A great open world game with all the hang ups that you would expect from an open world game.

Definitely the best looking game I’ve played this year. Sure it’s nice to be running on powerful PS5 specs, but Sucker Punch’s art direction just elevates this game to a whole other level. This is one of the only games that I would stop myself at various vistas just to take everything in and take a screenshot or 2 to capture it. It was kind of a bummer that the very first area was also aesthetically the best one (snowy mountains and shores don’t have anything on vibrant fields and meadows imo) but it was all great to look at across the board and I would constantly forgo a fast travel just to have more time riding around these environments.

Overall I think the mission structure felt a bit more freeform compared to Tsushima, but not by much. The first area felt super organic as I just rode around bumping into collectibles and stumbling up side quests to do. It just ran into that issue that most open world games run into where these things are cool the first couple times that they happen, but far less interesting when they’re happening for the 50th time in a very cookie cutter way. The worst example was the gambling dens. The first time it was cool because you’re able to play for a charm after you clear the first game, but this happens at every gambling den in the game in the same exact way with the same exact dialogue. Same goes for the shrines, fox dens, wolf dens, bamboo stations, etc. but to a lesser degree. At the end of the day these were all just an excuse to explore the beautiful world, and that’s all these needed to be. I did appreciate that this one was a lot less hand holdy than the first one since you really had to go out of your way to add points of interest icons on the map.

I was really let down with the player choice that was available, especially since they marketed it as more of a “choose your own adventure” compared to the first. You would think that have 6 main enemies would mean that you would have a least 5 different leads that you can follow in any order you want. Since the first member is taken out in the first 10 minutes of the game and the Saito family (Lore Saito, The Spider, and The Dragon) are saved for the end game, you really only had 2 options available to choose from. The order that you do them in doesn’t matter and I’m sure at least 90% of people will just end up doing the Oni’s area first because the Kitsune’s area is way farther from the starting area. I was at least expecting a final choice like they gave you at the end of the first game, but they didn’t even do that. Yotei felt even more linear than Tsushima in a lot of ways which was a bummer.

The narrative and characters were pretty ok. Nothing super memorable and everything played out pretty much as you would expect it to, but it was all serviceable enough to push the story forward. Focusing the main theme around revenge just kind of forced itself into having all of the troupes and failings that we’ve seen a hundred times from similar narratives. I’d say the same thing about the side quest content for the most part. I did really like Jin’s (protag from the first game) little house along with the lore, mask, and original super ability that they drop for you at the very end.

I really wish the wolf was more central to the plot, as they kind of just push it off as a side charter that really doesn’t add anything substantial to the main narrative. I was expecting a best friend companion and instead I got a pretty standoffish ally that only really warms up to Atsu in the very last moments of the game.

Combat felt pretty similar to the first game, but the wider array of weapon choices and firearms lent to a more hectic kind of approach that was fun to engage with. Perfect parrying never quite felt as good as something you would get out of a Sekiro, but it was still pretty satisfying to pull off.

The stealth sections were pretty fun to work through, especially with the armor sets that had abilities that elevated it, but things would usually fall apart pretty quickly when a stray guy would spot me out of the corner of his eye or stumble upon a dead comrade and alert the entire camp.

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