This is spoiler free or at least as free as I can for its length.

I have done all the challenges in this first week, 5 games, 2 characters, up to ng+4.
I took my sweet time with everything the first times, so it took about 80 hours, but I plan to do a lot more with challenge runs and so.
I must have about 1.5k hours in soulsborne games and I believe that the core combat in this game is harder to learn, but once you do you get better than in any soulsborne game.
Also I think this is less polished than any soulsborne game and could have been much more better with little work. It feels like they didn't really play much their own game and they didn't even try with some of the core elements of the game. But at the same time with FromSoftware the expectations are out of the roof.

I really like:

• The core combat is now my favorite of any game.
  
• The parry now is not op, the window is better and if you fail you still block.
  
• Hitting parry/block can cancel your early attack. Saved my life tons of times.
  
• Posture is awesome. A fine way to reward good players and punish bad ones.
  
• The level desing. The best I have seen in any game. The level design makes the immersion better, it feels like a real place. The last area you discover is awesome.
  
• Air movement is great. It adds a lot to exploration and combat now feels more real.
  
• Sword play. Is way better than soulsborne games, but still not real enough to be unfun.
  
• NG difficulty. Some people think this is too hard but I like it this way. I found some bosses very very very frustrating because I was dogging/running too much and once you get used to the playstile (which can take a lot of hours) they are very easy and mostly fair. Mini-bosses in general feel perfectly balanced and very worth the time.

I like:

• The music and sound feel good, immersive and don't get in the way.
  
• The graphics are pretty good, at least for my setup and the world is beautiful. The only but is when you kill a certain mini-boss and it spawns mist for some seconds.
  
• The desing of the bosses was pretty good and fits their combat very well (with a glance you know more or less what kind of battle you are in for).
  
• NG+ and onwards difficulty. You really have to manage your posture.

I am disappointed by:

• Combat arts. I expected more, more different and better balanced combat arts. Double ichi just blows everything apart and as the NG cycles go on they seem to be less effective than normal attacks, which makes most of them useless.
  
• The quantity/quality of content. There is not online and it was supposed to be a more polished experience, but it doesn't feel like it. I mean, they copied mini-bosses and bosses, reused areas and enemies have your skills, but they could easily have more indoor areas, hidden doors, events like entering Gun Fort and a couple of states (same architecture anyway). I mean they are probably done with a DLC with a couple of bosses including a certain sword master yet to appear. For example the world being so interconnected feels too small for a fantasy story where you are supposed to be doing something no one could and going to crazy places, but actually normal people could just get lost and find them too; which is normal in these games, but still.
  
• Just a bit with the grappling hook. I wish you could use it more and there are some places where you have too many points to hook to and some times you think you have a hooking point in focus and yet you use a different one.
  
• The core combat mechanic to jump over enemies to increase their posture. I gess it makes sense with the jump mechanic and all, but still it doesn't feel natural to me.
  
• Story telling/lore/events. It is not really bad, but is not good either, just plain. This feels off FromSoftware, I guess this game is different from what they are not used to (which is fine) and actually the game in general feels like a game made by another company trying to mimic them. Overall this feels way too anime-like.
  
• Some times you can deathblow an enemie and in the process you fall to another place and then the animation ends you get instantly back to the place the enemie was standing before.
  
• Just a bit about a lot of boss arenas being too small and with obstacles or things that don't let you see the weapon of the boss. Eg: rocks, trees, grass, armors and doors.
  
• Demon of Hatred. Thematically ok, but is a soulsborne boss fight and does not fit this game. In fact his posture seems to be the same as his life.
  
• Shield attack making me loose my confetti. Why game, why? Who thought this was a good idea?
  
• Camera still has issues in certain places and against certain enemies you cannot see exactly what they are doing.
  
• I expected a bit more japanese creatures and mythology.
  
• Expected a bit of a crazy transformation of the world (I mean with the day changing and all), like roosters turning into something to be scared of. Kind of when people turn into beasts in Bloodborne, it scares you, but here you get confused at best (and phantoms are disappointing and don't really solve anything).

