If this was 2000-2003 the game is easily an 8-10 but as for 2016 it's seems too familiar and IMO people are praising it a bit too much just because it's a rare piece in a forgotten genre.
Few spoilers:
1. The story is as predictable as someone could expect. You have a shogun, a brother with whom he has differences of opinion+a spoiled bragging nephew and a secret shadow enemy with huge amount of resources. You won't believe who is the bad guy! I mean, I get that it's hard to come with entirely new idea but still it could have been ... just better. We are speaking about Asia - a land full with incredible stories. The dialogue was flat and even in the moments with a tiny bit of suspence someone would say something in advance and immediately you know in what direction the story would go. Maybe I am too much story driven I believe that if something has a good story, it would always make an impact on the world - no mather if we talk about a game, a movie or a book.
2. Gameplay. The short story - a Terminator movie coming out into the 2000`s - it has some cool scenes, maybe even some great moments but in the end the whole thing is implausible in terms of reality. Some of the abilities of the main characters are just naive - every time a soldier sees a bottle, he thinks that it's a sake, losses his mind and goes on to get it ... dropping all kind of awarness. Everytime a soldier hears a bird song, he goes to check it out. Soldiers with hats never leave their posts. Samurai are somehow superhumans and are immune to your ridiculous abilities in a ridiculous manner. For example, Aiko could dress up as a disguise. When she does it, nobody notice anything strange about her but somehow a samurai could immediately spot that this 99% covered women is a spy. Not to mention that she never brings clothes with her(if your disguise is always going to be a geisha than be prepared in advance for once) and the missions are extended obviously just to steal some clothes. Being overall a stealth game you would think that your heroes would preffer the night ... most missions are during the day and even more so - the last mission the objective is to breach a fortress full with an army ... during the day. Small things that become more noticable after every mission. The game is challenging in way that you would often die - some missions/maps are very well constructed but often the creators of the game just decided to put guard against every bath, toilet, garden, tree and you have to grind slowly in order to advance.
Bottom line the game has its charm and probably I was a bit too negative skipping all the good stuff. Respect for the developers and I hope that they would build on their potential in the future.