I would say the major complaint I share with the Mustachioed Hat Man would be the woefully wrung-out campaign mode. Up until the halfway mark I actually thought everything was going in an awesome direction, but once Eddie is forced to flee a crumbling pleasure palace while gargantuan twisted monstrosities rain down from the sky to the tune of Dragon Force, we've crested the top of the mountain and are left to painfully stumble roll down the steep incline on the other side. Everything from the half way mark on just feels like the game is hastily checking things off on its plotpoints list so we can get to the ending, which in and of itself is only an 'ending' in the same sense that the fleshy nub that's grown over and amputation is the ending of a limb. It's all too clear that Bryootal Legend was blighted by the same rush job problems as Psychonauts, but while the endgame of Psychonauts was only slightly buggered up by developmental time problems (the lackluster death scene of Dr. Loboto, arguably one of the game's most outstandingly outlandish characters, still sticks in my craw to this day), with Brutal Legend it looks like the last 3rd of the game was hacked off and the 2nd third left to shrivel up from blood loss.
A major problem this whole horrid mess flings up is that of your three major antagonists, General Lyonshite winds up having to hold up the majority of the plot, and while he's a well-made and hilarious character, he's just not up to the task, ESPECIALLY since his army is just a glamrock re-skin of your own. The tragedy here is that the presentation of a wonderfully crafted and imagined villain winds up getting bloated out of proportion to fill the vacuum left by the other two and what was once great is now tiresome. Oh, and the demons have your once beautiful and glorious homeland conquered for all of five minutes before you chop off Emperor Vicky's noggin, then they magically blip out of existence in time for the end cutscene. UTTER WEAKSAUCE.
With AALLLL of that said, I would now like to drop my two cents into the "Disagreeing with Yahtzee" jar, having already dropped a buck-fifty into "Agreeing with Yahtzee". Essentially everything else Yahtzee whinged about either didn't bother me MUCH or actually entertained me, and I think it really says something that the world itself could get me to keep playing despite the experience being pierced by the screech of the SS Story's hull breaking on a myriad icebergs. I also really liked the squad-based battle system and the way it basically gave you a massive hivemind meta-weapon that was always fun to swing at targets too big or too numerous to be felled by your axe and guitar alone.
I also really have to wounder at Yahtzee's complaints about the game's status as a sandbox. This is basically guaranteed to make me look like a clueless fool, but I want people to still give this some actual consideration: IS Bryootal Legend REALLY a sand box game? Sure it has a wide world that you can explore at your leisure with sidequests and optional unlockable upgrades, but the central STORY only ever moves in one direction and still gives you upgrades and such for pushing it along to its completion. If you are jumping up and down in your seat ready to scream at me that YES THAT IS THE VERY DEFINITION OF A SANDBOX GAME, I want you to humor me whilst riddling me this: does that make the Legend of Zelda a series of sandbox games?
Think about it, MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS, everything from my description above also fits the LoZ games to a T. This may be a discussion for another place and time, but I really think it's a point well worth considering, because either A.) Our definitional of 'sandbox game' is flawed and needs revision, or B.) Sandbox games have been with us for a lot longer than we thought. I personally lean more towards the former, as a sandbox is a place in which you can do as you wish, meaning your choices can effect the outcome of ANY quest, side or story, while games that adhere to the LoZ and Bryootal Legend are just linear games set in a big world with some optional side quests. That being said, I really think Yahtzee doth protest too much to Bryootal Legend's approach, as he himself has complained about A CERTAIN TYPE OF RPG not allowing the events of the game to be driven by the player's actions, and what's wrong with making your game world vast and intricate like OH SAY FOR EXAMPLE our own?
Also I agree with Yahtzee on pronouncing the umlaut in Bryooooootal Legend on the grounds that it completely matches the tone of the game itself by sounding hilariously ridiculous while also conveying the idea that right after saying it you are going to let loose a demonic cackle then wail away on a guitar.
