I cannot in good faith recommend anyone spending $60 on this....Which breaks my heart because I wanted to love this game. I even tried to rationalize with myself that maybe I was the problem and the game is actually awesome. But, there is so much that just doesn't work, and even though the graphics at times can be a moment you appreciate its lost in all the things that are just meh at best. What do i mean?

There is one attack button for one combo used at the very least 60%-75% of the time. Its painfully repetitive. During which you can use a heavy attack if you have focus thats built up and from that you can derive a couple mixes of a combo but its so repetitive before you make it out of the first chapter you will be sick of it.

The game is a souls like in that you learn the attack patterns of enemies to capitalize off perfect dodges and heavy attacks, then get punished hard by bosses for making mistakes. A main difference is the bosses aren't near as impossible as other soul like titles. You never get the pure crack like dopamine hit from besting a god like boss, it just feels like a means to an end each time you beat one. As the game continues you pick up a couple "spells" and spirit attacks but thats the extent of how much room you have to change anything resembling play style.

Next is the loot and armor and gear. The armor upgrades last about one boss fight at a time, you rotate out of items so fast it feels uneventful to even waste the mats each time you craft. The items never feel good, they feel necessary and if you miss one you just play hindered so there's never a moment when the power fantasy comes to life. The level design in this is so unbelievably linear and being stopped by an invisible wall is PS2 level junk.

All this mountain and forest and bamboo and rocks and structures and you, a monkey king, cant jump or swing or climb a single thing, just run around. Jump off a ledge or bridge to fight an enemy? Dont even think of jumping back up the rocks behind you even though you can see where you jumped from, you have to run all the way around to get back. The flow of the game is this : Place incense at shrine to save where you respawn, kill just a handful of single shot enemies, enter boss room, kill boss, get item. Place incense at shrine to save where you respawn, kill just a handful of single shot enemies, enter boss room, kill boss, get item. The boss fights are ok but its just one really long elevator of boss battles with no real body to the exploration or design at all.

I dont know that id even get this on sale and im mad I kept playing as long as I have just because I was convinced it would get better. It won't. Its not innovative, its not interesting, its not fun past the first 2 hours unless thats your thing. Its not that its plain awful despite my gripes. Its just that its mid at its very best. They should have taken notes from other soul likes and mixed in some combat like DMC with free-running style move sets like the Ninja Gaiden games.