Ghost of Tsushima - New Sucker Punch IP

[jonamok]

Lord no. It works perfectly as an open world. I love the wind gusts and how you can change them to point to main objectives or different collectable stuff.

[HarryBizzle]

9 hours ago, Cyhwuhx said:

Oh yes. Tsushima, feels like an actual place. BotW for all its work in the open world genre, did feel a bit like Skyrim Nintendo edition. There was some well-intended clunkiness to keep it a game. Whereas Tsushima, I genuinely have favourite spots to travel to and admire the environment while navigating on sights alone, often just walking. And dear lord, once those god rays hit a mountain in the distance to the backdrop of a passing thunderstorm... It's just magical and incredibly close to real-life experiences. The other games have sights as well, but... not like this.

 

Really felt like a vacation. Well, apart from all those Mongols everywhere.

 

What is the clunkiness in BOTW?

 

BOTW is trying less hard to paint a realistic world, but I find the world easier to be immersed in, because the internal logic is pervasive. You can combine systems in ways that make perfect sense, and they govern how you interact with the world. There’s no “you can’t do that because it’s a video game” - if you want to break a puzzle, you can do.

 

Ghost of Tsushima is a beautiful world, but it’s totally superficial. The ways in which you interact with things are by talking to NPCs or killing things. There’s very little actual (unscripted) interaction with any of it.

[Cyhwuhx]

Just now, HarryBizzle said:

 

What is the clunkiness in BOTW?

 

BOTW is trying less hard to paint a realistic world, but I find the world easier to be immersed in, because the internal logic is pervasive. You can combine systems in ways that make perfect sense, and they govern how you interact with the world. There’s no “you can’t do that because it’s a video game” - if you want to break a puzzle, you can do.

 

Ghost of Tsushima is a beautiful world, but it’s totally superficial. The ways in which you interact with things are by talking to NPCs or killing things. There’s very little actual (unscripted) interaction with any of it.

Well, that’s your answer. What works for you, makes it clunky in my experience as it’s part of a larger system. The world does not exist on its own. That’s why it supports the game, but it’s not as interesting on its own because of it. 
 

I was never in a region in BotW, I was always in “the field to catch a horse” or the “swamp with the tower puzzle” or the “ramp up to the castle”. 
 

Tsushima is more of a flat world that’s being used by factions or characters in comparison. It’s a matter of taste of what you like of course, but Tsushima’s world makes more sense for its setting imo. I’d go as far as saying that the climbing challenge shrines while fun are the most clunky part of Tsushima; they don’t really fit in with the game’s setting and are extremely gamey. 

[Ketchup]

I’m having a great time with this. Whilst a little concerned knowing it’s a 40 hour + game (I tend to get bored of a game after ten hours and prefer shorter experiences) I’m already passed that and wanting to carry on. Other posters here are right that the world does a lot of the lifting especially if you have an interest in japan or Japanese culture. There’s so many beautiful spots you wish you could just visit yourself where as BotW never really felt that way.

 

My only real negative so far is that for all the hammering on about you needing honor and to be a samurai you basically do a GTA IV and go on the theft and doing dishonourable things constantly. But I’d love to see Sucker Punch take this game and do a Ninja version. It really could be pretty much a reskin with a few changes but I think the base gameplay could easily suit that well. 

[smac]

2 minutes ago, Ketchup said:

 

My only real negative so far is that for all the hammering on about you needing honor and to be a samurai you basically do a GTA IV and go on the theft and doing dishonourable things constantly. 

 

About that...

[Number 28]

2 hours ago, HarryBizzle said:

There’s very little actual (unscripted) interaction with any of it.

One memorable thing which happened for me...

Spoiler

I approached an abandoned chest on a road and I thought, that's odd, I guess I must've murdered a caravan earlier and forgot to pick up the goods? So I nonchalantly jog up to it to collect my goods and...loads of bandits suddenly spring out of the nearby grass. A motherfucking ambush! Anyway, that was a really nice surprise. More of that in the game would've been excellent.

BOTW spoilers:

Spoiler

Incidentally, my least favourite thing in BOTW is the damn Yiga clan enemies that constantly appear out of thin air every ten minutes to ruin the atmosphere and provide zero challenge/reward. It's a similar idea, but baaaad.

 

[Cyhwuhx]

14 hours ago, Ketchup said:

I’m having a great time with this. Whilst a little concerned knowing it’s a 40 hour + game (I tend to get bored of a game after ten hours and prefer shorter experiences) I’m already passed that and wanting to carry on. Other posters here are right that the world does a lot of the lifting especially if you have an interest in japan or Japanese culture. There’s so many beautiful spots you wish you could just visit yourself where as BotW never really felt that way.

