The game is okay but not really groundbreaking. For me it feels too long and it drags itself out so much. What I liked about the game: - good performance and visual fidelity out of the box. I had absolutely 0 issues regarding FPS drops or anything like that and I could start the game with the recommended graphic settings. - generally good visuals and very well optimized. You get good visuals even if you are not on the highest end of hardware. - stealth gameplay is as you would expect. I don't like stealth games generally but I think that is good and well made if you are into that (But of course that is to be expected given Ubisoft previous experience with their franchise) - RPG Elements and the dialogues are nice when you play in Japanese Dub What I didn't like: - Combat 1o1 or 1v2. Reading the enemys movement is not well done. Instead of being able to react naturally to how enemies swinging their weapons, this feels like it is not possible in this game. Instead you need to remember the attack combo, reading it after the first swing. Example: the big Brute enemys with the mace. They have an attack where they hit you with a downward swing. If you dodge and stay near them, they will combo it with a upward or side swing. This swing is so difficult to read, that I basically always got immediately hit when the enemy started the swing instead of when the attack would actually land. This is what I mean with that. In other games like in Rise of the Ronin or even in Ghost of Tsushima, it was way way better scripted and felt more natural to get a combat flow without knowing every single enemy attack in advance. - Progression and Rewards: I played over 10 hours, but it does not feel rewarding at all. You get some skills, yes, but it's just not enough and not exciting at all. Throw a Kunai faster? Deplete 1 additional heatlhbar with an assasination? Get 10% adrenalin when dodging? Does that sound exciting? Can we maybe get something better that actually changes or makes the gameplay more exciting when you finally have it? I don't know man. It feels like the most damage and defense gain you get is just from leveling. What about another combat stance for Naoe? Making her more tanky, if we want to play that way with her? - Female Character design. Please Make the female Characters more attractive and let us change the protagonist in a kind of Character customization. It is not as bad as Ghost of Tsushima, but look at the NPC's and companions in Rise of the Ronin. They look way better and are more attractive. And guess what? Making them more attractive spices up the gameplay. Giving players reason to progress the romance options etc. If they are not attractive,  why would I make the effort to romance a character? Conclusion: If you have a lot of time to kill and focus more on visual fidelity instead of gameplay, than this could be for you. This game is a literal time-killer. My personal conclusion is, that I don't want to spend 30 hours in a game to find the "fun" part. I am an adult, I can't commit to play over 1-2 hours at times. This game gives you so little for the time you put in. Yes the graphics are good. But give me good gameplay and better rewards quicker. Its just not enough for me to recommend. I don't want to play for an hour to be able to throw a kunai faster.
                                                                
                                                            
                                                            
                                                                
                                                                    
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                    
                                                                
                                                                
                                                                    
                                                                        
                                                                            
                                                                                It's great. Combat is fun, exploration is wonderful, characters are beautiful.