Rise of the Ronin

not gonna say anything myself because it's obviously not out yet but judging by the previews they should probably go back to making nioh 3/stranger of paradise 2/ninja gaiden 4

Been playing it nonstop since release game rules so far. I’m enjoying the open world structure quite a bit tbh don’t play a lot of open world games because a lot of them don’t have combat as well refined as this or like Elden ring so even though it’s a bit generic open world stuff I’m still digging it. Glad they’ve made further changes to how parry works because I do think parry focused action games at this point need to change it up a bit now so: aiming to specifically parry the last hit of a combo to stun an enemy is sick, stamina bar degrading with special attacks during this stunned period is neat, parry being an actual attack that you have to consider the positioning off based on the weapon you are using is cool, etc etc gameplay really opened up to me by the time you unlock the dojo! Mostly using the katana and odachi but I like how easy it is to try out other weapons as well. Not a huge fan of the rock-paper-scissors stance take but I’ve found you can pretty much ignore it with the shinobi stance which just focuses on parrying. Also jump button + grappling hook + tons of secondary weapons and special items feel soooo good to use. Surprised at how much of a hot bed the discourse around this game is for some reason it’s first and foremost a viscerally fun kinetic game

Yeah, fuck it, I'm not gonna get these Counterspark timings down anytime soon.
Dawn mode it is!

Starts out real slow but gets better and better. Not a Nioh 2 by any means, but good characters, story and gameplay. Open world, AI and technically pretty bad sadly. Could be much more but i enjoy it like this.

Oxtail Blade, my beloved!

Dazzling Devil is the most fun battle I've experienced in video games in a while!

Wildly underrated game, absolutely loving it.