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[Flabagast]

Due to work I had to stop temporarily playing the game last week (after only 10 hours) and have no wish to come back at all.

I have strong buyer's remorse at this stage

 

[Windle Poons]

Just finished Act One.

 

[SJRB]

Yea I think it's Def a game that starts off better than it finishes. I mean I like it but I'm ready to move onto my next game I'm almost done with the platinum but yea I agree the combat is super repetitive, there's hardly any animations just a few.

The map and weather system are top tier tho

It's pretty clear all the creative budget went into act I because the game falls of a cliff presentation, story, pacing, cutscene-wise as soon as you finish it.

 

[Bartski]

wowv this looks really nice with pisser

 

[Agent_4Seven]

Idk what to say, folks, 57 hrs in and I'm still enjoying exploring the world, killing bandits and Nobunaga's scum

I'm about to continue the story, finish Act 1 and experience the rest of the game, so will see how I'll feel about it after

 

[yamaci17]

I've completed the game

I look forward for them to add extra additional challenges like they did with ac valhalla. I'd especially appreciate stealth related missions with limitations (similar to ac valhalla mastery stealth challenges) so I can come back to it

the story was overall decent. it had an incredible start, but rather lackluster ending. the journey itself had its ups and downs but I liked the overall pacing of the journey. companion NPC side quests often delivered which was surprising. hideout was quite lively compared to valhalla with NPCs having all kinds of interactions with each other so that was fun to see. the whole hideout thing was so much fun, being able to build your own hideout

gameplay was always fun, enough to keep me engaged all the time. I have experimented with lots of different builds and managed to master all weapons and tools available in the game. all of them was fun in their own unique way. stealth naoe, combat naoe. and even bow stealth yasuke was a really fun experiment. thanks to this dynamic, the game never get stale or boring for me even when the quality of quests were not consistent

animations and physics were a big improvement over previous games with some physics being really great compared to most games actually (destruction, seasons, wind, the whole thing). the whole seasons thing also keeps the game fresh at all times which is a nice addition

overall I'm giving this game a solid 84/100

I really really liked naoe and yasuke dynamic and all the interactions they had throughout the whole game.

 

[Alex11]

 

[Topher]

Why is there an option to change seasons that never works?

 

[HRK69]

Why is there an option to change seasons that never works?

At least it's greyed out when it's unavailable

Unlike other systems. Want to switch characters? Well, get ready to hold down a button, except we won’t let you know if the character is available until you've already committed to the press

It's a terrible design choice

 

[Memati187]

Why is there an option to change seasons that never works?

Yeah that shit only works, when circle is either half full or went full 360.

That's so pointless, because when these states has been reached, the game does that automatically as soon as a mission is completed or you fasttravel.

 

[Topher]

Yeah that shit only works, when circle is either half full or went full 360.

That's so pointless, because when these states has been reached, the game does that automatically as soon as a mission is completed or you fasttravel.

I love the change of seasons as it changes up the world a bit, but then they went further and said "let's make it so some activities can only be done in Summer, etc." I'm done with the game. I have one trophy left to get platinum. I got Naoe standing in a safe house waiting for gotdang Autumn so she can take a picture of some fox at night.

Who thought this shit was a good idea?

 

[Kurotri]

I love the change of seasons as it changes up the world a bit, but then they went further and said "let's make it so some activities can only be done in Summer, etc." I'm done with the game. I have one trophy left to get platinum. I got Naoe standing in a safe house waiting for gotdang Autumn so she can take a picture of some fox at night.

Who thought this shit was a good idea?

Same problem here, except Naoe is waiting for Winter instead to kill some group of raiders. There's more stuff that is simply not working, for instance I'm pretty damn sure that they said you'd be able to use Kunai or Shuriken to destroy lanterns, another lightsource that you frequently see. It NEVER worked. Not in my game atleast.

