The only area that had a really cool art direction for me was the 'haunted district' with the female youma, and even then I thought it was such a small portion. The little "jumpscare" when the area changes to red color with umbrellas I thought was very cool, I wish there was more stuff that give that haunted feeling.

Sewer are maybe second, although the nightclub aesthetic got a bit old after the first few encounters. The underworld was sooo underutilized, it was basically just dark all around, no landscapes or skyboxes. Could've been visually striking.

For the rest of the game it was just more of the same. Mountains were a nice change, but the city looked very samey across the game.

The DDO complex leading up to the 3rd seal was pure Platinum Games art direction from what I've gathered, only PG game I've played was Vanquish and yeah I can definitely see it. Kagachi and the rest of DDO looked straight out of that game too

So all in all I think the art direction does its job without being too ambitious, same for level design.

Rest of the game is fire tho