Reviews influence many people's buying decisions. Favorable reviews generate interest that can boost sales. Negative reviews can leave a niche title like Bayonetta 2 dead in the water. For better or worse (probably worse), devs and publishers take note of review scores. Sometimes employees get bonuses when their game's Metacritic score is high enough, which I think is a problematic practice because of the way Metacritic calculates its scores, and also the broader problem that game reviewers are busy people juggling deadlines, conditions that aren't exactly favorable for peeling back the layers of deep games. When you're under pressure to deliver a coherent overview as quickly as possible, there's no way you're going to have enough time to understand and appreciate a fraction of the complexity and nuanced design that Platinum pack their games with, unless you already know what to look for.