I don't think so.  It's not the same as "it makes you feel like Batman," but it's a fairly popular saying to use across all sorts of media.  Like, if Stephen King tried to get into low-effort Patterson crime novels, many book critics (internet or print) would use "return to form" once he returned with a horror classic.  

I'm on the fence atm, depending on schedule and convenience.  Sent out code requests for the hell of it, but didn't receive a response.  Perhaps that was for the best since the decision is ultimately up to me (unless another writer requests it first).

I wouldn't exactly call it niche: 

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=%22return+to+form%22%2C+%22regardless%22&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&case_insensitive=true&corpus=en&smoothing=3

There's no way "return to form" is a niche expression, it's an extremely common expression when something which was once good, then becomes shit, then becomes good again. It's like the most common expression used for that description. Last two Bioware titles were fucking Andromeda then Anthem and Anthem was absolutely brutalised in reviews so yes to many, Dragon Age Veilguard would represent a "return to form"

I looked through the Super Mario Party Jamboree reviews, and found this many instances of the phrase, and that's despite Mario Party not being some wildly acclaimed franchise. Some of these are for 8/10 reviews. Some of them are not in reference to Super Mario Party Jamboree, but are talking about previous titles. But still, it's not some ultra niche turn of phrase, that would cause suspicion, unless you're actively trying to look for an excuse to be suspicious.  

https://mynintendonews.com/2024/10/15/review-super-mario-party-jamboree/

"The original Super Mario Party was a return-to-form for the classic board game mode"

https://www.cubed3.com/review/10001/1/super-mario-party-jamboree-nintendo-switch.html

"Nintendo then went full circle in the second Switch entry, Mario Party Superstars; a celebration of the original games and what fans argue was a return to form."

"But Jamboree fortunately feels like more of a return to form."

https://www.thegamer.com/super-mario-party-jamboree-review/

"Super Mario Party Jamboree is a return to form for a series that stumbled as it arrived on the Switch"

https://checkpointgaming.net/reviews/2024/10/super-mario-party-jamboree-review-time-to-party/

Super Mario Party, the first in the series to hit the switch, acted as a sort of ‘return to form’, ditching the much-maligned car of Mario Party 10 in favour of classic Mario Party goodness.

I'd also just throw out a few other things: 

1.) If people are using AI to help write their reviews, it's totally feasible for these kinds of expressions to come up an unusual number of times.

2.) If people are seeing certain phrasing being used, it can subconsciously cause it to get used more often. For example if Dragon Age: The Veilguard was getting advertised as a "return to form", that would probably be enough to cause it to be mentioned more often, even in a negative sense. "Dragon Age strives to be a return to form, but it fails to turn around Bioware's momentum." 

Or if reviewers are sharing reviews or reading other reviews. If I were looking at other reviews, trying to figure out what all I wanted to cover in mine or worse, if I just wanted to blatantly plagiarize, again, you'd easily find the same kinds of phrasing would be used. Or even, if someone just asked them "if they felt it was a return to form for Bioware". 

There's lots of different ways to "suggest" someone to use a phrase. 

If there were some kind of conspiracy to have this phrasing show up, I'd expect the opposite of what actually happened, to happen. 5-10 reviewers using the phrasing is not actually suspicious. If only a few reviews didn't use the phrase, then I'd be suspicious. 

Journalist do all run in the same circles so I suppose picking up each others lingo would be fairly common.

It is a continuous reminder of how crap modern journalism is lol. I was never the best writer in school but one thing I absolutely remember my writing teacher always reminding us every time it was time to write a paper (because he would never shut up about it) was it had to be unique. He never wanted to see what would be considered traditional terms. He would always say writing is about moving beyond your comfort zone and discovering what is possible. Like an art form.

He would have given all these "journalists" an F

Most modern day journalism is typically either lazily written, has some sort of activism involved, a hit piece, or a grown child complaining. 

Larian Studios Head of Publishing gave a better review than 99% of the journalists who were actually paid to write a review lol. Whether you agree with his review or not, he presents a well-articulated opinion. 

Those Steam numbers look pretty woeful, been keeping an eye on it over the weekend. 89k peak concurrent players on the first weekend is quite poor - even Star Wars: Outlaws did 116k in a similar time-frame. I know that Veilguard is sold on Origin (EA App) as well, but that's a far smaller platform overall. I imagine the overall sales numbers will be far more skewed towards consoles this time around (and the entire game is more or less designed around this as well), but even then, it doesn't look like a huge hit. Inquisition has moved over 12 million units in total, this is unlikely to ever come close to that, by the looks of it. I think EA would have published some official figures already if it was an avalanche of a release; they were quick enough to brag about breaking peak concurrent player records on Steam, after all.

I have no more or less interest in the game based on sales numbers, but lower sales could entail some sort of lesson learned in the long run, if only by other developers and publishers. User scores are a shitshow, as expected, peppered with comically low and comically high scores with obvious intentions beyond the game itself. It's become a really stupid concept altogether. At the end of the day, aggregate bullshit is still bullshit.

Finished the game just under 60 hours. Overall quite average.

I enjoyed the beginning and ending the most. Post credits scene was disappointing.

Average means two things these days, average 5/10 or average 7/10?

I'd say 5-6/10

7/10 is good imo. 8 is great. 9 is outstanding. 10 is excellent