History YMMV / HorizonForbiddenWest

*** [[spoiler: Its second phase is where things really ramp up, as it surrounds Aloy with its tentacles and starts bringing out its heavy weaponry, unleashing [[MacrossMissileMassacre salvos of missiles]], [[MoreDakka barrages of incendiary rounds and machine gun fire]] and slamming its [[ThisIsADrill gigantic drill arms]] into the sand, and you end it by destroying its heat sinks, each of which causes the machine to overheat more and more until the greenery covering it bursts into flame. You are essentially fighting [[Videogame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance Metal Gear Excelsus']] squid-crab cousin and you win by ''setting it on fire''.]]

** Aloy [[spoiler:being revealed to be sapphic and her relationship with Seyka in ''Burning Shores''. Some are happy that one of PlayStation's biggest protagonists is LGBTQ+ and that it makes sense given that she is a clone of Elisabet -- who is sapphic herself -- while also finding her relationship with Seyka to be adorable and it tying nicely into ''Forbidden West'''s overall theme of [[ByronicHero Aloy finally learning to open up and develop relationships with other people after being closed off for so long]]. Others feel it clashes too hard with Aloy's personality up until that point in the story and found the relationship between her and Seyka to be [[StrangledByTheRedString poorly written and rushed compared to Aloy's other relationships, which had the benefit of being developed over the course of two major games]]. There's also a third group who TakeAThirdOption and argue that while the relationship between Aloy and Seyka is not bad on paper, it should've been saved for a third game where it could be fleshed out in more depth instead of a small-scale expansion pass.]]

** ''Burning Shores'' casts its lot in when [[spoiler:Londra reactivates a ''Horus'' to serve as the DLC's FinalBoss, and the HumongousMecha proves every bit as fierce and unsettling a fight as it would likely have seemed when others of its kind led the Faro Plague. The fight is a long and grueling one that ''perfectly'' scratches the itch of anyone wishing they could have fought a Metal Devil while scaling one back in ''Zero Dawn'', with the machine constantly on the move in its first phase, smashing its colossal insectoid legs all around Aloy and destroying everything in sight. Its second phase is where things really ramp up, as it surrounds Aloy with its tentacles and starts bringing out its heavy weaponry, unleashing [[MacrossMissileMassacre salvos of missiles]], [[MoreDakka barrages of incendiary rounds and machine gun fire]] and slamming its [[ThisIsADrill gigantic drill arms]] into the sand. It's also extremely satisfying to watch the machine catch more and more on fire and lose the greenery covering it as its heat sinks are destroyed. Then after all that, Aloy ''finally'' confronts Londra inside the Horus, which is a whole separate boss in an of itself that is still challenging even though [[StationaryBoss Londra is just standing there]], made all the better by Londra's BossBanter. Players couldn't have asked for a more thrilling send-off to ''Forbidden West'' while they wait for the next game.]]

** ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMOweNnHnlc Guardian of the Deep]]'' is played during fights with Tiderippers, and it feels like a high-tempo version of the ''Film/{{Jaws}}'' theme performed by violins, building up towards the Loch Ness monster's metal cousin surging towards you, propelled by copious amounts of purgewater.

** While the game as a whole is seen an EvenBetterSequel for its richer world and gameplay expansions, the quality of the main story in comparison to ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'' has polarized both critics and fans of the series. One side points out the even more [[FromBadToWorse intense]] stakes and scope, [[CastOfSnowflakes increased usage of unique and fleshed-out characters]] and stronger dialogue and body language that make the narrative come off as more alive and complex than its predecessor. On the other hand, detractors criticize Guerrilla's DenserAndWackier push within the story and side quests, {{Generic Doomsday Villain}}s that waste the build-up developed in ''Zero Dawn'' and its lack of a gripping PlotTwist like the previous game had. A third group agrees that the story as a whole is weaker than ''Zero Dawn'', but appreciates the improvements done to the dialogue and character animations that make individual quests and encounters more lifelike.

* SignatureScene: [[spoiler: The arrival of the Zeniths during the "Death's Door" quest and the HopelessBossBattle with Erik.]]

