Gaming Ghost of Tsushima

The throwing knives really come in handy. I love them. Hell I ain’t even used the bombs I unlocked yet.

I need to get comfortable parrying to instead of rolling which seems like my natural thing to do in these games. It costs me so much time here and in Sekiro and JFO. It would feel great if I can finally master the parry instead.

 

For me the sticky bombs are my panic tactic. If I get absolutely surrounded, I will stick one to someone, roll away, and let it take a chunk out of everyone's health.

 

Finished my 2nd Mythic quest. The effects in this one blew me away! Oh my! Shingori I think it was. Will look up tomorrow because the ambien is flowing right now.

deuces

 

Definitely take the time to explore - it really pays off. For instance one shrine gave a charm that boosts level of resources got, helping on gear upgrades. Another one gave a charm to help on dodges and parries - not yet tested.

Typical Jello.

 

I found myself going “wow” a lot tonight because of how beautiful it looked. The Golden Temple area is stunning. And I love those little hot springs under the red trees hidden around the map.

That duel under the white trees with the lightning flashing around you was pretty epic. And so is the move you learn after it. I finally got some neat traditional looking Samurai armour too.

I’m probably 8 hours in. There’s just so many things to do, I can tell it’s easily going to be 50+ hours.

 

This is like the perfect game for me. I can drop in for 2 hours, do a bunch of Ronin things and then go do something else. I'll probably attempt to 100% the game, I just really enjoy the gameplay and aesthetics.

Oh I also was able to do a standoff against a leader right away, and everybody else just ran away after. Real sad, I wanted to kill a couple more guys

 

You could have chased them down.

 

That’s the one I did last night. It was epic. Son loved it to.

 

That was my first one on one duel as well. So epic.

 

So, er, Ghost of Tsuschima.... Holy ****, did it go up several gears today.

First, there was Komatsu Forge mission, which was a mostly good mix of covert and overt combat, though the last bit did show up some weaknesses in the game's lack of indicators as to where enemies are, when you're in an open battle in a complex environment. Still, the usual solution pf "kill 'em all" worked just fine. It's one of the few game missions where the people you escort are reasonably smart and you have a fair amount of latitude as to how you get from A to B. I'm not a fan of the skull icon idea, but the time allocated is pretty generous, at least on Easy, which is just as well as Jin ain't that fast at times.

Next, did some random, took out some outposts, killed some leaders, which is where it went surreal. On one outpost, just as I was to be stealthy, a load of bandits stormed it, mass brawl, fine, **** stealth, kill 'em all. On another camp, just as I surveyed two bears waltzed in, so I let them kill 80% of the troops then killed the last bear standing and mopped up the rest, which included a Leader observation. The combined effect of these activities meant that I unlocked the Wind stance! The significance of this? Read on.

Since the start, there has been one enemy that is a pain in the arse. Swords? Mostly straight-forward. Shields? Bit trickier but yeah, mostly fine. Brutes? Vulnerable to hit-and-run. No, the one enduring bastard enemy has been the spear guys. .... Until now. Wind stance allows Jin to really screw these guys over. Some of the fights that followed after unlocking were insane, with Jin just working through sword, shield and spear enemies with an awesome level of ease!

At the same time I got the Half Bow fully upgraded! Fully upgraded, it is lethal. But this is no longer my only bow, no, I now have the Longbow and the Longbow has... Heavy and Explosive Arrows! You can now explode a Leader, set them on fire, after being mostly charred, they try to find you, but they are seriously weakened. One Leader I did this to, then took out with the glorious death from above assassination!

This all lead up to the most epic mission so far - Unfinished Business. Where you return to Azamo Bay. What follows is a really smart and freeform mix of overt and covert combat, over a large, complex environment, with numerous objectives. It's a hugely satisfying mission, culminating in a duel.

Talking of which, was able to really enjoy the last two duels. The Azamo Bay one was a good way to conclude a truly epic mission while the duel for the Longbow, also really emphasies that Jin is the medieval Japanese Batman.

Other stuff - have Kunai and bomb supply fully upgraded, almost all of the Longbow ammo, got all the charms for the Sakai Katana and have the Longbow partially upgraded.

Sure, there's been times when I'm sure I selected a different stance to the one Jin was in, but due to the armour and health upgrades, he can take the odd hit now. But when it works? The stance system is genius, even I can mostly pull it off!

So, er, yeah. Having quite a time.

 

I fn love composing haikus!

This game is an utter treat to play.

 

Yeah, who saw 'composing haikus' as one of 2020's best loved gameplay features in advance? It's nice to be surprised.

 

Poetry minigames should now be mandatory.

 

Wow! The Golden Summit Shrine might just be the most beautiful place I've visited in the game so far. It actually brings back a few memories from my Japan trip last year in Kyoto when I was walking up a mountain finding hidden shrines.

 

Let's talk more about what Ghost does that makes its distinct.

One is the enemies. Let's address this now - there are four enemy types. Four. That's it. Four? Yeah, four. Only four? Wrong.

Yes, there are your four basic enemy types, but the game mixes them up quite ingeniously. Within those four you will have unarmoured, partially armoured, fully armoured; small shield, big shield; spear, ornate pike - you get the idea. Sure, there's four enemy types matched to the four stances but there's a deceptive variety here. I had trouble on a spear guy because the game had classed him more as brute, but brutes with shields? Still affected by the Water stance.

I'm sure there's some that will disagree with it but the game allows you to really improve Jin and get major upgrades, all within the first act. They are clearly wanting the player to explore a bit, do a minor quest here and there, progress the story, get some new gear, along the way there's some upgrades - which can seriously influence your play style.

Finally, there's the freedom to flip between the Ghost and Samurai modes, without any penalty. If the game later guilt trips Jin for doing too much Ghost stuff, I won't be happy. But so far? It hasn't done that.

 

My fog of war clearing is a form of art.

I’m having to much fun walking around to be bothered with moving on with story but now Jin is actually talking at times when I go to map with “I wonder if Yuna found her brother, I should go check.” So the game definitely seems to want me to move on already these past 2 days.

 

Had a 17-on-1 fight today, it was epic - bodies everywhere.

 

I initially had no interest in playing this game but based on this thread there is a very strong chance it'll be a birthday purchase next month

 

Finally got wind stance. Dang spears driving me nuts. I’m sure I ll get side tracked again but I have 2 more side quests on map. After that and barring anymore/territories along the way I will begin to push forward I guess in act 1.

 

Isn't it glorious? You won't believe how your fights now flow.

I unlocked Moon today but haven't yet used it.

Correction - you have two quests you know about, who knows what else lurks out there?

 

That’s what I said!!! Lol

and yeah I’m loving the F outta wind stance right now. Had a tech point available right afterwards and I sunk into the strengthened typhoon kick which is balling along with shoulder charge!

 

Good that’s why I posted it. Got to reel you little fishies in. Just wish I hadn’t been in such a hurry on 1st post haha.