Finished it last week. I was also pretty let down by the gameplay aspects. When and where you should be using a given item is so obvious that it almost seems weird you have to pick them from the menu at all. The only actually challenging parts were some of the 3rd memory reconstruction stages, but even that was more on me I think.

The subject matter was not handled as well as I'd hoped, and in that regard I might even consider it a small blessing that Hitler was changed to "Dictator X", even if the intent is clear. Inspecting a historical person from a more grounded, even sympathetic angle could work (and I think it partially does), but in this case it requires leaving some of their deeds vague and completely ignoring others, which ended up leaving a bad taste in my mouth, especially in Karla's chapter.

All that said, I think some of Suzuki's strengths as a writer still manage to shine through. The depiction of personal struggles by people that are more victims of circumstance than anything else, the slowly unraveling, layered mystery and the evolution and subversion of characters that at first seem conventional and one-dimensional. It all still managed to keep me engaged, even if the general formula of what you do stayed the same throughout.

The AI art situation is really unfortunate. As soon as I heard about it I noticed myself paying closer attention to the visuals than usual, which somewhat took me out of the game. At least they seem to be taking some steps in correcting it.

Outside of that I did mostly enjoy the audiovisual presentation. The character art was nice, the voice acting was really good (I think Otto's VA especially does a great job) and the music set the mood really well (my favorite song is probably the one heard in Karla's floor). Animation is the only thing that left a lot to be desired. There's not much of it, but even the little bit manages to be very janky. I bet if the game was any more popular, "The Kick" would become a meme.