Completely caught me off guard. I've heard a lot of shade thrown at this game, but very little of it actually stuck for me. The first third was a little slow, but after that the game hit the ground running. Very well paced all the way to the end, and although the plot may not be my favorite in the series, it still hooked me and had me coming back and sticking with it as much as I could.

The notorious "enemies constantly guarding" rumors were true, so mashing rush combos and finishers won't work very well in this game, but going out of your way for ten minutes to learn some Komaki moves (and making sure you're on top of upgrades) fixes that problem. Grabbing also works.

This game rules.