Personally, I actually gave it a negative review. The exploration generally is very fun, but so much of the levels, activities, combat ranged from unimpressive to infruriating. It’s basically carried by just being open-world Sonic, which is a formula for success.
I actually enjoyed the open-world HUB of Shadow Generations, and the game as a whole, much more. In fact, that game probably set my expectations too high, even knowing Frontiers was infamously janky.
Continuing Metaphor: ReFantazio. It’s the most consistently polished game Atlus made (that I played) in years, though maybe SMT VV has a chance once I get to it. The only ones that come to mind are Persona 5/Royal (however much I prefer P3 and P4), and Etrian Odyssey V. Both of which had longer development times compared to their series, who knew?
My only complaint is that it doesn’t have any 10/10 aspect that I’d love, most of my favourite games are somewhat flawed anyway, as long as they have that special aspect that clicks. But then, Persona 3 had nothing like that until the endgame, so there’s still time for it to surprise me.
Yakuza 0 goes through all the emotions with its storytelling: you start by singing karaoke, then become a fugitive, you go bowling, lose a friend, watch a dirty video…
Also, holy shit, most of you guys missed the point. Edit: Wait, did I miss the point? I thought this post was about wrong games for funsies
Though you DO actually fight a god in Yakuza 5 as a sidequest.
Started Trauma Center 2 and 7th Dragon 2020, both sequels to games I played last year. The first one I only played for 10-20 minutes so far though, the latter would probably be unbearable without turbo mode via emulation. Actually, 7th Dragon DS already was, but the story and setting is mildly neat, and I might be hungry for games with more party building. If you fast forward to the dragon/boss fights it’s alright.
Hard pick because I listen to a game or series for a while, then another. Just today I went and listened to a lot of Sonic tracks, which I do once every few months. I guess Atlus games (SMT, Persona, EO), Metal Gear Rising, Ace Attorney, TWEWY are in the lead off the top of my head, but after a month I might give a different answer. My relaxing music playlist is mostly the official classical arrangements of Etrian Odyssey 1+2, so let’s go with that.
To clarify, I meant that I’m fine with multiple things not being 10/10 (I was thinking of Metaphor as a 9/10 across the board, assuming a 10/10 is something I say about things very rarely) as long as some one thing is, like just the ending or just gameplay. I’m not consisent with that though anyways, I thought that Dark Souls 1 really does have 10/10 world exploration early on, yet I don’t like it because of a lot of other problems. It’s all really just gut feelings in the end, it was the best way I could explain why Metaphor feels like it’s missing something.