I would’ve loved if they made the blood splatters and spraying a vibrant, bright red to contrast against the black and white. Stylistically I think it would look great.

I'm actually glad to be getting a few shorter games and experiences lately. Most games are 50-200+ hours now, and it's burning me out mentally. Especially when you don't want to take a break from any particular game you're working through, because you don't want to risk losing connection to the story or having to relearn all the controls

I usually don't ever have any interest in these games, but I always watch the reviews because they entertaining and well made videos, and it's interesting to see what's going on in different genres. Keep at it, yall

the "before you buy" is an industry staple. I'm a longtime happy subscriber and just want to say keep up the good work guys

I love it when you really go into detail about the negatives while also praising a game for its strengths. never one sided but always all around a great before you buy!

Your reviews never disappoint! ❤️

I finished it this morning on game pass and this review is spot on. all the Japanese stuff in the style is amazing but the combat timing feels off. like everything has a half a second or a second delay. I still enjoyed it

I like how honest your reviews are! Like "it might be me" or "maybe you're a better player than me". It's a fact that people perceive the same thing differently and you make it clear on your reviews!

I was playing it like 10 minutes ago and I did notice the timing when trying to fight. But the game looks incredible.

The honest reviews are so genuine and sincere. I will probably still go in for this one because of the Kurosawa homage. Visuals and visual story telling can be enough to make a game compelling to me. And thanks to your review, I will have realistic expectations for the mechanics and combat. As usual, many thanks.

Your review is always the best it helps me alot whenever i want to buy any game Keep up the good work 👍❤️

Omg! I have never been so mesmerized by the artwork! Good thing the game play wasn’t too complicated cuz I was totally distracted by the pure beauty of the atmosphere and characters at every level. Totally worth the price!

This intrigues me but with the mixed reviews on the combat i'll wait for a sale here but the Japanese voice acting seems very cool (as a fan of Yakuza) and the Akira Kurosawa influence looks really cool here :)

For normal combat, basically two combos matter - the upslash to stunner combo (up+x, x, y), and the turnaround slash to stunner combo (back+x, y). Even if you're just trying to add variety to your combos, and throw in the downslash to stunner (down+x, x, x, y), you're so likely to drop that combo because it's just ONE HIT LONGER, that it's literally never worth it to even attempt. Also, longer combinations are more likely to get you hit by another enemy on the battlefield. Faster combos = better every time in normal combat, since you're really JUST trying to make it to the finisher. Not only does it gain you health back, you're invincible while you perform it!

Thanks for keeping it real with these reviews. I'll prob hold off until a sale to pick this one up.

I love how cinematic the game is. Wish the combat was more in depth but it was still a great game.

Damn, over 7M subscribers. Well deserved! Thanks for all the good work.

I'm definitely echoing many other sentiments here, but I really appreciate the Before You Buy's you guys put out. They're literally the first thing I search for when I'm considering buying a game. Keep it up!

Gameranx never dissapoints with the reviews. I will hold up to get it on a lower price to try it. Thank you for this. Good stuff.

I completely agree with this review. Something feels off about the counter and combo system moments of "I know I hit that right". Yet I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and loved the style. Felt like playing through an old black and white film.

Thank you guys for all the work you put in this.

This is the third review I’ve watched. ACG, Shill-up and you guys. The feeling/opinions on combat all seem to be shared, but also everyone is saying play it. Good enough for me, I’ll be downloading on the pass after work and at 4-5 hours it sounds like a nice break after Elden Ring and grinding Lost Ark 🤣🤣

Always helped with the dicey purchases, bought quite a few after seeing ur reviews, keep up the great work

Still excited to play! Always love these videos, I'm a sucker for nostalgia and 2.5 D games.

First game I pre-ordered in a long while. Never expected great gamelan or a long game. Just Akira kurosawa style samurai stuff! That was enough to get me excited

The one review you know is going to be on point. Thanks Jake

I am inclined to agree about the combat. It's such a shame really because it feels like it holds the game back soooo much, and if it was just a bit more fleshed out this game could have been amazing. That said I definitely don't really regret the time I have spent so far playing it. It's a decent starting point for what could be a niche yet relatively fun possible series.

This review is super honest and I completely agree. I have played until chapter 4 so far but its amazing.

Thanks for verbalizing what I loved and didn't like about this game. I'm fairly new to most genres, including this one, so I wasn't sure if it was just me as a player, or if it was something about the game that was just off. Hearing you describe the input delay helped make me feel better about my own frustrations. (I know I still need to get good, but knowing there really was something wrong with the game helps.)

So glad for this review very excited to play!!

