Yep
The main difference is the dev was given a little extra time, care and money for additional polish but design and story wise it's really nothing different
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The main difference is the dev was given a little extra time, care and money for additional polish but design and story wise it's really nothing different
It's a good swordplay action game with strong art direction, a great overall historical aesthetic and a story that starts weak but finishes strong. The rest is an utterly bog standard open world game with incredibly repetitive side content that could've been ripped out of any Ubisoft open world game released in the last decade. By the time I got to the snowy part of the map, I was just mainlining the story missions because I was utterly bored of the rest.
I think Metacritic pegged the game mostly right at the time - high 70s-low 80s, with lots of room to grow and learn from what did and didn't work in a sequel. In the months afterward this weirdly morphed into it being some game of the generation contender with people, which I absolutely do not understand at all.
I think Metacritic pegged the game mostly right at the time - high 70s-low 80s, with lots of room to grow and learn from what did and didn't work in a sequel. In the months afterward this weirdly morphed into it being some game of the generation contender with people, which I absolutely do not understand at all.
one is a historical fiction game
and another has robot dinosaurs
both have the trappings of standard ubisoft games but ghosts is way easier to make direct comparisons to assassins creed
yeah, I actually spent more time with odyssey than ghosts even though infamous 2 is my GOTG for the 7th gen
Jin's kinda boring in both dubs. at least the eagle bearer has some charisma and the AI makes assassins' creed odyssey's AI look like fear NPCs. the enemies were so dumb lol
Great presentation but honestly think Far Cry and AC does its gameplay loop better. This lost steam for me completely after the first area.
I plat'd the game and appreciated it but found lots of it pretty boring. I just was never super immersed in the world, and I dunno why. I found Jin a dour, kinda boring character but to be fair he is sorta meant to be.
I actually bought the directors cut on black friday (PS5) and have had the disc in my PS5 for 3-4 months now, I've tried playing the xpac island a few times and just get bored after a few minutes. I totally appreciate the game and completely understand how people love the game, but just like TLOU2 I kinda feel like talking about the game or watching people play is more interesting than actually playing. For me, anyways.
One cool thing is with the PS5 version you can import the PS4 version and get all the trophies except the "take a photo" trophy, was a nice way to double plat. No weird tricks to import the save either, it just directly read the PS4 save.
I think it just comes down to location/setting, I absolutely LOVE AC2, AC4, AC Odyssey and Horizon Zero Dawn and God of War but I totally vibe with the time period, aesthetics, NPCs, world, etc. Samurai's and an island in Feudal Japan just does nothing for me. Thats on me though, not the game.
I actually bought the directors cut on black friday (PS5) and have had the disc in my PS5 for 3-4 months now, I've tried playing the xpac island a few times and just get bored after a few minutes. I totally appreciate the game and completely understand how people love the game, but just like TLOU2 I kinda feel like talking about the game or watching people play is more interesting than actually playing. For me, anyways.
One cool thing is with the PS5 version you can import the PS4 version and get all the trophies except the "take a photo" trophy, was a nice way to double plat. No weird tricks to import the save either, it just directly read the PS4 save.
I think it just comes down to location/setting, I absolutely LOVE AC2, AC4, AC Odyssey and Horizon Zero Dawn and God of War but I totally vibe with the time period, aesthetics, NPCs, world, etc. Samurai's and an island in Feudal Japan just does nothing for me. Thats on me though, not the game.
I liked it a lot, I thought it had no real weaknesses but there's so much competition in the genre and it doesn't stand out in areas where it truly matters ; exploration and story. It does have fantastic art direction but this alone doesn't carry a 40 hour long open-world game.
The multiplayer was a really nice surprise though, spent way more time on it than I thought I would.
The multiplayer was a really nice surprise though, spent way more time on it than I thought I would.
I'm about 30 hours into the game right now and I'm loving it, and don't find it joyless at all. There's plenty of humor and warmth, and the game does an excellent job of conveying Jin's empathy as he listens to each person's situation and tries to console them or give them hope.
While I think the game is far from a masterpiece, I did end up enjoying it more the second time I tried to play it. The first time around I was just playing it like a Samurai sim and it became extremely dull very quickly.
The second time around I took a different approach and decided to treat it like an unofficial Tenchu sequel by completely embracing the stealth mechanics. While this did make the game straight up feel like Assassin's Creed in pretty much every regard, it did become a lot more fun to play.
