Good
- I like how the game uses wind has a navigation indicator rather than the traditional map or bar.
- I like how fast quick travel is. There's virtually no loading time.
- the game is absolutely stunningly beautiful. I would find myself standing there just admiring how the lights reflects off of each blade of grass and how it reflects off of the ocean. And how the wind interacts with the plant's life it's also serene.
- it's interesting to see Jin struggle between the samurai code of frontal combat versus the thieves method of stealth assassination. Should he make his uncle proud by keeping the code or break it in order to get past certain areas more smoothly?
- the sound of each sword swing into the opponent's flesh feels very lifelike, and as if you are swinging really in the hands of a skilled Samurai slicing through your enemies like chopping up a piece of steak. The injured and death animations of the enemies are also very realistic, as well as their bloodstatter.
- the structure and the gameplay style isn't particularly anything new, but the setting and the accuracy the developers paid attention to in regards to feudal Japan is absolutely incredible. Which plays a big part in my enjoyment of the game. Like the grapple, the climbing, the stealth, and in some way even the combat I've experienced in other games, like assassin's Creed, uncharted, and sekiro.
- I was playing with a fan blowing in front of me and it actually enhanced the feeling whenever I swiped up to summon a gust of wind for navigation.
- when the sword fights go smoothly and I pair every single attack and Dodge and counter successfully, it feels extremely satisfying, like I'm a badass samurai.
- I'm glad this game makes the walk speed of the protagonist the same as the ally's. In many games the Ally has a fixed lock speed and the game forces me to tilt the stick at a certain distance to match the speed. In this game, it is so much more convenient when the Ally will Sprint if I Sprint, and walk if I walk.
- kenji's side quest is a nice comic relief to the seriousness of all the other quests.
- the game makes it really easy to see what upgrades are available.
- although deflecting arrows do not take skill, since I'm just holding one button. It's still really cool to watch jin walk forward slowly, then immediately speeds up when he deflects an arrow, and imagining the impending doom that's enemy must feel as he sees jin approach.
- the gameplay is very very customizable, in the sense that you can learn techniques that cater to your playstyle, wether defensive or offensive.
- I really like the debates the game portrays in terms of whether a person should fight with honor or use whatever deceitful trick up his sleeve to win. It makes me think about competitive gaming, and how so many players would fight with "honor" and frown on camping and cheesy tactics. At the end of the day, I think a player should be allowed to use every tool the game offers to win. If a cheesy tactic turns out to be the dominant one, then there is a flaw in the game's design, unless that is what the developer intended.
- the haiku sections, although are simple, the game makes it very serene.
Bad
- sometimes the camera angle goes into a really bad position because there's no lock on system in this game. Sometimes it goes into a position where I cannot see the enemies attack animation, which led me to get attacked even though I was ready to Parry.
- sometimes climbing down a wall is annoying because I hold down to climb, but there may be a small platform that breaks the climb and I end up walking off the platform and falling to my death. It wasn't clear that the platform was not a climbable ledge until I dropped on for that split second, leaving me no time to react by letting go of the joystick.
- I don't understand why ryozu don't hunt for food for his men when there is so much wildlife. Bears, deers, boars, foxes. He would go as far as to burn his own people than to hunt for animals? from a logical point of view it just doesn't make sense.
- there's no way to see the bow cool down meter unless I aim with the bow, which is inconvenience during the heat of a battle.
- the chain assassination technique should allow me to use Square to chain assassinate. Because when I use triangle to chain assassinate, The prompt doesn't always show up until I am right next to the enemy, meaning if the enemies are not close enough for me to chain assassinate, then I end up doing a heavy strike, which blows my cover and screws up stealth, just because the enemies are a bit further apart than what is required by the chain assassinate technique.
- they really need to slow down time a lot more when cycling between gadgets. There's way too many.