So, I preordered Shadows because I loved Odyssey and Valhalla, and I loved Ghost of Tsushima. I basically didn't care about the delays in release. I figured if all they did was put the Valhalla gameplay in fedual Japan, that's good enough for me. That is pretty much exactly what it is with a couple of new mechanics that are good.
I have about four hours into it. Why so few? I'm a middle aged dad with responsibilities. Finishing Valhalla took me the better part of ... five months? Maybe six?
I am not woke or leftist in the slightest. I don't care about representation in games or the gaming industry. I just care about if I have fun because it's a hobby. And Shadows is fun.
You don't even have to play as Yasuke for much of the game if you don't want to. There's a prologue where you play as both him and Naoue, and then an extended section where you can only play as Naoue apparently. Then you gain the ability to switch between them. They have different abilities. He's all ground attack. A tank that just muscles through everything, including shut/locked doors. She's a ninja, stealthy and speedy. He parries, while she dodges. She has a grappling hook to reach high places. He can't climb/parkour as well as she can. You get the picture.
But regardless of what style you want to play, both characters seem pretty cool. Yasuke - a slave of some Portugese priests (I presume they're templars, we'll see) whom a Japanese warlord becomes fascinated with bc he's never seen a black man before. It's basically Shogun. Naoue, a ninja with a pretty dramatic opening back story that I won't spoil although you'll see it coming a mile away.
Look, ninjas and samurai are fun. I don't care if the makers of the game want to make a social statement by making the samurai black and putting non-binary NPC's in the game. It has no bearing on how fun it is to play ninja and go around making the markers on the map disappear, assassinate every bad guy on the island, explore feudal Japan, etc.
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So, I preordered Shadows because I loved Odyssey and Valhalla, and I loved Ghost of Tsushima. I basically didn't care about the delays in release. I figured if all they did was put the Valhalla gameplay in fedual Japan, that's good enough for me. That is pretty much exactly what it is with a couple of new mechanics that are good.
I have about four hours into it. Why so few? I'm a middle aged dad with responsibilities. Finishing Valhalla took me the better part of ... five months? Maybe six?
I am not woke or leftist in the slightest. I don't care about representation in games or the gaming industry. I just care about if I have fun because it's a hobby. And Shadows is fun.
You don't even have to play as Yasuke for much of the game if you don't want to. There's a prologue where you play as both him and Naoue, and then an extended section where you can only play as Naoue apparently. Then you gain the ability to switch between them. They have different abilities. He's all ground attack. A tank that just muscles through everything, including shut/locked doors. She's a ninja, stealthy and speedy. He parries, while she dodges. She has a grappling hook to reach high places. He can't climb/parkour as well as she can. You get the picture.
But regardless of what style you want to play, both characters seem pretty cool. Yasuke - a slave of some Portugese priests (I presume they're templars, we'll see) whom a Japanese warlord becomes fascinated with bc he's never seen a black man before. It's basically Shogun. Naoue, a ninja with a pretty dramatic opening back story that I won't spoil although you'll see it coming a mile away.
Look, ninjas and samurai are fun. I don't care if the makers of the game want to make a social statement by making the samurai black and putting non-binary NPC's in the game. It has no bearing on how fun it is to play ninja and go around making the markers on the map disappear, assassinate every bad guy on the island, explore feudal Japan, etc.