Ghosts of Tsushima Review thread

[BrawlMan]

You don't play many open-world games. But I play a lot of games. So I've been through many open world grinds and I've seen games that do it fantastic and others that do the bare minimum. Ghosts is a game that does the bare minimum imo.

Dude I played a lot of open world games too. It's just that I stop giving a rat's ass by 2013. Plus I majority of it is too time-consuming anyway. and it's known by this point that I usually prefer just freed up linear or mission based games. I admit that I never got a chance to play Sleeping Dogs, but my older brother was able to play through it. He loves it. As far as Urban open world games go, Sleeping dogs is one of the better ones and that was a game from last generation. Considering it was going to be the third game in the True Crime series, it deserves its reputation.

 

[CriticalGaming]

I rarely ever touch open world games anymore,.......Dude I played a lot of open world games too.

Bruh, you either play a lot or you don't my dude.

Either way, you wanna say you haven't touched them "recently" that's fine. So I'll go with that idea and point out that Ghosts is a good open world game if you ignore advancements that other other world games have made in recent years. Ghosts has no dynamic encounters while exploring. You'll never encounter a side quest by accident, or see the effects of your actions in the main story reflect the world around you.

Look at something like The Witcher 3, in which you can trigger side quests not only accidentally but also skip steps in the side quest itself based on what you stumble across. For example say a side quest would plead for you to deal with bandits who've kidnapped a shopkeep. Normally you would then go deal with the bandits and recuse the shopkeep and come back for a reward. But in that game it is entirely possible to simply stumble into that bandit camp, save the shopkeep and earn a reward without ever accepting the quest just because you ran into the objective and completed it without knowing about it. Not to mention that the after effects of your adventures can be found in crazy places sometimes. Like soldiers from the Baron's militia defecting and becoming bandits later depending on how you handled the main quest.

Keep in mind the Witcher 3 is over 5 year old at this point.

But even lesser games like Rage 2 have a better open world because of the sheer amount of stumble-uponable stuff you can find while roaming.

In my mind it makes the island of Tsushima dead. It is very pretty, but it feels dead. Things only happen at the markers, and nothing inbetween. And that for me gets boring very quickly. When an open world game makes me want to Fast Travel as much as possible and not roam around, then that open world has failed in my mind.

 

[BrawlMan]

Bruh, you either play a lot or you don't my dude.

Either way, you wanna say you haven't touched them "recently" that's fine. So I'll go with that idea and point out that Ghosts is a good open world game if you ignore advancements that other other world games have made in recent years. Ghosts has no dynamic encounters while exploring. You'll never encounter a side quest by accident, or see the effects of your actions in the main story reflect the world around you.

Look at something like The Witcher 3, in which you can trigger side quests not only accidentally but also skip steps in the side quest itself based on what you stumble across. For example say a side quest would plead for you to deal with bandits who've kidnapped a shopkeep. Normally you would then go deal with the bandits and recuse the shopkeep and come back for a reward. But in that game it is entirely possible to simply stumble into that bandit camp, save the shopkeep and earn a reward without ever accepting the quest just because you ran into the objective and completed it without knowing about it. Not to mention that the after effects of your adventures can be found in crazy places sometimes. Like soldiers from the Baron's militia defecting and becoming bandits later depending on how you handled the main quest.

Keep in mind the Witcher 3 is over 5 year old at this point.

But even lesser games like Rage 2 have a better open world because of the sheer amount of stumble-uponable stuff you can find while roaming.

In my mind it makes the island of Tsushima dead. It is very pretty, but it feels dead. Things only happen at the markers, and nothing inbetween. And that for me gets boring very quickly. When an open world game makes me want to Fast Travel as much as possible and not roam around, then that open world has failed in my mind.

I meant exactly what I said. The last open world game I actually played was GTA V in 2013. My brother played most of the game, but I did help him out of bit. The next closest thing I can think of after that is God of War 4, but that is more of a metroidvania in exploration. And Nier Automata, which is more of an action RPG. Still counts though for the second example.

I've seen Rage 2 and honestly I'm not that impressed. Yeah, it may be better than the first Rage, but it's nothing we haven't already seen before or that unique. Wow the colors are a lot more brighter or neon, never seen that before. The game itself is kind of average overall. I never held any interest in any of the Witcher games so I can't comment completely. And just so you're aware, just because I don't play certain games doesn't mean I'm not aware of the advancements. I do keep track most of the time. Not every game needs to freaking innovate or act like it's trying to invent sliced bread again. As long as it's done good, I usually don't have a problem or if it's something unique about its setting.

