Ghost of Tsushima - open world game set in feudal Japan

[ADL]

 

[Latelistener]

I guess that's what they're porting on PC. At this point there is no doubt there will be a PC version.

 

[Roguey]

I was going to buy this in the near future since I'm nearly at the end of my queue of PS4 games, but if they're going to re-release a disc version, might as well wait a bit longer.

 

[ADL]

They might do what they did with Spiderman Miles Morales Ultimate Edition where they pack in a DLC code and it's not all included on the disk. Should know sometime next week at their E3 thing.

 

[Roguey]

They might do what they did with Spiderman Miles Morales Ultimate Edition where they pack in a DLC code and it's not all included on the disk. Should know sometime next week at their E3 thing.

Yeah, the game itself is already near the limit a blu ray can hold, however if it's fully patched it might be worth it to me anyway, and at the very least, the new issue should drive down the price of the pre-existing version (which was still $60 about a month ago).

 

[Black Angel]

So, any starting tips? Black Angel ?

I understand game has it's share of flaws, which brings to my mind Nier Automata and the sound advice for noobs to NOT try to do all side content, or they die of boredom/repetition. Anything similar here?

It's been a damn while since I've played it last time. And I think it's important for you to consider that I've never played any of the AssCreed games, and have only seen my brothers played it, specifically the 3rd and 4th games.

I've seen comparison between GoT and AC, and how the former is as popamole-y. Tbh, I never really got the impression, since you can't just spam attacks unless you use the right stance against the right enemies weak to its moves (or more precisely, its heavy attacks movesets). However, as far as I could remember, even the right stance and its heavy attacks against the right enemies can still be parried, by higher-leveled enemies that is.

Also, being able to simply spam deflects/parries might make it look popamole, but Perfect Parry™ are definitely not easy to pull off, though you might be able to if you're someone like Ongbal and had developed Inner Sekiro within yourself. And then there's the Perfect Dodge™ that is even more difficult to pull off and you need to max your Dodge skilltree(?) to get it, unlike Perfect Parry that's literally the first thing you unlock in its skilltree.

Finally, preaching to the choir made by Zed Duke in the previous page, the game isn't that much replayable, unless you're into the multiplayer, which I imagined most Codexers don't care for. However, I'm just going to repeat what I remember from a Youtuber I'm subscribed to (Upper Echelon Gaming) has what to say about the game, and that Ghost of Tsushima is a game you've seen and maybe played a thousand times before, but its iteration in particular is definitely well done and, imho, exquisitely executed. Probably the only game story I would sing praises for, including all of its side content, but I also had the Japanese audio on the entire time, so I guess you could say its my weebs self enjoying it.

All that might not apply to you if you didn't enjoy the moment-to-moment gameplay. And like I said, I haven't played any of the AC games, so this kind of gameplay loop is the first for me. I guess you could say the reason why I bought this game in the first place was because SJWs was REEEEEEEEEEEEEEing so much against the game.

 

[ADL]

Iki Island
If you’re a history buff, you may know that in addition to Tsushima, the neighboring island of Iki was also invaded during this time period. Today we’re excited to reveal that a whole new chapter in Jin’s journey is coming and will take place on Iki. In this new story, Jin travels to the island to investigate rumors of a Mongol presence. But soon, he finds himself caught up in events with deeply personal stakes that will force him to relive some traumatic moments from his past.

We’ll have more to share about the story of Iki soon, but today we can confirm that beyond a whole new story and new characters, this new island also features tons of new content including brand new environments to explore, new armor for Jin as well as his horse, new mini-games, new techniques, new enemy types, and much more. There are even new animals to pet!

PS5 exclusive features
While Director’s Cut players on both PS4 and PS5 will be able to experience the Iki Island content, PlayStation 5 players will have access to a few additional new features.

We’ve heard your feedback about the lack of Japanese lip sync in the original version of Ghost of Tsushima, and it’s something we worked hard to address in this new release. Thanks to the PS5’s ability to render cinematics in real time, cutscenes in Ghost of Tsushima and on Iki Island on PS5 will now offer lip sync for Japanese voice over.

We’re also happy to confirm that Ghost of Tsushima, Ghost of Tsushima: Legends, and the new Iki Island expansion will all take advantage of haptic feedback and adaptive triggers in the Director’s Cut. There will also be enhancements to 3D audio* on PS5, as well as drastically improved load times, 4K resolution options** and framerates targeting 60 FPS.

If you already own Ghost of Tsushima on PS4:

• You can pre-order an upgrade to Director’s Cut on PS4 for $19.99 USD. This upgrade will become available starting on August 20.

