Yeah I jumped in when the suspend cycle was already there.
Still got super frustrated and hated on the game…
Then found out that you could upload a paused cycle to the cloud and download after death!
Then it became my favorite Sony game ever.
I no longer have PS+ though. No more saves for me! But I saw that you can mod PC version to get unlimited reconstructor usage. But you still have to be lucky enough to find one.
I really just want a manual save before a boss. Let my try again without another hour of playing only to die again.
Anyhow Astrobot nearly beat Returnal for me. At first! But I don't think Astro held up for a whole playthrough, there was so little challenge that it became tedious to replay levels to find all bots. I stayed to get the Platinum but I doubt I'll replay it.
Ratchet is among my favorites as well. It was like playing a Pixar quality movie. Superb localization too, movie quality, best ever during my 40+ years gaming. I could play through it for my youngest ones without having to translate anything!