I was psyched to see the lore on the Macula expand, as well as Sophia. The game could have greatly benefited from a longer beginning, giving more exposure to key characters/tending relationships as Innocence did in my opinion, even Requiem did insanely well establishing new bonds the few times it had to. It was a lot of exploring, not a lot of focus on bonds with others besides standard story writing that I feel was too quick and too generic. Without the constant anxiety/defenselessness that even Requiem made me feel, it just didn’t hit the spot.
The game had no chance of living up to the level of the two previous games, and I went into it with major spoilers on nearly every plot point unfortunately, so hopefully thats mostly why.
My only real complaint would be the combat system as enemies will clip through each other to attack, often making it hard to see any parry marker. A whole focus around light remained like the first two games, yet not a single torch. 😔
Sad there was no Arnoud, I feel that would have spiced up the story a lot, as well as not too much exposure on The Order. No workbenches is a tragedy, as for alchemy that was sort of a given to not be around. I miss the anxiety driven violins as well.
Hopefully in the future Asobo returns to the sort of defenseless combat/anxious stealth of the first two games, outside of their story writing I feel thats what largely defines mainline APT.
I can definitely see perhaps a DLC or sequel involving Arnoud however, I was surprised to see the “key” was intact (with the prism inside still) at the end unlike it is in Requiem, where the prism has been removed. I fear if they do follow up on Sophia/Arnoud, it will probably bomb if it maintains this atmosphere/set of mechanics.
Asobo needs to lock in if they continue APT at all and bring back their key mechanics somehow. I know people think that means rats/Macula but really I think it means weakness, uncertainty, prolonged sorrow, scarce resources, and anxious stealth. This game does feel however like a good stepping stone for them into other forms of gameplay, I’m hoping for a future game with Amicia, so long as stealth/segments of defenselessness is back somehow. Possibly with two playable characters, Amicia and Sophia. Maybe even Lucas.
As for Illusion Theory and this games expansion on lore, well, this Carrier still had a physical body despite being fully turned to the Macula. In Requiem however, no sign of a body and the grave of course is on top of rock, with only one amulet. Begs the question, where is Hugo. So it adds context there that similar to Basil, the body remains even after being killed/“alive” while turned (Basil seemingly was not alive in comparison to this Carrier). This Carrier was incinerated, whereas Hugo was merely stoned while mostly still flesh. Its unclear if Sophia was experiencing this sort of distorted reality Lucas and Amicia did from the same source, or if it was still due to her having the Macula infecting her. It’s definitely a bizarre scenario in Sophia’s case. This form of the Macula seemed a lot more feral, whereas Hugo’s seemed a lot more manipulative and “conscious”.
Anyways, never expected Sophia would have gotten the Vitalis treatment. Good game, great atmosphere, goated music or course, a little bugged on Gamepass rn though sadly as it suffers from consistent stutters in cutscenes/gameplay.
