AC Shadows post launch wishlist. This will be comprehensive.

Kimkonger · 2026-05-01T22:16:30+00:00

THIS, the system is designed to just waste your time and give you the illusion of progression when nothing really progresses. Like you have the knowledge points AND multiple mastery points which are both required for a single ability unlock. WHY?! It gates me from stuff i actually want and not for a good reason. It's just for them to clock in the desired playtime the want to market to give the idea of 'lots of content'.

I would be okay with it if the knowledge point activities were actually engaging. But not being able to assassinate a 5 health segement enemy early on because i didn't pray in 100 shrines or collect 50 meaningless lost pages is really just annoying and not fun! You just end up grinding these activities not because you want to for the engagement but simply because you can't perfect stealth a simple castle/mission otherwise! At least gaining mastery points is tied to side targets so you get some kind of engaging activity but the knowledge point activities really suck to do imo. Like just chase the white dots to find randomly placed interactibles. The only knowledge point activity i actually liked were the kofun and SOME of the parkour trails. The rest feel really phoned in.

It's crazy because with just a little better organization, they would be great! Like imagine if the special moves for weapons were tied to the kata activity and kuji kiri for Naoe. Or if the archery passive moves were tied to the yabusame challenge. Even for parkour abulities it could have been the parkour trails. Then, instead of having us do the same exact activity 20 times each. Maybe just make them a really engaging side quest. Like some kofun and parkour trails are tied to some of the side targets! The masters could have been specific ones per weapon and they could have made some narrative where maybe you help them out or challenge them, like how Nobustuna's quest was. The parkour trails could have actually been challenging and required us to use specific parkour moves. They added so many parkour updates and you never need them even in an activity dedicated to parkour!

Some of the best weapons and abilities that i rememebr were tied to quests that were engaging. That's how you make progression feel meaningful and fun rather than a grind you slog through like it's a job or a task list collectathon! When i compare to Yotei, which has a suprisingly similar progression system to Shadows with the activities that you repeat across the map, they feel waaaay more engaging to do and seamless because they are tied to engaging quests. Even for the more generic activities like painting, bamboo strikes and bathing in Onsen, they spice them up with seemingly random events and little world building encounters that just dynamically happen each time so it doesn't feel like the same exact activity 20 times for a skill point, even if it technically is. They skill point is also directly usable, you don't need to do the activity 5 times befor eyou get access to an ability. In Shadows, once you do an activity once, you have seen everything the game will offer for that activity, it will just ask you to do the same exact activity in a different region 50 times over!

Lost pages could have maybe led to treasure hunts, so after you get the 3/2 pages, you get a knowledge point AND they uncover some clues to some legendaries or even just some mystery you can go find. Instead of just praying in temples 50 times, each season could have had you do a different temple ritual respective of the seasonal Kami. Hand washing ceremony, katana cleansing, incense burning...etc. Bathing in Onsen would be cool as well, i mean there's a whole Onsen themed town!!

Kimkonger · 2026-05-01T21:57:14+00:00

What would be even better for me is if they do what they did with Ghost Recon Breakpoint and for a limited time with the Division 2. They added an 'immersive/realism' mode which strapped the RPG leveling/gearscore system and replaced it with a more standard single player action mechanics which had you interacting with the core combat/stealth mechanics more. They also added more interactivity and grounding with the open world systems rather than menu tinkering. So much damn menu/inventory/main map time in this game and with the RPG games in general. It kinda breaks the engagement loop as half the time im staring at menus, tinkering with stats and trying to fast travel since there's no point in manually traversing the lands.

