Yoshi and he can then take aim and throw them.

Levels are mostly straightforward, but there’ll be simple puzzles along the way. Throwing eggs and other objects will often be required for these puzzles. To change the gameplay up every so often, Yoshi may be able to ride a train, or he turns big and can crash and stomp on everything. These moments are often fun without being annoying. Lastly, Yoshi can also do a ground stomp.

The collectibles in this game are flowers, and each level gives you a lot of opportunities to get them. Each level has three flowers with the same conditions: collect 100 coins, finish the level with full health, and find 20 red coins. The rest of the flowers are hidden within the levels, but the game is quite easy, given that when you’re in the vicinity of a flower, the flower counter pops up so you’ll know you need to stop and search. Flowers are required to progress the game. The game is quite easy and can be made even easier with Mellow Mode, which gives Yoshi wings, allowing him to float indefinitely.

The story is simple, but there is dialogue. Yoshi and his friends are living peacefully on the island, which holds the Sundream Stone, surrounded by five Dream Gems. Kamek and Baby Bowser appear to steal the stone and send five of the Dream Gems across the land, and now it is a race between Yoshi and Baby Bowser on who can find all the gems first and restore the Sundream Stone.

The game is split into various “worlds”, and each of these worlds are very small. There are only one to three levels in each of these. The benefit of this is that each world is a different theme, and so you’ll often move onto a different theme. This means that there is a lot of visual variety, as well as different level designs that change with each theme. Nothing outstays its welcome.

Further increasing the variety is that while most of the game is platforming, there are some levels that changes the gameplay up. It keeps it from being too repetitive such as having a giant Yoshi crashing and stomping everything in his path. Or having Poochy show up, adding a minor puzzle element. Although the auto scrolling levels are less fun given the time pressure that it naturally adds.

Thanks to the slower paced gameplay and the chilled music, it gives the game a very relaxed atmosphere (well, barring the auto scrolling levels). You can go your own pace in most levels, and you can backtrack in most of these in case you’ve missed something and wanted to check it out before moving on. Bosses aren’t overwhelming. They’re your typical bosses, where you need to do a certain action to hit them three times and aren’t that stressful.

The game’s story takes around ten hours or so to reach and beat the final boss. That’s around 40 levels to go through, making it a decent amount of content for a platformer. However, the game still has plenty of life left in it, as each level has a “backside”, where you effectively play the level in reverse (or the “background”), collecting three Poochy pups. These are more like time trials since you also aim to find them all within a time limit to get an extra collectible. Furthermore, after the final boss, a new area opens, but these require a lot of collectibles to unlock each of those levels. These levels are harder than anything before it (the game is very easy, even when it gets a little bit more difficult towards the end).

Overall, Yoshi’s Crafted World is a fantastic platformer, and one that while still very easy, is not as boring as some of Nintendo’s other games. This is because the level design is great, even if Yoshi can feel a bit too floaty at times, making it less fun to speedrun through a level. The variety of gameplay, where each type doesn’t outstay its welcome as they’re only limited to a level each, truly enhances the fun factor.

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Tetris Effect (PS4)

Tetris Effect is another release of the classic game Tetris, but of course, it will put its own spin into things. At its core, it is Tetris, and controls exactly like you would expect. The gameplay involves falling tetrominoes, which you can rotate, soft drop and hard drop onto the bottom. The aim is to clear lines, which are only cleared if there are no gaps within that row. It’s a simple premise, but one that persists as being incredible addictive and surprisingly complex in its strategies to this day.

The game has heaps of single player content, with the main single player mode being Journey. This is like the “story mode” of the game, although there isn’t a story to go along with it. In this mode, you will play through various stages, and each stage has the objective of clearing 30 lines. The mode is comprised of 30 stages, and each stage has a different background, so aesthetically, each stage in this mode is different. It’s a short mode, depending on your skill level, it can be finished from an hour to two hours.

There are three different difficulties to pick from in Journey mode, and after each stage, you are ranked from E to SS, which is based upon your high score. Scores are awarded based on how you play, and this is where the complexities and depth of the game come in. There were ways to rotate the tetrominoes to slot it into places that may at first glance be impossible. If you clear lines back-to-back with each falling tetrominoes then there are bonus points. If you can clear the maximum number of lines at once (four), then that’s more points.