** Aloy [[spoiler:being revealed to be sapphic and her relationship with Seyka in ''Burning Shores''. Some are happy that one of PlayStation's biggest protagonists is LGBTQ+ and that it makes sense given that she is a clone of Elisabet -- who is sapphic herself -- while also finding her relationship with Seyka to be adorable and it tying nicely into ''Forbidden West'''s overall theme of [[ByronicHero Aloy finally learning to open up and develop relationships with other people after being closed off for so long]]. Others feel it clashes too hard with Aloy's CelibateHero personality up until that point in the story and found the relationship between her and Seyka to be [[StrangledByTheRedString poorly written and rushed compared to Aloy's other relationships, which had the benefit of being developed over the course of two major games]]. There's also a third group who TakeAThirdOption and argue that while the relationship between Aloy and Seyka is not bad on paper, it should've been saved for a third game where it could be fleshed out in more depth instead of a small-scale expansion pass.]]

** Aloy [[spoiler:being revealed to be sapphic and her relationship with Seyka in ''Burning Shores''. Some are happy that one of PlayStation's biggest protagonists is LGBTQ+ and that it makes sense given that she is a clone of Elisabet -- who is sapphic herself -- while also finding her relationship with Seyka to be adorable. Others feel it clashes too hard with Aloy's CelibateHero personality from the previous two games and found the relationship between her and Seyka to be [[StrangledByTheRedString poorly written and rushed compared to Aloy's other relationships, which had the benefit of being developed over the course of two major games]]. There's also a third group who TakeAThirdOption and argue that while the relationship between Aloy and Seyka is not bad on paper, it should've been saved for a third game where it could be fleshed out in more depth instead of a small-scale expansion pass.]]

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdV48S3n_7c Built to Kill]]" is played during fights with Tremortusks and Slaughterspines. It's a driving, sinister, synth-heavy, progressive track that's as menacing as [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the machines it plays over]]. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG1XdeLmgO4 The Slaughterspine variation]] has a rising build-up tone that plays over the beat while the machine charges up its plasma capacitors, adding even more intensity to an already intense fight.

** Aloy [[spoiler:being revealed to be a lesbian and her relationship with Seyka in ''Burning Shores''. Some are happy that one of PlayStation's biggest protagonists is LGBTQ+ and that it makes sense given that she is a clone of Elisabet -- who is a lesbian herself -- while also finding her relationship with Seyka to be adorable. Others feel it clashes too hard with Aloy's CelibateHero personality from the previous two games and found the relationship between her and Seyka to be [[StrangledByTheRedString poorly written and rushed compared to Aloy's other relationships, which had the benefit of being developed over the course of two major games]]. There's also a third group who TakeAThirdOption and argue that while the relationship between Aloy and Seyka is not bad on paper, it should've been saved for a third game where it could be fleshed out in more depth instead of a small-scale expansion pass.]]

* BrokenBase: While the game as a whole is seen an EvenBetterSequel for its richer world and gameplay expansions, the quality of the main story in comparison to ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'' has polarized both critics and fans of the series. One side points out the even more [[FromBadToWorse intense]] stakes and scope, [[CastOfSnowflakes increased usage of unique and fleshed-out characters]] and stronger dialogue and body language that make the narrative come off as more alive and complex than its predecessor. On the other hand, detractors criticize Guerrilla's DenserAndWackier push within the story and side quests, {{Generic Doomsday Villain}}s that waste the build-up developed in ''Zero Dawn'' and its lack of a gripping PlotTwist like the previous game had. A third group agrees that the story as a whole is weaker than ''Zero Dawn'', but appreciates the improvements done to the dialogue and character animations that make individual quests and encounters more lifelike.

* EpilepticTrees: One mechanic that Guerrilla had wanted to add into the [[VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn first game]] was the ability to mount flying machines, however the UsefulNotes/PlayStation4's hardware limitations prevented them from doing so. When ''Forbidden West'' was initially revealed fans had assumed that with the game being on the [=PlayStation 5=] that this mechanic would see the light of day, but the announcement of a [=PS4=] version dashed those hopes. Many fans assume that the mechanic will yet again be not implemented due to hardware limitations, however fans have started to have hope again thanks to [[https://www.hardwarezone.com.sg/feature-interview-horizon-forbidden-wests-creators-promise-highly-ambitious-sequel an interview with a developer]] where they state they "cannot confirm or deny anything" about the feature instead of outright deconfirming it. Upon release it was finally confirmed as a late game unlock that allows Aloy to override Sunwings, allowing her to finally fly.