The second time around I took a different approach and decided to treat it like an unofficial Tenchu sequel by completely embracing the stealth mechanics. While this did make the game straight up feel like Assassin's Creed in pretty much every regard, it did become a lot more fun to play.
It was fine imo. The combat was the highlight, but the game does get quite repetitive.
The bigger issue is that exploration kinda sucked imo. The world is beautiful, but not particularly engaging to traverse. And I really grew to loathe the birds and foxes. Let me find things on my own ffs. Even without following them, their presence becomes a radar for when secrets are and aren't nearby.
The bigger issue is that exploration kinda sucked imo. The world is beautiful, but not particularly engaging to traverse. And I really grew to loathe the birds and foxes. Let me find things on my own ffs. Even without following them, their presence becomes a radar for when secrets are and aren't nearby.
Weirdly enough I think the game would've stuck in my mind better if the third and last major area wasn't all white and snowy. The first two thirds of the game feature some striking color palettes and then you spend the last chunk of hours in those bland mountains.
I do want to go back and play that expansion at some point though. I'm a little intimidated because I don't remember anything about the intricacies of the combat.
I do want to go back and play that expansion at some point though. I'm a little intimidated because I don't remember anything about the intricacies of the combat.
Could you talk more about this? This is completely different from my experience with the game. I thought the game was ok, not great, deserving of its 83 MC score but not at all deserving of it's many GotY nominations and even awards. I enjoyed the story and art direction but thought the combat was really poor, precisely because it always came down to matching stances. "Shield guy, shield stance, lance guy, lance stance, sword guy, sword stance". It was mindless, and as far as I could tell it was fake depth, not adding anything at all to the game. That's how I felt. But I would be very interested in learning if there's more to it, would be nice to understand the combat system better.
I did enjoy the one-on-one duel combat system A LOT, I wish the whole game had been based of that instead of playing Simon Says with stances. I always looked forward to every duel.
I liked it. I thought it was an incredible value. However, it just felt like a really refined version of Assassins Creed to me. Like, better than all the Assassin's Creed games, but still a pretty similar experience. The combat was a big step up, but they, unfortunately, maintained certain conventions that bogged it down (the worst offender being the unparryable attacks). Also, the balance was a little wonky, as those ghost weapons absolutely broke the game.
I adored this one. I agree it didn't really get the credit it deserved. The Legends multiplayer is even awesome. One of the portions of that felt like playing a Destiny Raid haha. Tsushima is all around an incredible game.
There's so many issues I have with this game, and yet, I couldn't stop playing it. I still can't.
Absolutely loved the game, but it does have its problems.
+ Best combat I've had in a while.
+ Gorgeous scenery.
+ All the different armors and abilities were cool.
+ Legends mode with a friend is great..
- Scaling mountains up and down is a hassle, give me a way down faster and let me use the grappling hook more often!
- Can't skip cutscenes, even for the most basic conversations with some random side quest guy. Just let me skip what I want to skip.
- Too many useless quests and it gets repetitive.
- ..but needs more maps.
Room to improve and I will definitely buy the sequel too.
+ Best combat I've had in a while.
+ Gorgeous scenery.
+ All the different armors and abilities were cool.
+ Legends mode with a friend is great..
- Scaling mountains up and down is a hassle, give me a way down faster and let me use the grappling hook more often!
- Can't skip cutscenes, even for the most basic conversations with some random side quest guy. Just let me skip what I want to skip.
- Too many useless quests and it gets repetitive.
- ..but needs more maps.
Room to improve and I will definitely buy the sequel too.
OP
OP
Sure, so the 'shield stance for shield guy' is just the basics of it so players would have an understanding of the system. But it's important to understand that what stances affect is stagger damage not actual damage. So the shield stance moves stagger shieldmen faster than others, but the actual damage is the same to everyone.
So for example, the Piercing Attack of Stone (Sword) stance is a really powerful attack that can kill most enemies in 1-2 hits (There's an upgrade that allows you to do it several times in a row). It works on absolutely every enemy. Heck, I killed spearmen more through this move than through spearstance because as long as you hit them (and it has to be targeted a bit), nobody has any way to defend themselves from it except shieldmen, who can still be hit with this move in the back or while they're preparing a shield attack.
