Over 60 hours and I still have not explored the whole lot Team Ninja’s latest open-world samurai adventure game has to offer. And now, except for all of the cats to collect and escapees to kill, there’s one other secret to it which I only just got here across. That’s right: William Adams, the hero, lurks in . Here are the small print, including where and how to find the “Blue Eyes Samurai.”

On March 31, the PlayStation UK X/Twitter account revealed what I suspected was in the sport: William Adams, the hero first and the primary non-Japanese samurai . Well, not likely. The motion takes place a whole bunch of years before the events of called here the “Blue-Eyed Samurai”, which reminds excellent Netflix anime with a really similar name. Either way, William – I mean the Blue Eyed Samurai – plays a minor role here, being a mere encounter with a sub-boss as part of an open-world photography activity, but crossing swords with him is definitely well worth the effort.

You will find it in Shiba Prefecture in Edo, which is the second largest city in . If you open the minimap and head towards Shiba Bay, you may notice a photograph objective called “Shiba Bay View.” You do not have to do that, but taking a fast photo of the wharf offers you silver coins to purchase additional Intelligence skill points. To the left of where you’re taking the photo is a small alcove with a dimly lit fire illuminating the doorway. Get in there.

The rest of the trail is blocked by a poorly constructed wood barricade, which you’ll destroy by blowing a bomb or gun into the hearth barrel right in front of you. Once you are inside, take the one left at the top of the short, narrow path, and William – rattling it, the Blue Eyed Samurai – will probably be standing there, just waiting for you to try him out. And ensure to give it a try, because this is not one of those encounters where there is a bit of dialogue before the blades inevitably develop into soaked in blood. He gets aggressive when he notices you, nevertheless it’s not a very difficult fight, especially should you’ve played . His moveset is similar to the usual attack pattern you see when wielding a katana in the 2017 Japanese game Team Ninja Soulslike, so familiarity should make combat easier to manage. Either way, go ahead and put it down.

You’ll get some pretty sweet rewards after the fight. The first is an armor set inspired by Yasuke, the primary black samurai whose name is the title one other excellent Netflix anime. Then comes the true prize, the Nioh-ryu fighting style. This is the identical sword technique that the Blue Eyes Samurai and William Adams use, and it’s great. You see, there are 4 overarching types of fighting styles, inside which there are countless fighting styles they include: Ten, Chi, Jin and Shinobi. Each of these 4 is strong against certain weapons and weak against others, but Jin is essentially the most versatile fighting style of all, because it is effective against sabers and other light weapons. Nioh-ryu is a fighting style based on Jin, which implies most enemies are in it use a katana or saber, you’ll principally all the time do more damage. Sure, there are a handful of enemies that use other fighting styles that may effectively counter Jin’s based style, but even then, since Jin is a jack of all trades, he can still punch his way through even the heaviest weapons like clubs and odachi.

I like little details like this, optional objectives that tie the studio’s games together in interesting and completely missable ways should you do not know where to look. The advantage is that should you miss something in the sport, there is a feature that permits you to replay entire areas and entire missions with completely different results. So, should you wanted to see what would occur should you saved the anti-shogunate as a substitute of killing it, you possibly can bend time and see what happens. Unfortunately, when you murder the Blue Eyes Samurai, he’s dead for good.