History YMMV / GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2021

* BrokenAesop: A central theme of the narrative is dealing with grief and loss and having to let go of loved ones who have died. The galaxy is almost destroyed because [[spoiler:a twelve-year-old girl couldn't cope with the loss of her mother.]] This theme is somewhat diluted by the fact that [[spoiler:Groot is able to perfectly resurrect people, namely Fin Fang Foom and our protagonist Peter Quill, with little to no issues. However, it's implied that it only works on the very recently deceased.]]

* GoddamnedBats: Nova or Church snipers are a significant pain to deal with until Peter learns the wind element ability that allows you to suck them in. They typically sit in places you cannot reach, forcing you to either cherry tap them with Peter's blasters (weak at range) or use a hero ability. Similarly, they prioritize aiming at Peter over your teammates.

** Whenever you perform a huddle mid-battle, just before re-entering the fray, Peter will play a random song on his tape deck. And unfortunately it is actually random, and not every song they licensed particularly makes sense. So sometimes you'll get a kickass rock song that gets you pumped, while other times you'll get something more chill like "Don't Worry Be Happy" which clashes pretty poorly if you are in the middle of a heated battle. And sometimes the standard background music is cool enough that you'd rather just listen to it rather than a licensed song, pushing you to ignore the huddle mechanic and it's bonuses altogether.
** As has become largely standard for modern action games, there is no form of MercyInvincibility whatsoever. For most players this probably won't be ''that'' big of a deal, but it combines with an annoying quirk of the auto-save system that means that if you get killed during the middle of an intense battle, Star Lord can end up re-spawning in the middle of a group of enemies -- who will almost immediately GangUpOnTheHuman, stun-lock you, and potentially kill you again before you can do anything. Groot and Rocket Raccoon both start out with abilities that you can use to immobilize or kill the enemies, allowing you to escape, but the window to use them can be quite small, and even then chances are you're going to lose some health.
* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: Square Enix's first attempt at a superhero game, ''VideoGame/MarvelsAvengers'', got blasted for turning out to be live-service game that lacked polish and any meaningful narrative. This game by contrast, caught a lot of people off guard on release, and ended up getting a lot glowing reviews for not only fixing all of the issues that ''Avengers'' had, mainly eskewing the live-service elements in favor of being single-player, but went up and beyond with its treatment of the source material and told an engaging, complex, story; to the point where it won Best Narrative at The Game Awards 2021.

** The fact that Square Enix publishing this game turned off many people due to how mediocre ''VideoGame/MarvelsAvengers'' turned out. It didn't help that the game was marketed ''very'' aggressively during 2021 E3, and in a way that did not emphasize its strong points, which also soured a lot of people on the game, and ended up reflecting badly on its sales.

** While they simply appear as cameos on a computer screen it is still surprising to see Richard Rider, ComicBook/DarkHawk, [[Characters/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyModern Moondragon, Wraith]] and ComicBook/{{Quasar}}.

* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: Square Enix's first attempt at a superhero game, ''VideoGame/MarvelsAvengers'', got blasted for turning out to be live-service game that lacked polish and any meaningful narrative. This game by contrast, caught a lot of people off gaurd on release, and ended up getting a lot glowing reviews for not only fixing all of the issues that '' Avengers'' had, mainly eskewing the live-service elements in favor of being single-player, but went up and beyond with its treatment of the source material and told an engaging, complex, story; to the point where it won Best Narrative at The Game Awards 2021.

* {{Narm}}: The dialogue makes liberal use of PardonMyKlingon -- like "flark" for "fuck" and "scut" for "shit" -- in an attempt to show that the game's universe is an edgier one. However, the fact that nearly every line incorporates one of these made-up swears can make things sound awkward and childish.

* {{Narm}}: The dialogue makes liberal use of PardonMyKlingon -- like "flark" for "fuck" and "scut" for "shit" -- in an attempt to show that the game's universe is an edgier one. However, the fact that nearly every line incorporates one of these made-up swears can make things sound awkward and childish.
* NarmCharm: Peter's speeches during the huddles are extremely corny but rather than making you cringe it adds to the charm and makes them feel quintessentially Peter.
* SugarWiki/NoProblemWithLicensedGames: This game is well-received for its story, world-building and gameplay. Many have praised the game for carving out its own unique identity instead of chasing after the live-service fads or copying the MCU look.

* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: After the lukewarm reception to Creator/SquareEnix's last Marvel adaptation with ''VideoGame/MarvelsAvengers'', the surprise reveal of this Guardians game was met with varying degrees of trepidation. The game was viewed as another poor attempt to ape the mainstream Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse depictions, much like the aforementioned Avengers game, rather than using the comics or making its own identity. However, the tides turned in this game's favor, when early previews noted how it handled its elements well and exceeded those early expectations. This led to [[https://twitter.com/Nibellion/status/1452625294876151813?t=NiFQl9DIYA16kcFx0dP_vw&s=19 glowing final reviews]] upon release, along with winning the Best Narrative category at The Game Awards 2021.

* Narm: The dialogue makes liberal use of PardonMyKlingon -- like "flark" for "fuck" and "scut" for "shit" -- in an attempt to show that the game's universe is an edgier one. However, the fact that nearly every line incorporates one of these made-up swears can make things sound awkward and childish.