YMMV / A Plague Tale: Requiem

• Alternative Character Interpretation: How much of Amicia's obsessive need to save Hugo at the cost of thousands is actually her and how much is the Macula molding her into a good Protector. The presence of a cell just for the previous Protector, Aelia, and the fact that the Macula is more an Eldrich Abomination than anything natural could indicate the Macula doesn't just use the Carrier to sustain itself but uses a Protector to keep itself safe as well.
• Broken Base: Fans are divided whether the ending is good, powerful, and a brave step from the developers, or bad, too depressing, and a cheap way to create drama.
• Complete Monster:
  • The Prima Macula is a sapient monstrosity responsible for the plagues, man-eating rats, and other woes occurring throughout history. The Macula would manifest itself inside children, causing them to become ill, while mentally torturing them into giving themselves over to its will, using them as vessels to spread its influence and causing suffering and deaths by the millions. Basilius was the first recorded victim of the Macula's hold, whose influence spread throughout the Byzantine Empire, causing the Justinian Plague. The Macula manifested itself again inside Hugo de Rune in the 14th century, kick-starting The Black Death in which illness and death follow Hugo, leading to the destruction of Arles. Luring Hugo to the island La Cuna, the Macula hopes to drive Hugo to despair to fully take control of his body, eventually succeeding. Its first action is to destroy Marseille, before spreading its influence over the Earth to consume all life. Thousands have already died by the time Amicia and Lucas kill Hugo to stop the Macula, whereupon the Macula latches onto an infant in the modern era, hoping to complete its cataclysmic rampage.
  • Milo is a vicious slaver who learns about the Child of Embers while working for Emilie de Arles. Cutting ties with Emilie, Milo seeks to summon the Child of Embers himself by sacrificing hundreds of his slaves, including children, by bleeding them to death, while personally killing any slave that attempts to escape. When one of his men, Diaz, comments on the waste of human life, Milo brutally kills him before abandoning the rest to fend off the hordes of rats. Believing Hugo to be the Child of Embers, Milo attempts to manipulate Hugo into allying with him, planning to use the boy’s powers to overthrow Emilie, her husband, and conquer all he sees.
• Event-Obscuring Camera: There are some chase scenes where the camera is focused on Amicia from the front, showing the rats chasing after her. Not that bad once as these are mostly cinematic scenes where all you have to do is to run "backwards". It becomes more frustrating when the camera changes between this position and normal during the scene, and you have to switch controls too.
• That One Attack: Javelin bearing soldiers are always on foot and moving in closer alongside other enemies, so the throw is almost guaranteed to take Amicia's free hit, which now leaves her open to either the second javelin or another soldier to kill her. The game thankfully has an onscreen indicator of these enemies, but they still can pop up when you're busy with other, more pressing matters.
• That One Level:
  • Chapter 3: A Burden of Blood, particularly when Lucas and Amicia exit the city and have to find the herbalist. There are soldiers everywhere and a massive field of rats. It's still early on in the game, so Amicia still only has a small handful of options available and likely not as many upgrades to her abilities or her gear, and the trek across the village will strain your resources as you deal with soldiers bearing torches and rats around every corner.
  • Chapter 6: Leaving All Behind, particularly during the segment outside the quarry as Amicia and Hugo are out in a wide-open area with soldiers all around. The area is huge, and the hiding places are spread out, meaning the player has to be extremely careful or else they'll be easily spotted. And to make matters worse, there's several archers hanging around to deal with. It can take a long time of carefully maneuvering between hiding places if you're going full stealth, or even just picking off the guards if you go for a more opportunistic route.
  • Chapter 12: The Life We Deserve, when Amicia, needs to evade Count Victor in the cellar. It's not enough to sneak through the area, you have to crank open a portcullis which is slow and loud and will attract him even if you managed to hide previously. So you have to repeatedly crank, run, and hide, then get back cranking again to get through the extremely tight area, all the while Amicia is wounded thus moves slower than usual.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: It's a small thing most players might not have noticed, but a journal found in the previous game mentioned the plague or "Great Evil", as it's always referred to in the Codex, appearing in Central Asia and rampaging there before reaching Europe. It might just refer to one of the non-supernatural plagues endemic to the time, or it could be reference to another threshold of the Macula. Regardless of what exactly it is, Requiem makes little - if any - reference to it, which is bound to disappoint fans who believed it to be a hint of things to come in the sequel.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: After the first act, when it shows what the Macula is doing, actively destroying the entire city they were in, killing Hugo to stop the plague seems like the only rational course of action. Once our protagonists leave the Unwitting Instigator of Doom category, they prioritize their own survival — over Hugo's vocal and frequent protests — even when it means the deaths of thousands, both directly at their hands and indirectly through the rat plague. As such, it becomes difficult to root for anyone.