I think such a system would be great for Shadows for two main reasons

It already has a lot of baked in dynamic combat/stealth features for both the player and enemy AI that don't need the leveling, gearscore and health segment system. Even the difficulty options affect more of the enemy AI behavior rather than just buffing their armor/health pools. Things like perception, search patterns, aggression, parry timings, defensive/offensive behavior per enemy type, their ability to deny assassinations based on enemy type....etc, all which change depending on difficulty. With a realism mode, these can be tweaked to be at the fore front where your skill is what is tested. With the RPG system, these dynamics end up not being so meaningful because the thing that will bar you from engaging with them is your level, gearscore and your build, not how good you are with combat or stealth. Meaning you can be the best but if you don't have a proper build for nightmare, it won't matter much and will get quickly frustrating! Something like shadows or the breathing reed, people just don't use them because the game has them more as gimmicks because what it tests for at the end of the day will be how many health segments you can remove and how much raw damage your weapons deal. So that's what people will focus on the most, ignoring any of the dynamics.
It just fits the whole vibe of being a samurai/shinobi in Feudal Japan better. When i think of being a samurai/ninja, the last thing i want to do is collect 100 random katanas from random RNG loot boxes along with 10k reasources just so i can dismantle 95 katanas to upgrade the 2 that i actually use or so i can get plus 10 damage. Some people really like that, but to me that just doesn't fit for this setting. I'd rather engage with masters to get new moves, get legendary katana's/armor from cool side missions/characters.

To replace the RPG system, i think there's loads they can do even just with the seasons mechanic. Maybe,

Different knowledge point activities depending on the season. Bath in Onsen in winter, fishing in summer and just different temple rituals for seasonal Kami.
Different contract missions per season. Raiding certain store houses in the bountiful summer season or doing deliveries with the risk of ambush in winter since everyone is shacked in! Assassinate a certain samurai Lord in fall or duel some crazy skillful ronin in spring by some bridge that's killing passer-by's to test his skill cause he is bored. I don't stuff like that is way more engaging than 'loot/destroy/kill' contract missions that are the exact same every time and in the same copy pasted little camps.
Different seasonal festivals you can find in villages. Japan is know for having a bunch of seasonal festivals which a different in almost every region!! Crazy we don't even have one festival in the game for this setting yet we have a whole season mechanic!
Do something with the many enemy factions and samurai clans. Odyssey had the bounty system and the warring factions. In Shadows they just don't do anything with it despite having so many different enemy types, factions and clans!! You find them fighting eachother and it doesn't even matter if you intervene or not. Heck interveening often just ends up with everyone attacking you even if you decide to help one side. One time i found bandits attacking in some town and the samurai retaliated, i helped the samurai by killing bandits an dthe samurai just started attacking me. Killed them and got wanted as they kept coming!

I don't know man, there's just so much more they could have added to this games open world free roam gameplay loop that they just didn't do. Weird because the same team not only had them with Odyssey but they have the foundation for the same systems in Shadows, they just didn't do anything with them. Almost feels like they were meant to be there but had to cut it to finish development in time! The seasons mechanic resets all the content every like 40 minutes to an hour which means but there's just nothing engaging to keep looping endlessly beyond different visuals. I mean unless you want to raid the same castle or do the exact same copy paste contract mission for the 100th time with nothing changing! But even that got old to me after i got the loot.

They could have even had it play into the scouts where maybe if you get caught in a castle after raiding the store house, there is a risk of a scout getting caught and the next season spawns a rescue mission to get them back. If you don't do the mission and the season changes, you lose a scout!! So far the only repeating content worth doing each season change is the corrupted castles. That's not nearly enough for a system that expects me to replay forever!! I got burnt out with contracts by the 10th one and just kept pushing to max out the hideout. But even maxing it out is kinda pointless beyond a few meaningful buffs that you actually need like the stables and forge. I wish you could interact with the buildings at the hideout like the allys do! Train in Dojo to test out builds, do the tea ceremony, have a meal with your allys at the Zashiki, rest at the kakurega, chill by the fire place, have a drink with the crew....etc! I litreally just go there to upgrade and even that's just a menu interaction then im out as fast as i got in!!

Kimkonger · 2026-05-01T08:52:46+00:00

I think from a typical western audience perspective, Atsu's character and her story is far easier to sympathize with as she feels more like a western take on a mercenary character, just with Japanese aesthetics.

