It’s weird to see people outside of a said culture being super protective about it. Like in this case other people caring about authenticity more than Japanese people do. It’s soooo weird to me to be honest. Now that Japanese media is praising the game I bet those who dissed it feel pretty stupid now.
It happened with Ghost in the Shell when Scarlett Johansson was cast to play Major Kusanagi. Westerners screamed about whitewashing while almost all Japanese did not give a single shit about it.
It’s pure misinformed virtue signaling that assumes things are off within the game. I’m more confident that the Japanese reviewers at Famitsu know their own culture better than some fucking white Australian in Sydney reviewing for Kotaku.
Anyways, for future Sushi players, the combat is complex in mash/selection/timing in the early stages, but be patient and you'll find it doesn't lag once you've learned the mechanics of the system. It uses a new better button layout, that gives you quicker access to attack combinations; with smart blocking and avoidance.
The one recommendation I can give to future players is bump up the difficulty as soon as you feel you can. Normal is a bit easy, and hard feels just about right once you unlock the ability to block arrows with your sword. I wish there was another level of difficulty, because once you get those Perfect Parry timings down, enemies often go down in one hit. And then there is that one charm which makes Perfect Parry etc. easier. Halfway through your playstyle, you will keep owning people, except for the bosses, those need a bit more timing and strategy.
The moment-to-moment gameplay is fun and superbly entertaining, but still a bit derivative at times -- the entire genre as a whole does need some novel ideas/concepts. I’m a bit bored by “clear the enemy outposts” gameplay these days but I appreciate how much of the game’s emphasis is on just vibing. It looks and sounds gorgeous, and the exploration feels a lot like BOTW. The game doesn't do anything new or surprising if you've played any of Sony's recent first-party offerings, but it does it all in a way that's quite polished and sharp as a bushido's blade, and that is fundamentally enjoyable, if a little derivative and generic at some points.
Concept vs. execution comes to mind on this. A well-done, even over-done thing can be good if it’s execution is very good. If the game just feels fun, regardless of non-inventiveness, it will do well.
I like all of the Marvel movies a lot, knowing well that most of them have very, very formulaic summer-blockbuster structure. But they also have tight, solid execution. They’re summer popcorn flicks done well.
Videogames-wise, I think of Spider-Man. It has all of the same trappings and doesn’t reinvent the wheel anywhere, but I played the whole game, something I hardly ever do these days, especially with open world games. It would have overstayed its welcome had I collected every collectible and done all the DLC, but I chose not to, knowing myself. The collectibles and side-quests I did do were fun enough, and the core components of the game just felt fun.
The combination of novel concept/mechanic and solid execution is honestly rare, especially among AAA games that are, regardless of our opinions on this, also partially treated as investment commodities rather than purely seen as media/art.
