El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron for PlayStation 3 Reviews by Gamers

This game is always changing and keeps you hooked from start to end. The visuals are amazing and the music is superb. The combat can be a little tedious at times, but they let you switch around. The platforming aspect of the game is where the gameplay shines. This game is all about enjoying it's beautiful artistic storytelling.

10 Story
10 Music
7 Combat
9 Gameplay
11 Graphics/Visuals

If you want to play a game that's different than the rest than look no further.

I can easily see this game will have a very narrow appeal.

The obvious and most attractive part of this game is the acid-trip visuals; along with appropriately epic music. For me, that's part of the experience, but if you are a trigger happy type of gamer that needs to "do" something you won't like this game. There are lots of moments where you are just walking as the voices of the Archangels/Lucifel advance the story or describe characters and you take in the visuals. Sometimes, you're just walking. Sometimes you're doing some mild platforming. Or attacking some easy enemies, but you don't have to.

And on that point, the entirely of the gameplay is like God of War / Devil May Cry; fighting the same 3 enemy types over and over, boss sections, and all this action is broken up with some easy to hard platforming (i.e. Mario, etc.). Sometimes, the perspective changes from 3rd person to side-scrolling to change things up. Typically in these sections it emphasizes the platforming more.

Fighting the same 3 enemies can get repetitive in long sessions as these enemies don't die easily. But the real fun comes from the boss battles and there is quite a few of them. There are some battles with the Watchers that don't seem to have any point to them. You lose, you move on. You win (can you win?), you still move on. Most of the time the Watchers will KO you in 1-2 hits, basically interrupting the game for no reason. But I guess it's to help foreshadow these bosses and give you a chance to feel out their weaknesses before you fight them "for reals."

Besides that, I disagree with others that the story is hard to follow. The story is pretty much summed up in the info box on this page. The details during the game aren't hard to glean either.

Overall, I find the game's visuals and atmosphere very appealing and the gameplay, especially boss battles, satisfying even if not the greatest ever. You really just have to see this game for yourself.