Really had a good time with this one, seems that RGG can't miss. Definitely engaged with the side activities more here than in previous like a dragon/Yakuza games but that's kinda of a double edged sword.

In previous RGG games usually the main story was too juicy to leave it alone for long and despite having awesome and fun activities and side quests I always found myself itching to get back to the main plot which was not the case with this game. It's the classic Japanese medieval history period revisited once more intrigue, samurai honor, assassinations', class division, political schemes struggle to deal with foreign powers and greed. Don't have particular qualms with the story its just that I've seen it many times in different media before although it certainly fits with the yakuza style games.

Now when it comes to extra stuff to do this game has it in spades. At first I couldn't move an inch without tripping into another mini game, sub story or some other activity with a long ass progression system tied to it begging me to try it out. I gotta say I enjoyed pretty much all of it from the farming simulator in "another life" to Bloodborne style chalice dungeon crawl to the equipment crafting at the blacksmith and so forth, now if you want to 100% things then you'll need to put in some serious hours grinding and it can become a bit dull. The idea is to balance all that and main story, kinda like making a nice salad, add a bit of karaoke, a bit of combat arena, some grinding for crafting materials, some sub story fiasco and you gonna have a good time.

Combat in the game started off a bit on the slow side while most of your moves are locked it feels awkward and stiff but as you level up things get better and better as it should. Really like the leveling system, you get exclusive skill points for using that particular style in combat and a universal skill point after leveling up your character. Cool thing is that you can use the universal skill points to progress in the specific combat tree which you enjoy using the most and once you obtain the exclusive point dedicated to that tree you can swap them out allowing you to either progress further and faster in one particular style or level up multiple ones at the same time. While we're on the combat the trooper mechanic is awesome, simple yet effective. As you progress in the dungeon crawl you unlock trooper cards that can be slotted for each one of your 4 combat styles. Now they range from cards that give you healing, damage or defense buff to the ones that grant you a flashy moves to use like summon a bear for a combo or even let loose a kamehameha, these trooper abilities charge up over time and as you engage in combat. Also depending what cards you have equipped they provide you with a health bonus and can be leveled up, they may also have synergy with other cards equipped as well for stronger effects. Great way to add a bit of flare and customization to the combat big fan.

Honestly don't know what else to say here good game is good more at 6. If you played previous Yakuza/Like a Dragon games this will all be very familiar just with the medieval Japanese coat of paint on it.