Great review, and have to say I feel the same about the combat. Only thing I would add is that the save points are very friendly, and ability to skip dialogue/ cut scenes on 2nd tries (at trickier parts) is very welcome

Been looking at this for awhile. Much love from Alaska guys

If you have game pass you should definitely give this a go. I finished it last night and loved it. I disagree that the combat felt slow, I actually thought it good, just repetitive. As the game goes on you learn new moves which added a lot I feel. The story, voice acting and visuals were all great!

ps plus fam checking in

while I was watching I found out probirdfighter is now playing Splitgate, which is a nice trivia adding even more depth to a great review (as they always are). Love your content!

The second I seen trek to yomi updating I came straight here for the reviews I love all the reviews and top tens and so on

who else is here because of junes games of the month

Been waiting for it since i saw it on game pass, excited for it

I love how Jake, Falcon and others put out these videos. Straight up good and bad, no bs. I love it and you guys save me a ton of money on stupid games 😅😅😅

Great content jake I follow your page..your content is great and very informative

A quickie 😉 Love your reviews btw, best of the best ✌🏾✌🏾✌🏾

Good timing Jake, I was interested to see what this one was about 👍. The art style appeals big time and it's only £15.99 on the PS store so I think I'll be picking this one up. PS: I've enjoyed your appearances on Alanah's channel - hope to see you and the guys there again soon.

I really love this channel. It is honestly the best game channel along with what culture gaming

I noticed the same thing about the combat, especially the parry, it just feels so unresponsive. I know I'm parrying most of the attacks but it still says it hit me. then I've noticed a huge animation gap when going from a block to an attack, like it gives the enemy plenty of time to back away after you blocked them before you can attack.

This games combat seems like the type that grows on you. It should be interesting. Definitely going to check it out. Great review again. Also its a funny coincidence that I just watched your We Happy Few review where you gave the 'mixed bag' rating lol. I think its an apt description anyway at least for that gam lol.

Ya I'm so on the fence about this one...it's on sale, but hearing so much about how the combat doesn't land as it should to match the genre...I'm gonna wait for it to be even more on sale! Thanks for the great review!

Great vid as always

Great review... disappointing to hear about the combat, but I still plan to jump into this one. I definitely want to experience the look and feel and story, and support this studio hopefully doing more like this in the future!

Finished the game up this morning. I really enjoyed it, reminded me a lot of omimusha on the ps2. Although there combat was a bit lacklustre, the environment and overall vibe it gave off was great in my opinion. And for only $20? It’s a steal if you ask me. If you’re into this genre of game It’s definitely something worth checking out.

Pre-downloaded this through Gamepass, the art style alone won we over. Super cool

I just played some of this game and I really think it’s awesome. I played on Series X and I was kinda blown away by how good this game is. The story is pretty cool as well. 👍👍👍✌️✌️✌️

Yeah I've found myself both enraptured by the visuals of this game and frustrated by the combat. It's great and as I've gotten better I'm definitely enjoying it more and it is for sure an experience. It does feel though that some of the moves are a but glitchy or don't always work properly and the game punishes you hard when you don't hit the right move at the right time, especially on the higher difficulties. Well worth checking out especially when it's on something like game pass! Loved the video guys

This is one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever played, I can’t wait for once they make another game. Amazing dev team!!!

Thanks for the review

Got it preordered but I am at work atm so I will play it tomorrow 👊

I think I might fall in love with this game

i honestly love the combat its slow af at first but if you explore enough youll get some crazy fast good move sets

I love Samurai games. I'm a huge fan of the Kurosawa movies

I was waiting for this ever since I saw it on GP day 1

I’m a sucker for anything samurai related and Ghost of Tsushima is one of my favorite games. Just from watching gameplay I can tell the controls won’t be as crisp as Ghost but I just enjoy games like this and I hope the story makes up for it. Amazing review!!!

i like this game alone for the story telling an aesthetic graphics make it feel like your in the time period

I’m enjoying it. It gives me the challenge of an Elden Ring style game in a much smaller package. Art style is gorgeous as well.

This looks like a good palette cleanser game. SiFU with Ghost of Tsuhima vibes.

I enjoyed it a lot. It reminded me of the old school side scrollers from the 90s I played as a kid.

If they did a side scroller approach to Ghost of Tsushima. Intrigued by this one. Thanks for posting a BYB on this, Jake!

This game looks exactly what I need right now. Looks amazingly fun!

This review made me want to revisit Ghost of Tsushima lol. That game perfected Samurai combat so perfectly - Jin felt responsive and the combat felt so satisfying. It's disappointing to find the combat sucks with this - the visuals look incredible and I love that aesthetic, but I get frustrated easily. My leaning after seeing this is "wait for sale" . Should be a cool $5 game at some point

I’m on the second day playing it, I love samurai games, sometimes I wish there was more. This my first game in this genre, I’m enjoying the story and plot. The cutscenes are amazing, I’m playing with the old console, and I’m having technical problems, it freezes on me and crashes., I also feel that the combat is off with time. Like I thought it was me sucking at the game. Soo I do agree with the combat system. Other that, it worth playing in my open. And hope to see another one with improvements

After watching Tokyo Vice on HBO, I've been wanting to play a game set in Japan. I love their sense of honor.

