I've always suspected that NPCs and Lemmings were more than just a meme, and there are people in the world that genuinely lack free will and the capacity for human-level intelligence. Seeing people not only enjoy but actively and aggressively defend something like Sword and Shield is just completely baffling to me. I can understand not caring enough to point out that the game looks awful by almost every metric, but I genuinely can't understand how anyone could see this as something good, and I sure as hell can't wrap my head around why people feel the need to defend a multi-billion dollar franchise from any and all criticism.

Is it just autism and blind brand loyalty? Is it the result of declining levels of intelligence and corporate brainwashing? Or are there people in the world that genuinely just lack the capacity to think at a human level?