 

My only real negative so far is that for all the hammering on about you needing honor and to be a samurai you basically do a GTA IV and go on the theft and doing dishonourable things constantly. But I’d love to see Sucker Punch take this game and do a Ninja version. It really could be pretty much a reskin with a few changes but I think the base gameplay could easily suit that well. 

 

I really liked how that "honour system" worked, because instead of a Molyneux system you got...

 

Spoiler

No way back. Keep in mind that the honourable thing to do was to die at the beach. The moment you played on after that and let Yuna guide and save you, everything was already a shambles. Hence the self-doubt, but not necessarily the Mass Effect conversations. You've been sullied. Live with it. Or not.

 

MAJOR SPOILER (seriously)

Spoiler

So when you ultimately do get the choice...

 

 

 

[FiveFootNinja]

I definitely seem to be savouring this one.  

 

Went back to the first area and cleared up all the invasions and a couple of side missions that popped up retrospectively there and - I think - have all the collectables now after following some winds for a while. I've unlocked the little peninsula bit at the bottom of area 2 but that's it so far and have about 20 side mission pins in the fog north to attend to.

 

35 hours played thus far.

[HarryBizzle]

And done! Finished the story and cleared out all the Mongol outposts.

 

 

The latter half of the game really made up for the former. I really enjoyed it and thought it wrapped up reasonably well. I look forward to whatever Sucker Punch do next. (Sly Cooper 5, please).

 

 

[Waggo]

Just a heads up for anybody interested. Smyth’s are currently selling at £24.99.

[jonamok]

That’s just a massive bargain. If you haven’t played it yet, get on it, it’s utterly amazing.

[Gotters]

Poverty spec edition is also down to £30 odd quid on PSN for the digital download.

 

[Ketchup]

I’ve finished the main story line which felt equal parts short and oddly paced. I spent ages in the first map and then seemed to zoom through the other 2. I’m now clearing up side missions and things but I can’t help that feel whilst I’m having a lot of fun that less would have been more. Having everything in the first area would have been great as it’s already a huge area filled with detail I know I’ve only seen once or probably missed. I certainly don’t need two other huge areas as pretty and unique as they are.

 

I really enjoyed the start of the game finding temples and other things but they seem far fewer the deeper you get into the game, the same with the one on one fights which felt like natural boss fights happening every hour before they faded away and barely made an appearance again. Why have we not got passed the need for devs to have IGN to tell us this is a 60 hour game when most players never get even half that far. I’ve played for over 30 hours now and whilst it’s still great fun it’d have been even better being a more condensed package. One island filled to the brim with interesting stuff to do than three islands filled with a fair amount of filler. Might also mean these games can be released a lot quicker too.

[glb]

Almost 65 hours played and I’m still on Act 2

 

This game, despite some minor frustrations, offers such a beautiful environment to escape into.

[Ketchup]

What do people think of the legends mode? Looks super interesting to me but all my PlayStation owning mates sold their consoles for series x and can’t get hold of ps5 at the moment. But I’ve not heard many people talking about it so worth playing?

[jonamok]

I had a look at it, but the world is much reduced and uglified with its red filter and blood motifs etc. So, fun as the combat always is, without the normal, stunning setting I’m just not invested.

[Number 28]

I just fired it up for about 15 minutes and...are you meant to be teaming up with others online? I kept being slaughtered by respawning enemies and sent back to the beginning. I'm a little rusty, but that's not fun at all. I was kinda hoping I could at least bag the trophies so my progress wasn't stuck at 86% forever, despite having the platinum.

 

Agreed about the graphical style. I wasn't a fan of the similar yokai realm effects in Nioh.

[Monkeyspill]

I’ve noticed my PS5 install information says 50.39 GB/51.94 GB as if it’s not finished installing. It’s been playing fine for the last few days though. Is this normal? I don’t really want to redownload and reinstall the thing unless I have to.

[kris_doe]

2 hours ago, Monkeyspill said:

I’ve noticed my PS5 install information says 50.39 GB/51.94 GB as if it’s not finished installing. It’s been playing fine for the last few days though. Is this normal? I don’t really want to redownload and reinstall the thing unless I have to.

Weird, I think something similar was happening with me too. Would always get a notification saying that the game could not complete downloading, despite the fact the game played completely fine. I finished it the other day and put over 40 hours into it with no trouble. 

[Monkeyspill]

The archers are infuriating! I had no arrows left and two of the buggers were standing up on two towers. If I tried to climb one, then the other would shoot me down. There was no way to get them unless I ran back to find arrows.

[MattyP]

Quite fancy this. How is the core gameplay loop is or God Of War Japanes style? Uncharted? Or is it more slower paced? Love the look of it and noticed is in the sale!

