I don't know why people praise this game. I was actually really excited to start playing it since I saw how cool the trailers and the video game footage were, and it is. It really has cool game mechanics, cool action moves, cool weapons, but that is it. It is a beautiful design on top of a ♥♥♥♥ storm of a mess.
Unresponsive controls, in a game that is supposed to be fast passed, some of the animations takes priority to you pressing an action key like following up with an immediate attack, leaving you open to enemy attacks.
Almost no story, it is seriously lacking, and sometimes I forget that some characters exist.
Some compare it to Devil May Cry - it is nothing like that. While in DMC the game encourages you not to use the same move over and over again and to be stylish in your game play, this game is the exact opposite - the game, the enemies and the situations in it forces you to use the same move over and over. I am sick of how many Inazuna Drops and Ultimate Attacks I've had to use.
Some compare it to Dark Souls - NO. Dark Souls may be hard, but it is FAIR. If you die there, you have no one but yourself to blame for a bad timed dodge or rushing into enemies. Ninja Gaiden? You want to do a simple upward wall run, it goes into a horizontal wall run, or vice versa. Enemies ganging you wouldn't be a problem, if they wouldn't be so hell bent on spamming the same cheap attacks, especially the grabs, which most are unblockable. While enemies can block your attacks and can even dodge or block immediately after a block break, you can't block all of their attacks (the basic ones of course you can), but they immediately follow up with powerful attacks after they break your block.
Stupid hitboxes - while some of your attacks should connect with enemies, but instead the sword just swings around them while enemies dance the samba around you, the enemies hit you and grab you mid dodges or from distances where the attacks shouldn't connect. I've had so many moments when I dodged behind an enemy, somewhat through an attack, and I still got hit while I was behind the enemy. This has been one of the most unfair games I have ever played.
While the enemies are bad and some bosses are stupid cheap the worst enemy in this game is the camera. I've had so many instances during boss fights where the camera got stuck behind a wall or behind a rock and I could only see my health bar draining, unable to see and react to attacks. There are moments when the camera is only focused on the boss and there are minions spawning around, instead of focusing the minions, Ryu has the tendency to attack towards the boss, there are moments when the camera is focusing just Ryu and I can't see my surroundings and from where enemies and attacks are coming from. Because the camera shifts constantly depending on where you are, the camera can mess up your attack. Because some attacks are triggered depending on which way your facing and which way you are tilting your thumbstick, there are countless instances where the camera shifts at the last moment, not imputing the proper attack, messing up your timing and leaving you wide open. If I would put my top deaths in this game, most of them were because of the camera.
The game HAS NO keyboard support. Like, yeah, ok, in this day and age most people have controllers, but you can't play this game if you don't own one. Kinda stupid.
Bottom line - I HATE THIS GAME with a passion. I was really happy when I got the game, I was really excited when I went in and I got nothing but disappointment out of it.