Beat the game last night. Going to land on a 9/10. I loved the game. Right up at the top of my favorite games this year short list (probably 2nd place).
I felt the final boss was pretty impressive in design and move set; had some interesting moves and was pretty challenging the first few times for sure. Virtually all the bosses were high quality with fair tells, interesting moves. Story had some cool beats and leaves the door open for more (and it would be awesome), which we sadly will probably never get. The characters were great, and the lore and world they created was really enjoyable. They really nailed that fun and admirable comradery for the Sappers, and it's probably one of my favorite fantasy job classes ever. Just inserting a civil war / WWI era soldier into a fantasy world is such a fun concept. Nora and Enki were easily my favorite characters of the year so far, both with flaws and positive traits, both with subtle character growth that didn't feel overbearing for an action game. I guess this team is from New Zealand, and you can pick up on that cool Kiwi toughness in the Sapper dialogue, reminded me a bit of the stuntmen talking in the LOTR behind the scenes stuff (that's about all I've seen of New Zealand).
And as I've said above in most of my other posts in the thread, the combat was incredible in this game. It's just rare that I am having so much fun with specific abilities in the skill tree that I'm gushing about just an ability, but I felt that way on multiple of them. Sapper Punch, Poise Shot, Shadow Partner, mortar shot, the critical hits that explode curse everywhere, and more. Just was great. The game's mobility was awesome as well, and the game has enjoyable platforming and warp shortcuts throughout.
Definitely going to buy this at some point soon to own it, and will replay it in a bit on the hardest difficulty. No new game+ as far as I can tell, FYI. Again, only real weakness was the OST was just a bit too hands off and subtle; felt absent. And I did have some audio bugs that they need to fix, but that was it. And for the record I literally didn't see a single "woke" thing in the game, so congrats on killing the game for nothing I guess.
This will go down as one of the most underrated action RPGs of all time considering the inexplicable and idiotic responses I've seen to this game. Wouldn't be the first time.