Gaming Ghost of Tsushima

Last night I explored the south east and along the coastline. Composed some haikus, got wind stance and upgraded my armour. Jin looks like a bad arse now.

So is this game a contender for Game of the Year? Or is it just Game of the Year?

 

Eh that's gonna be a tough one. The Last of Us has the most mature themes I have ever seen in a game... But Ghost is better gameplay wise.

And then there's Final Fantasy VII Remake, which had it been out last year might have won.

And that's only PS exclusives!

I think the Game Awards are gonna be tight this year!

 

Can we talk about the load times? Because they're seriously the best thing about the game.

That's not me dismissing the game itself, I'm just really impressed at how well optimised it is. It's running off of my launch PS4, and the loading screens take mere seconds. You'd think it was running off of an SSD.

GoT might not be the most technically impressive game visually, but it covers for it with strong art direction. And if sacrificing the highest quality meshes and textures means you get super fast load times, I'm all for it. Especially in an open world game, as it removes the inconvenience from using fast travel.

 

I was extremely surprised at the load times as well as the small install size for such a large open world game.

 

You on commission or something?

 

Definitely crazy impressive. TLOU2 has crazy fast load times when you die, but of course it's linear. I don't know how Sucker Punch managed it with an open world game.

 

Well, Ghost nearly committed seppuku tonight.

The reason for earning its lord's disfavour? The pile o' **** missions that are Ryuzo's. These are insta-fail stealth bull****. You can even storm through the camp, kill everyone, but start the mission and it'll be magically re-populated. The biggest problem is, at this point, the game has demonstrated that Jin can kill an entire ****ing army. So what if they do get reinforcements? Jin can kill all of them! All they had to do is have a scene that went:

• Ryuzo: There's so many, what will we do?
  
• Jin: You'll do nothing. You and your men stay here.
  
• Ryuzo: What?
  
• Jin: I'll be back.

At this point, you just go down there and kill every single mother****er that ****in' moves.

But no, instead, it's the outdated, obselete, piece o'**** instant fail stealth mission. It's also a horribly inconsistent one with normal enemies suddenly surviving explosion arrows to the head! Add in that your stealth options are very limited and it makes for a very, very ****** experience.

Still, you manage to do the first part? What happens? Another stealth section, but on this one we got spotted, had a massive fight and the game didn't care. It then followed this up with a unclear prompt that you have no reason to find.

Mission then moves to ships where you search for food, kill a few guys, then there's this bit where you're told to search for food. There is none. The solution? You find battle plans instead, but there is no prompt of this, no reason for you to go looking for those or pay attention to a scroll because.... You're looking for food.

These missions were irredeemable ***** from start to finish.

After this, I got the grappling hook and this? This I like, this is cool. I suspect the developers have played Uncharted 4, didn't like how particular you had to be on targeting the grappling hook and went: That's not happening on our hook! And so it proves, the pick-up is far more generous. The fights were pretty good too, but it kept doing this weird reverting to a previous stance despite me seeing it register another, it was really strange and wrecked the flow of combat a few times.

I then did a side mission with Masako that got me the last pieces for the final Samurai armour upgrade. Also pulled off a couple of triple stand-offs and did a couple of chain assassinations.

The flaws? They are ones not at all unique to this game but more to the genre:

• Don't like L3 / R3 controls at all, ever, especially for movement.
  
• Being able to keep the distance indicator on-screen would really help on judging direction.
  
• Tracking is frequently awful until you work you're to look for these insignificant specks on the ground.
  
• Manual searching sucks.
  
• Animals - why the hell can three pigs do a coordinated series of unblockable attacks in perfect sequence?

It's sort of recovered, but the stealth missions are ****ing *****.

 

Yeah not looking forward to stealth missions.

Does anybody know is there a way to target lock onto enemies?

 

Not that I have seen yet no. Not a direct one.

 

I know it's not the most realistic mechanic but it kind of irks me when I can't focus on one person when there's a couple guys in front of me

 

I just did those missions last night that Jedi Ben mentioned, and I don’t have any complaints...

I spent my whole session along the bottom and left coast / beaches, which was a nice change of scenery. I liked being able to go to the Mongol boats for missions.

My only complaint with the game is there’s so many different moves and controls, that combat can get a bit messy at times but I guess I just need to keep practicing.

 

That’s what I’m doing too. No rush as far as I am concerned.

 

The lack of it can be irritating on 'protect the hostage' missions, you know who you need Jin to kill but getting him to do it.... But the attack window is pretty generous on those so far.

 

Same. I am 9 hours in and pretty much just enjoying going around to random stuff. I will probably do a real mission tomorrow though. For a change. Then back to exploring

 

Got Ronin outfit and it looks pretty fly. 3rd mystic quest finished. Long bow. Crazy duel. Sorry ambien is slowing me down right now.

 

I should get the long bow tonight. I'm enjoying being stealthy across roof tops like a Japanese Batman. The more I play this game, the more I want to visit Japan IRL but current world circumstances will make that difficult for the foreseeable future.

 

It’s certainly my Game of the Year. I’m absolutely head over heels for Ghost of Tsushima, it’s one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve had playing a video game in a while. I don’t think a game’s ever made me feel as badass as this one does, nor have I played a game that treats stealth and action in an equally impressive way, where either method can work exclusively or blended together. The side quests are interesting and unique, as well as the game’s “collectibles,” so to speak (the bamboo strikes, haikus, etc.). The story is well told, well written, and well acted (in Japanese, at least). No, it’s not perfect. The mission structure can feel bland at times, as it’s mostly “ride on horse, eliminate bad guy camp, good job,” the camera can be wonky during hectic sequences due to the lack of a lock-on feature, and some other quirks. But in terms of sheer fun and enjoyment, I’d be hard pressed to find five games this console generation that are better than Ghost.