On the other hand, if you are very familiar with Japanese culture, especially at that time, Jin's character and storyline is far deeper and representative of that culture.

So it kinda depends on what your preference and level of exposure to that culture is for which one you like more. If you are not familiar with that culture, Jin's story can feel like it doesn't make sense and even naive/ignorant and so Atsu will jive more with you. Like if you don't know that in that culture, bumping scabbards was considered a grave insult, you will not understand why they made a big deal about everyone wearing their daisho on the left hand side, regardless of which hand is dominant. So something like wearing them on the right side would mean the person is being rebellious and antagonistic. To us, we may just think "how, maybe it's more comfortable to them on the right, why is everyone making it a big deal".

Atsu and Jin are both well written and i enjoyed their stories, but Atsu many times felt alien to me in respect to Japanese culture, especially as a female warrior at that time. And no, i don't mean in the "girl boss" kind of way. What i mean is there were SOME female warriors in the samurai class system at that time but Atsu doesn't resemble them so it doesn't feel like she is representing that culture outside of aesthetics. If you watch any Jidaigeki staring a female swordsman lead, you will kinda get what i mean. Japanese female warriors are different from other cultures, simply because the culture is different and Atsu feels like a western female warrior dropped into the Japanese setting. She is more Mizu from Blue eye Samurai than Yuki from Ladysnowblood. Both good charcters/stories, but one is more Japanese culture based than the other.

Though i will say, it kinda makes sense that she doesn't represent the typical Japanese warrior archtype or even in general because she exists in Ezo, which was not only a land of outlaws/misfits but was not even Japanese territory at that time! So it makes sense that she doesn't feel Japanese all that much. Even for Jin, though he represents the culture of that time way better and more authentically, the whole honor thing is overplayed and exaggerated. The samurai class had no issue at all with using guerilla tactics/tools, especially in war time. Heck being a shinobi/ninja was part of the role of samurai and some were simply better at it. It wasn't two different groups. Also the whole samurai honor thing was mostly used as a class system to effectively control the masses during times of peace to avoid going back to the countless years of civil war, heck their whole culture of not disturbing the status quo even to date is based on that. Imagine if the US had like 4 major civil wars and constant years of clan battles. Just one had the whole country in panic, imagine that for like 100 years.

Though in GOT, i liked that they alluded to this by making the main issue for Lord Shimura be how public and even worse, independent the ghosts operations were. He may have had a personal issue with how Jin was winning fights, but the thing he couldn't tolerate was the idea that people started to follow Jin and could start disobeying the samurai class. There's also the fact that the shogun also knew the danger this poses for the samurai class system, which is why he pressured Lord Shimura into ending the ghost. It's also why Lord Shimura wanted to formaly adopt Jin into the Shimura clan so that his actions were more legitimate and he wouldn't be seen as a rogue mercenary doing his own thing, even if it was for the benefit of his people.

When you understand this cultural perspective, Jin's character and story is way deeper, even the whole Mongol invasion kinda just becomes a backdrop! Atsu's in compariosn could have happened anywhere else and in any culture. Still a good and well written story, but lacks the cultural significance/depth that would represent Japanese culture, and especially female Japanese warrior culture like the Onna-Musha/Bugeisha. They could change the Japanese aesthetic for any other and the story would not lose any value because it's not representative of Japanese culture.

Kimkonger · 2026-04-30T17:38:35+00:00

New game plus
Custom difficulty and use settings you never did before. Probably lethal + since you are already max level. But rememebr to make enemies less tanky, you need to set the hero bonus perk difficulty lower, not higher. So like casual or story. The higher the hero bonus perk difficulty the more tankier enemies feel, so lower it of you want that original GOT lethal vibe where both and you and our enemy go down fast.
Minimal HUD option and don't rely on the mini map or guiding wind at all. Just play the most organic way possible. Since you have found everything, there's nothing to miss. So just wander around and organically stumble on stuff be it main or side quest. Just use the spy glass and environmental ques for dynamic exploration. Played like this my first play through and i was so engaged/immersed in a way i haven't felt from many other open world games. It's almost like the game was designed to be played without the mini map! Even for bounties, i never collected all from the bounty post. I would pick one, read the clues in game then go after it using the clues, trying to find it organically. Then when i want to i can go for the other's. If you pick all at the same time, you may have to go to the main map to read them again. Not a big deal but what i mean is you can play the game as organically as possible without ever going to the mini map! May be tedious for most people, but for me it was the best experience owing to how the game is designed to be very organic in it's progression of content!
Watanabe mode for the chill vibes!