 

[yamaci17]

Same problem here, except Naoe is waiting for Winter instead to kill some group of raiders. There's more stuff that is simply not working, for instance I'm pretty damn sure that they said you'd be able to use Kunai or Shuriken to destroy lanterns, another lightsource that you frequently see. It NEVER worked. Not in my game atleast.

well here's something for you. this could be spoiler about the winter related quest so don't say i didn't warn you

Spoiler

actually not being in winter is helpful for the winter raiders quest. all of them are hiding in a cave together when not in winter. only in winter they spread out to different places. I don't know how but somehow I came across their cave while not in winter. and with yasuke they were no challenge

 

[Topher]

Same problem here, except Naoe is waiting for Winter instead to kill some group of raiders. There's more stuff that is simply not working, for instance I'm pretty damn sure that they said you'd be able to use Kunai or Shuriken to destroy lanterns, another lightsource that you frequently see. It NEVER worked. Not in my game atleast.

Lots of broken stuff here. On PC, switching weapons during combat works every now and then. My horse keeps getting stuck on stuff for some reason. Earlier today, I couldn't go through an outdoor opening because a damn cat was standing there. I literally had to climb over a wall to get through because of a cat.

 

[Kurotri]

well here's something for you. this could be spoiler about the winter related quest so don't say i didn't warn you

Spoiler

actually not being in winter is helpful for the winter raiders quest. all of them are hiding in a cave together when not in winter. only in winter they spread out to different places. I don't know how but somehow I came across their cave while not in winter. and with yasuke they were no challenge

That's pretty neat to know, thanks. If I ever return to the game I'll keep that in mind.

 

[Topher]

At least it's greyed out when it's unavailable

Unlike other systems. Want to switch characters? Well, get ready to hold down a button, except we won’t let you know if the character is available until you've already committed to the press

It's a terrible design choice

Yeah, same for changing weapon inventory. I've had random moments where I couldn't change out a weapon for a something newer, better.......just because. No warnings or being in a hostile environment, etc. Just "nope"

 

[HRK69]

Yeah, same for changing weapon inventory. I've had random moments where I couldn't change out a weapon for a something newer, better.......just because. No warnings or being in a hostile environment, etc. Just "nope"

I haven't swapped my equipment much during my 50 hours with the game, so I haven't run into that issue yet. But it seems consistent with the overall feel of the game lol

That being said, the menu navigation isn't exactly fast either. I don't want to keep complaining, but it definitely doesn't feel snappy

I had a solid 10 hour session yesterday, but honestly, I ended up feeling more frustrated than satisfied

Oh, and I absolutely dread the 'hold the button' actions. I can't stand them. Honestly, it's one of the most annoying design choices for me. It's like the game is trying to waste my time, and it’s honestly more frustrating than I can even put into words

 

[SJRB]

Why is there an option to change seasons that never works?

Ubi: a hotkey to change literal seasons but nothing to simply change time of day in your stealth infiltration game.

I swear to god in the way the seasons progress it takes like 15 in-game years for this game to finish.

 

[Topher]

While I'm waiting a couple of hours for Autumn to come back around, I'll give a short review of the game. Overall....disappointing. The story is ok, but I'm not going to spoil anything. It is.....fine. Naoe is a good assassin and a good character. Great choice for a Japan AC. Yasuke is out of place and I dreaded the sections that forced me to play as him. The phrase "a bull in a china shop"comes to mind.I think he would be great as a side historical character much like Hanzo, but Ghost of Tsushima did a much better job of melding the shinobi and samurai roles than Shadows. I did like Yasuke's character and story. Just not as a main character. The way their story converged worked well I thought, but I just didn't find them compatible as co-main characters when I only want to play as one of the two: the asssassin. Far too much contrast. Should have just stuck with Naoe.

Combat in Shadows wasn't great. GoT also had far superior combat. Not even close really. Ubisoft overcomplicated everything in Shadows while Sucker Punch took a simpler approach, which is what benefits GoT over Shadows across the board, imo. Like the absurd skill tree. 12 different skill trees. 6 for Yasuke and 6 for Naoe. That is ridiculous for an AC game. Whoever designed this sought out to make it the most complicated AC game ever. We see this also in the absurd season and time change system we have beeng talking about. Stupid ideas that are entirely unneeded.

What was good was the stealth. It was pretty standard stuff, but thankfully not overcomplicated like combat. This is what AC should be, imo.

This game literally feels like it had 10 different people designing it with not one person leading the way and deciding what needed to be left out because everyone's ideas were included. I feel like everything in this game could have been halved and it would have been a better game.

