I tried. I really did. Being so critically lauded, I battled with the feeling that I must be missing something. Many hours of unsatisfying combat, constant interruptions from either robotic or otherwise insufferable characters and eyerolling minigames. Turns out; it’s nostalgia and anime-brain that I’m missing, and if you don’t have those, the game is an admirably wide-scoped and gorgeous to look at chore. I get it, there’s a great game here for those predisposed to its sensibilities… but sadly that’s not me.

Full of potential and has glimmers of greatness, but ultimately lands somewhere between dull and painful.

Looks great and has cool ideas, but overall its lack of depth and challenge left me pretty unengaged. Combat is kinda fun but somehow not particularly satisfying. Fans of the franchise will enjoy it.

Strangely mismarketed as a Destiny competitor, but in reality more of ‘just’ a co-op adventure shooter than ongoing MMO. Some very smart ideas, but doesn’t stick the landing.

If you thought this IP was a strange fit for a Destiny-like, you’d be right. It’s OK when it works, but is mostly clumsy, confused, forced and buggy. Combat is OK, movement is clunky. Should be f2p.

More of the same from the quality reboot trilogy. Unsurprisingly, this one steps up the visuals and adds a couple of mechanics, but is likely the weakest as far as plot goes. Still a good game though.

To be clear, this is a very good game. I couldn’t get into it, however. The design is clever and ‘endings’ very cool. But the setting, characters, movement & navigation frustrated me to a distracting degree.

At launch, fresh and exciting. A level of polish and characterisation not really seen in PVP-focused shooters before. Devolved a bit over time, seemingly driven by meta enforcement, unsure whether to target the pro or casual scene.