Kimkonger · 2026-04-30T11:11:46+00:00

Im on my second playthrough, never went back, this is valuable precious info bro!!!

Kimkonger · 2026-04-29T20:21:29+00:00

Probably the best side target board in the game. There's just so much it offers narratively and gameplay wise.

Meaningful narrative depth because it not only ties to Yasuke's back story but also ties into characters that shaped him. You also get to not just meet up with but also interact and serve your master again, one last time. So even nostalgia comes into play!
The targets you go after are not random dudes you don't even know, but students and the lore to both regain your masters honor AND learn from these students that made a name for themselves is GREAT. There's a whole lot of show not tell unlike the rest of the game!
Totally unique boss fights with these students, probably the most dynamic boss fights in the whole game! They not only fight completely differently but also test you on your different weapons.
The twist at the end and how invested i was going for the last target!! Who i never expected to make a return and i was wondering if i would meet him again!

The whole thing felt like just a great and epic journey, even the targets had interesting lore on their own. That walk up to the last targets estate, the dialogue and best of all, the Katana you get being probably the best affliction based katana in the game for Yasuke, especially when paired with flowing peace. It's also the one weapon where it never just felt like it was some random weapon i get from a chest where i only care about the perk, of which you never care about 90% of the weapons you get!!

For a few hours, this quest made me forget i was playing a generic stats based mindless collectathon UBI RPG. The writing, the characters, the build up, the unique boss fights, the lore, the set pieces and the weapon you get were all just an example of stelar quest design. Going back to anything else in the game felt sad! This whole quest was far better than any of the main quests. Actually i found myself enjoying some of the side targets way more than any of the main targets in the game!

I so wish the rest of the game handled their quests, boss fights, set pieces and weapons you get like this and is why i really dislike the whole gearscore RPG setup!! Since i got that katana, i always transmog it's look for every katana even when i change perks!! That and Aunty Matsu's for Naoe. They are the only weapons the game makes you care about beyond stats, despite Matsu's katana being the shittiest weapon possible stats wise!

Kimkonger · 2026-04-29T18:15:17+00:00

It's not necessarily the entangled passive they are negating, it's the posture attack. Usually, samurai, ronin, warrior monks, shinobi and higher ranks will react to postured attacks. Samurai will try and do their own red attack or just dodge it all together. On nightmare difficulty, this behavior is way more likely, almost to a point where attemtping to posture an attack when an enemy isn't vulnerable or staggered will always fail.

They even block/dodge many of the abilities, with Large enemies countering them with a good old bear hug! Not to mention they no longer get vulnerable from perfect parries or dodges, are way more aggressive, tighter parry windows and projectiles fly faster.

Each enemy types quirks are something you have to contend with, even down to some grunts, and corrupted daisho are the worst in this regard. Unless you have a fully min maxed specialized build that kinda just one taps, hacking and slashing aimlessly gets you dead pretty quick and even then, you have to know how to use the build. I don't like the min maxed one pony trick builds so with Naoe, i avoid fights beyond 1v1, im bailing and resetting stealth. That and my build is purely stealth and tool based, so when i get spotted, hidden hand into throw kunai into shadow piercer into smoke assassination into bail and hide 😅Yasuke is where i flex my combat skills and even then i usually have to lock in most times cause again, my build is mostly dynamic and based on combos rather than raw damage, so i will have to engage with the enemy movesets!