Starting on August 20:

• If you bought Director’s Cut PS4, you’ll be able to upgrade to Director’s Cut PS5 at any time for $9.99 USD
• You can also upgrade directly (from original Ghost of Tsushima PS4) to Director’s Cut on PS5 for $29.99 USD

https://blog.playstation.com/2021/0...arrives-on-ps5-and-ps4-consoles-on-august-20/

 

[Silva]

So, any starting tips? Black Angel ?

I understand game has it's share of flaws, which brings to my mind Nier Automata and the sound advice for noobs to NOT try to do all side content, or they die of boredom/repetition. Anything similar here?

It's been a damn while since I've played it last time. And I think it's important for you to consider that I've never played any of the AssCreed games, and have only seen my brothers played it, specifically the 3rd and 4th games.

I've seen comparison between GoT and AC, and how the former is as popamole-y. Tbh, I never really got the impression, since you can't just spam attacks unless you use the right stance against the right enemies weak to its moves (or more precisely, its heavy attacks movesets). However, as far as I could remember, even the right stance and its heavy attacks against the right enemies can still be parried, by higher-leveled enemies that is.

Also, being able to simply spam deflects/parries might make it look popamole, but Perfect Parry™ are definitely not easy to pull off, though you might be able to if you're someone like Ongbal and had developed Inner Sekiro within yourself. And then there's the Perfect Dodge™ that is even more difficult to pull off and you need to max your Dodge skilltree(?) to get it, unlike Perfect Parry that's literally the first thing you unlock in its skilltree.

Finally, preaching to the choir made by Zed Duke in the previous page, the game isn't that much replayable, unless you're into the multiplayer, which I imagined most Codexers don't care for. However, I'm just going to repeat what I remember from a Youtuber I'm subscribed to (Upper Echelon Gaming) has what to say about the game, and that Ghost of Tsushima is a game you've seen and maybe played a thousand times before, but its iteration in particular is definitely well done and, imho, exquisitely executed. Probably the only game story I would sing praises for, including all of its side content, but I also had the Japanese audio on the entire time, so I guess you could say its my weebs self enjoying it.

All that might not apply to you if you didn't enjoy the moment-to-moment gameplay. And like I said, I haven't played any of the AC games, so this kind of gameplay loop is the first for me. I guess you could say the reason why I bought this game in the first place was because SJWs was REEEEEEEEEEEEEEing so much against the game.

Yeah, I'm in Act 3 already and been thinking about why the game captivates me so much, and I concluded it's the aesthetics - the minimalist HUD, the grounded portrayal of the world with dirty gi's and kimonos and hats and swords, nothing of those AssCreed shiny weapons and armors with Power Rangers-like appendixes and colors, the also grounded stories of the NPCs you find, etc. Besides the beautiful visuals of course. Whoever directed this has a superb taste and sense of aesthetics.

Also, as you say, they took the rote open-world Ubishit formula and refined it to a state it's actually bearable and non-irritant. They polished the turd, gave it a shine, and made me want to have a spoon.

 

[Silva]

Anyone got the Iki Island expansion? Thoughts?

BTW, reminiscing about my 2021 videogame experiences and Ghost of Tsushima was probably the best. Sure, it's far from perfect, but still a breath of fresh air among the sea of shit the genre has become.

 

[ADL]

Not my firsthand experience but friends tell me it's more of Ghost of Tsushima in a smaller but denser map. Sounds like you enjoyed Ghost of Tsushima so I'd grab it. I want to play it but I don't have a PS5 and the PC release is supposedly coming in February.

 

[DemonKing]

Anyone got the Iki Island expansion? Thoughts?

It's fine - more of the same in a gorgeous world. A few new gameplay mechanics like being able to charge/attack with your horse. If you liked the original it's worth a spin.

Also the PS5 version offers decent dualsense implementation if that appeals to you.

 

[cruel]

So, I finally got a PS5, and the only two logical choices for games to get at this point were Demon Souls remake and Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut. I bought GoT as a physical copy, expecting an Assassins Creed in Japan, to have an easy way to sell it quickly if I don't like it. Boy, how wrong I was.

The game is, surprisingly, very good. Comparing it to Ubisoft games is a complete joke, GoT shits on all of them and it's not even a fair fight - two or three classes of difference in quality. Visuals, atmosphere, combat (my biggest concern before buying), some creative missions, gameplay variety, attention to detail, no bugs, and I can go on. On a technical level, it's amazing - I still don't know how they did it, that the game loads in 1s or less, and same for any fast travel - basically zero loading times. Nothing is annoying about it, zero bugs, good hitboxes, nice duels here and there, decent customization with equipment and charms, upgrade system, etc. Also, I think Silva mentioned this at some point, whoever was directing this deserves an award - there are MANY moments in the game when the combination of scene + weather + lightning + music makes you just sit with your mouth open. Truly impressive work on this side.