I set out to finish this game and get the platinum and that's what I'll do in about a couple of hours while I wait, but this game was ultimately just mediocre. Had the developers focusing on making half of the shit in this game as good as they could then the overall game would have benefiited. Instead so much was poor thought out and either not implemented well or should have never beend done in the first place. On the average, this game is exactly that: average. Isn't entirely bad, but it isn't very good either. Which, to me, makes this the worst Assassin's Creed game since AC 3.

5/10

 

[Topher]

Ubi: a hotkey to change literal seasons but nothing to simply change time of day in your stealth infiltration game.

I swear to god in the way the seasons progress it takes like 15 in-game years for this game to finish.

I'm a little over half way through summer since I posted over an hour ago about the season change crap. And then once I'm in autumn, I have to wait another hour or so for night time. Then I can go see the damn fox and end the game. Just stupid.

 

[saintjules]

While I'm waiting a couple of hours for Autumn to come back around, I'll give a short review of the game. Overall....disappointing. The story is ok, but I'm not going to spoil anything. It is.....fine. Naoe is a good assassin and a good character. Great choice for a Japan AC. Yasuke is out of place and I dreaded the sections that forced me to play as him. The phrase "a bull in a china shop"comes to mind.I think he would be great as a side historical character much like Hanzo, but Ghost of Tsushima did a much better job of melding the shinobi and samurai roles than Shadows. I did like Yasuke's character and story. Just not as a main character. The way their story converged worked well I thought, but I just didn't find them compatible as co-main characters when I only want to play as one of the two: the asssassin. Far too much contrast. Should have just stuck with Naoe.

Combat in Shadows wasn't great. GoT also had far superior combat. Not even close really. Ubisoft overcomplicated everything in Shadows while Sucker Punch took a simpler approach, which is what benefits GoT over Shadows across the board, imo. Like the absurd skill tree. 12 different skill trees. 6 for Yasuke and 6 for Naoe. That is ridiculous for an AC game. Whoever designed this sought out to make it the most complicated AC game ever. We see this also in the absurd season and time change system we have beeng talking about. Stupid ideas that are entirely unneeded.

What was good was the stealth. It was pretty standard stuff, but thankfully not overcomplicated like combat. This is what AC should be, imo.

This game literally feels like it had 10 different people designing it with not one person leading the way and deciding what needed to be left out because everyone's ideas were included. I feel like everything in this game could have been halved and it would have been a better game.

I set out to finish this game and get the platinum and that's what I'll do in about a couple of hours while I wait, but this game was ultimately just mediocre. Had the developers focusing on making half of the shit in this game as good as they could then the overall game would have benefiited. Instead so much was poor thought out and either not implemented well or should have never beend done in the first place. On the average, this game is exactly that: average. Isn't entirely bad, but it isn't very good either. Which, to me, makes this the worst Assassin's Creed game since AC 3.

5/10

Why go for platinum if the game was mediocre to you? I wouldn't go through the misery. Regardless if I was a collector of plats or not.

I'm still in the early hours of the game. Not sure if I'll ever finish it, but I'm enjoying it for the time being.

 

[SlimySnake]

The story in this game is utter trash that should result in the firings of everyone involved. It’s actually somewhat decent early on before act 1 and then yasuke’s introduction is mostly fine but the way they have you find and kill the 12 masked templars is simply awful. They are custom stories where u r introduced to a bunch of new characters with no personality and they are discarded just as fast. None of it is good let alone memorable. You cannot tell a story like this. You are essentially resetting the board every hour or so and none of these characters have time to shine.

Not that the writing is good enough to make them shine. I have no idea why Ubisoft isn’t making the ac2 and brotherhood people write this stuff. Why are writers who worked on fuckimg division making this game? How did you lose all that talent from past games?

Why weren’t they promoted? Why wasn’t petrice brought back? Why put so much time and money into the story and then give the keys to a bunch of nobody’s?

The team is full of talented people who have crafted this beautiful world and wonderful castles to infiltrate. Even the combat is good. I love playing as both characters. But the writing is so bland, so dull and so boring you really don’t want to play through the game.

Also say what you will about Sony games but they don’t force you to walk behind someone during every single mother fucking quest. Some do it more often than others but it is done maybe 4-5 max. Here it is every single story quest. Kingdom come 2 as well. Stop with the wall and follow you hacks.

 

[Topher]

Why go for platinum if the game was mediocre to you? I wouldn't go through the misery. Regardless if I was a collector of plats or not.

