Once you choose a difficulty you are locked in for that slot for the rest of your save, so choose wisely.
This game is also inspired by the insane difficulty of Dark Souls games so technically if your character dies in a mission of a particular ACT, yea buddy ggs gotta start all OVER again from the beginning of whichever ACT you were dead in. So … yea play wisely
In ACT I: Beginning Missions
Tutorial to teach the way of the sword, techniques, resolve gauge [again similar to GoT, very innovative vro]
The gameplay is heavily inspired by DMCV since it is my favourite game so it follows a similar sequence of attacks weighing higher value if they resemble a particular attack sequence and obviously those attack sequences not being repeated cause of “style”, remember the MC is a prodigy, what is a talented piece of scum without a bit of showmanship? amirite?
Unlike DMCV, the attack sequences will be grounded to earth (no physics breaking movement, well NOT TILL THE FINAL BATTLE OFC)
Kiro is the best swordsman in the entire game and doesn’t carry any firearms apart from kunai in emergency and ofc until in ACT III
Kirisute Gomen The Reckoning
An important aspect of the game, literally the title of the game aswell lmao anyways the idea is that whenever a lowly peasant mocks you, you unsheathe your muramasa and the peasant begs for forgiveness but we both know at this point that forgiveness is never really served to the lower classes now, do they?
You behead the peasant and fill another gauge: Authority which when at max can unleash “Fear Factor” {again similar to GoT’s ghost mode} where enemies are afraid of you and drop their weapons and run away from the scene
performing Kirisute Gomen also refills your resolve to full so you can heal to completion after performing such gruesome acts.
Oshikabe
This battle is divided in two phases:
Phase I: you fight with Oshikabe, your “true” equal, gives you a very good challenge.
When you are near to kill him, there is a QTE to initiate death blow, this is when the battle is abrupted by your rival by engaging in a violation to Bushido in order to protect himself.
After a deep conversation about Honour and the price of Life, begins the second phase.
Phase II: you have no resolve in this phase, so you can’t heal and your movements are much slower with all the news clouded in your mind which lets you unleash the fury of Muramasa onto your opponent
After a well fought battle, you defeat your opponent.
NOW THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT AS YOUR CHOICE HERE CAN CHANGE THE COURSE OF THE GAME:
You can either spare your rival’s life and let them live to see another day OR Take their head and present it to Master
The former is the more preferred choice which will come in handy for ACT III, whereas the latter leads to a step up in game difficulty for Phase III (so I was thinking of three levels of difficulty, so if you were already playing at max difficulty this will lead to GoW’s Titan Mode or DMCV’s Dante Must Die difficulty levels)
It even has a role in Endings as well. Again the choice is purely yours, Im no one here to judge you for your actions.
Namaeda
He uses a naginata and a pair of sickles, he can also fight with a katana. He is quite well versed in combat but not a master in either.
Namaeda’s combat is largely him being calculative however he does attempt to style to emulate his elder brother.
After the act of treason is found, Namaeda finds it difficult to kill his own clansman to retreat so make sure to injure as many people without actually killing them, killing them lead to a “cloudiness” fog this if maxed out, will lead to Namaeda to collapse and lose his will to live.
Namaeda is forced to walk after the flashback with his friends to his home safely, well ofc the “keyword” is safely : D
There are many other aspects of gameplay to talk about with this character but I feel if I start working on the actual game itself, it might help :p
Master Kagetora
Assuming you have already read the Calamity , atleast till the part where Kagetora’s appearance is described.
He carries both fire arrows and pistols which is quite handy in a couple of missions which involves the player playing as him to show powerful Kagetora truly is.
He has his own blade which can cut through steel itself and is quite effective in one-shotting many low level soldiers, Kagetora has his own gauge of authority like Kiro but he doesn’t need to perform any sort of Kirisute Gomen to reach to that point, his base authority level is at 50% always and you can quickly max it out and more enemies flee once his ghost mode is activated.
Kirisute Gomen The Big Come Down
Assuming vengeance is the chosen path, Kirisute Gomen performed in ACT III is quite … different from what and how it was performed in ACT I.
So you do still continue to fill up your authority meter like always but this time … you don’t get the healing benefits of resolve for ACT III, rather if you had any resolve left, you lose all of it immediately with Kirisute Gomen.
Kiro also gains his own cloudiness gauge which also increases quite a lot with each Kirisute Gomen, while you won’t die if maxed out, it will temporarily paralyse you in battle and cause you to have a mental breakdown mid-battle which I assume you can see is not ideal.
Kiro is a changed man since his performance in ACT I and this change in mechanic reflects that
Kagawa
Final boss battle of this game, your true equal.
This battle is divided in three phases with second phase being less about fighting and more about surviving.
Phase I: You are fighting with Kagawa following bushido of a duel, you throw everything at him DMC style and try to doge his attacks since his are quite lethal as he is using Master’s blade against you.
After weakening him to 75%, he deals a flurry of un-dodgable blows which results in your health dropping to < 10% and leads to cutscene of Kagawa and Kiro exchanging dialogues and ideologies.
Phase II: Now you are fighting … for your life, Kagawa tries to inflict blows on you however you intercept them and throws dialogue at you to weaken your resolve further. Finally when Kagawa is near to ending your life a QTE takes place to shoot your last bullet at his arm to temporarily disable him, this will lead to another cutscene which leads to the reveal of the Masamune and third phase
Phase III: After both parties are in a condition to resume their duel, Kiro wields the power of the mythical Masamune which operates in a very different level to Muramasa.
There is an entire gauge for concentration which is similar to Vergil’s in DMCV, you want to lock in on your opponent but also ensure that you avoid taking hits while delivering it to him.
With the gauge filling up, you unlock moves such as ‘Drive and OverDrive’ similar to Devil Sword Dante’s and at 75% of the gauge you get the move ‘Void Slash’ of yamato, gauge however doesn’t go to 0 if you take hits like in DMC & these moves since this is a final battle are kind of a one time usable so make sure to aim well.
The gauge eventually should fill up to 100% if not either ways there will be a QTE when Kagawa’s health reaches 10% when you unlock a move similar to Judgement Cut in DMCV Vergil’s yamato which will wipe out Kagawa from the face of existence and matter itself.
With his body lying dead, you perform one last beheading on his head and free yourself from the misery and trauma you felt since ACT II.