Is it perfect though? No. Enemy variety could be better, may be too easy on normal after initial 10h (but you can bump difficulty or run in a crappy armor to balance it out), I'm not a big fan of how plot is developing (just started chapter 3). Still, easily top 3 best Open World games in last years, much better game than Horizon or Zelda: BotW. Not including Ubisoft titles here because it would be silly to compare them.

Note: Iki island kicked my ass initially with those ritual mongols, which was a nice surprise.


TLDR: If you have PS4/PS5 and didn't play it for any reason, you should.

 

[Machocruz]

Still, easily top 3 best Open World games in last years, much better game than Horizon or Zelda: BotW

Yeah I've been looking at this for my new PS5 too. Had little interest in it when it came out, but then I saw this thread and specifically Grampy_Bone 's post and I want to unapologetically put Mongoloids to the sword then write poetry. And I've been getting the itch for an open world game. I don't give a fuck about Horizon, but in what ways is it better than BotW, which is supposedly the current gold standard for how to craft a free-form sandbox?

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

When is this shit getting ported to PC?

 

[cruel]

I don't give a fuck about Horizon, but in what ways is it better than BotW, which is supposedly the current gold standard for how to craft a free-form sandbox?

I may not be objective here (still butthurt about spending $60 on Zelda and not liking it), but for me, Zelda was a definition of 'boring and empty'. The game had some kind of charm, and was pretty innovative in the physics department, but after few hours of throwing bombs at goblins and traversing an empty world (anything of interest is hidden below the ground), I just started asking myself 'why I'm even playing this? what's the point'? There was nothing that kept me hooked, combat was OK but nothing great, and while it's fun to mess around with physics, it's interesting only for a short period of time. Exploration makes little sense, because the NewBigStick you find breaks very soon, so you don't really care about the weapons. There are no levels, so your character grows only in Health / Stamina department (plus equipment). Plot is basically not existent in the first few hours, you talk to one NPC, I don't know. There was not a single thing that convinced me to continue playing this. Porky will probably disagree here.

GoT is much better in balancing 'chill' and 'fun' IMO. The opening itself (first 1h of the game) is probably one of the best I saw in the last few years. At the same time, it's still pure gameplay - nobody will ask you to stare at somebody's horse balls for 30min listening to a boring dialogue (RDR2). At the same time, there are people to talk to, side quests, tales, main quests, equipment upgrades, charms, foxes to pet, shrines to climb, etc. But, if you want to take some time and collect bamboo on top of a hill looking at a nice sunset, you can do it. Knowing Codex tastes though, I would probably recommend to play on higher difficulty than normal. Not sure if 'lethal' is an overkill though - there are cases when a lot is happening, and if one arrow means death, it may be too much (a lot of archers in this same). Still, a valid option available since the start of the game.

Basically, they did an 'Open world samurai game' just right. Very little to fix. I would definitely throw money at them if they did 'Ghost of Rome' or something in Egypt / Greece.


Edit: this is a random reddit post that summarizes my BotW experience pretty well:

This is the first game focused on exploration that I played that actually discourage you from exploring. And the first game I stopped playing in the middle during quarantine.

After nearly 30 hours of playing while at the top of another copy pasted mountain doing another copy pasted korok secret, I just thought "wtf am I doing?" and quit.

BotW was just a grind for seeds and "heart pieces" in copy pasted enviroments and copy pasted puzzles along with sidequests with no story nor anything to reward your exploration (and shitty music). And that is only my main complaint about this game.

I was hoping for far more from a game that so many people called a masterpiece. I wonder if it was the hype, if reviewers were getting payed or if the person reviewing only played nintendo games and had nothing to compare it to.

It would be a way better game if they reduced the world size by 30% and the number of shrines and korok seeds by a LOT and instead used the time of development saved to do better sidequests that actually keep you invested in the world and it's story.

 

[Machocruz]

I'm definitely not a fan of open worlds with "activities" and PoIs everywhere, but maybe BotW is too sparse?

On a side note, I find that the "make your own fun/goals" idea rarely ever amounts to anything interesting. I can see how that could be enticing, but in practice I have yet to find such a game that is as good as open world games with fleshed out campaigns (or other such narrative push) that also let you fuck around on the side. Maybe Mount and Blade, but the goals you can set for yourself in that game are as finite and defined as quest-lines. Cataclysm DDA because you have pressure to explore its world and engage with its systems, to survive, but eventually that runs out as survival becomes easy and you then have to decide what to do with your life.