[Gigawatt]

The combat is really fun. It’s like a mix between the early Assassins’ Creed games, the Arkham games and a tiny bit of Dark Souls parrying. There’s plenty of freedom to either stealth your way in to camps, snipe with arrows, or just walk in the front door and call them out for a stand-off. The stand-off mechanic is cool, and the one-on-one duels that pop up every now and then are awesome. 
 

Also the environment is quite often stunning, the swaying flowers as you ride through on your horse are beautiful. I say get it, it’s great. 

[Uncle Mike]

I think a recommendation for this really hangs on one's tolerance for that Ubisoft copy-and-paste open world sprawl. Does a giant map full of identikit enemy camps, a different type of enemy camp, jumping challenges and so on fill you with dread? Ghost of Tsushima isn't for you. But the fighting itself is actually fun. The story is dull and long.

[BitterToad]

9 hours ago, MattyP said:

Quite fancy this. How is the core gameplay loop is or God Of War Japanes style? Uncharted? Or is it more slower paced? Love the look of it and noticed is in the sale!

I'm currently two thirds in and yeah it's basically the best Assassin's Creed combat ever tied in with some kind of fun Batmany stealth systems all stretched to within an inch of its life over sixty hours. There's some really really good stuff in there but also a lot of dull bloat even if you ignore all of the camps/collectathons and just do side missions. The problem is it's really cool seeing how plot/character moments from said side missions tie into the main quest, so I felt like I needed to do all of them to get the most from the good stuff. 

 

I disagree with Uncle Mike about the story. It definitely starts off very boring and identikit but it's slowly sunk its claws in for me and I'm excited to see where it goes. I quite like Jin as a lead and think his relationship with his honourable Uncle (Lord Jobsworth as I call him) and his thief mate Yuna can mirror the player's own pull between all out attack/stealth in gameplay terms. Or at least it would if the stealth wasn't loads more fun so you just end up doing that anyway. 

 

Basically I think there was a dynamite 30 hour game in here that's been padded to hell so ends up being a really enjoyable 7/10 that I'd definitely recommend if you like Samurai/ open world collectathons. 

[Timmo]

Finally getting into this. Jesus Tengu Demon is a spike, at least on Hard. I had to abandon the mission, I'm thinking I'll go back when I have buffed myself up a bit. He was about 50 times harder than anything else I've faced. 

[HarryBizzle]

2 minutes ago, Timmo said:

Finally getting into this. Jesus Tengu Demon is a spike, at least on Hard. I had to abandon the mission, I'm thinking I'll go back when I have buffed myself up a bit. He was about 50 times harder than anything else I've faced. 

 

Put all your upgrades into your sword and then pick a set of Samurai armour that has "massive boost to defense" or whatever on it and max that out. You'll be an absolute killing machine. The one in the post above is probably the first one you get and it's great when maxed out.

[Timmo]

8 minutes ago, HarryBizzle said:

 

Put all your upgrades into your sword and then pick a set of Samurai armour that has "massive boost to defense" or whatever on it and max that out. You'll be an absolute killing machine. The one in the post above is probably the first one you get and it's great when maxed out.

Just got that armour - cheers. 

[Mystacon]

33 minutes ago, Uncle Mike said:

I think a recommendation for this really hangs on one's tolerance for that Ubisoft copy-and-paste open world sprawl. Does a giant map full of identikit enemy camps, a different type of enemy camp, jumping challenges and so on fill you with dread? Ghost of Tsushima isn't for you. But the fighting itself is actually fun. The story is dull and long.

But here’s the thing. I hate that Ubisoft style offering that you’ve outlined (never liked the Far Cry or Assassins Creed games) but I absolutely loved this. The setting, the environments and the combat are what sold it to me.

[PaB]

23 minutes ago, Mystacon said:

But here’s the thing. I hate that Ubisoft style offering that you’ve outlined (never liked the Far Cry or Assassins Creed games) but I absolutely loved this. The setting, the environments and the combat are what sold it to me.

Yeah i thought after playing this that I would try and dive  back into Ubisoft land and picked up AC Valhalla . And bounced off it completely. Whilst there are obvious similarities in the structure, there is something about GoT that makes it far less onerous .

[Monkeyspill]

I’m enjoying this despite the Ubisoft style stodge, maybe even because of it to some extent as it’s years since I’ve played one of those games. I have a few niggles/frustrations though:

 

1. The camera is a bit shit. I often get bits of scenery between myself and the camera during fights (so I can’t see what’s going on). I’ve even had this happen in one standoff, making it unwinnable.

 

2. Escort missions with enemies that make a beeline for the escortee.

 

3. The archers (not “The Archers” before someone makes a joke) are just annoying. Even if you can block the arrows, it really breaks up the combat and you seem to get hit by an arrow every time you try to parry someone.

 

I’m sticking with it as the rest is enjoyable, and it’s also mindless and easy enough for me to play after work without having to concentrate much.