updated review: the story feels very hallow, jin is extremely hard to read and the player can't help but sympathise for his family situation and being an outcast to the Sakai / samurai path he needs to go down. he is nothing like his elders, despite being made to feel guilty about that. however, his actions sometimes seem sloppy and unmethodical to whatever his true cause is in the main story. (in lots of the side tales he does he says really confusing things like trying to deny poisoning people to be his fault or being super impatient and not really understanding with peasants) - the story is super short and doesn't give us enough time to fully feel any connection to any of the characters. almost every act was foreseeable which probably was the creator's choice. the choice to make Jin morally grey while not giving us much to work with in his past or main story or side tales is infuriating because the trope is perfect, especially in ps exclusive games e.g. kratos in god of war, ellie and joel in tlou, big boss in mgs.

despite all this, it didn't stop me from platniuming it. it is a fun game with a unique combat style and climbing features similar to uncharted and assassin's creed, and possibly the most beautiful scenery in a video game i've ever seen.