I had an eye-opening moment today when I realized you can use the Yokai Dash even when you're out of stamina for a regular dodge, and also am finally starting to remember to use abilities in combat. The amount of tools this game gives you to succeed is just nuts, it requires a lot of thinking on your feet but it might be the souls-like with the most room for self-expression that I've played.
This game does kind of need a "destroy everything in my inventory that sucks compared to what I'm using right now" button, though. I imagine it must really be a painful experience to play this game if you're someone who compares your items every time you get a new one, or if you just like having a clean equipment menu.
I feel like I've gotten a real sense of how to play this game now and it feels great, understanding the limits of your weapon, picking the right stances to use at the same time, reacting properly with Yokai Dashing and stuff.... The switchglaive just feels like a monstrous weapon, it feels so versatile and fluid no matter the situation I find myself in.
I was also unaware that this game took place during the Sengoku period, so it was a pleasant surprise to find that out. I mean, it's a KOEI game, so... I probably should have guessed, lol. I'm not really as huge of a nerd about the Sengoku period as I am about the Warring States era of China, but I've played a lot of KOEI games and they adore using these two periods as settings, and it's always fun to see what they do to make it distinct from their other games with the same setting.
Decided I'm going to drop this game. Not because I don't enjoy it, but because I kind of feel like I've already gotten everything I'm gonna get out of it. For a while now it's been plodding through levels and fighting the same human enemies and yokai minibosses (they just become regular enemies basically) while a new one gets added to the pool every couple of main missions or whatever. It's also relatively easy to me now, after figuring out the combat flow, but I dunno how much of that comes from countless hours in other souls-y games. Pretty much everything I said still applies, I think it's got a really cool design that breeds player expression and it has good-feeling combat at minimum... but it's so long and I just don't have the time or motivation to completely finish it.