 

Had a far better, no bullcrap session today.

Will post more about that in a bit.

 

Bit the bullet and bought it this afternoon.

Will give it a go tomorrow.

I'f it's crap you owe me £50

 

My family was thinking of going next May... Hopefully we still can.

 

A Samurai never takes back a decision FatBurt-chan.

Had a far better session on Ghost today.

Finished off Masako's set of quests - with a quite epic fight.

Then did Ishikawa's trio. For the most part they were far more straight forward than expected. The only minor flaw was on the last one where you were supposed to shoot everyone but, because I couldn't see them, opted instead to slash the majority of the enemies up instead.

Did the remaining duo of sidequests - the brewery one was great, the other one involved an utter, hot-headed moron.

Then did the Tadoyshi Mythic Tale. That one did involve a breath-takingly beautiful duel sequence, plus a couple of epic fights.

Think I might have worked out what is going on with the stances - have to remember to let go of R2 before changing stick direction, or it reads it as going back to that stance. Does explain a fair bit.

Then went and de-fogged some more of the map, found some more bamboo shrines, fox dens and hot sprins. Did the two shrines that require the Grapple hook too.

 

Right, let's talk about the end of Act 1 and start of Act 2 in Ghost of Tsuschima.

The final quest for Act 1 was pretty good. Yes, your enemies have had a power-up - the fights will, due to this, be more involved. The stealth elements were actually straight-forward, unlike that particular section of Ryuzo's recruitment missions.

Spoiler

One area where it didn't work at all was Ryuzo's betrayal. Granted, I already despised him for those bull**** missions, but it pretty heavily hinted at that, while Jin may Ryuzo as a friend, it wasn't reciprocated. Still, loved smacking the crap out of him.

One thing that tends to be a pain is while it sounds a great idea - fight alongside your allies in a big, epic set-piece, it too often ends up a scrappy, messy sequence that is the opposite of what was wanted. So it proves here. The problem is the combat requires you being able to see your enemies, quickly assess the right tactics and then attack. Too often in this big fight vision was impaired. The other problem with big fights is you get swarmed and the targeting cannot cope. The only solution is to leg it, kiting a couple of enemies so you can regain the advantage.

One absolute success is the Shoji assassination unlock. Have used it a handful of times since and it never gets old, very much akin to the aerial assassination. Storming the keep was gloriously epic, as was taking the castle despite those flaws.

Where the game really went up several levels in in its opening to Act 2. You thought you had seen the game's most impressive graphics? Wrong. The intro sequence where you ride through a dense forest is ludicrously detailed. And it doesn't stop there - the second area is an entirely different set of environments to the first area. They also make far more use of the grappling hook, though I don't think the game is yet getting the full value out of it.

There are new enemies too

Spoiler

from archers using fire arrows, to bomb guys using actual bombs, to bazooka-wielding brutes

- it's an impressively varied set of enemies that force you to re-prioritise how you are fighting because some of the new abilities change the enemies.

Did the Gosuku Mythic Quest, which relied a bit too much on hostage saving, with bonus conditions that tended to be complete crap. Still, did pull off some of them. The bigger problem is some sites space out the hostages way too much, without even the most minimal indication of where to look. This in turn tended to throw any sense of strategy out of the window. Add in only very select times for using the grappling hook, limited hide spots and the 'hearing' not always picking up everything and the result is the stealth aspects were pretty weak. Did eventually get the armour.

Done a load of sidequests, with loads more to do. The game also really opens up on companion sidequests, with some continuing, but others are entirely new. I have the whole of Izuhara liberated, but Act 2 looks pretty vast. Current is getting enough iron to get the next Katana upgrade.

The biggest surprise in the new area is that you get

Spoiler

duels. They are contained sidequests. But, until now, all the duels fought have ended in either lightning strike or disengagement for reasons of plot. Not on these ones. On these ones, the duel ends when you kill your opponent and it is a very stylish end.

Finally, it remains rare but have pulled off the odd parry, followed by instant kill. Have also done a few more Chain Assassinations.

Found a breath-taking section with a bridge across a chasm, with waterfalls, where you can descend the entire cliff. It's a brilliant piece of environmental design.

 

It took a few days for my son to really pay attention to this game as I played but with the flip of a switch he was on it. He started demanding me play at all hours then after a few more days he started asking me to play so I let him cut some bamboo to spare my aging hands. That’s a win for me. That led to me letting him wander around areas I’ve already lifted the fog of war in supervised Mongol clean up sessions and he loves it. Yesterday his mom made him go back home though so he was super Fn pissed off knowing that I’m gonna be making progress he won’t be seeing for the next week he is gone.

He fell in love with this game.

 

Ok something I just noticed about horses and I want to swear it something that just happened to me for 1st time...so I have ridden a few that weren’t mine and I had no issues till just a few minutes ago..I got on 2 of them in a Mongal camp I just cleared and neither one of them wanted me on them! They were not still! That is badass and it makes wonder if at some point they will actively try to buck me off. All others have been docile with me even in camps. I love it!

 

Have you guys noticed that the weather changes depending on how you play? If you act like a samurai the weather gets better, but if you act like an assassin it gets worse.