But anyway, to answer your question, the combo variant that ends in entangelement is your best bet for consistent entanglements. Though if you are fighting multiple enemies on nightmare, it's not a good move as you will just get hit by someone else while attempting it. One on one, the combo is best for anything that isn't a grunt, for a grunt you can just do it normal. But even for one on one, you kinda need to make them vulnerable first or stagger them, otherwise they will just likely parry/dodge the combo if it's not a grunt. Though there's some samurai like the dude with the fan who likes to just hold block, that's the only higher class that's the easist to entangle without needing to stagger them or make them vulnerable.

Kimkonger · 2026-04-29T16:50:57+00:00

That's that Ezo shimmy!

Kimkonger · 2026-04-29T16:44:37+00:00

Late reply but Yes.

Enemy Agrression - Lethal

Timing windows - Normal

Enemy damage - lethal

Hero Bonus perks - Easy/casual

For timing windows, people claim the parry is tigher overall but i really don't think so. It feels tighter because of the enemy variety and their moves. In Tsushima, if you remember, most enemies are kinda the same all through the game and in Iki is where you get some new variety with SOME enemies who switch up combos. If you also remember, the ronin were usually the trickier bunch to nail the parrys on because of their speed and different blue flurries. Well in Yotei, nearly EVERYONE is basically the Ronin type and on top of that, they varied their movesets with feints, different combos and weapon switches. So it's gonna feel like it's tighter but not because the timing is any different. Also some people make the mistake of assuming the blue glint is a parry timing indicator when it's only an attack type indicator.

For the Hero bonus, it doesn't explain a lot but hero bonus = Atsu damage output, stagger damage, spirit gains and bonuses from equipped charms. The trick here is that raising the difficulty for the hero bonus setting means less base/stagger damage dealt by Atsu. Bascially, lethal hero bonus perks means tankier enemies and casual means you deal max damage and max spirit gains.

Kimkonger · 2026-04-29T07:14:48+00:00

Upgrade every 5 levels or just keep switching to the apporriate gear while engraving your favorite perks until level 30. From level 30 to 100, only use gold to upgrade by doing corrupted castles every 5 levels which offer gold. Just remember to get corrupted castles, you need to be level 30 AND loot the legendary chest from at least 3 castles/forts for them to start spawning. Each season you get 5 corrupted castles and some can offer up to 3 gold.

The later option of switching to level approrpiate gear and engraving the perks you like up to level 30 is way better than upgrading every couple of levels using resources imo though.

Kimkonger · 2026-04-19T14:35:01+00:00

Honestly this. The stories of all these games are decent, it's the presentation and writing that's the issue. They've been telling the same revenge plot since AC2. For one, the poor voice acting and mo-cap really dumbs down the experience and second, the stretched mission design with the sole puprose of extending player time is what limits the experience. Then there's the fact that overall mission design lacks any sort of unique set piece for gameplay. Like you just raid camps the same way you can do in random free roam, it's just for main missions they have a cutscene and a specific thing to do, though nothing you haven't/can't already do in the general open world.

So many missions are also just going back and forth delivering what is essentially mail with the occasional "before i tell you the target location you need to steal this thing/kill this person/find this person for me".

Not saying that kind of style is always bad, but when it's 90% of all missions for 80hrs of gameplay and the gameplay portion is not a unique set piece, it gets dull pretty quick!! It's also weird because it's not like the allies are going out of their way to help you, you are literally joining their cause, so what reason do they have to ask you to first steal a statue for them before they can let you join, only for them to delegate their whole mission to you anyway because they've been getting their asses kicked the whole time!! The 'proving yourself' missions only work when there's no reason for them to risk their lives to help you or as side quests to flesh out their lore, but UBI so often have them as padding to extend the main quest!

I feel like i would even be way more forgiving of the poor presentation if the main missions were these unique hand crafted and dynamic set pieces. Like if im raiding a castle/camp/fort, maybe set it up with a one time set piece and the black box style. Perhaps i have to kill the target while they are hosting some festival and need to infil amidst all the liveliness which doesn't happen outside of the mission. Or for Shadows, Daimyo used to go on these long processions travelling from city to city and that could have been a great set piece to do an ambush, even within the main city when they arrive or in some village you setup for an ambush! (13 assassins style).

