I feel strange somehow as I really don't enjoy this as a game.
Presentation and art design is great, the visuals have a very unique quality and the soundtrack is enjoyable.
Yes, there's lots a variety in regards to changing up the basic runner formula every few seconds, but somehow it still feels rather samey and has some serious mechanical issues: touch controls are pretty much unplayable and even with a controller it feels loose, especially when you have to navigate narrow places - I couldn't imagine going for gold in most levels because of this.
The story is, well... okay, I guess? I actually don't think projects like this or e.g. Rez even need one. But if you have to set up a narrator to basically explain the point to get it across feels like some kind of failure.
So I guess what I'm trying to say is that I feel like Sayonara Wild Hearts is a great audiovisual experience, but a let down as a game (while e.g. Rez Infinite ranks in my all-time top 10).
Yeah, I'm just finishing it up now and I'm so mixed on this. I love the visual/audio presentation but the shortness of it and the ultra-simplistic gameplay to the point where sometimes I feel it's just one long QTE the game (aka Asura's Wrath x Rez x Tempest if Suda51 made it is how I'd describe this the most) that I just don't know.
I feel like I enjoy this at like a 7/10 while playing but appreciate the art experience of it and will listen to the soundtrack instead of playing the game after.
At times I also feel like these stages would be
awesome parts of a much bigger meatier game. They remind me of the kind of segments I would find in a good Suda51 game, but those would be meaty 10-20 hour games and these would be varied creative highs within them. On its own, it's just so....shallow? I mean unless there's a upside down castle kinda thing after I finish these last couple stages, the entire thing is what? 90 mins?
Also I feel like the longer boss stages are the best and the short 30-60 second stages are kinda pointless. Would rather have had fewer stages but all substantial length like an arcade level.
So far the best stage has been the VR glasses boss because that felt the most "gameplay" out of everything so far and was basically a little shmup with ultra cool presentation. Actually just did the bow stage and that was good too since it was closer to a Sin & Punishment/Panzer Dragoon gameplay.
As a lover of Rez and Rez Infinite, definitely feel like this is trying to be Rez, but the gameplay is nowhere near as good.
fwiw, playing it on the phone with a DS4 & headphones. Could see it being nicer on a big tv, but don't like it enough to buy it.
*edit* ok, finished it. Nice experience, glad to have experienced it, will keep the soundtrack on play for awhile, but yeah everytime the game actually had more real gameplay mechanics and I'd start dying, it'd be like "oh wait, it's actually a game now!", just weird experience overall.
I think maybe if the game moved slower it'd feel more like real gameplay in the runner sections. The speed is so fast a lot of it feels like trial & error and memorization vs reacting and "playing".