Won't even touch the part of having difficult selection (story mode - which void one trophy, normal - the way it is supposed to be played, or hard) nor the fact that the game have and additional challenge setting if you decide to go for the good route (a lot less experience, like I finished the game on level 26 while for trophy I had a backup save before the point of no return and done a portion of the evil route - like 30-50% - and that put me on level 45... but from what I read online seems like that this way of leveling up also levels up the enemies, my final boss was level 30 while some people had it at level 50, and since the useable skills for me were all on a good level at 26 it seems like it was a good choice).
Now to what I wanted to say. The game have some bugs, lags (like when you open the map to check the route, when you go back the char will be frozen for like couple seconds so if you were running from enemies they may close in or even hit you) and a very slow loading (this make the retry portion of the game a little problematic). But on the good side your only punishment for dying besides the loading is that you'll revive on the start of the section (like before entering a building/area or a just in front of that gate after passing it, it is done to ensure you don't return already in front of enemies so you can decide to engage or change route, go back, etc), on the bad side battles almost don't grant you experience (it is like 5 to 10 xp per enemy) and didn't verify if the loot is between entering the area and dying is lost (what I can say is that whatever item, ammo, etc you have used will be consumed and lost).
The battles of course are very unforgiving and several times unfair as I was constantly at least 5 levels less than enemies, sometimes even 15 levels below and mostly 10 levels apart, a advice I can give is weapon upgrade will make this less problematic and my choice was the two handed weapon with stun properties (you can upgrade it and damage will be automatic, plus you can choose either 10% more damage (sum up to 50%) or extra stun points). With this weapon I could stun most regular foes in 3 hits and either bite them to recover my stamina on the long frame of the blood sucking, which makes their stun gage increase a lot each time you do, or if not many enemies are around wait in position to recover stamina and restun the enemy faster since he will recover with partial and non-increased gage (discovered this could be very useful against bosses only when I reached the final boss which had second phase non stuneable, wish I had discovered this earlier).
Another aspect of battle that I discovered only by the end is that chaining is mostly pointless with the weapon I had (very short range) since the enemy will be throw a little back and your hit animation you take small step back and besides using more stamina it is easier for the enemy to try and get back at you. One swing at a time on the frame of the enemy will mostly keep him without being able to fight back (of course when there are a lot of enemies it is better to give a 3 hit combo and evade back to recover stamina).
All in all the game was very enjoyable and solid despise the shortcomings and who have saved it when given on PS+ I recommend a play. Let's discuss it and if you want me to comment on any other portion please just ask. The story is good enough, the chat on city (despise the silly repeat of the greetings every time you talk again to the same char) and sidequests are cool. The environment and ambience of the game is very good, while the graphic is below average.
duduspace11 "Well, since we are estimating costs, Pokemon Red/Blue did cost Nintendo about $50m to make back in 1996"
http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=8808363
Mr Puggsly: "Hehe, I said good profit. You said big profit. Frankly, not losing money is what I meant by good. Don't get hung up on semantics"
http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9008994
Azzanation: "PS5 wouldn't sold out at launch without scalpers."