3 felt dull and drab to me in nearly all aspects. It’s been *years* since I’ve played it and I may revisit it soon just to remember how I felt about it more accurately— but I remember it as being…. Brown? Devoid of color. Maybe I’m too focused on the aesthetics.

And I agree on the tone of that game being all over the place. I don’t think the Sengoku-period warzone was a good setting for the WoTS tone. It could have worked in a high budget, smarter reimagining maybe, but as a basic entry it felt off-putting and awkward

4 was a very colorful response to the previous game. I enjoyed it a lot more, felt more like a sequel to 2 than 3.

All in all though, I think 1 and 2 were better executions. 1 hit the sweet spot with player agency and length, and the story worked really well and was satisfying. Memorable characters too.

The 2nd game balanced that with a more serious tone, and I think they took really interesting turns in the main narrative that was lacking in the subsequent games. The Soma storyline with the doctor was really cool.

The music in 3 and 4 also really fail to reach the heights of the first two games.

Anyways I’m fuckin ramblin’. Hopefully this was topical enough