Been playing this game and it carries a tremendous atmosphere and storytelling. Have to agree the combat is a little disappointing - enemy attacks aren't always intuitive to parry, and the parry system itself is a little wonky. Some of the combat controls are also a little mind-boggling (it doesn't seem optimized for back-to-back combat -- turning and directional attacks are clunky). That said I recommend playing at an easier difficulty to avoid the combat clunkiness. It's a short game and I think this is the kind of game you play for the story and atmosphere anyway.

Spot-on with the combat. It's weirdly stiff but also floaty

We can always count on gameranx

I read part of a review where they explained that your button prompts are qued and if you exhaust the que the next button prompts won't register. I believe this is why it's hard at times to pull of your intended move set. This must also be the reason why at times nothing happened when ive tried to attack an enemy. There is a delay between a parry and your counter attack so if you wait you can follow through. I have however found that no matter what i try it seems to be near impossible to do a thrusting attack after a parry as the button prompt simply doesn't register. I'm still enjoying the game and if they could patch this so it's more fluid it would make the game much more enjoyable. All that said i feel as though it's worth playing as the overall atmosphere and feeling of dread and desperation is spot on.

I love Little Nightmares for the cinematic experience and I think I'm gonna buy this game tonight for the same reason. I absolutely love this artistic, cinematic genre.

I kinda had a feeling about the "Combat"...but I would still love to get lost in this world! I'm playing Ghost of Tsushima "Director's Cut" & there's a Kurosawa mode which makes everything Black & White with a film feel to it...I love it!

Thanks Jake!

I absolutely loved this game at first, but some of the camera angles during combat were frustrating. There were some battles where the camera was zoomed out and I could barely even see myself or the enemies, making it difficult to parry properly. The camera may have been the most challenging enemy in the game.

i love gameranx reviews

Very cool game although I’ve never had a game break so bad on the cutscenes

You are the BEST reviewer ever man

Great game and you nailed it on the combat,had the game crash a couple of times on Xbox.

To each his own. As a Kurosawa and black and white Japanese films fan this game is gold. Done 4 playtrough . Im buying a physical copy to add to the collection

Just played it on Gamepass and you are spot on, the combat timing is off and is hard to explain why. The visuals are amazing, especially at 4k so I am definitely driven to keep playing and enjoy the experience and story and not get hung up on the combat

Perfect game pass experience if you ask me. Play through in one day yesterday. No regrets. So cinematic.

I'm going to play it today. Been looking forward to it tbh!

It’s nice to see a linear game coming out,most games have kinda lost that.

Another banger video ❤️

I’m about 45 minutes into this and I’m hooked

I like how these videos pop up every time and i still dont click them

I think I want this game

Perfect review. This game is awesome but yeah, I felt the same way about the sword play. I never seemed to be able to get a good "flow" going. I really wanted to play with some sort of rhythm but I just couldn't find one most the time although the game feels like it wants to be played that way. Idk, it's hard to explain. It's good... just not great. The visuals on the other hand are freaking amazing! 🤩👍

What I think he say it lacks is that "hit impact" with hit stop... in most fighting games they put colorful and flashy effects when they hit on the opponent.. or they shake the camera slightly to make it look and feel satisfying... . In Ghost of Tsushima they used camera flash, red filter ,sword sparks, blood splatter, slow motion, and maybe a camera shake.. to make the hits/kills impactful and more satisfying..

It reminds me of an old Jackie Chan game I used to play I can't remember if it was on ps1 or 2. Really good one and funny.

I'd forgotten about this, saw it on another side scrolling upload and then went to my ps app. I couldn't believe it that it had been released, so I went and looked for a review. After listening to the pros and cons of Jake's review, my money is staying in my wallet! This'll be a purchase when they're basically giving it away. Gameranx are definitely my go to for reviews. Thanks Jake for being honest with the timing issues and other niggles. You didn't say it was terrible, plus you didn't say it was great. Gameranx delivers once again

This Review awakened my interest. Maybe buy it when its cheaper!

Gameplay wise it reminds me of a slow strider from years ago

Most of the problem’s from combat you describe are the same problems for me in SiFu. It feels strange for me and hearing the same for this game is a little bit frustrating. I need to try it before buying it but thanks for your opinion.

For once, I'm a bit early for the Gameranx video. It's 3 am here where I live.

Love the amazing content you people at gameranx provide

Cannot wait to play this in about 15 minutes when I get home on my LGC1.