Artstyle, humor, environments, shrines, sailing through lakes and rivers with a bowl, etc; all were enjoyable for me. This game has neat moments like when you try to fish that giant koi and it drags you around a flooded village. In these areas, the game feels solid and polished, so far so good.
However, I was expecting this to be a game big on stealth (ninjas and all that), but it isn't, at all. There's even a dedicated sneak button that I rarely used. So you have to fight aggressively if you want to actually have some fun with this game (and level up your character), since you will end up getting caught easily by all the samurai on the whole damn map at the same time anyways. Turning into animals is cute and all but samurai still spot you easily if you get even remotely close, and most animals are incredibly slow so not really an option for exploration as maps are huge.
And, there were too many spells and playable characters cluttering things up. You don't need to use any characters besides the main one and the hammer dude (for bear samurai). The game doesn't challenge you with any difficult or interesting enemies or scenarios to justify the huge amount of options.
Encountering the exact same squad of samurai for the 100th time gets old really really fast, no matter how many items or spells or characters or gimmicks you throw at it. I didn't enjoy any of that, I think most levels could've been scrapped entirely to have a more quick but focused progression. Some levels just drag on and on and on and it made me want to just drop the game and never play again a couple times. I didn't dislike boss encounters as I found the bosses themselves to be creative, however you beat all of them with quick time events except the last one (at least)
If they focused on maybe 2 characters only and polished up the enemies, stealth and mechanics (more types of samurai, all characters can use a few spells exclusive to each one, players are able to set up elaborate traps for samurai, catch them through tall weeds one by one, create mirages, turn dangerous wild animals against them, etc) it would've been a good game worth remembering.
As it stands, the game left me feeling lukewarm on some areas, and frustrated and disappointed in all others. I was expecting something much more special mechanic and stealth-wise when I catched a glimpse of this game on youtube years and years ago.
I get many people played it and loved it back in the day, but right now, I don't recommend it at all.
However, I was expecting this to be a game big on stealth (ninjas and all that), but it isn't, at all. There's even a dedicated sneak button that I rarely used. So you have to fight aggressively if you want to actually have some fun with this game (and level up your character), since you will end up getting caught easily by all the samurai on the whole damn map at the same time anyways. Turning into animals is cute and all but samurai still spot you easily if you get even remotely close, and most animals are incredibly slow so not really an option for exploration as maps are huge.
And, there were too many spells and playable characters cluttering things up. You don't need to use any characters besides the main one and the hammer dude (for bear samurai). The game doesn't challenge you with any difficult or interesting enemies or scenarios to justify the huge amount of options.
Encountering the exact same squad of samurai for the 100th time gets old really really fast, no matter how many items or spells or characters or gimmicks you throw at it. I didn't enjoy any of that, I think most levels could've been scrapped entirely to have a more quick but focused progression. Some levels just drag on and on and on and it made me want to just drop the game and never play again a couple times. I didn't dislike boss encounters as I found the bosses themselves to be creative, however you beat all of them with quick time events except the last one (at least)
If they focused on maybe 2 characters only and polished up the enemies, stealth and mechanics (more types of samurai, all characters can use a few spells exclusive to each one, players are able to set up elaborate traps for samurai, catch them through tall weeds one by one, create mirages, turn dangerous wild animals against them, etc) it would've been a good game worth remembering.
As it stands, the game left me feeling lukewarm on some areas, and frustrated and disappointed in all others. I was expecting something much more special mechanic and stealth-wise when I catched a glimpse of this game on youtube years and years ago.
I get many people played it and loved it back in the day, but right now, I don't recommend it at all.