The First Hours, the Difficulty You Cannot Pick Yet, and Why Nothing Is Lost

Decide before you start

Which chapter opens which system

1. Chapter 2 · The Stage is Set at Kiyomizu

   The first Charm arrives — the Charm of the Healer, healing effectiveness +4% — and it is the only one of the fifteen that comes from the main story rather than from a side mission. Emma's Hall, at the Rokudo-chinnoji Temple, is where Charms are upgraded later.

2. Chapter 4 · The Oni's Apprentice

   The Wind-Whipper, the third of the seven Oni Armaments, is handed to you automatically after the Skills demonstration at the practice grounds — no detour, nothing to find.

3. Chapter 8 · Patching up the Pouch

   The first chance to upgrade your pouch is when you speak with Okuni during the mission Patching up the Pouch. Until then the nine Hozuki Pouches can be found but not enhanced — and Medical Marvel asks for all nine at maximum, not merely collected.

4. Chapter 11 · What Lurks in the Shadows

   The chapter that opens the game up. Mysteries of Kyoto and Lion Dogs are not unlocked until it is done — so two of the twelve trackers here, 44 collectibles between them, simply do not exist before this point. Nothing is lost by not looking for them earlier.

5. Chapter 13 onward · the side content unrolls

   From Bloodbath on the Bridge, the availability points start gating Mysteries and Chance Encounters behind named chapters — Bloodbath on the Bridge, A Tempest at the Temple, To Live is to Suffer, Okuni's Kabuki Dance, The Demon on the Mount, and finally In the Light of an Icy Moon, which releases the last three Chance Encounters including the one holding the ninth Hozuki Pouch.

Nothing is missable, and that should change how you play

What the reviews warn about

• The combat is the draw, and nobody disputes it. IGN gave the series its first 10/10; Push Square, at 9/10, calls the game "an often outstanding action game that bears all the hallmarks of a modern Capcom masterpiece" and praises the "signature Capcom weightiness" of every swing and last-second deflection.
• It starts slowly. Push Square says early skirmishes "can seem a touch too slow and methodical" and that enemy variety is thin in the opening hours — which is worth knowing if you judge it in the first two chapters.
• The filler is the consistent complaint. VGC, at 3/5, says the campaign is "Full of filler, overlong and focussed on the wrong things", and that it did not need "the main mission artificially inflated to battle the same Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers subboss again". Push Square also flags "some filler-y side quests".
• Bosses get reused. VGC's central criticism is that major encounters return too often through the campaign — which is visible in our own trackers, where Sasaki Ganryu, Benkei, and Ifuu and Burai each carry two separate trophies for two separate fights.
• The open Kyoto is thin. VGC says the open-world setting lacks substance and that the game is at its best in the last act, "where things suddenly become very back-to-back huge setpieces and bosses".
• Push Square calls the visuals "somewhat disappointing" and "muddy", which is a minority view — Metacritic has it at 90 on Switch 2, 85 on PS5 and 83 on PC and Xbox Series X|S, and OpenCritic at 94% recommending.

How long is it, really — four sources, four different answers

Cross-checked