Well they definitely got my money, and this was my first big game purchase in a year. I purchased and played two hours of the game about a month ago and I never went back to it. I'm sure the gameplay gets better but the early story was so fucking stupid that I had no interest in continuing.
Spoiler!
So the badass villain kills your whole samurai army and kidnaps the protagonist's ... uncle I think? And then, left for dead, you fight your way through certain death and into said villain's fortress half dead, only for his uncle to have become the villain's friend. Then the villain who just got done mercilessly killing your friends decides, "nah man, join me". It reeked of cheesy 80's cartoons plots. Then, this invincible villain makes a stupid villain trope mistake and puts his guard down just enough for the protagonist to injure his face before you are tossed off a bridge.
Yeah... that was enough for me to stop playing.