When I played the demo back in the 90's one I was totally impressed by the music. It was and still is truly a masterpiece what Clint Bajakian composed, definitely one of the best game soundtracks of all time. The rest of the game is an OK'ish first-person shooter, even if measured by the standards of its time. The structural level design is good, but the hunt for not always obvious hidden passages, keys etc. is tiring and not fun at all compared to the best and better FPS games which already existed at that time. If you want a Western-themed FPS from the 90's this game runs without competition, buy it for the music alone! If you already played through all the famous FPS of that time and want more - well, try it, but be prepared for some cumbersome key hunting in often sparsely lit passages. If that aspect always bothered you and you don't care about the soundtrack - stay away.
Did you like the classic "Commandos"? Interested in Japanese culture of the Edo period? You will love this! Yes, it's a "Commandos" clone, it uses exactly the same gameplay formula. There is a team of 5 characters, but in nearly all missions you will play only some of them at the same time which forces you to play different tactics combinations. The gameplay depends on how you decide to tackle the problems. If you like to observe, plan and execute and get through the level 'body by body' the game supports this. If you set yourself the goal of not triggering any alarms, killing all enemies, hide them and not to kill any civilians you can spend 2-3 hours on each level. There is also the 'shadow mode' which lets you 'record' characters actions and execute them later simultaniously. The level design is mostly very good. There are nearly always multiple ways to get to the desired place/objective. The graphics are very colourful with attention to detail. The levels look very aesthetically pleasing. The music uses some Japanese instruments, sounds adequate and calm. One very positive exception is the second-to-last mission which conveys a sense of determination and the music reflects this in some fantastic power-orcherstra-like movements. Huge bonus points for (optional) Japanese voices. The spoken Japanese dialogues even use the proper honorifics when addressing the different characters! For some reason the English subtitles don't always reflect this, though. No 'fake' Japanese or non-Japanese names, no black-clad ninjas. It's may be not historically accurate but it's not a circus either. Plenty of seppuku. On the negative note: - The beginning phase of the last level is much more difficult then in the levels before. No fun at all. - The option to highlight enemies and level elements to interacted with also highlights elements that are not currently visible to the player. The whole map is then lit like a Christmas tree which can be very distracting. Buy this!
Played only the bow style on easy, your mileage may vary. A really good game if you are into ARPGs and only have an hour gaming time per day. + has exactly the right amount of exploration, chest hunting, looting and action + nice graphics + maps have a good size, multiple checkpoints per map store your progress even if you exit the game + the roll mechanism to dodge attacks works really well + the voice work (at least in English) is very good + the crafting is exactly right, not too much, not too little + exposure mechanics are a welcome addition to the gameplay - as of June 2019 at least one of the achievements still does not trigger ("Blessings of Aesir") - there is at least one place where the developers forgot to make a wall destroyable by arrows, fortunately any character can equip and use any weapons at any time so I used a melee weapon to destroy it - the controls are a mixed bag, for a ranged character they function very well after the first hour or so, but still, because the left mouse button controls both movement and attacks, the character sometimes locks on and starts shooting things on the targeted location instead of going there
