Alan Wake is a game that should be right up my alley, but I don’t think it’s a particularly good game. It’s very repetitive, the gameplay doesn’t evolve that much. The story is fine, and the world is interesting. I haven’t played the sequel, particularly because I didn’t really enjoy my time with the first, but I’ve heard it’s much improved over the first.

I think it might be my favourite of the Ys series, to be honest. So simple and fun.

The latter two are a much more broad and prevalent issue in the gaming industry overall. No need for the whataboutism.

It completely killed any narrative cohesion or pay-off by just ending. I remember thinking “it’s been a really long time… how are they going to wrap this up?”

Turns out the answer is “don’t wrap it up”. It truly makes me not recommend it - though I had other issues with it aside from just that absurd decision. Rewatch the first again, instead.