Way of the Samurai 4 - ★★★★★
Beaten in: June 2024
with the aid of Kongou Kokuretsu
Truly genius game structure. Tiny open world with short story routes that you have to do in a specific order to set up the game state for the true route is such a cool idea. It helps that the game itself is a lot of fun to play. The combat and customization options are both way more complex than what they need to be - there's something like 8 different combat styles just for the sword alone. I was able to mold my middle-aged ronin main character into a pretty good likeness of myself made out of straw kasa.