 

[CriticalGaming]

I meant exactly what I said. The last open world game I actually played was GTA v in 2013. My brother can played most of the game, but I did help him out of bit. The next closest thing I can think of after that is God of War 4, but that is more of a metroidvania in exploration. And nier automata, which is more of an action RPG. Still counts though for the second example.

I've seen Rage 2 and honestly I'm not that impressed. Yeah, it may be better than the first Rage, but it's nothing we haven't already seen before or that unique. Wow the colors are a lot more brighter or neon, never seen that before. The game itself is kind of average overall. I never held any interest in any of the Witcher games so I can't comment completely. And just so you're aware, just because I don't play the game doesn't mean I'm not aware of the advancements. I do keep track most of the time. Not every game needs to freaking innovate or act like it's trying to invent sliced bread again. As long as it's done good, I usually don't have a problem or if it's something unique about its setting.

Well again see the point I made three posts ago.

I can see WHY people would like Ghosts. But IMO I don't think it is a very good game. It's okay. It's an okay game, and people can like and enjoy okay games.

 

[BrawlMan]

Well again see the point I made three posts ago.

I can see WHY people would like Ghosts. But IMO I don't think it is a very good game. It's okay. It's an okay game, and people can like and enjoy okay games.

I did see your point and I mostly agree with you. Heck I made a post saying how when you play too much of the same genre, everything starts to blend together. That is why I always try to deviate and not play the same thing all the time. Burnout occurs no matter what happens. I've seen when it comes to the hack and slash games, open world games, or first person shooters that constantly copy cod or battlefield. I agree that there's nothing wrong with people like an okay game, but I do not consider ghost of tsushima an okay game. It's just a regular good game that is refreshing to see once in a while. I will end it there cuz we are going to be going in circles.

 

[CriticalGaming]

I did see your point and I mostly agree with you. Heck I made a post saying how when you play too much of the same genre everything starts to blend together. That is why I always try to deviate and not trying to play the same thing all the time. Burnout occurs no matter what happens. I seen it with p when it comes to the hack and/games, open world games, or first person shooters that constantly copy cod or battlefield. I agree that there's nothing wrong with people like an okay game, but I do not consider ghost of tsushima an okay game. It's just a regular good game that is refreshing to see once in a while. I landed there cuz we are going to be going in circles.

Dude you don't like circles? I love circles, it's my favorite button on the controller i use on my system that is getting exclusive spider man shit circles are dope

 

[Hades]

I'm pretty sure I don't like the final area. I understand why a video game would want a snow level for variety sake but it just doesn't fit with the rest of the game.

Firstly the way its implemented feels far too video gamey. You move through one gate north of your home village and suddenly you're in a winter wonder land with no transition. The various places in Tsuchima all felt as if they logically progressed from each other so seeing such a clumsy transition was disappointing.

The new region also robs the game of one of its greatest assets. Raw graphical horse power is not how GOT looks so beautiful. Its the varied environment and the use of colors. But when you're in winter wonder land you're always in an area that's dominated by the color white. It also very noticeable lacks the variation of the other parts of the island. Its all just snow. The other two regions had very varied landmarks but in winter wonder land its all just one big snowy blur.

Lastly the region just doesn't fit in with the setting at all. Tsushima is located between the southern island of Kyushu and the southern coast of Korea which is a subtropical region. Why is there a winter wonder land on a sub tropical island? One could argue its high up in the mountains but the game itself doesn't show that very well. The border with the other region is roughly at the same elevation which is best illustrated when looking at it from castle Shimura. One side of the castle is sunny and on the other side its immediately a winter wonder land. Entering the region by merely passing a gate near your home town also doesn't suggest Jin traversing a mighty mountainside.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Dude you don't like circles? I love circles, it's my favorite button on the controller i use on my system that is getting exclusive spider man shit circles are dope

< also circle

 

[BrawlMan]

I did two main quests, but now working my way with the side quest for a while. I got the Gosaku Armor and the next myth quest I am working on is the Six blades of Ginjuro. I have to kill one more before fighting him, but I am stopping for tonight.