The game introduces a brand-new mechanic to Tetris, called Zone. A gauge will fill up as you play, and you can activate it at any time, which will stop the tetrominoes from falling. It affords you some time to get you out of a pinch, or if you’re good, you’ll just start hard dropping the tetrominoes like crazy to clear the lines and gain a ton of bonus points. It is a useful mechanic though and doesn’t feel shoehorned into the game. It helps during this mode since the stages like to rapidly increase the falling speed of the tetrominoes, rather than gradually like in normal Tetris games. It’s synced to the music, and so it creates this fantastic sensory experience.

The biggest draw of this new version of Tetris is the graphics. They are stunning, being bright and extremely sharp. It uses HDR to great effect, and this is a game to play to show off the capabilities of your OLED TV (or any other TV that has good HDR capabilities). Combined with the music where are synced with the falling speed of the tetrominoes, and it is unparallel in terms of immersion. The different themes of the stages are hit and miss though, since some can be too busy and distracting, detracting from the gameplay.

Apart from Journey, there are still heaps of other modes that you can play in single player, or if you’re keen, you can play multiplayer, whether that’s local or online. There’s still plenty enough in single player modes to get a lot of play value out of it. Marathon mode is your classic Tetris where you aim to clear 150 lines with the speed gradually increasing. There is also a version of the mode with the new Zone mechanic enables.

Purify mode has you try and clear lines with the infected blocks. They will appear at certain time intervals, gradually filling up the screen. The default has you trying to clear as many lines as possible in three minutes, but you can customize this with different difficulties and playing an “endless” version. Mystery mode is the spicy one, as random effects will come into play every so often. Most of these are annoying and have a negative effect such as playing with the UI upside down, appearance of unorthodox tetrominoes, big tetrominoes appearing and garbage tetrominoes. It can be quite interesting but often it is more bother than its worth as there will always be an effect that you’d hate.

Ultra mode is also like classic Tetris, where you aim to get the best score within three minutes of play. Sprint mode has you clearing 40 lines as fast as possible. Master mode is Tetris at the higher speed. It’s a frantic mode, as effectively the tetrominoes drop immediately and you need to think fast and preplan multiple steps ahead, otherwise you’ll get overwhelmed. Class Score Attack mode is classic Tetris, as in, the original game’s rules, so there are no holds and no hard drops. It’s also shown in classic retro graphics and does feel very different to the Tetris we know today.

Chill Marathon mode is basically Marathon mode but there is no game over. If the tetrominoes fill up to the top of the screen, then the field is cleared and you can keep going. However, it’ll retain the speed, and you’ll still have to clear 150 lines. Quick Play mode is the most customizable mode, as you can choose the level design, how many lines to clear etc. There are also three Playlists modes, these are centered around the same theme across four stages each. The speed remains constant and the aim is just to finish with as high a score as you can.

All Clear mode is like a fast puzzle mode, where it presents a predetermined scenario and the aim is to clear all the pieces using the limited tetrominoes provided to you. It’s short at three minutes but fast paced. Combo mode also uses predetermined sets, but instead you aim for the highest combo of consecutive line clears. Target mode has you trying to clear a specific block, by clearing that certain line. And finally, Countdown mode is another one of those odder modes, where I-shaped tetrominoes will periodically fall. There’s a shadow to show here they are going to fall down, and you’ll have to accommodate that.

Every game that you clear (or fail), will earn you experience points, since there’s a separate player level. Therefore, you will always feel that you’ve achieved something and managed to progress. Although the player level isn’t really anything substantial, as there are no awesome unlocks of perks, but watching the number go up is nice, nonetheless. The game also got a pretty substantial free update, being the “Connected” update, which added a decent amount of content (already covered above).

Overall, Tetris Effect is one of the best Tetris releases, as it provides so much more than just the basic Tetris experience. The graphics are beautiful and adds a lot to the feel of the game. It’s like a zen experience yet fast paced at the same time. The game has plenty of content to go through, and you’re bound to find a mode that you’ll enjoy. The game has the addictive nature of playing “one more game”, and before you know it, a few hours would have passed.