But yeah, GoT. Think I'll pick up a copy this weekend.

 

[Theodora]

When is this shit getting ported to PC?

Not soon enough.

 

[Silva]

I disagree with cruel 's "very little to fix" statement and find he is speaking out of his heart instead of his brains. Understandable as the game is truly beautiful.

But there's a fair amount of filler in GoT that leads to pointless repetition - fox dens/bamboo/haiku mini-games become boring fast, low enemy variety means camps become a chore halfway through act 2, and too much quests involve searching the ground for footsteps. The game is padded and it shows. It would be a better experience with 1/3 less content and length.

Also, combat while decent in its basics, lacks depth and ends up a simplistic rock-paper-scissor affair where you'll be switching "stance A for shield enemies, B for Spear enemies, etc" almost mindlessly. I hear the Iki island expansion adds enemies who switch weapons individually thus forcing the player to switch stances more dynamically, which is an improvement. I have yet to play it though.

Anyway, even with those problems the game still has enough qualities that make it (probably) the best open-world game in recent memory, and one of the best experiences I had in 2021. Just don't go in thinking it's a masterpiece. I would rate it a solid 8/10, which is already superb given the state of the genre.

 

[cruel]

I actually completely agree with you on this. I just think it's not possible to create an Open World game of this scope without repetition of some sorts. Unless, as you said, you cut the world itself. What helped for me is that I had Iki expansion since the start, and was able to jump there whenever I got bored. Enemies there will kick your ass really hard on hard difficulty (if you go there early), so actually going back from this and being able to pet some foxes was a nice thing for me

 

[Zombra]

I just started playing this yesterday and find it very addictive. Yes, it is a low-denominator "open world checklist" game with Arkham combat. I love the gorgeous art design and Japanese VA of course. The mostly diegetic UI is a delight. To me Arkham combat is fun and I basically never get sick of it. It's a struggle to find anything truly bad to say about the game. The worst I could imagine would be "I don't like this type of game." Maybe after a few dozen hours I'll get bored, but I'm nowhere near there yet. Recommended.

 

[Great Deceiver]

As far as Ubishit-style open world games go, this is one of the better ones (perhaps even the best one). The gameplay is pretty easy even on hard, but at least there's a coherent, consistent art direction (it looks genuinely good at times), it's very well optimized and at least as far as I've played (about 10 hours in) there's very little (or no) woke infection. Those are not trivial qualities in this day and age.

 

[NJClaw]

Please refrain from posting unless you can announce the PC port. THANKS.

 

[kites]

I picked it up a couple months ago; Visually it was great, though a little too flashy with the particles. Quests were often well-written, even if they ended up as a fetch this, kill that type deal. At first I was really into it, but hours 5-10 really bared what the game structure has to offer and I couldn’t stomach it any more. Skill points are too plentifull and trivialize difficulty. At hour 10 of a huge game you shouldn’t be filling out all the trees. Even on hard I was dominating enemies and camps.. I haven’t played a Far Cry style game since 3 but I was having a flashback to the checklist of it all..

Big disclaimer: I didn’t like locking myself into a possibly long MQ mission during short sessions. I was only about to get off the first island MQ-wise, cleared about 2/3 of the island maybe, so take my experience with a large grain of salt.

 

[Silva]

Yeah, the game is too lenient with skill points (and charm slots, etc). No game should ever allow you to maximize it's stats system in one playthrough.

BTW, I've read GoT 2 could be in the making. If so I hope they fix these things, because there's good potential here.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

I also played (Technically still playing) this and it's nice. Can see the Ubisoft and Assassin's Creed comparisons and I think I would have preferred this if it wasn't open world and it had a more clear mission structure but it's enjoyable. Combat feels nice, sneaking's not the best but it's passable, world's surprisingly pretty and the writing's well done which is actually the part that makes me wish it wasn't open world the most. When the game was first getting started I was having a blast, the little flashbacks and interjections as you're playing (Like your dude having the flashback with the assassin the first time you have him shank a mongol from behind) were really well done and some of the wind goes out of the sails when you ride up to some random town and hear the peasants say "I saw a mongol the other day. Filthy creatures, I avoid them when I can".

Actually kind of reminds me of Witcher 3 in that it's an enjoyable game that really doesn't feel like it needs the open world even though it's pretty. There's more to see and do in this than in Witcher 3 (Though not a ton, just more little hidden shrines and treasures and shit) but it doesn't really feel like wandering around the map justifies the time and effort put into it compared to doing the main story.