The open-world direction is really good so far, and reminds me a bit of MGSV, and Shadow Of the Colosssus in its barren land with few NPC's, and plenty of slow, and breathing moments before the next combat encounter. I am still a bit skeptical when it comes to the main cast, story, and the overall tone of the game, and will have to wait to properly play the final game, and make my final opinion on it. Combat, as i said before, feels really good but i am gonna have to see it in later parts with bosses, and challenging enemies to properly judge it, and whether the game will have tons of replay value or will the combat amount to flashy stuff but no real depth in the mechanics for players to master or try something unique, and creative.
On a side-note; R2 for item menu is such a dumb control scheme. Really used to pressing that button for important action in other games while here its just a item menu that completely stops the gameplay for a sec. Really hope the game gives players the choice to remap the entire control scheme for better controls.