Tell me you haven't played the game without telling me. You have a brief period of time with Yasuke in the prologue and then you're able to explore the open world for as long as you𝓀 want with Naoe before you get access to him again.

No way could you have played this and be saying it is centered around him. I played ꦦalmost 20 hrs without him unlocked.

I completely disagree. I love a meticulous stealth approach with Naoe but some of the castles in this game are massive and after having done several back to back I found myself burned out on trying to stay in stealth while tracking down Daisho. Being able to say screw it let me just c🦹ut down everyone in my way once I unblocked Yasuke was a breathe a fresh air. He's op but it has yet to get stale for me.