I am a man who loves samurai.

I am going to school for Japanese Studies because I Love Samurai. Without a Very Specific Samurai my life would not be what it is today, and I can safely say that the individual stories of samurai have been inspiring to me in ways that I cannot fully articulate.

This is a game about collecting samurai.

I am aware, of course, that this is not what the game is REALLY about ... But in all 30 hours playing it, I've barely tried to save the lovely maiden. Instead, I've spent the entire time trying to collect specific daimyo and hatamoto and crying into my diet coke. When collecting Uesugi Kenshin, I had to start the game with Takeda Shingen's specific set of abilities or I would have felt I was violating some Inherent Law of the Universe. Every time I encounter Mitsuhide I wish I was playing as Nobunaga so I could give him a measure of vengeance for the assassination that ended his life.

I am only 5 away from a complete collection, and only once I have collected the last samurai will I be content to send Susano-o into the depths of the netherworld to kick some snake-y ass.

If you love samurai as much as I love samurai, please play this game.

I care much more about catching every single samurai for my samurai collection than I ever have about collecting pokemon or other things you can collect in games known for collecting things. That the gameplay is so easy to pick up, the ability system gives you a lot of potential for growth and experimentation, and you can really and truly customize your character's abilities make it a fantastic experience. It has a good learning curve, and you can strategize about how to approach certain things and decide what you most value when playing the game.

And that graphical style is wonderful. That it has such a stylistic approach to representing people and environments is sure to make it age much better than if it were hyper realistic.

Now just give me DLC of Boshin War and Genpei War era samurai, and I'll be able to die happy.

EDIT: Seriously, give me more samurai from outside of the Sengoku Jidai and I will worship you forever.

EDIT 2: THEY ADDED MY BOYS???? I HAVE THE SHINSENGUMI??? Thanks Devs!