 

[happyninja42]

I did two main quests, but now working my way with the side quest for a while. I got the Gosaku Armor and the next myth quest I am working on is the Six blades of Ginjuro. I have to kill one more before fighting him, but I am stopping for tonight.

The Gosaku armor made open combat REALLY fun for me. I kitted it out with lots of Guard Breaking related charms, and I just smashed my way through enemies like butter, healing myself up the whole time and staying full on resolve. Good times.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

The Gosaku armor made open combat REALLY fun for me. I kitted it out with lots of Guard Breaking related charms, and I just smashed my way through enemies like butter, healing myself up the whole time and staying full on resolve. Good times.

See, it’s good to hear the game at least let’s you be a powerhouse if you so choose to spec up that way. Sick of games in the action/adventure genre that “scale” enemies. Nothing makes leveling up or acquiring gear more pointless, at least from a gameplay standpoint. Proof it only serves to pad length in those cases.

 

[happyninja42]

See, it’s good to hear the game at least let’s you be a powerhouse if you so choose to spec up that way. Sick of games in the action/adventure genre that “scale” enemies. Nothing makes leveling up or acquiring gear more pointless, at least from a gameplay standpoint. Proof it only serves to pad length in those cases.

Oh the game absolutely let you have your own flavor of combat. There was a unique armor set for archery, if you wanted to do ranged stuff, an armor set that was just a massive health boost, and gave you some health when you killed enemies (I think that was a digital deluxe exclusive though?), the Gosaku armor, which made it a lot easier to smash through enemy defenses, an armor set that makes you better at the Standoff dueling system (one of my favorites) a sneaky suit, and then a suit that you get much later that might as well be called "I'm Fucking Batman" or "Dread Armor" for how it makes enemies react around you. If you coupled them with charms that further accentuated the stats, you could make some really insane builds. Like some suits had abilities that had a % chance to trigger, and there were charms that increased all % chance abilities by like 50%, and you could get multiples of that.

So yeah, lot's of flexibility, though it meant you were magically carrying around like 7 suits of armor at all times, and could isntantly switch between them, which sort of broke immersion when you did it mid combat. And the tedium of swapping out charms when you switched armor got annoying. I wish they had a "armor/charm set" system where you could lock in one, so you could quickly switch between them, like in AC: Odyssey. But it was still fun.

 

[BrawlMan]

• Got Sakai Clan armor. Upgraded to near max already. Loving this armor!
• Did more side quests. Will finish up Lady Masako's side quest and work the res of the main quests for Act II.
• Finished the Six Blades of Ginjuro story too. He took me about 3 tries.

 

[happyninja42]

• Got Sakai Clan armor. Upgraded to near max already. Loving this armor!

Yeah, that was the armor that I fell in love with. I stacked that with Guard breaking charms, and would kill the max 5 in a Standoff, then do that legendary attack you learn where you do 3 dashing strikes on nearby enemies, follow it up with a few triangle smashes to break a dude's guard, Heavenly Strike him for an insta kill and Resolve regen, and then repeat, if anyone was left alive at that point. It made those 12v1 fights incredibly fun and quick. When you hit Act 3, you will get another attack that.....is um....really fun and badass. As well as the suit of armor that rivals the Sakai clan armor as my favorite in the game.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

I've been enjoying my time with the game, I'm still on Act 1 but have explored most of the 1st island. The open world doesn't do anything too new by any means, but it does feel a lot less checklist-y than other games like say Spiderman (which felt like nothing but checklists). Just going from mission to mission and doing things that show up inbetween feels more organic and natural. I did 4 side things during an actual mission the other day. The environmental design of the world is surprisingly good; the state of houses/buildings tells a decent story of what happened. I'm really digging the combat even though I'm using at most like half the mechanics because most of them make the combat so easy like the kunai for example. I only unlocked the kick move in the Wind stance and haven't bothered with anything from the other stances. I pretty much just stay in the Wind stance that I rececently unlocked so I can kick people (that's all I use triangle for) and completely parry and dodge attacks going for the counters. I try to take everyone out using as few button presses as possible pretty much.

Look at something like The Witcher 3, in which you can trigger side quests not only accidentally but also skip steps in the side quest itself based on what you stumble across. For example say a side quest would plead for you to deal with bandits who've kidnapped a shopkeep. Normally you would then go deal with the bandits and recuse the shopkeep and come back for a reward. But in that game it is entirely possible to simply stumble into that bandit camp, save the shopkeep and earn a reward without ever accepting the quest just because you ran into the objective and completed it without knowing about it. Not to mention that the after effects of your adventures can be found in crazy places sometimes. Like soldiers from the Baron's militia defecting and becoming bandits later depending on how you handled the main quest.