Flurry Strike from Water (Shield) stance is a series of very fast attacks. Again, if you're in shield stance and you see not a shielded enemy, you can dodge and do a flurry strike to kill them quickly, even quicker than if you switch to spear stance!
Typhoon kicks, the special heavy attack of Wind (Spear) stance works on absolutely every normal-sized enemy (i.e. somebody who is not a brute), and there's an upgrade that adds the possibility for the enemies to remain stunned after the kick and you can one hit kill them. I used this frequently against really aggressive opponents from other stances.
Stuff like this. You don't have to switch stances to be 'more effective' against an opponents, in fact there's many reasons to NOT change stance. Like you know those Brutes who have a grenade launcher or something? They're bastards, a lot of the time you don't have enough time to stagger them with Moon/Brute Stance attacks. Just go into Sword stance and use piercing attack on them because they have literally 0 defence against that and are big targets that can't dodge.
This is the depth of the Stance system - because it affects only stagger damage, you actually have to mix and match stances to be more effective with ACTUAL damage.
The irony is that I decided to google at one point how many guides about stances talk about this... and I found only one. The rest teach only about the basics, but it's not how the system works. And one of the reason why Ghost of Tsushima unlocks stances one by one is not just for progression, but so you would use different moves against non-matching stances as well because you haven't yet unlocked their stance.
I can't post my video where I talk about this in-depth due to rules (and mods removed the link to the video in the original post), but in there you would see a lot of examples where I use unmatching stances to defeat enemies effectively.
And that's all if we touch just the Stance mechanic without going into Ghost Tools that add more dimensions to it.
It's really cool.
Only consistent weak spot in my opinion are the side quests that are not ally related. I remember one that concerned foot prints in the mud and fear that a monster snatched someone's father but that's it, a lot of them were wash/rinse/repeat.
I loved the Mythic Tale Duels and wish there were more of them. The combat really shined bright during the 1v1 moments.
I'm of the opinion that everything leading up, and including, the title screen was perfect. It was paced well, had a great variety of play style, and even had a bit of a set-piece vibe. I wish they capture that feel more throughout for the sequel.
I loved the Mythic Tale Duels and wish there were more of them. The combat really shined bright during the 1v1 moments.
I'm of the opinion that everything leading up, and including, the title screen was perfect. It was paced well, had a great variety of play style, and even had a bit of a set-piece vibe. I wish they capture that feel more throughout for the sequel.
Not sure I'd say it's underrated but I really enjoyed this game a lot. Probably my favourite that year.
I would agree with the comments that you can get easily burned out going through the 3rd act. I wish there were more varied smaller side quests. I loved a lot of the main side character quests but a lot of the quests do end up being a track someone and fight situation. Some more different activities that didn't have to do with combat maybe would've been cool. Maybe even a system to actually help develop or build up bases/camps again once you've taken them over.
I have no issues with collecting activities and love the touch of following animals to them. If you don't like them simply just don't collect them.
I really enjoyed the combat and duels. If you didn't explore and experiment with different techniques and skills I can see where some are coming from saying it's pretty basic.
Overall I really had a lot of fun with this game and there were so many moments where I stopped to just enjoy the scenery and the environment around me. Multiplayer is also a blast and was such a great surprise addition.
I would agree with the comments that you can get easily burned out going through the 3rd act. I wish there were more varied smaller side quests. I loved a lot of the main side character quests but a lot of the quests do end up being a track someone and fight situation. Some more different activities that didn't have to do with combat maybe would've been cool. Maybe even a system to actually help develop or build up bases/camps again once you've taken them over.
I have no issues with collecting activities and love the touch of following animals to them. If you don't like them simply just don't collect them.
I really enjoyed the combat and duels. If you didn't explore and experiment with different techniques and skills I can see where some are coming from saying it's pretty basic.
Overall I really had a lot of fun with this game and there were so many moments where I stopped to just enjoy the scenery and the environment around me. Multiplayer is also a blast and was such a great surprise addition.
Yep, what makes it worse is the lack of enemy variety too.
That's something that needs an overhaul.
It's very pretty and a nice world, but it's very repetitive, never making you step on your back foot beyond "oh well I guess I have to change to my Water stance for this guy"
Excellent game with some great story beats, but it was really repetitive, which is tough to avoid with these types of games, so it is what it is in that regard. Gorgeous to look at, and its magic was strong at first, but ultimately was like most other checklist-driven open-worlders. Like Guerrilla and Horizon, I'm excited to see what SP does next if the franchise continues.
