Prefacing this by saying that I adored playing this game and still do, easily a top 5 for the year, and I can't wait to get back in to it again to find all the secrets and collectibles I missed.

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That being said, I hated almost all of Chapter XVI: Coronation. I think I understand what the game was going for, showing how Hugo's control of the Macula and the growth of the characters have turned them into an unstoppable force, and how that power also has the potential to put them on a dark path. But the pivot from stealth-em-up to killing everybody was really jarring, and I feel like the mechanics of the game are ill-suited to support that style of play. Even with most of the upgrades the sling isn't fast enough to take out more than two guards that are rushing you down before needing to run away and make space, and that's not to mention the enemies who need to be hit with multiple different ammos and/or rats in quick succession in order to take down (i.e. the armored dudes with fire maces). Part of the frustration was my own stubbornness in initially trying to keep to my stealth/distraction tactics, and I'm sure better players than me can figure out a way to do it, but I always felt pressured to take the lethal route in this chapter, when in previous chapters I felt like both options were viable, with their own advantages and drawbacks. The rats also were inconsistent in whether or not they would be willing to listen to my commands. More than once I would have to retry a section and the rats, which originally had been willing to stop eating and attack a new guard, would no longer listen, or vice versa.

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But the absolute worst part was the cart section. I tried and failed that section probably about fifteen times before making it all the way through. Initially I was confused on whether or not I was supposed to try and fend off the archers and died a couple times from a guard I didn't see coming or extending too far to shoot an archer. But after I started to ignore the archers and focus just on the guards, the area where I was actually safe from arrows didn't always seem to make sense. Several times I got shot down by an arrow while completely pressed up against the side of the cart. On top of that, the autosave for this section is before opening the area to Roderick's home/forge, so if I just wanted to grab the exsanquinis in the alley I'd have to go through the entire conversation every single time I failed the cart.

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On a more positive note, I did enjoy the boss fight against Vitalis. I thought it was a clever twist to be assisting the rats by putting out fires (an aspect of the chapter as a whole that I did think was an interesting reversal from the game up to that point) and directing them to disrupt the white rat swarms.

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What do you guys think? Did you enjoy this chapter? How do you feel about the change in gameplay? Am I just bad at video games? (the answer to that question is yes)