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Kingdom Hearts III (PS4)

After over a decade from the second mainline game, and with a plethora of spin-offs since, Kingdom Hearts III is the long awaited third and final game in the “Dark Seeker” saga. Basically, it is supposed to end the storyline started so many years ago, so it had a lot of shoes to fill. Given that the series pretty much started on PS2 and then skipped the PS3 generation, and with this game built from the ground up for PS4 (and Xbox One), the improvements in the graphics are astounding and incredible. Since you return to worlds you’ve been to before in previous games, you can see the big differences in detail, it’s a very pretty game to look at (although a bit shiny and plasticky at times).

This is an action RPG, and the gameplay moves back to the mainline games, so the Command Deck from Birth by Sleep and Dream Drop Distance is gone, but not completely. There are still remnants of it built into the combat system. Basically, Sora can attack and use magic, and since it’s real time, while there is a menu it’s clunky and timewasting, so you can assign magic and items to the shortcut menu that you can pull from pressing the left trigger button in conjunction with a face button. You get three layers of shortcuts (for a total of twelve), which is pretty good.

Sora can also block and dodge roll. That’s the basics, and where the “improvements” to the combat are the addition of even gimmickier elements. Attack enough and Sora can form change, which isn’t too bad. This is the part that reminds you most of the Command Decks since you choose when and if you want to activate it. The gimmicky parts are the “Attraction Flow” attacks, which summons Disney theme park rides as attacks, and they’re a visual spectacle, and can do significant damage, but it’s like building clunky minigames right into the combat system, and it just feels tacky.

Sora is usually joined by Donald and Goofy, who will help, as well as the guest character of the world that they’re in. We’re deep in the lore now, and Sora will fight both Heartless and Nobodies as common enemies, with the usual recurring series original villains plus the Disney villains as bosses. Bosses can be huge in size, and once again, devolve into gimmicky fights which are chaotic and clunky. At times it feels like you are playing minigames more than fighting the boss.

If you understood the story up until now, congrats. There is an optional summary you can select, and the story kicks off after the events of Dream Drop Distance. Sora, Donald and Goofy need to find Roxas, while Mickey and Riku go ahead and find Aqua. Their ultimate objective is to defeat Xenahort. That’s the overarching plot, as each world has its own mini subplot. This is a story heavy game, as expected of a JRPG, and cutscenes can take a long time. At one point, the cutscenes were half an hour long, and they’re not the most riveting. There will be sections where you will walk a few steps and a cutscene will play, although it’s not as egregious as it could be.

The main draw of the game are of course the Disney worlds, and they’re much bigger this time around, but offset by less worlds. The developers have so many to choose from, and of course they pick some of the most well-known and popular ones from recent movies such as Frozen, and Big Hero 6, but also some Disney Pixar classics too. Some of the worlds strictly follow that movie’s plot. It follows so closely to its source material that it feels repetitive as it replicates the key plot points scene by scene, and even frame by frame. It is impressive at how far graphics have gone but coupled with the different voice actors (who still does a tremendous job at sounding like the characters), and the fact that it doesn’t cover all of that movie’s scenes, it feels off. It feels rushed and truncated. You would have needed to have watched the movie to even understand what is happening.

It’s an unfortunate fact that Sora and company feel so detached from the worlds where they are basically just observers and bystanders, as they do not integrate well into those movie’s plots. The other worlds, however, are an original story, which are usually set after that movie. These are much more interesting, as it feels like a continuation of that movie. Although the Kingdom Hearts games have never succeeded in pacing its scenes properly, and it’s the same here. Scenes are overly long without much happening within them, which sours the experience somewhat.

The scene’s lengths are not the main issue given that this is a story driven game, so it’s expected. No, what is bad is how the cutscenes are paced and written. They’re just so boring and bland. It usually contains too much dialogue that’s filler and doesn’t add much to the plot. There are awkward silences as the next character pauses before speaking. These make the cutscenes drag out and the characters are constantly harping on about the same things, making it all so repetitive.

The first Kingdom Hearts game integrated the Disney worlds into the story the best. Subsequent games, and including this one, don’t. The plot basically doesn’t progress until all the Disney worlds are over. Given that each world is like its own self-contained story that isn’t too connected to the overarching plot. The bulk of the plot is in the last part of the game, after you have visited all the Disney worlds. This makes those worlds pointless as a result and feels like a completely different game afterwards. You’d feel that either the Disney worlds were superficial and tacked on, or the final sections of the game were superficial and tacked on. It’s just bad writing (but probably some executive meddling by Disney also at play).

