This game has no right to have aged so incredibly

Mechanics, dialogue, even the bugs are great, funny as shit, and honestly even the graphics have aged pretty well.

stupid fun.

Final Review

Initial thoughts

-YES DIFFICULTY OPTIONS (I love games with difficulty options so I can replay on harder difficulties)
-Didn't expect such a detailed character customisation, not usually a fan of custom characters but these look cool
-Weak start
-Parry isn't great
-Clunky movement
-Game is having an identity crisis
-Trying to do too many things and not developing them
-Story is hard to care about
-Ton of graphical bugs


5 hours in

-Story is still boring to me
-Combat has improved
-Got some better gear
-Combat and traversal feel more varied
-Horse movement is awful, some of the worst I have ever used
-Still riddled with graphical bugs
-Should have picked the Odachi straight away

10 hours in

-Wow the combat is cool
-So many ways to customise your combat approach
-Outfits are cool
-Horse is still awful
-I'm liking the glider
-Skill trees are cool
-The parry still isn't great, but getting used to it
-My god the graphical bugs
-Some pieces of terrain have broken hitboxes/collisions
-Some textures just dont even load in
-Still dont care about the story

15+ hours in

-THERE'S OTHER REGIONS?
-Oh they're basically all just grass and some rocks
-Maybe could have picked some more varied areas of Japan
-World design isn't bad
-Not much to do in the world other than enemy bases
-Combat is still cool
-The cool combat and stealth is held back by the open world and bad graphics
-Should have been a linear game or just put more stuff in the world
-Can only go in like 10% of the buildings so the villages/towns feel empty and boring even though they are full of buildings
-Gliding is so cool
-A lot of stuff should have been explained better
-Story still struggles, the custom character makes character development and telling a strong story very difficult
-Still infested with graphical bugs
-Some gameplay bugs, nothing gamebreaking, but definitely annoying



Overall, a solid game held very far back by a weak start, weak story and bad graphics/visuals. Would have been better if it didn't try to have a serious, historical story and instead had a ridiculous, over the top story like the devil may cry series or the yakuza series. Should have been pushed as a good way to get into souls games, as its difficulty options do make it more approachable and accessible to more players (ironic as its accessibility is limited because it is a playstation exclusive)