>>714215496 (OP)Feels like a really juiced up PS2 game, and I mean that in a good way. The gameplay itself isn't super complicated but it's easy to just sit down and enjoy exploring the levels. Which are genuinely really nice looking. The game is very graphically maximalist, from the enemies to the armor to the decorated shrines that serve as bonfires/checkpoints. Not too hard either, I beat a fair few bosses on my first attempt. The final boss is appropriately challenging though. All in all I beat it after about 28 hours. I'd recommend it if you miss when action games were called "Button Mashers" and they'd make about 3-4 a quarter. Honestly, the most baffling element is the stamina meter. It feels pretty tacked on, and a lot of skills you can unlock let you outright ignore it. It seems like they wanted to have certain elements from Dark Souls but it probably would've been better for the game to do it's own thing.
My only other thoughts are that the story is... very strange. It's very Chinese, which sounds obvious but the thing is, I've read Journey to the West and this game's story still confused me. If anything, reading the original myth just makes things worse because you'll be seeing tropes, themes, and characters from that myth being thrown around almost totally without context. Like does anyone ITT know that the pig guy with a rake that shows up halfway through the game is actually a major character from the original story? He's significant in that he's the only member of Wukong's party that doesn't ascend to enlightenment at the end. Which I guess explains why he's hanging around, since the game takes place after JttW.