Honestly, I love the music and graphics for the time the game came out.

The music is pretty well done.

The story is... eh. Pretty uninteresting and sometimes completely incoherent but if the combat is well done it doesn't matter (spoiler alert, it isn't!)

The combat and game-play mechanics are like watching a promising child commit suicide right in front of my eyes.
There are so many things wrong with the mechanics of this game, not at a fundamental level, but at an execution level.

Camera system is a total train-wreck, as was the case for most third person PlayStation games at the time. The lock-on feature works maybe 15% of the time and there is no in-wall transparency. I shouldn't require mods to play the game comfortably.

Parrying is like dark souls if dark souls parrying was wildly inconsistent and didn't give you a guaranteed opportunity to deal significant damage to the enemy.

Most combat mechanics are taught through tutorials that... get this... aren't even taught in the story but that you have to leave the story and do separately????????????????

This is probably the worst aspect of this game... like what the f-? It's not like there are a lack of fights in the game where opportunities could arise for combat mechanics to be taught, other than the very VERY basics. So many other games do this without fail, even long before 2013. I would name them but the list includes... basically all AAA games made after 2000. I shouldn't have to watch a 15 minute tutorial just to understand how to use the mechanics of the game. HELL, even the menu where you unlock new moves doesn't even tell you how to use them! Platinum has done all of these things correctly in their previous games, so why it's so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ terrible in this one is entirely beyond me.

In conclusion, I recommend this game only if you intend to play it for 1 hour and 59 minutes then refund it. Because there is no way in hell anyone should be paying 30 dollars for a half baked attempt at a hack and slash game, even if it comes from Platinum.

Honestly, I love the music and graphics for the time the game came out. The music is pretty well done. The story is... eh. Pretty uninteresting and sometimes completely incoherent but if the combat is well done it doesn't matter (spoiler alert, it isn't!) The combat and game-play mechanics are like watching a promising child commit suicide right in front of my eyes. There are so many things wrong with the mechanics of this game, not at a fundamental level, but at an execution level. Camera system is a total train-wreck, as was the case for most third person PlayStation games at the time. The lock-on feature works maybe 15% of the time and there is no in-wall transparency. I shouldn't require mods to play the game comfortably. Parrying is like dark souls if dark souls parrying was wildly inconsistent and didn't give you a guaranteed opportunity to deal significant damage to the enemy. Most combat mechanics are taught through tutorials that... get this... aren't even taught in the story but that you have to leave the story and do separately???????????????? This is probably the worst aspect of this game... like what the f-? It's not like there are a lack of fights in the game where opportunities could arise for combat mechanics to be taught, other than the very VERY basics. So many other games do this without fail, even long before 2013. I would name them but the list includes... basically all AAA games made after 2000. I shouldn't have to watch a 15 minute tutorial just to understand how to use the mechanics of the game. HELL, even the menu where you unlock new moves doesn't even tell you how to use them! Platinum has done all of these things correctly in their previous games, so why it's so fucking terrible in this one is entirely beyond me. In conclusion, I recommend this game only if you intend to play it for 1 hour and 59 minutes then refund it. Because there is no way in hell anyone should be paying 30 dollars for a half baked attempt at a hack and slash game, even if it comes from Platinum.