for the first several hours, i was very frustrated with this game mainly due to my stubbornness in playing overly defensive. enter the lady butterfly and genichiro boss fights, which breathed a new life into my experience with this game. i learned to read enemies' attack patterns, parry everything, and pick and choose my opportunities carefully. having just taken down the monstrous final boss last night, i feel like ive climbed a mountain i once thought insurmountable. i genuinely feel that my skill level in games overall has gotten a bit better because of this game. this probably has the most satisfying combat ive ever experienced in a game, amazing visuals, great music and sound design, a good story, and epic enemy and boss designs. however, a couple of points in the game were very annoying/had obtuse solutions like the second snake encounter in the cave, or were underwhelming, like the folding screen monkeys fight. also while it didnt affect me much i think dragonrot is one of the dumbest design choices in a game ever as it only serves as a slap in the face to new players trying to get upgrades - i say this because you unlock the ability to get rid of it about 1/4 of the way into the game. that said, i found myself occasionally redoing some of the boss fights just for fun even after i finished the main story, and any game that can get me to do something like that earns a spot in my top tier. will be going for all achievements in the meantime.