I feel like this kinda of open world game has finally come to a point where we've milked every bit we can out of it, I know Ubisoft sure has. As a whole I don't hate this game, but almost everything this game has done another open-world game has done somewhat better.
A protagonist who has no experience with fighting rises up to learn to fight and face the main villain: FarCry 3 did it much better with its protagonist.
An open world that looks pretty but is really hallow and is only fun to explore and collect stuff with fun superpowers: Saints Row 4 did it better with it's content stream of dopamine hits since you were collecting at such a fast rate.
Side Missions that have little stories in them to help them stand out from being more than fuller: Ghost of Tsushima did that with flying colors.
Really the only thing about this game that helps it stand out is its use of Japanese afterlife mythology, and its story. Its story is honestly really interesting but the way it's presented makes it really lackluster and kinda all over the place, and its use of Japanese afterlife mythology is really only interesting if you find something like that interesting, and even then it's just used as a setting and backdrop more then anything else.
Now from the way I'm talking about this game you'd think I dislike the game; but I really don't, I like this game the same way I like other open-world games like Saints Row 4 or Cyberpunk 2077. Where in all honestly they are not very well made open-world games compared to others in their genres; but they kept me constantly hooked with either their narrative or its satisfying gameplay loop, and while out of the ones I've listed I'd probably never go back to this title, I still had a fun time overall, also this game had Tunkies as a main collectible and that automatically raises the overall score, they are the cutest this ever made and I really want one.
A protagonist who has no experience with fighting rises up to learn to fight and face the main villain: FarCry 3 did it much better with its protagonist.
An open world that looks pretty but is really hallow and is only fun to explore and collect stuff with fun superpowers: Saints Row 4 did it better with it's content stream of dopamine hits since you were collecting at such a fast rate.
Side Missions that have little stories in them to help them stand out from being more than fuller: Ghost of Tsushima did that with flying colors.
Really the only thing about this game that helps it stand out is its use of Japanese afterlife mythology, and its story. Its story is honestly really interesting but the way it's presented makes it really lackluster and kinda all over the place, and its use of Japanese afterlife mythology is really only interesting if you find something like that interesting, and even then it's just used as a setting and backdrop more then anything else.
Now from the way I'm talking about this game you'd think I dislike the game; but I really don't, I like this game the same way I like other open-world games like Saints Row 4 or Cyberpunk 2077. Where in all honestly they are not very well made open-world games compared to others in their genres; but they kept me constantly hooked with either their narrative or its satisfying gameplay loop, and while out of the ones I've listed I'd probably never go back to this title, I still had a fun time overall, also this game had Tunkies as a main collectible and that automatically raises the overall score, they are the cutest this ever made and I really want one.