deciding to call it a figurative day after about 15 hours in. while I deeply enjoyed this game's UI, visuals, combat systems, upgrade trees, fast travel system/load times, and character customization, combined, it wasn't enough to overshadow my inability to deal with this games awkward & uninspired cutscenes, mission designs, writing, copy-paste open-world, and story.
missions fell within a number of small categories, as most games within this genre do: talk-travel-kill; trail an npc; or search for a random item somewhere; all of which felt like I was working on the same objective, even if the characters, storyline, setting, and enemies were tweaked. cutscenes take this strange approach of crafting what seems like a portrait with Jin & whoever within, which may have been done to showcase the games' visuals, but ends up having me feel like missions are stagnant/don't matter, due to my feel of being removed from the characters & exposition. Jin feels uninspired and contradictory, as he holds himself up to this standard of supporting those on the island, but is quick to dispatch of any person that so much as bats an eye at the wrong quest-giving npc. the only interesting character (in my opinion following completion of the first act), Ryozu - showed some sense of direction & emotion, eluding to what great writing could have been thorughout your experience as opposed to tucked away in 1/5th of an act's missions.
from reading other reviews as well, ive also become too aware of this force-fed narrative of honor within samurai life, specifically within this game. while I am not one to speak historically on this, I would've wanted something that felt a bit more genuine, as opposed to hearing each important npc tell you about how important it is to fight/die with honor. at some point, it feels like an exhausted buzzword as opposed to a critical component of how one carried themselves within their business & relationships at a time in history.
for the first time in a long time, I feel greatly disappointed in a game that holds so much promises in certain spaces, but is lacking on other major ones.
missions fell within a number of small categories, as most games within this genre do: talk-travel-kill; trail an npc; or search for a random item somewhere; all of which felt like I was working on the same objective, even if the characters, storyline, setting, and enemies were tweaked. cutscenes take this strange approach of crafting what seems like a portrait with Jin & whoever within, which may have been done to showcase the games' visuals, but ends up having me feel like missions are stagnant/don't matter, due to my feel of being removed from the characters & exposition. Jin feels uninspired and contradictory, as he holds himself up to this standard of supporting those on the island, but is quick to dispatch of any person that so much as bats an eye at the wrong quest-giving npc. the only interesting character (in my opinion following completion of the first act), Ryozu - showed some sense of direction & emotion, eluding to what great writing could have been thorughout your experience as opposed to tucked away in 1/5th of an act's missions.
from reading other reviews as well, ive also become too aware of this force-fed narrative of honor within samurai life, specifically within this game. while I am not one to speak historically on this, I would've wanted something that felt a bit more genuine, as opposed to hearing each important npc tell you about how important it is to fight/die with honor. at some point, it feels like an exhausted buzzword as opposed to a critical component of how one carried themselves within their business & relationships at a time in history.
for the first time in a long time, I feel greatly disappointed in a game that holds so much promises in certain spaces, but is lacking on other major ones.