The sheer number of characters makes it hard to keep track of everyone and their backstories. The game attempts to close out every single one of their stories given it’s the last game in the Dark Seeker Saga. The final hours of the game are filled with more cutscenes than gameplay but somehow it still closes off those characters unsatisfactorily. It rushes through multiple characters’ fates at once, while at the same time, it overdramatizes those scenes. It doesn’t utilize the long cutscenes for anything good. it still manages to waste time on useless shots, or useless dialogue, which is infuriating.

The final battles were filled with gimmicks that are constant interruptions to the fight, wrestling control away from you. Most of the game was okay in this aspect, but it is really ramped up for the final boss. The boss itself is underwhelming but what’s more underwhelming was the cutscenes afterwards that is supposedly the ending to the whole series that started from the very first game. It’s disappointing and a whole bunch of nothing but by this point, the story’s so convoluted but the ending’s so simple, that you simply do not care as it’s just that terrible. The game takes around 25 to 30 hours to complete, but there’s lot of things left to do such as the remaining collectibles as well as additional battles that are unlocked.

Overall, Kingdom Hearts 3 is a flawed game but that’s nothing new to the series. The battle system takes inspiration from previous games, but it isn’t quite as fun as a few of them (particularly the spin-offs like Birth by Sleep). It relies heavily on special attacks that take control away from you. The story is mediocre and is not worth the buildup of the many hours and games it took to get to this point. It’s told in a horrible way with extremely poor pacing and cinematography. There are pockets of fun and the graphics are impressive, given that you are now playing within the Disney Pixar movies now. For the end of the whole saga, it’s still worth playing, but don’t keep your hopes that high up.

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God of War Ragnarok (PS5)

God of War Ragnarok is the sequel to the rebooted game from 2018. It’s a third person puzzle hack and slash. If you’ve played the 2018 game, then this game will be instantly familiar, and maybe overly so. The core gameplay loop remains the same. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that the story starts a few years after the previous, where Atreus is now a teenager, although he remains quite annoying, especially in the earlier parts of the game where he’s rash and lacking the life experience of Kratos.

Still steeped in Norse mythology, Kratos and Atreus have been living in hiding, trying to avoid the consequences of their actions from the previous game. Ragnarok is coming, and they were okay to ride it out. However, they were forced into action. Kratos is the one that’s unwilling at first. He’s lost much of his bluster and rage from the original games, and displaying a lot more wisdom and reasonableness. Still, that only holds him back so far, and the story focuses on the father and son relationship, and how Kratos can sometimes struggle with connect with Atreus, and yet he really cares for him.

Gameplay wise, this is still a hack and slash. Kratos has two main weapons, his Leviathan Axe, and his Blades of Chaos. The axe is more suited for one-to-one combat, while the blades have a move set that makes clearing swarms of enemies easier. Light and heavy attacks are mapped to the right shoulder buttons. Complementing that is the ability to block using his shield. He can aim and throw either weapon at enemies. And through a combination of different button holds, Kratos can execute different moves. Completing his move set are Runic attacks that can be swapped in and out, depending on your preferences.

It’s a robust enough combat system, and it is a more personal system given that the camera is permanently closer to Kratos (no different than the 2018 game). This can also make it feel claustrophobic, as you’ll often get enemies flanking Kratos, where he’s facing the wrong way and needs to evade an incoming attack. Atreus is almost always there, and he can help during the battles by firing arrows or stunning the enemies. He’s mostly controlled by AI, but you have limited control such as having Atreus fire the arrows on command.

There is a light RPG system where Kratos and even Atreus gain experience. It isn’t used for leveling up in the most traditional sense but rather is used to unlock more moves. Use these new moves enough and they get enhancements, thereby encouraging the player to mix up combat (which you would also want to do to avoid combat getting too repetitive and stale). Furthermore, loot is a big part of the gameplay loop. Beating enemies will cause them to drop loot, but you’ll get most of them from exploration. There are always constant branches in the main path where there’ll be a chest hiding (and often, even in plain sight on the main path). To the point where the characters even make jokes about Kratos constantly diverging to find a crate. The loot is then used to upgrade his weapons, armor and other accessories.