I share the same sentiments. It's a great & pretty game, but doesn't it get boring after a while.
Combat (non stealth), OST and graphics were stunning.
Got tired of the campaign into the second area and never went back.
Got tired of the campaign into the second area and never went back.
Yeah I loved the game, feel like it was underrated as well.
Side quests for the supporting cast were great too. And Sucker Punch always nails the controls/feeling of games.
Sure, people can say the extra stuff gets repetitive. But I personally actually enjoyed that. They're short and easy distractions. As someone who likes to smoke a joint, chill, and relax with a game after work; Ghost of Tsushima was the perfect game for that.
Side quests for the supporting cast were great too. And Sucker Punch always nails the controls/feeling of games.
Sure, people can say the extra stuff gets repetitive. But I personally actually enjoyed that. They're short and easy distractions. As someone who likes to smoke a joint, chill, and relax with a game after work; Ghost of Tsushima was the perfect game for that.
'well, there it is...'
tho i can completely understand anyone (myself included) deeply admiring the artistry & the craftsmanship that went into the creation of ghost of tsushima, i also feel that the relentlessly serious & single-minded focus & nature of the game, combined with it's length & lack of innovation, eventually ended up doing it a huge disservice. i was pretty much exhausted by the time i finished, & glad to be done with it. not a good final impression...
I'm... not convinced, really. I read your whole post, and yes, it's a good game... But no, I don't think it exactly deserves the same magnitude of recognition in terms of open world game impact.
Exactly.
The first act was fun, but the rest was cut and paste and become boring and repetitive.
Playing just the main missions, it's a reasonable length and doesn't drag on way too long like some Ubisoft open world games. My main issue was the artificial barriers in missions. There were often routes I wanted to take that looked like they should be traversable but the game wouldn't let me. It could have used more freedom in that regard.
I'm currently playing through this. Really enjoying the setting, presentation, and amazing art direction, so I'm taking plenty of screenshots. I like the snippets of samurai/feudal Japanese culture they included (traditions, haiku, duels) despite me never really being into this stuff before and it makes me want to check out some samurai movies.
I sometimes get bored by the end of games so I'm going to try to focus on the main quests since I unlocked the second island now.
I sometimes get bored by the end of games so I'm going to try to focus on the main quests since I unlocked the second island now.
GoT was probably a top 2 or 3 game for me last gen. So good. I don't usually take the time to platinum games. I platinumed GoT though. One of my few, and so worth it because the game itself was so much fun with a fantastic story too.
Wow, thanks for taking the time to write this up. It's not something I considered, but made perfect sense upon reading it. Switching stances didn't make me feel more powerful, it just removed friction. It's a clever system with a lot of depth. And as you say, matching stances isn't always the best strategy. As I unlocked more skills, I did find myself staying in a stance in some situations for a particular skill rather than matching who I was attacking. It's one of those great gaming systems that starts simple but becomes deeper as you progress.
I loved GoT, bought it on day 1 and got the platinum. It was also an amazing send off for the PS4's final year along with TLOUII in terms of graphics. I think it just released in strong year for gaming, right before a new console generation, by a publisher that consistently drops 8+/10 games.
I put off buying it but picked it up on sale recently for PS5. Platinumed it 2 days before HFW came out. Outstanding game with just a huge amount of gumption. Sucker Punch really impressed me with the scope of the game, the tightness of the mechanics and the maturity and care of the narrative. Could have trimmed some of the open world repetitive activities, but the side quests were all really well done.
You barely need to swipe up for the wind feature as the grass, leaves and flowers always show you where to go.
Although tasks ARE repetitive, it does not bother me that much as rhe journey to go from A to B is sorrounded by beautiful landscapes and sometime you end up in amazing set moments like the first time fighting a one on one against a ronin.
And of coirse, my jaw dropped when contamplating the entire map from atop that one shrine.
Although tasks ARE repetitive, it does not bother me that much as rhe journey to go from A to B is sorrounded by beautiful landscapes and sometime you end up in amazing set moments like the first time fighting a one on one against a ronin.
And of coirse, my jaw dropped when contamplating the entire map from atop that one shrine.