I am very disappointed by:

• Prosthetic tools avaible. If they are going to be our only choice of weapon there are too few, which is very noticeable for the hardest bosses, where it feels almost all are useless. I used the most the shuriken and the firecracker, then I liked the spear and the fan for mobs, never found any use for Sabimaru and found the remaining 5 to be useful only for a couple of enemies. At least I expected to have a gun. I understand you cannot expect them to solve all your problems but still they feel a bit useless for the most part and on the hardests moments. I even prefer the Bloodborne trick weapons to this.
  
• Prosthetic upgrades. They are repetitive, too few and the upgrade path doesn't make much sense mixing them all. When I play again I will probably upgrade the spear, firecracker and shuriken as much as I can without going out of my way and just forget about the rest.
  
• Stealth. Just pitiful. The enemies don't care if someone dies, there is noise or a piece of wood hits their head (it happened). Most don't patrol and when they do they have a fixed path that starts once you reach a certain distance, so you almost always find then in the same place. You can draw their attention and even enter combat and then get some distance and they forget about you, which just makes most mini-bosses trivial (you don't even need to know how this combat works, just spamming op ♥♥♥♥ is good enough). This is the same way in every NG cycle.
  
• NG+ in anything other than difficulty. I expected more enemies, changes or harder stealth, but you get none of that. Rewards from mini-bosses after NG are just 500 sen and almost nothing of experience, which makes them not worth the time at all, which is exactly the opposite they exist for in ng.
  
• Ninjutsu. Only 3 and I didn't find the last one to be useful.
  
• Farming. The first time I beat the game I farmed upgrade materials, experience, and divine confetti like and idiot, only to find there is no need to, because later in game you can buy or don't really need any. I mean that it feels like the game is inviting you to farm and farm and if you don't know better you probably do. Eg: Headless, you fight one and die a lot because you need divine confetti, but you have very few confetti and find many uses to it. Once you know better you just wait for endgame for them or don't kill them. I mean they are optional, but how would you know that the first time?

So overall I think what makes the game good is the environment and the core of the combat. What I think it makes the game bad is mostly the specialization and the lack of polishing. I think is a good game, but not for everyone. Even with all

