Had a bunch of conversations with people below and wanted to sum them all up. Pros: The games story so far has been compelling overall. The protags have the classic heroes journey trope which has been used from the Illiad to Star Wars. It's the most common and compelling story we tell as humans. The side characters are a mixed bag but get better as their stories unfold. Junjiro has turned out to be extremely complex and interesting despite me calling him "The Goonies Kid" at the start. Combat gets much more interesting around level 30 as you can't just one shot everything and you need to take apart locations with more thought put in. Yasuke becomes a powerhouse but is shit at stealth and can't climb to save his life. Naoe is exceptional at stealth and takedowns but can't take a hit so you have to play well if you do get discovered. Fights are enjoyable in either direction. Cultural references have been very positive so far. I've learned a lot about locations, practices, and some historical figures. Practices like Kintsugi are really neat to learn about as well as prayer standards and things like the tea ceremony. These gave me footholds to learn more outside of the game which is A+ in my book. At no time did the game incentivize the destruction or disrespect of cultural objects or locations. Shrines actually give you buffs for taking part in prayer and major temples give you codex entries and information as well as knowledge points that permanently unlock skill tiers. Overall it does a good job at portraying these places as something to be respected. If people take combat in a video game as a reason to act like a dipshit in real life then they were looking for an excuse to be a dipshit anyway and chose the game as that excuse. Seduction scenes are clearly defined as having options with a heart for flirting and a heart with an arrow through it for sexual scenes. If you want to skip these it's very obvious on how to do so. The environment is massive and changes with time due to seasonal shifts. Each season brings more loot to different areas of the map and changes how you approach some areas due to hazards like deep snow slowing down Naoe. You can change seasons at will or they will change naturally as you fast travel around. Likely that some stuff is hidden out there based on season/location. Lots to explore here so not a lot to say yet. Cons: Movement can be clunky when everything in the world can be climbed. Ladders have an insane amount of gravity and will pull you in just looking at them. Yasuke cannot run without trying to bullcharge any object near him. Naoe has no indicator to show when she can't climb something other than doing a backflip off it instead. For fans of the series I don't know if this is common or not. The sexual scenes so far felt out of place. Two characters have approached me thus far. Gennojo is an over the top pushy obnoxious man child. Chat said we could fix him. There is no fixing him. Ibuki flirts out of seemingly nowhere as well so it all just caught me off guard. Not really interested in any of that content so I just skipped it and moved on. MTX in a single player game feels bad to me. I dislike it entirely and refuse to engage in any purchases available. These types of purchases are very popular outside of western countries though so it makes sense to see them so commonly in games now. Anyway, headed to bed. Stay frosty.