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I have to agree with DX, this game is checking all my boxes as well. Combat isn't difficult but can be extremely punishing if you fuck up (thank you spear gang bangs, you fuckers can die in a fire. Most of my deaths I can attribute to getting surrounded by 3-4 spear dudes all attacking as soon as I start laying into one). Luckily once you learn attack patterns and the right timing to parry attacks it's a cake walk. Not entirely to hip on the changing combat stances in combat as it's kind of clunky but I do enjoy how each has advantages over certain enemy types (I really love the attack patterns of basic Wind Stance, that kick at the end is so satisfying to watch connect on a spear enemy). I really enjoy sneaking around and sniping people with my half-bow or fucking with people by killing someone in the open and hiding and systematically knocking people out one by one. When Yong said it does Assassin's Creed better then Assassin's Creed he wasn't kidding (and I haven't even gotten into playing with Ghost Stance yet). Stealth in this game is extremely fun and isn't tedious at all (just wish you could assassinate Mongol leaders instead of critically damaging them, not that they're hard to kill it'd just speed up the liberating process). I'm honestly not that far into it. I've put maybe 15-18 hours in but most of that has been wandering the visually stunning island doing side shit (like side tales, mythic tales (man were those duels stunning and difficult at the same time (this was before I mastered parrying attacks, got fucked up multiple times in both duels), liberating areas, and hunting down all those Sword Kits/Inari Shrines/Shinto Shrines/etc) and overall just fucking around (I've only done 4-5 actual story quests that's how much I'm just enjoying running around being a sneaky samurai). There's just to much shit to get side tracked on, really fucking with my gamer ADHD (so many shinies >.<). I can't honestly comment on the story yet since, as I noted, I'm not that far but what little I've seen has been really good. I'm liking the whole dichotomy of watching Jin struggle between being a Samurai and becoming the Ghost, how he's rationalizing it is extremely interesting and I can't wait to see how it all plays out (sadly I already know how the game ends, damn my curiosity, but that's not deterring my enjoyment of the story so far). Quite honestly this is by far one of the best games I've played in a long time and if it wasn't for Cyberpunk coming out this year would probably be my game of the year even though I've only put 15-18 hours into it. It's been a long time (since Nier actually) that I've really enjoyed playing a game this much (I'm enjoying it so much I'm going through withdrawals when I can't play it). SP really outdid themselves with this game.