Keep in mind the Witcher 3 is over 5 year old at this point.

Witcher is an RPG, it's supposed to do things like that, the world reflecting your actions and such. GoT is an action adventure game.

 

[BrawlMan]

Nearly done with Act 2. I unlocked Ghost Mode. Where the screen goes B&W/B&R. Can't wait to finish it and get to Act 3.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Witcher is an RPG, it's supposed to do things like that, the world reflecting your actions and such. GoT is an action adventure game.

Okay fair enough, but the Assassin's Creed Origins and Odyssey had better open worlds with more dynamic response to the player's actions as well as far more to do.

I'm not saying that Ghosts should be on the same level. But Odyssey is like a 10 on the density of crap to do, and Ghosts is like a 1. And what makes this really stand out as an issue for me with Ghosts is that really there aren't very make activities to do in Ghosts. It is all very samey. Fox Shrines, hilltop shrines, and decoration shrines, all behave the same way. Hot springs and Haiku spots are basically the same thing, Then Mongol bases.

Three different core things to do, and this is exaggerated by the main missions also being basically a variation on these core activities, with a bit of story thrown in. Which is fine. Ghosts might have been better served as a mission based game, instead of trying to prop up an entire open world.

Either way we got the game we got and clearly people love it so, maybe I'm just crazy.

 

[BrawlMan]

Okay fair enough, but the Assassin's Creed Origins and Odyssey had better open worlds with more dynamic response to the player's actions as well as far more to do.

That's very debatable. Even if I'd agree to that, rpg mechanics suck and focuses way too much on enemy scaling and constant grinding. My brother might agree with you on some thing with Origins at least. Not sure about Odyssey. The AC games are known for unnecessary padding. As far as I am concerned, Ghost better than all of the AC games. Even the "good" ones. Hell, The Sabetour is better an all of the AC games.

 

[happyninja42]

Nearly done with Act 2. I unlocked Ghost Mode. Where the screen goes B&W/B&R. Can't wait to finish it and get to Act 3.

Hehehehehe, yesssss, GOOOOOOD! Ghost Mode was what made me seriously consider just giving up on stealth. Slapping on the Ghost Armor, building it for maximum Dread, and then wading into a horde of dudes, killing half of them, and making the other half run away in terror. Felt SOOO good.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

Okay fair enough, but the Assassin's Creed Origins and Odyssey had better open worlds with more dynamic response to the player's actions as well as far more to do.

I'm not saying that Ghosts should be on the same level. But Odyssey is like a 10 on the density of crap to do, and Ghosts is like a 1. And what makes this really stand out as an issue for me with Ghosts is that really there aren't very make activities to do in Ghosts. It is all very samey. Fox Shrines, hilltop shrines, and decoration shrines, all behave the same way. Hot springs and Haiku spots are basically the same thing, Then Mongol bases.

Three different core things to do, and this is exaggerated by the main missions also being basically a variation on these core activities, with a bit of story thrown in. Which is fine. Ghosts might have been better served as a mission based game, instead of trying to prop up an entire open world.

Either way we got the game we got and clearly people love it so, maybe I'm just crazy.

Hasn't AssCreed started being basically wannabe RPGs at this point? They have leveling and dialogue choices and whatnot. I personally gave up on the series at AC2. I recall Skill Up's Odyssey review complained greatly about the grinding really low-tier content to actually get to the good stuff. In Ghosts, you don't have to do anything you don't want to basically. I recall you complained that you did like everything on the first island and unlocked everything and didn't see the point in doing more fox dens and whatnot. Well, you don't need to anymore nor did you even have to do one of them whereas Odyssey forced that on the player. You can just do the main story and main tales in Ghosts if you want. Density of content is meaningless to me, it's the quality of the content that matters. Not that Ghosts has top-notch quality of content but overall I'm just enjoying playing it, the tales aren't just lame side quests as they go on for multiple missions. Just walking through the world and doing some of the fox dens, haikus, hot springs is just rather relaxing. I'm really enjoying the combat in the way I'm playing it. I don't love the game by any means, but it's an enjoyable experience that I'd probably put at somewhere in the 6-7/10 area.