I'm still in the early hours of the game. Not sure if I'll ever finish it, but I'm enjoying it for the time being.

Who said a mediocre game automatically means it is miserable? It has good and bad. The good was good enough to keep playing but that doesn't mean it wasn't an average game.

That's me though and it is just one opinion. Definitely hope you enjoy it more than me.

 

[Topher]

Finally...

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Bit of an image dump
Funny bug with a ship going crazy and teleporting in the air:

Spoiler: boat bug

Killed everyone here with yasuke's bow in stealth from the same position lol.:

Bad time to be having a fiddle mate:

I do really like fighting around bamboo, since they react nicely to cuts:

This one is for a side quest and I was waiting to finally run into something like this, but I haven't seen anyone talk about it yet so I'll spoiler mark it

Spoiler: side quest cool stuff

Heard some villagers talking about the "Yuki-Onna", so I went looking for her, on my way there I actually started the whole quest chain for "The Yokai".

Oshiroi Baba had some nice atmosphere too:

Yuki-Onna was actually the last one I tackled because she needed winter and I was still in summer, the third one I did you actually save this girl, and her eyes were immediately sus to me.:

Lo and behold:

Finally some actual supernatural shit.

Palliasso I tried adding all the images here with the new uploader, but two of them failed right of the bat, so I still had to do those off-site via imgur

 

[Topher]

Palliasso I tried adding all the images here with the new uploader, but two of them failed right of the bat, so I still had to do those off-site via imgur

I usually have to post images to imgur after downloading them from the PS app, but this time it worked without imgur.

Nice pics, btw

 

[Nydius]

Ubi: a hotkey to change literal seasons but nothing to simply change time of day in your stealth infiltration game.

I swear to god in the way the seasons progress it takes like 15 in-game years for this game to finish.

The killer part is that hotkey doesn't fast forward or skip anything and they don't really even explain that. You can't actually fast forward seasons, you have to go through the full season timer. If you've reached the time limit it'll change the next time you fast travel, begin or end a mission, OR you can use the hotkey to do it manually. But that hotkey only becomes available once the time limit for each half season has been reached.

For those who haven't yet gotten the game or who have just started, here's a helpful tip for your time management:

Each spring, summer, and fall half season is 70 real world minutes long, making each full season 140 minutes. Winter is longer, at 90 minutes per half-season or 180 minutes for the full season.

And it's a major pain in the ass when you open up quest lines that are like "this target can only be found in spring at night time".

 

[Alex11]

Fuck these tombs, I mean I really enjoy labyrinthian stuff, but Jesus Christ, found one that made me hate everything, I wanted to strangle whoever designed it. I think these were just randomly generated and just thrown in for something extra.

 

[Windle Poons]

I love the change of seasons as it changes up the world a bit, but then they went further and said "let's make it so some activities can only be done in Summer, etc." I'm done with the game. I have one trophy left to get platinum. I got Naoe standing in a safe house waiting for gotdang Autumn so she can take a picture of some fox at night.

Who thought this shit was a good idea?

Wait. You can't force the season change in the pause menu?

 

[Gonzito]

Fuck these tombs, I mean I really enjoy labyrinthian stuff, but Jesus Christ, found one that made me hate everything, I wanted to strangle whoever designed it. I think these were just randomly generated and just thrown in for something extra.

You know I miss the old tombs from the Ezio trilogy, they were really interesting from a design perspective, there was a lot of parkour and they felt deeper

 

[Topher]

Wait. You can't force the season change in the pause menu?

Only when it is actually time for the season to change. You can’t advance it before then. Pointless

 

[rofif]

40 hours in!
I got a good few hours yesterday and good progress. Game grabbed me again after I enabled guaranteed assassinations and enabled "guided mode", so I don't have to guess where next objective is. I got tired of doing that.
Gotta say the main quest to get all she shinbakufu is tiresome. They are all... the same ? A dude, In a castle.
I've got only 3-4 left.

So these +naoe and Yasuke quests are the only main quests you have to do?

 

[rofif]

Only when it is actually time for the season to change. You can’t advance it before then. Pointless

The whole seasons stuff is strange.
You talk to someone when invading the castle and if there is a mid-mission loading, it can change the season mid mission lol. It's so stupid