this game will NOT respect you time, the progression is slow AF and the backtracking to grab everything you can't pick up the first time around is insane. What a disappointment. I didn't finish the game and I won't, after hours I had enough (I enjoyed only the first hour). The biggest issue I have here is the combat system, which is just not fun enough. The parry is the only satisfactory hit you can perform, because it actually has some impact and you'll see the enemies losing their balance when you do it, while almost all other spear attacks have no weigh, enemies do not even flinch when you hit them. The abilities you can unlock with the spear are very few and not very interesting, I unlocked everything I cared for after two hours. The game is a Metroidvania with a massive amount of backtracking, there are just too many things you can't do the first time around. Regarding the story I actually don't know what to say because after 5 hours it basically didn't even start. I'm a massive fan of the god of war saga, I've 500+ hours in Gow Ragnarok because the combat is fantastic, has great hit feedback and is just fun to keep replaying over and over because it offers so many possibilities, but this game is just not for me.
Game is a disaster under many aspects: combat feels repetitive, too easy and boring after a short while, it feels like playing a musou, you can buttom mash and get away most of the times, defensive mechanics are pointless,hit feedback is completely wrong (a heavy kick in the face should send enemies flying, instead it has the same impact of a jab). Overall, the feeling of the combat is the same I had when I played Yakuza for the first time 20 years ago on PS2. The new combat style with the weapons doesn't make any sense at all. This, and the English dub that's ruined by one of the most egregious miscasting in gaming history, you can miscast npcs and get away with it but you can't do that with the main character. I loved Kiryu back then but this series need to be reworked from scratch, I certainly won't buy any more Kiwami done like this one.
An absolute masterpiece, I can't give a 10 because it doesn't sport an online leaderboard which could have made it eternal. The game is not easy and that's part of why it's special, improving results each run is extremely satisfactory. I got all the trophies except the 1cc challenge, which is the ultimate challenge of the game. I try it once or twice a day and that reminds me of the times when I went to the arcade and tried to finish metal slug with one coin. Very nostalgic.
EDIT: Finally got all trophies, now waiting for dlcs or whatever new content, gameplay loop is so good I just want to keep playing
EDIT: After replaying the game, I decided to lower the score from 9 to 8. Most enemies are just not fun to fight against or not enough charismatics, especially pink lamps, white fur balls and flying enemies sometimes are harder than bosses in Master Ninja difficulty but not fun to fight against. I wish there were way more Ninja or demons to fight, and way less lamps or fur balls. Fantastic game for hardcore players, but suitable also for more casual players thanks to multiple difficulty levels. I finished it on hard and now I'm ready for the master ninja difficulty. The game also run flawlessly on good pc, I could play the whole game at 120 fps without a single hitch or stutter (whiIe I had to abandon Ninja Gaiden 2 remake because that didn't run well at all). We need more game like this, congrats to Platinum and Team Ninja!
It's the best version of the game compared to both the PS1 and PSP version, but a lot more could have been done. For veteran players the game is still too easy because story battles still have a fixed level, so if you farm to unlock jobs and abilities you'll soon find yourself much more powerful than your enemies, while random battles scale to the player's level random battles against cats could potentially be much harder than story fights against knights and wizards. If you don't care about this aspect and just want to play fort the story, you're in for a treat here, overall it's still the best srpg of all time with great characters, lore and story.
Playing this on hard difficulty and I'm having some real fun here! The only gripe I've with the game is that you can't customize the buttons as you want, you can choose between three presets but if none suit your style than you have to adapt. I'll update the review once I've finished the game (I'm about 3/4 right now) but I definitely recommend this to everyone who likes anime and challenging 2D old style arcade action-platformers.
Brilliant game, story, characters and acting are top notch, among with the best of the genre. Gameplay is simple but solid, hit feedback with fire weapons is on point. For expert players the game is too easy even on hard difficulty, and I play with a pad with all aim assists off, so I expect it to be even much easier with a mouse. An update with a new harder difficulty level would be a very good reason to replay the game. Progression also wasn't handed well, since you can basically unlock the best weapons and cars after just a few hours, so after that everything you buy is just for collection, which is something I don't care about.
Coming from Mario Kart Wii, this is a massive step back in almost every aspect. The tracks, especially, do not make any sense to me, they're most straight lines. How's that supposed to be fun? The driving itself is solid, but I'm not having fun with the game overall, players' skill has been taken out from the winning formula of the game, items are just too powerful in comparison.
Moving around with Dk is super fun, much better than Astrobot which was very limited in movements, while Dk has a ton of possibilities. Unfortunately, 80% of the game is just going around looking for banana, and the first 20 hours of the game are so easy that it gets boring. The latest part of the game and the endgame are on the contrary extremely good, some moments are 10 out 10. I did not finish the last two endgame levels because they're locked behind a certain numbers of bananas, and I find that stupid, I enjoy hard platforming and hard bosses but cozy activities like collecting all bananas are not my thing.