[b]This is spoiler free or at least as free as I can for its length.[/b] I have done all the challenges in this first week, 5 games, 2 characters, up to ng+4. I took my sweet time with everything the first times, so it took about 80 hours, but I plan to do a lot more with challenge runs and so. I must have about 1.5k hours in soulsborne games and I believe that the core combat in this game is harder to learn, but once you do you get better than in any soulsborne game. Also I think this is less polished than any soulsborne game and could have been much more better with little work. It feels like they didn't really play much their own game and they didn't even try with some of the core elements of the game. But at the same time with FromSoftware the expectations are out of the roof. [b]I really like:[/b] [list] [*]The core combat is now my favorite of any game. [*]The parry now is not op, the window is better and if you fail you still block. [*]Hitting parry/block can cancel your early attack. Saved my life tons of times. [*]Posture is awesome. A fine way to reward good players and punish bad ones. [*]The level desing. The best I have seen in any game. The level design makes the immersion better, it feels like a real place. The last area you discover is awesome. [*]Air movement is great. It adds a lot to exploration and combat now feels more real. [*]Sword play. Is way better than soulsborne games, but still not real enough to be unfun. [*]NG difficulty. Some people think this is too hard but I like it this way. I found some bosses very very very frustrating because I was dogging/running too much and once you get used to the playstile (which can take a lot of hours) they are very easy and mostly fair. Mini-bosses in general feel perfectly balanced and very worth the time. [/list] [b]I like:[/b] [list] [*]The music and sound feel good, immersive and don't get in the way. [*]The graphics are pretty good, at least for my setup and the world is beautiful. The only but is when you kill a certain mini-boss and it spawns mist for some seconds. [*]The desing of the bosses was pretty good and fits their combat very well (with a glance you know more or less what kind of battle you are in for). [*]NG+ and onwards difficulty. You really have to manage your posture. [/list] [b]I am disappointed by:[/b] [list] [*]Combat arts. I expected more, more different and better balanced combat arts. Double ichi just blows everything apart and as the NG cycles go on they seem to be less effective than normal attacks, which makes most of them useless. [*]The quantity/quality of content. There is not online and it was supposed to be a more polished experience, but it doesn't feel like it. I mean, they copied mini-bosses and bosses, reused areas and enemies have your skills, but they could easily have more indoor areas, hidden doors, events like entering Gun Fort and a couple of states (same architecture anyway). I mean they are probably done with a DLC with a couple of bosses including a certain sword master yet to appear. For example the world being so interconnected feels too small for a fantasy story where you are supposed to be doing something no one could and going to crazy places, but actually normal people could just get lost and find them too; which is normal in these games, but still. [*]Just a bit with the grappling hook. I wish you could use it more and there are some places where you have too many points to hook to and some times you think you have a hooking point in focus and yet you use a different one. [*]The core combat mechanic to jump over enemies to increase their posture. I gess it makes sense with the jump mechanic and all, but still it doesn't feel natural to me. [*]Story telling/lore/events. It is not really bad, but is not good either, just plain. This feels off FromSoftware, I guess this game is different from what they are not used to (which is fine) and actually the game in general feels like a game made by another company trying to mimic them. Overall this feels way too anime-like. [*]Some times you can deathblow an enemie and in the process you fall to another place and then the animation ends you get instantly back to the place the enemie was standing before. [*]Just a bit about a lot of boss arenas being too small and with obstacles or things that don't let you see the weapon of the boss. Eg: rocks, trees, grass, armors and doors. [*]Demon of Hatred. Thematically ok, but is a soulsborne boss fight and does not fit this game. In fact his posture seems to be the same as his life. [*]Shield attack making me loose my confetti. Why game, why? Who thought this was a good idea? [*]Camera still has issues in certain places and against certain enemies you cannot see exactly what they are doing. [*]I expected a bit more japanese creatures and mythology. [*]Expected a bit of a crazy transformation of the world (I mean with the day changing and all), like roosters turning into something to be scared of. Kind of when people turn into beasts in Bloodborne, it scares you, but here you get confused at best (and phantoms are disappointing and don't really solve anything). [/list] [b]I am very disappointed by:[/b] [list] [*]Prosthetic tools avaible. If they are going to be our only choice of weapon there are too few, which is very noticeable for the hardest bosses, where it feels almost all are useless. I used the most the shuriken and the firecracker, then I liked the spear and the fan for mobs, never found any use for Sabimaru and found the remaining 5 to be useful only for a couple of enemies. At least I expected to have a gun. I understand you cannot expect them to solve all your problems but still they feel a bit useless for the most part and on the hardests moments. I even prefer the Bloodborne trick weapons to this. [*]Prosthetic upgrades. They are repetitive, too few and the upgrade path doesn't make much sense mixing them all. When I play again I will probably upgrade the spear, firecracker and shuriken as much as I can without going out of my way and just forget about the rest. [*]Stealth. Just pitiful. The enemies don't care if someone dies, there is noise or a piece of wood hits their head (it happened). Most don't patrol and when they do they have a fixed path that starts once you reach a certain distance, so you almost always find then in the same place. You can draw their attention and even enter combat and then get some distance and they forget about you, which just makes most mini-bosses trivial (you don't even need to know how this combat works, just spamming op shit is good enough). This is the same way in every NG cycle. [*]NG+ in anything other than difficulty. I expected more enemies, changes or harder stealth, but you get none of that. Rewards from mini-bosses after NG are just 500 sen and almost nothing of experience, which makes them not worth the time at all, which is exactly the opposite they exist for in ng. [*]Ninjutsu. Only 3 and I didn't find the last one to be useful. [*]Farming. The first time I beat the game I farmed upgrade materials, experience, and divine confetti like and idiot, only to find there is no need to, because later in game you can buy or don't really need any. I mean that it feels like the game is inviting you to farm and farm and if you don't know better you probably do. Eg: Headless, you fight one and die a lot because you need divine confetti, but you have very few confetti and find many uses to it. Once you know better you just wait for endgame for them or don't kill them. I mean they are optional, but how would you know that the first time? [/list] So overall I think what makes the game good is the environment and the core of the combat. What I think it makes the game bad is mostly the specialization and the lack of polishing. I think is a good game, but not for everyone. Even with all