What even is this game? This is a game that is 100% trying to do too much. But what it nails is a GRAND SLAM. Less would be more to take what is amazing here to the next level.
DUELS, DUELS, DUELS. The crème de la crème, this is DESIGN. Seriously every opportunity you get to duel, be it in a side story developing side characters, be it mythic tales, or epic boss fights, these stand out. The mechanics around short stabs, or overhead stabs to deplete stamina to get better hits. The proper reading of timing of parryable or unblockable moments, its a dance, and importantly it tells you to be patient. To study what they are doing . The fact this is tied to either the most emotional moments of the game or to the stellar stories of fables gone by as you write your own? THey create the most beautiful stages and set pieces for these to occur. Everyone moves differently and they way people talk and share mid battle, that you can sense exasperation , sensational. However this isn’t a game about staying a samurai, but about abandoning the samurai principles in war. And that part of the game is not as stunning as this.
This game wants you to see that being an honorable warrior is so much of a disadvantage and that marries with the open world progression. The game is in 3 acts, and the more and more you adopt the title of ghost, the more tools of the ghost you get. That is ninja arts poison , wind chimes, sticky bombs, smoke bombs the gamut. These tools become necessary because the amount of mongols you face either in story missions or just general invasions are overwhelming. It creates the true feeling of an oppressive land and truly speaking to the work you have done. At the beginning when you don’t have much you rely on the stances that deal with different enemy types. In a flow state you are alternating stances(thank the designer who added slo mo so you can change and look at what’s in fron of you) to become more effective at different infantry mid swing. It can be amazing when you create a string of death. You feel like a badass but early on without tools it’s exhausting. But mirroring Jin’s need to become more savage, the more you develop your tools, you become so crafty and a one man wrecking machine. Its a great sense of progression, but it can feel like busy work.
The reason for that is because the world is … eh? Seriously its gorgeous, picturesque but man moving through it can feel like…. Time passed. Maybe because I got tired of the horse ride exposition story moments, maybe its cause the wall climbing is finicky, maybe its cause teh sense of movement in terms of paths is just not memorable. I would fast travel and stop exploring because, the things to see weren’t always an instantaneous moment to moment of newness or resource management. Fox Dens , pillars, the springs etc weren’t engaging enough consistently.
For about half of this game, I used to say it had not sense of space, or location etc. But I was wrong, everything about Jin’s home is truly memorable. It’s memorable because all the compelling stories happen there. I don’t think I would say that most of the supporting cast won me over, Jin, Taka, Yuna and Shimura hold their own. It’s really the people that give locations some memories , but none are truly adorned like where Sakais home is and thats a detriment to the game.
However it speaks to the joy of combat that none of these issues stopped me from playing. Like the thrill of combat, from standoffs to duels to even the ghost mode . its amazing and anything that took me away from that wasn’t a delight. I didn’t like sneaking. I didn’t feel like the tools to become immersed in shadow were strong . I love the wind chimes and hte ability to slow hear to visually get a sense of enemies far from you. But those and cover were the main tools, and it felt finicky to guess how people were seeing you etc. It left me feeling that if this game weren’t an open world but a linear game with dueling set pieces as the main feature, that this would be an all timer for me. Its a great game regardless, just the unbridled joy I got in this game was interrupted by everything else.
DUELS, DUELS, DUELS. The crème de la crème, this is DESIGN. Seriously every opportunity you get to duel, be it in a side story developing side characters, be it mythic tales, or epic boss fights, these stand out. The mechanics around short stabs, or overhead stabs to deplete stamina to get better hits. The proper reading of timing of parryable or unblockable moments, its a dance, and importantly it tells you to be patient. To study what they are doing . The fact this is tied to either the most emotional moments of the game or to the stellar stories of fables gone by as you write your own? THey create the most beautiful stages and set pieces for these to occur. Everyone moves differently and they way people talk and share mid battle, that you can sense exasperation , sensational. However this isn’t a game about staying a samurai, but about abandoning the samurai principles in war. And that part of the game is not as stunning as this.
This game wants you to see that being an honorable warrior is so much of a disadvantage and that marries with the open world progression. The game is in 3 acts, and the more and more you adopt the title of ghost, the more tools of the ghost you get. That is ninja arts poison , wind chimes, sticky bombs, smoke bombs the gamut. These tools become necessary because the amount of mongols you face either in story missions or just general invasions are overwhelming. It creates the true feeling of an oppressive land and truly speaking to the work you have done. At the beginning when you don’t have much you rely on the stances that deal with different enemy types. In a flow state you are alternating stances(thank the designer who added slo mo so you can change and look at what’s in fron of you) to become more effective at different infantry mid swing. It can be amazing when you create a string of death. You feel like a badass but early on without tools it’s exhausting. But mirroring Jin’s need to become more savage, the more you develop your tools, you become so crafty and a one man wrecking machine. Its a great sense of progression, but it can feel like busy work.
The reason for that is because the world is … eh? Seriously its gorgeous, picturesque but man moving through it can feel like…. Time passed. Maybe because I got tired of the horse ride exposition story moments, maybe its cause the wall climbing is finicky, maybe its cause teh sense of movement in terms of paths is just not memorable. I would fast travel and stop exploring because, the things to see weren’t always an instantaneous moment to moment of newness or resource management. Fox Dens , pillars, the springs etc weren’t engaging enough consistently.
For about half of this game, I used to say it had not sense of space, or location etc. But I was wrong, everything about Jin’s home is truly memorable. It’s memorable because all the compelling stories happen there. I don’t think I would say that most of the supporting cast won me over, Jin, Taka, Yuna and Shimura hold their own. It’s really the people that give locations some memories , but none are truly adorned like where Sakais home is and thats a detriment to the game.
However it speaks to the joy of combat that none of these issues stopped me from playing. Like the thrill of combat, from standoffs to duels to even the ghost mode . its amazing and anything that took me away from that wasn’t a delight. I didn’t like sneaking. I didn’t feel like the tools to become immersed in shadow were strong . I love the wind chimes and hte ability to slow hear to visually get a sense of enemies far from you. But those and cover were the main tools, and it felt finicky to guess how people were seeing you etc. It left me feeling that if this game weren’t an open world but a linear game with dueling set pieces as the main feature, that this would be an all timer for me. Its a great game regardless, just the unbridled joy I got in this game was interrupted by everything else.