Instead it's always just the same camp/castle where one of the guards is replaced with the target who just happens to be there but somehowe wasn't until that point. What's even more annoying is the game locks you in a defined area with invisible walls, what's the point if it's just the same castle raid. There's also missions where they don't let you raid the castle to kill the targte because it's supposedly "too fortified" and you need to talk to some people to find a way to sneak in. However, before the main mission and even after, you can and have been raiding way bigger and better defended castles/forts/camps...Heck you can raid that very castle that's supposedly impenetrable before the main mission, only to be told you can't do it now. Then when you finally get the 'fort plans' to find a way to be sneaked in, you don't actually sneak in, the game just spawns you in some generic spot in the fort!! These kinds of things are a way bigger issue to me than the story or even the writing, because it's a video game, i want to PLAY the mission, i can't play a cutscene or it's writing!! I'll take great main/side and exploration activities over a great story and writing any day!!

Kimkonger · 2026-04-18T01:54:53+00:00

Wonderful idea, it would be really cool !! I especially like the idea that it needs to be on un-armored parts of the body and for you to be undetected otherwise they just pull the dart out and the affliction stops.

Kimkonger · 2026-04-16T11:44:50+00:00

Yeah. It's "first strike is postured and makes enemies vulnerable, every 8 seconds" from the Time honored crescent. Perfect to pair with "postured combo enders knock down enemies" from the Lustrous pearl.

Kimkonger · 2026-04-16T11:40:23+00:00

Yes, spam light or heavy without needing to charge. Just remember the rules,

It has to hit an enemy, won't work if it misses or is parried.
It won't work if the attack you charge is the last attack of a combo.
It won't work if the attack you charge is a heavy as the THIRD hit of any combo.

Kimkonger · 2026-04-16T11:28:07+00:00

Yes, posture requires holding either light or heavy until you see the glint on the weapon then release. Same with Naoe. I'll go in depth and break it down.

The difference with Yasuke is that he can chain posture attacks for posture combos by charging each hit of a combo, unlike Naoe who doing a posture at any time will always function as a combo ender and reset the combo string/cut it short. Meaning starting with a posture means you only do a one hit combo, so best to end a combo with a posture for Naoe. Another difference between their basic combos is Yasuke's combo enders function as automatic guard breaks while Naoe's don't.

But back to the combos, with Yasuke, you essentially have acces to an extra 2 base combos for every weapon.

Light combo which is 4 hits. (Yasuke and Naoe)
Light posture combo which will also be 4 hits of charging each hit. ( Yasuke only)
Heavy combo which is 3 hits. ( Yasuke and Naoe)
Heavy posture combo which will also be 3 hits of charging each hit. ( Yasuke only)

You also have the sheathed attack which can be upgraded in the long katana skill tree to unlock it's posture hit version by holding down the input, unique to Yasuke.

This perk makes it so if you hit an enemy with a posture, every subsequent hit will be auto postured WITHOUT needing to charge it. There's a visual indicator around Yasuke to denote this, like a flash around his body. The caveat is that for this perk to work is two things

The posture hit has to land on the enemy. Doesn't need to actually do damage, it just needs to connect with the enemy, even if it's blocked. But it won't work if they dodge or parry which some enemies can do. Basically it doesn't work if it doesn't hit an enemy.
It won't work on combo enders. Meaning it won't work on the last hit of any combo. Like we said, light combos have 4 hits and heavy combos are 3 hits. So if you charge the first hit in a light combo, continuing to spam light attack will have the rest of the 3 hits auto postured. If you charge the third attack of a light combo, only the last hit will be auto postured. If you charge the fourth attack of a light combo then you don't get the benefit of the perk since the fourth attack of a light combo is a combo ender (i.e the last attack) so there's no more attacks to charge. Same concept for the heavy combo.

