>original pitch starred a little girl and a dinosaur but at the insistence of Microsoft, the protagonist was changed to a "cool guy" and the dinosaur replaced with a dragon as How to Train Your Dragon was extremely popular at the time
>"contemporary" open world (i.e. Ubisoft template) but also with Zelda-style dungeons dotted around the map
>combat was not entirely removed from the kinds of games Platinum typically make but was intentionally made more simplistic than DMC or Bayonetta
>heavy emphasis on equipment for both the protagonist and dragon
>"extreme" boss fights that were inspired by Monster Hunter
>some bosses took the form of Panzer Dragoon-esque shooting sequences
>the dragon communication system ("Dragon Link") was recycled into Astral Chain and Bayonetta 3
>the dragon could be customized across three styles - the all-rounder "rex" class, the aerial attack-oriented "wyvern" class and the "tank" class - that would be swappable at save points
>envisaged as a single player game but Microsoft was adamant on wanting multiplayer - this took the form of being able to summon other players for certain dungeon sequences and boss fights
>dozens of licensed tracks including songs from The Prodigy and Deep Purple which would be listenable at any time via the protagonist's headphones

Could it have actually been good or does everything we've learned about it over the years just make it seem like a mess?