This game is fantastic. But it's a multiplayer game with a bit of pve, NOT a fully fledged out pve game. As such, it is sketchy to advertise a offline mode and a drm free experience given that without the online it is a WAY WORSE game. If you have read the other reviews you already know about the disappointing length and the locked out higher levels of the bosses. That's not the end of it though. The main draw of this game is the complex fighting system and the custom combo building. However, the AI in this game is not smart enough for you to make use of feints, mix ups and so on. You can beat most (if not all) NPCs by spamming the same two attacks while occasionally dodging and blocking. Thus, if you play offline there is no need for you to get into the combo building, or properly learn the combat system. It is a waste of time. You cripple your experience if you play offline. Don't buy it for the offline mode. Fair enough, but what about the online? It's great, I'll leave it at that. I would like to warn you about buying it on GOG though. While most of the online works great, THE SCHOOL SYSTEM IS CURRENTLY UNUSABLE. If you want to join a school you'll have to find people in the world who are part of a school. Then you sit down at a shrine, enter the social tab and find the player that was part of the school. Players that are part of schools have a triangle next to them. Then you just join their school. But on the GOG version, even though the players have triangles next to them, it will say that they're not part of a school and you won't be able to join. You're essentially locked out from the school system. This also means that you can't unlock all the styles on one character since this has to be done through the school system. The achievement on GOG that tells you to unlock all the styles is therefore UNACHIEVABLE unless you have a friend who has a school. CONCLUSION: GOG is about DRM free games. Given the state of the offline mode this game is essentially not DRM free. Even if you choose to go online you will not be able to use the school system. Given these facts, you are better off buying this from the king of DRM (Steam) or not buy it at all.