Unfortunately, the game’s structure is already very similar to the 2018 game, and this game doesn’t evolve it much more. It instantly feels samey, and playing through the first ten hours, it ends up being predictable. This is because each chapter is structured almost the same in that you’ll explore, solve some puzzles, fight some enemies, get to the end with a bigger cutscene, and then make your way back fighting some more enemies. It’s tiring and feels like a lot of it is filler. Which can be said for the puzzles, most of the puzzles are simple, but can border on annoying. These puzzles can be boiled down to finding something for Kratos to throw his axe at to hit a switch, thereby breaking through an obstacle to progress. It’s not deep and while it is a good change of pace from the combat, it’s not… fun or satisfying.

And that brings us to the game’s biggest problem, there’s too much filler. The game’s story, measured in hours to finish, isn’t that long. It only takes 25 to 30 hours. However, it’s the feeling of the journey that makes it feel long. The original game could get away with something like this, given that was more about the personal journey between father and son. This game, on the other hand, is on a larger scale, and you can say that the story could be cut in half and you wouldn’t lose any of the impact. There are just too many slow scenes that are pointless. There are long treks of repetitive nature. The characters constantly get sidetracked. All too often, they need to go to a location but need something else first. So, they go there to get it, but then need another thing, taking a big loop only to not need to in the first place, and we get back to the original intent.

The story also takes way too long to get interesting; it literally takes 15 hours before we get to the first bit of truly interesting plot. The game starts off okay, with Odin and Thor visiting Kratos and Atreus, while they are still on the run from Freya hunting them down. It evolves to the pair needing to deal with Ragnarok, the prophecy that foretells Asgard’s (and thus Odin’s) downfall. But for most of the game, you don’t see much of them doing much about it, despite the urgency. It’s only until the last third of the game where it feels overly brief and rushed to wrap up the story. It feels as if the developers ran out of time to properly do it justice, yet they still managed to find time right before the titular Ragnarok to send Kratos on yet another pointless detour.

Once Kratos heads into the final fight, it’s over in little more than an hour. While the climax isn’t completely underwhelming, it felt like it tried to close things off too quickly. It doesn’t help that the game has an amazing ability to not really create a likeable character. Almost all of them are annoying and extremely flawed to the point of not even being good to hate. The finale doesn’t answer much either, or a lot of the teases earlier on are not touched upon. That’s the biggest disappointment of the game; it sets things up but then they’re either cast away or revealed to be pointless. It truly does feel like a waste of your time.

After the story, there are still a lot of side activities to do. Each area you’ve been to has huge sections where they are optional and not visited as part of the story. There are hours of content, but whether you want to do more of the same stuff is up to you. Despite the fantastic graphics, and the high production values, yet it still somehow loses the wow factor. The combat and RPG elements become overwhelming. There are multiple ways to upgrade equipment, and then the characters themselves. It’s easy to lose track of what you want to upgrade next. Combat has a lot of options, and by midway through the game, you can finally use it to your full advantage, which is rotating weapons and utilizing the special attacks. It makes combat a lot more varied and enjoyable, but due to the sheer number of options, can be easy to lose track of.

There’s still one more major piece of content after completing the story and that’s the free DLC, Valhalla. It acts as an epilogue to Kratos’ story, for both the Greek and the Norse saga. It is a rogue-like, but despite that, it is still very story heavy. You are supposed to play through “runs”, and completing a full run will give progress the story. Dying is expected (unless you’re playing on the easiest difficulty) and you get stronger after each run. Yes, you do lose the temporary bonuses you get from the run, but you can then buy permanent bonuses to get stronger each time. Naturally, this means that the DLC is heavily combat focused, which isn’t too bad and can become addictive. It takes around five to seven hours to complete, depending on the difficulty you play it at, and it is a very substantial piece of content, especially considering it was free.

Overall, God of War Ragnarok doesn’t come close to the highs of the 2018 game. It had all the essentials to be an even better game, with the graphics, the core battle system, and the story coming off such a great game. Instead, it felt like it was half a step forward, like it was an extension of the game, rather than a proper sequel. The combat felt iterative, and the story was told poorly. Being semi-open world means that the story pacing suffers, and it already suffers from being overly slow for 80% of the game. There’s too much filler in the game, and so it feels like it constantly loses focus, and thus nowhere near as epic as what you would expect from the series.

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