Coming from a native japanese person, this game is oblivious to actual japanese history. It dances with fantasies of japanese stereotypes like "honor" while ignoring the undercurrent of actual samurai life, which is both far less honorable and far more mundane than depicted. It would be one thing if this was designed to be fantastical, but it isn't. Sucker Punch designed this game with the goal of accurately portraying Japan's culture and history, and they failed at that. To say otherwise would be a disservice to the memory of the samurai themselves.

Besides, the game is just bland open world AAA kitsch with a big map and picturesque locations made by crunching underpaid developers and artists. Which is to say, it's a game that isn't bad, but isn't memorable either. A game that entices the senses but never the imagination, that gives the illusion of enjoyment while leaving you empty in the end. It's a AAA game in 2020 and that's all I really have to say.

This game is so baffling and just awe-inspiring in its clunky, cumbersome, QTE-laced, barely functional gameplay and its message, that is delivered in the most CLUMSY way possible, along with simply laughable in your face symbolism evoking slavery and the fucking holocaust to drive home the point.

And to top it all of, this shit-stew is presented with such a genuine earnestness that one really has to wonder if David Cage has any capacity to understand human emotion at all. Or has never talked to a person in his life. Or both.

I have not finished this yet, but it has proven itself to be such an abominable piece of garbage that I struggle to even think about putting the disc back in.

Maybe someday.

But I already know this: This might not be the worst game I ever played, but it is without a question the most incompetent and infuriating one.

Edit: Reduced to 1/10

I overcame my struggles and finally finished this... video game, I guess, and now I feel a myriad of emotions. None of them good, really.
There is sadness, disgust, anger, despair and most of all, overwhelming boredom and a general sense of uncertainity if my love for video games actually survived contact with this apocalyptic piece of unfathomable incompetence.

Second Edit: It did. Thank god. I still like video games quite a bit. And all the negative emotions vanished over time too.
And now there is one positive thing I can say about the game:
It left me with a sick sense of amusement about life, the universe and everything else that makes me feel like I am on the brink of insanity.
It's actually quite... interesting.
.. I like it.

cough Anyways: Do not play this... thing. Ever.

This replay of Arkham Knight was something of a revelation. I had always liked this game but I also got so caught up in the issues that you could easily single out to nitpick to death, with that namely being the overabundance of repetitive batmobile sections, the lack of memorable boss battles, the blatantly predictable story twist, etc. In the grand scheme of things though allowing these hiccups to torpedo a game which excels so comprehensively on so many other levels is effectively missing the forest for the trees. Because on this replay I've garnered a deeper appreciation for Arkham Knight and I’m finally ready to see it as an unassailable masterpiece on the same level as Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. This game holds up amazingly well nearly a decade after its initial release. On a sheer sensory and technical level it’s positively sumptuous, boasting absolutely stunning visuals and graphics, a gorgeously atmospheric open world that’s rich in both depth and content, and top notch moment to moment gameplay. The traversal is fast paced and very efficient, the stealth sections are about as blisteringly intense and tightly designed as ever, and the combat remains more or less the same fluid freeflow system from the other games but polished up to a mirror sheen, with just the right mix of mechanical complexity and varied enemy types to keep it consistently challenging and fun. I’ve also come to really love this game’s story. It takes a while to really cook and the writing itself is far from spotless (as it definitely lacks the same butter smooth pacing of the prior games and certain beats aren’t entirely fleshed out or built up) but the story which does emerge is ultimately still incredibly compelling. It offers very emotionally effective character drama and plenty to talk about and think about thematically. It also contains some absolutely fantastic moments throughout which rank among some of the best in the series. The side missions additionally contribute very meaningfully to the overarching narrative alongside just being incredibly unique and engaging gameplay content in their own right. All of these reasons as well as many others more are why i absolutely love Arkham Knight in spite of it all. It's messy and imperfect but it's also just so much fun. It tells a highly ambitious story which conclusively rounds off a saga of fantastic games near flawlessly while also paying due tribute to its characters. The Arkham games are such a huge part of why i love video games so much in the first place and revisiting them was certainly a fruitful experience.