** In the run-up to the UsefulNotes/PlayStation5's reveal livestream, many, many people were guessing that a sequel to still-popular ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'' would be announced there. Fittingly, it was the very last game of the event.

** The fact that the game released shortly before ''VideoGame/EldenRing'', resulting a similar situation to the first game's close release to ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'', did not go unnoticed, evolving into memes of the ''Horizon'' series' tendency to release just before universally acclaimed genre-defining open world titles by rival companies. The joke came back when Creator/RockstarGames announced that ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoVI'' would release in 2025, with ''Horizon'' fans jokingly getting excited that the third ''Horizon'' game would be coming in 2025 as well.

** The way that the Zeniths treated Beta is horrifically evocative of child grooming; they raised her from birth to perform a single task and never allowed her to develop a mind of her own, essentially being more of an automaton to them than a person. It gets even worse when it becomes clear that [[spoiler: Tilda was actually being friendly to Beta back at the Zenith colony because she was a clone of Elisabet Sobeck, Tilda's ex, and Tilda ''was'' trying to raise her in Sobeck's image because of her [[PsychoLesbian obsession with her]]. [[FridgeHorror Who knows what she would have done with Beta if she hadn't met Aloy instead]]]].

** The fact that the game released shortly before ''VideoGame/EldenRing'', resulting a similar situation to the first game's close release to ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'', did not go unnoticed, evolving into memes of the ''Horizon'' series' tendency to release just before universally acclaimed open world titles by rival companies.

* LoveToHate: Walter Londra is a charismatic yet awful human being who will have you ''begging'' to kick his ass throughout the whole of ''Burning Shores''. Unlike [[spoiler:Tilda van der Meer]], who is a more complicated, nuanced and even TragicVillain, Londra is a [[ManipulativeBastard conniving]], [[ItsAllAboutMe arrogant egomaniac]] groomer with [[AGodAmI delusions of godhood]], and the DLC never has a moment where he shows any redeeming qualities, making it that much more satisfying to [[spoiler:simultaneously foil his plans and also [[HoistByHisOwnPetard kill him with his own Horus' electrical feedback]]]].

*** Really, the entire concept of Far Zenith is this, with the ultra-wealthy concocting schemes to dodge the responsibility for rectifying issues that their largesse has caused becoming a major talking point in TheNewTwenties. From multi-billionaires like Elon Musk trying to [[https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-plan-colonize-mars-plan-unrealistic-scientists-explain-2023-10 colonize Mars]] rather than funnel money into projects to repair Earth's environment to libertarian crypto-bros [[https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/sep/07/disastrous-voyage-satoshi-cryptocurrency-cruise-ship-seassteading trying to make a utopia in international waters away from government regulation]] that inevitably ends in disaster since everyone is too focused on their own pursuits to actually do anything for the common good of all, it isn't quite so outlandish to believe that, with a bit more technological development, we could very well have a Far Zenith-esque cabal of our own in the near future.

%% Date interval on when contents from Burning Shores DLC can be added
%% Broken Base, Base-Breaking Character: October 19th, 2023

* DracoInLeatherPants: Several fans wanted [[spoiler:Tilda]] to be less villainous than she ended up being, or argue that her continued villainy is a result of bad writing- even though the lengths she was willing to go to for greed were established in her first appearance. Mostly this seems motivated by the image of [[spoiler:an immortal, repentant star-crossed lover being more appealing than the genocidal groomer Tilda really is]].

