PlayStation

I call it review awareness with real people who aren't scared of being blacklisted highlighting and informing normal people of aspects of the game paid reviewers ignore and don't bother to go back and update their score out of fear.

Could it just be that review bombing as a term has come to mean people mobilising to negatively review a game and not necessarily being linked to it being a scummy practice? I'm not very familiar with too many instances of it happening, but can accept that in reading this review that the author does seem to agree with people doling out the negative reviews for the bait and switch on microtransactions.

Yeah. Between putting basic game feature additional charges (you can still get them, but with money you get it faster) behind a paywall and the shit-tastic performance issues, I definitely expected it to get terrible reviews.

So you think the ratings people are giving it reflect a balanced consideration of all the game's aspects including story, gameplay, graphics, art direction, sound design, and the existence of microtransactions for things trivially earnable in normal gameplay?

I'm all for people sending a giant middle finger to publishers putting in unnecessary cash grabs into games by hitting them where it hurts in reviews (which do impact lifetime sales numbers).

But let's not try to call this anything but what it is. Giving zero score reviews for something you don't like existing in the game (whether gender options to microtransactions) irrespective of the quality of the game outside of those things existing is literally "review bombing."

It's ok to be that, and it serves an important protest function in the industry, but let's call a spade a spade here.

You can still play the first one, dark arisen is also currently in the second tier of PS+ and worth to at least look at :)

It's excellent and the microtransactions are literally pointless cash grabs added in after development.

I'm about 20 hours in, having an absolute blast with probably my most enjoyed RPG in years, and I literally have too many of every item in the cash store except one that I know I'll eventually have quite enough of too, especially on what's a certain NG+ for me.

The game itself is outstanding. The protest against CAPCOM throwing BS into single player games is warranted, but if you like action RPGs don't accidentally cut off your nose in spite by passing on a gem of a game with a greedy publisher.

There's literally not anything in the store you should buy and doing so will reduce your enjoyment of the game rather than enhance it. It's the opposite of Ubisoft where gameplay pacing is designed with things like XP boosts in mind.

The store is simply there to trick whales and suckers as an afterthought, and those who do purchase certain items will harm their gameplay loops.