Do I like the game? Kind of. I've spent a lot of time playing it so giving it a thumbs down would be strange. Also the settings is easily my favorite historic time period (yeah I like samurais, I'm original like that) and that makes me more lenient towards the game. And there is a lot to like. The game looks stunning. The combat is crisp. The enemies are not hp-spongey. The ninja and samurai playstyles couldn't be more distinct and both feel good to play. Completing castles feels good too - either storming in and killing everyone as a samurai, or stealthing around and picking the targets as a ninja. The target lists / assassin boards are ok. There is quite a bit of them and they are accompanied with a light story bits. It can get a bit tedious the more you do it, but it's fine for the most parts. But there is also quite a bit to be dissapointed in. The open world activites are simply not fun. There are two QTE activities that are as boring as it can get. Then there is pick x scrolls / pray at x shrines and again it's just boring. The horse archery is the least bad, but it's still nothing to be excited about. Just a note here, all of these activities have an unskippable animation at some point and it will eventually make your blood boil, I'm sure of it. The world is big, but there is nothing outside of the roads. I remember the first time I climbed a hill, because why not, it's an open world game, right? And there was absolutely nothing there. Not on any of the hills, unless there was a road leading there. To be honest, the game fights quite hard against such stupid ideas as exploring of the beaten paths. There is this long slide-down animation that almost discouraged me from doing it. But there is also a skyrim horse that gets up almost any slope no matter how steep. And so I climbed and found the same nothing every time. I'm not a big on base building, on arranging and decorating in such a detail Shadows allow. Luckily the end result looked satisfactory enough most of the time, so I largely just slapped the buildings together and was done with it. But the game's whole economy revolves about the base building and it just made it pointless to engage with it. Well, not the whole economy, but a good chunk of it. The second half of the economy is about upgrading gear and honestly that felt just as pointless. The story was structured kind of like Valhalla, which a lot of people didn't like, but it's even worse in Shadows. In Valhalla some of the characters get more spotlight and it made all the difference. In Shadows the story is shattered into such a small loosely connected pieces you don't have enough time to start to care about anyone. The villains are plain, because they don't have enough time to shine. The supporting cast gets the same treatment. The allies have absolutely no substance and they somehow feel even worse than the villains / supporting cast. It feels like they were just glued to the game somehow. The historical figures are here just for a blink of an eye. All the three Japan unifiers appear so briefly it feels almost insulting. Yes, Oda gets more screen time than the other two and he is quite charismatic, but it's not much. I don't dislike the protagonist duo, but I can't say I love them either. Maybe splitting the main character in two serves the gameplay well, but it hurts the narrative I'd say. Or maybe have a protagonist duo, but don't pretend the game is an RPG and make it an action adventure. I would recommend the game only if you like ninjas/samurais and action games with solid combat. But it definitely feels like the worst of the open world Assassin's Creeds. Early this year I played Rise of the Ronin and the games easily blows Shadows out of the water in everything but the visuals and time period.
                                                                
                                                            
                                                            
                                                                
                                                                    
                                                                        
                                                                        
                                                                    
                                                                
                                                                
                                                                    
                                                                        
                                                                            
                                                                                map is too freaking big and %70 of the map is empty , mountains and trees makes traveling boring no adventures or events even no hunting for rare animals etc killed half of the feodal japan to restore order , sometimes killing all the gangs makes you feel exhausted and pointless. liked the main story and dual character play, side quests and npcs feel like they are irrelevant. base building mechanic is well designed but you dont need to upgrade your base at all calling an ally mechanic is pointless aswell i didnt need single ally through my 110 hours overall i liked the gameplay, main story character development and stunning japan visuals solid 7/10