** The Arena pits you against machines with a strict time limit; you need to finish these to get the Arena medals necessary to purchase the strongest equipment in ]]]]the game. While the first three stages of each set are seemingly easy enough with your own loadout, the fourth is the problem. You are forced to use a pre-determined loadout which typically isn't very good, and since you still need to kill the machines within a certain time limit to get the rewards, you're far more worried about how to kill the machines as fast as possible rather than how to fight the machines themselves. Which means that if RNG goes against your favor and they do nothing but close in on you, then it's a lot of time wasted trying to run away from them and heal yourself. And to make things worse, in order to attempt the Arena, you are required to pay a few hundreds shards each time which will rack up to thousands pretty easily as you'll constantly die due to RNG going against your favor or you not killing the machines fast enough. Needless to say, a lot of players lower the difficulty to Story Mode to complete the stages and never look back just because of how unfair it is.
** The Melee Pit challenges to face The Enduring are like this. You have to go to each Melee Pit and complete the training, which involves chaining various melee combos together. Unfortunately, the timing required to complete each challenge is ''extremely'' precise and the challenge is restarted if the player is even slightly off, potentially making the whole thing take a long time. The fact that your attacks cause the target you're training on to be knocked away from you was apparently not taken into consideration. This is especially frustrating as beating the Pit Masters doesn’t really need you to master all these combos, nor is knowing them all that useful in normal gameplay since melee is of limited use against human enemies and of basically no use against all but the smallest machines.

** ''Burning Shores'' {{DLC}}: [[ItsAllAboutMe Walter Londra]] is a [[Characters/HorizonZeroDawnFarZenith Far Zenith]] whose [[{{Narcissist}} narcissism]] makes the others look humble. Having used his superior technology to appear godlike to the Quen he meets, Londra forms a cult to get the labor for his plan: leaving Earth through a canceled rocket program at his former company that will coat 1000 square miles in nuclear fallout. Telling all his followers that they will "ascend", Londra plans to take DNA samples from them for cloning on his new colony. The few he intends to take onboard his ship will be brainwashed to mirror his friend circle from the old days and worship him. Londra also intends to groom Seyka's young sister Kina to replace his late wife Evelyn, whom he left to die in the FARO plague. Londra also continuously [[MindRape mind raped]] his AI, Nova for over a millenia and also mind raped it 57 times in just the span of a week alone, eventually [[DriventoSuicide driving it to suicide by asking Aloy to deactivate it to escape it's torment]]. With no regard for anyone or anything that doesn't cater to his ego, Aloy considers Londra the worst Zenith she's faced.

** ''Burning Shores'' {{DLC}}: [[ItsAllAboutMe Walter Londra]] is a [[Characters/HorizonZeroDawnFarZenith Far Zenith]] whose [[{{Narcissist}} narcissism]] makes the others look humble. Having used his superior technology to appear godlike to the Quen he meets, Londra forms a cult to get the labor for his plan: leaving Earth through a canceled rocket program at his former company that will coat 1000 square miles in nuclear fallout. Telling all his followers that they will "ascend", Londra plans to take DNA samples from them for cloning on his new colony. The few he intends to take onboard his ship will be brainwashed to mirror his friend circle from the old days and worship him. Londra also intends to groom Seyka's young sister Kina to replace his late wife Evelyn, whom he left to die in the FARO plague, and constantly tweaks his AI assistant Nova's programming despite the agony it causes her. With no regard for anyone or anything that doesn't cater to his ego, Aloy considers Londra the worst Zenith she's faced.

** ''Burning Shores'' {{DLC}}: [[ItsAllAboutMe Walter Londra]] is a [[Characters/HorizonZeroDawnFarZenith Far Zenith]] whose [[{{Narcissist}} narcissism]] makes the others look humble. Having used his superior technology to appear godlike to the Quen he meets, Londra forms a cult to get the labor for his plan: leaving Earth through a canceled rocket program at his former company that will coat 1000 square miles in nuclear fallout. Telling all his followers that they will "ascend", Londra plans to take DNA samples from them for cloning on his new colony. The few he intends to take onboard his ship will be brainwashed to mirror his friend circle from the old days and worship him. Londra also intends to groom Seyka's young sister to replicate his late wife Evelyn, who he left to die in the FARO plague. He will mold her to be what he wants over time. With no regard for anyone or anything that doesn't cater to his ego, Aloy considers Londra the worst Zenith she's faced.