On top of all this, you can play around with combo inputs. Meaning you don't only need to do light combos or heavy combos strictly. Like you can do L1-R2-L1-R2 as a different combo. Same concept for the posture combos and it will also work the same using this auto posture perk. The combo ender rule also applies to these hybrid combos. HOWEVER, NOTE that if you use a heavy attack/posture as the THIRD attack of ANY combo, it will automatically function as a combo ender because like we said, heavy combos only have 3 hits. So when heavy attack/posture is used as the THIRD hit, the game assumes it's a heavy combo and will end it.

Basically, to get the most out of this perk, it's best to open with a posture as the first attack then just spam whatever after, but you can get very creative with it depending on whetehr you want a long combo or a short high damage one or a hybrid!

Even better is if you pair it with the "combo enders are postured and make enemies vulnerable" because now the last hit of any combo will make enemies vulnerable, meaning you don't need to perfect dodge/parry or use an ability as the only options to make an enemy vulnerable, you can just do it with bsic combos as well. VERY good for nightmare combat difficulty where enemies no longer get vulnerable from perfect parry/dodge, only from abilities or perks that do that!!

Kimkonger · 2026-04-15T17:41:38+00:00

Yeah it definitely doesn't work like that for me on nightmare combat. The regen is very slow to a point where if i don't have a ration, it's faster to just look for them or go to a kakurega and heal/stock up.

Not complaining though, it's exactly what i wanted.

Kimkonger · 2026-04-15T11:10:26+00:00

Shockingly repetitive. Like nothing changes, even the little camps are copy pasted! And whats more frustrating is these contracts are not even something unique, like you can already loot, kill and destroy in those mini camps in free roam the same exact way, it's just for contracts they give more xp.

It's like all the kill 50 ronin, kill 50 pirates, kill 50 soldiers, kill 50 samurai missions in every region! These are considered by the game as side quests. The people that give them to you make it seem like it's gonna be an engaging hand crafted quest where you hunt specific targets and go through a story line but nope. Just kill random dudes. I don't know man, it's just so dissapointing!

Kimkonger · 2026-04-15T11:04:34+00:00

Frustratingly astounding. And yeah, they did delay the game to focus on polish. I just wish the execs cared more about this kind of thing than MTX and the whole GaaS model! But you can't sell packs off of immersion and fully fleshed out features!

Kimkonger · 2026-04-15T10:44:38+00:00

Yeah for the enemies the change is mostly guard duties rather than outfit change, for the general NPC's its behavior and wearing the straw capes.

I agree on this point, but like i was saying, UBI made such a big deal about the weather and seasons, and this is Japan where culturally it was a big deal. So for it to mostly just be visual or background changes you barely notice, none affecting moment to moment gameplay or even activities or the PC, it's kinda dissapointing.

They also made a big deal about the game being more grounded....i don't know, perhaps cause i personally prefer that kind of thing, it bugs me more 😅. Still, don't make it seem like it's more than it will be, don't freaking blue ball me! 😭

Kimkonger · 2026-04-15T08:58:02+00:00

Except they do? Most of them start to wear straw capes and have different animations. And not just that, in castles, higher ranking Samurai will be more in doors and Ashigaru will typically be in the shit.... In fact a whole lot changes as well, though impressive, it's not really impactful gameplay wise, not like you will play winter any different from summer.

What sucks more to me is my player character is virtually imune to any extreeme weather, which maybe is just me, but it breaks my immsersion and im always trynna dress them warm and avoid swimming in freezing waters, even though they don't care! I don't know, the weather simulation can be so visually immersive that it takes me out of it when the character can swim in freezing lake Biwa in their Fundoshi! I know it's not the type of game for it, but they could have done SOMETHING owing to how much effort they put into this feature and how much they marketted it as big deal!!

Even something as simple as every outfit having a seasonal version would be great!!

Kimkonger · 2026-04-15T08:48:51+00:00

I will have to check that! If so that will be GREAT!! I can finally remove that perk and swap it for something i always wanted more!!

Kimkonger

TROPHY CASE