For most of the first half of this game I was thinking in terms of how wrong most people seemed to have gotten it, both pre-release with all the (dumb) “yakuza with ghosts” comparisons and later derision as a boring map game. The mechanics here are clearly much more, movement and combat alike driven by a much more expansive and less context-based toolset than games like AssCreed or Spiderman PS4. Even just collecting spirits was fun enough when the game gives you a cool grapple+glide combo and the freedom to just climb level geometry and make your own path — it really felt closer to a Dishonored or even Deus Ex. A clunkier version with a shitty unchangeable FOV and weirdly weightless combat, but still.

Anyway then the story got really boring and a big giant popped out in the middle of Tokyo and then Hand Guy said I had to go explore a bunch of random points to collect dumb things before I could progress the story, just when I had had my fill of exploration and wanted to actually push through and see what happens in the story. Well the answer is nothing bc I stopped playing there. The review is also over now.