izigame.me

I've mostly been playing the PS5 version and I have a bit over 8 hours in that so my sentiments are based on that but truth be told at first, like maybe my first two hours or so the game wasn't clicking with me, I liked the movie, cartoon, etc. and I like Heart&Slash, I had a lot to be excited about pre-release but when it was finally in my hands combat felt strangely limited and restricted and I felt so defeated because I liked everything else, but once I started getting midway through the skill tree and started really paying attention to the demonstration vids and looking at my move-lists, It really started to come together and now I've been having a blast with this game, the one I was hoping for before release.
The Persona inspired elements of the game are greater than expected and a big part of the games charm, the time management, presentation and social links are pretty much pulled straight from those games while the social links don't have the same level of nuance, the stories told within them are simple, heartwarming and/or have great dialogue bits, there's one with Michelangelo that homages the classic NES Turtles game, in a really fun way, you can tell the people behind this were not just fans of Mutant Mayhem but the Turtles in general.
The 3D Platforming aspect while subdued in comparison to the Hack & Slash and Persona stuff, is still very much involved and feels like all the best parts of the 2007 TMNT movie game's movement without the drawbacks, and there are cases where the movement and platforming really get to shine, in the pizza delivery challenges which are set up like obstacle courses and very much designed to encourage flow and speed-running, for the first time in a long time we've got a TMNT game utilizing the ninja aspect of them for more than just fighting.
The combat is probably the most important part of this game for most, and I'm seeing comparisons to Yakuza and the TMNT 03 games and to those people feel how you want to I've played both of those, but honestly this is a character action game, its got its own flair and feel overall, but it blatantly is inspired by Devil May Cry, right down to enemies getting their own introduction scenes, to the slow-mo zoom on the finishing blow dealt in an encounter, to straight up lifting the style meter mechanic and I mean wholesale the ranking will stagnate if you continue to use the same attacks over and over again you're encouraged to mix it up, XP is pretty much red orbs, each of the turtles not only fights differently within their moves but they all have their own mini-mechanics pretty much ensuring that they are to be approached differently, We've had two other great TMNT games before this, Shredder's Revenge and Splintered Fate, but my biggest qualms with those is how Identical each character feels to control, I'm happy to report this game doesn't have that design choice and for me that'll do wonders for replayability.
But it took a while to click, there's no jump cancelling and while you can guard or roll cancel some moves you can't do it for all of them.
The game's enemies actually attack at a pretty frantic pace so for me its a little odd for your attacks to typically feel more like a commitment, I was so fixated on this early on and it took a while for me to get comfortable but please stick with it, the longer you play this game the more new features, side activities, mechanics etc. get introduced in addition to the skill-trees and move-lists getting quite deep and opening up your options tenfold, there are a number of people jumping to review this barely 1 or 2 hours in, and I'm saying it myself I wasn't won over early on but the game really does start taking off as you play.
I should just address the game as it is, and not the sentiments I've seen thrown around on this discussion board but there's a lot of weird takes regarding identity politics, or a lack of online co-op, or something insane in between, while the latter would have been nice, the developer has never made an online game and If it came down to investing resources into the games various features and mechanics or cutting back on them to implement an online function that to be honest isn't all that suitable for this game, as it's really story/narrative driven and there would be a ton of time passed outside of the action bits where a second player doesn't get to do anything, I understand opting for the former, not to mention most character action games are single player anyway, that they squeezed in 2 players at all is kind of a feat in itself.
There is just a strange amount of people trying to get their dream TMNT out of a $39.99 AA release with it's own unique ideas and people aren't judging it for what it is, rather they're judging it for what they want out of some hypothetical ninja turtles game.
I think this game more than justifies its asking price, it is roughly 12-15 hours in length and that is without completion, 4 characters to master if you're the type to dig deep in these games, a cool dynamic difficulty mechanic that introduces itself a few hours in, and even fun little bonuses, like unlocking really cool alternate costumes for each character, and you can decorate the lair with graffiti you find in stages there's a shocking amount to see and do in it and there's going to be an extra mode released soon enough that will no doubt bolster it's replay value even further.
It's not perfect the game takes a minute at least for me to really come together, took well over 2 hours for me to start liking it wholesale, the camera not often but early in the game and in rare cases there are encounters where it feels like its there for enemies to utilize it against you, there's a couple goofy instances of collision jank, and unfortunately their are some bugs I have the game essentially soft lock itself 2 or 3 times, forcing me to reset a level or an activity, but these issues aren't really enough to get me to not recommend it, and hopefully we see some patches for bugfixes and QoL add ons.
This game is a clear labor of love I feel like I had to say my piece on it with how things are going atm despite preferring to wait until I've finished it, if you like TMNT and you're contemplating it but not sure because of the price or anything go for it, game is completely aware of it's price tag and does everything and more to justify it.
This is the best 3D TMNT game to date and one of their best game outings in general, and probably the first genuinely good game out of Outright Games(no offense) Would love to see more like it some day.