It was astonishingly bad.

I think I can honestly say I've never played a game that controlled this poorly. For a game constructed entirely of bosses battles that focus primarily on platforming elements, it's an enormous detriment when play control is this unresponsive. Why does the main character never seem to move in the same direction I'm pushing the analog stick? Why is he able to cling to the colossi's fur like a motherfucker one moment, and then clip right through their armor the next? Why won't the fucking camera stay still? And for the love of god, why would you develop a game this epic in scope for a system that clearly cannot handle it? I'd be surprised if the framerate rises above 15fps at any point during ANY of the individual colossus battle. It's as close to unplayable as a playable game has ever been.

Oddly enough, I got all the way to the ninth colossus (the one you're supposed to flip with the geysers) before giving up. And now I want to go back and finish it (and probably will the next time I'm in New Holland). The game is so artistically beautiful, and the soundtrack so fantastic, that I found myself oddly compelled to continue playing. I get the feeling that if they'd ironed out the controls and designed it for a console that could actually handle its scale, I'd find myself totally agreeing with all these rave reviews.

Really, I hate that the game has this hold over me. It's literally one of the most broken games I've ever played, yet I want to keep going.