Admirably bold triumph of the high-concept kind of "story mode". Sure, it's not the first time this happens, but it's a welcoming encyclopedia of grand environmental storytelling and a cocktail of nostalgia meets the fantastically ghastly and adventurous violence juxtaposed on RPG amalgamation for bouncy trigger-happy / wrench-whacky / chaotically-spellbound venturing. This feeling of methodical exploration took wonders for my amnesiac memory as the game pushed me on the path of bloodthirsty scavengers and armored puppets of ungodliness like a newcoming spectator searching for a way out of Rapture. Having said that, not every singular element slaps as smoothly as i remembered- Some of the conceptual grandeur and ambiance immersion lags because of how heavily schizophrenic is the start/stop gameplay itself. The Vita-Chambers come to mind- Not only an accidental source of monotony by forcing you to re-route yourself back to the place where you died at, but also a gateway to exploit the game's economy by sheer patience- All it takes is waltzing right where you died at and overpower your enemies affordably instead of spending cash out of a dozen of medkits mid-combat. It placed a harsh decrease on my inmersion as well, having to face a similar lot of weariness by the incredilous amount of pirating (and granted, this is an entirely player's choice, but it's such a tiresome avalanche of pipe puzzles you must endure to avoid combats) take a slight detour to the entirely non-cinematic hayride people tend to praise to kingdom come. Affordable gunplay married to a grand, one-of-a-kind neurotic storytelling, it's such a galvanizing fairytale arranged with an audacious style: Retrofitted to outlandish wonder and asphyxiating dread, fuelled with mysticism almost belonging to survival horror until you get your hands on godlike powers to cartoonishly kill-or-be-killed adventuring. For all the tonally opposed Frankenstein of mechanics, oddball logistics (what's the deal with turrets of mass destruction on a city underwater?) and spectacle before philosophy, i take a grand kick out of this game for being a innovative jump of profound themes at the time. FIFA and Call of Duty was becoming the norm and this took the spotlight to remind ourselves how it's like to embark a guntotting odyssey of good versus evil, with ourselves as the moral compass while whacking a wrench at the face of the humanely wicked.

Not just the beat-em-up, the stealth oriented preying-upon-armed-goons angle was such an insanely COOKED creative choice to embody the caped crusader. Attractively gothic detectivism that turns into a reverse-survival delight through seismic punchy combos and techno-noir sleuthing. So tonally splendid you'd groove from the ceremonial pacing running from one villain showdown to the next and game over screens down to the badass slow walking, gets a bit formulaic with far too easily readable boss fights to the point of unchallenging linearity, still takes a conceptual blast of comic book roots through amazingly ominous sequencing including a mindbending Scarecrow that toys around videogame metaphysics to amusing effect and a toolbox of crafty sneaking made particularly priceless when seeing the last armed guard running around while panicking helplessly. Solid pacesetter.

Coming from a native japanese person, this game is oblivious to actual japanese history. It dances with fantasies of japanese stereotypes like "honor" while ignoring the undercurrent of actual samurai life, which is both far less honorable and far more mundane than depicted. It would be one thing if this was designed to be fantastical, but it isn't. Sucker Punch designed this game with the goal of accurately portraying Japan's culture and history, and they failed at that. To say otherwise would be a disservice to the memory of the samurai themselves.

Besides, the game is just bland open world AAA kitsch with a big map and picturesque locations made by crunching underpaid developers and artists. Which is to say, it's a game that isn't bad, but isn't memorable either. A game that entices the senses but never the imagination, that gives the illusion of enjoyment while leaving you empty in the end. It's a AAA game in 2020 and that's all I really have to say.