Ghost of Sushi Gameplay Reveal

[happyninja42]

Also Sucker Punch, I want a new iNfamous game. I don't know what you would do with it, but then I'm not a video game developer. How about water powers? Or air? Anyway, get to it *clap clap* I command thee.

Oooh....I would love that SO much. that series of games holds a very special place in my heart.

I don't even care if they continue the continuity of it, as they seem to sort of retcon that anyway with the other games that came out after 2. And frankly I don't really care. I just enjoyed that mechanic system for super powers. I want a city to run around like that, using powers and being a hero. SO much fun how organic it was, and how the city would alter based on what you did. So much fun.

Yea, it was no God of War, but I was quite surprised by it. The world, characters and general plot are all pretty interesting, and I liked the more "focused" story of Deacon looking for Sarah.

Also the music was very good.

I keep wanting to pick that one up because I really love Sam Witwer and like to support him. Sadly it just sort of missed my radar when it came out for some reason.

 

[Gordon_4]

Man I wish this was coming to PC.

 

[BrawlMan]

Man I wish this was coming to PC.

If Horizon and Death Stranding can make it to PC, I'm sure Tsushima will get there at some point.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

That inconsistency was there even when he could jump. Kratos could also push over 20-ton statues in the old games, but was halted by a few iron bars. It's the nature of videogames. 'Why am I not allowed to fit through those bars? Why am I not allowed to aim my gun in Bloodborne? Why can I hang on to this ledge, but not that one?'

The thing is, the jump never felt like a true platforming ability, just a way to reach a ledge to pull yourself up. Once the Icarus wings got added things got a bit more interesting, but the jump on its own was barely anything to speak of, and certainly not when it came to combat. The chainblade swings were the most satisfying platforming mechanic of the classic games, and those were pretty scripted.

They do definitely need to make whatever form of non-walking traversal for the sequel more mechanically satisfying though. Make Kratos use his axe as a climbing tool and to slide down a wall or whatever. Or better yet, use the retrieval mechanic for the axe so Kratos can throw it at a ledge and shoot himself to the top. They could make it a combat thing as well, where if you've thrown your axe into an enemy Kratos can battering ram himself into them. One button to retrieve the axe, one button (or maybe hold the retrieve button) to shoot Kratos to whatever the axe is inbedded in.

So basically make it like the old games (or hell, Sekiro) in a way. The grab-a-pult was in the third game with the blades, although only for enemies; I think it was L1+Circle. I think they’d have to be careful because something like that could be game breaking if they didn’t instill some ground rules. Then they’ll need to introduce it in a way it won’t end up being weird how he couldn’t do it in the first game.

The biggest problem with narrative-driven games is when they try to “expand” on gameplay merely through upgrading a bunch of things. Like the Witcher series where Geralt has been a master Witcher for most his life, but each new game starts you out with shit weapons and abilities that need to be “re-earned and relearned”. I chalk it up to recurring amnesia, with perhaps the idea that Geralt kinda just tries to leave the monster hunting life behind after every game. It’s never really explained much, but it would be nice if these games put some more effort towards trying to meld gameplay and narrative together if they’re going to make them so complex and full of skill trees.

I like the cool looking, more customizable gear you can find, but the whole process of getting and using it all just seems contrived and meant to pad out game length far too often. In the original GoW’s whatever you acquired was done naturally through taking it from some enemy, and you could instantly use it as your own. The orbs were a gamey and trivial mechanic to balance progression and difficulty, but they worked for what those games were.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

The biggest problem with narrative-driven games is when they try to “expand” on gameplay merely through upgrading a bunch of things. Like the Witcher series where Geralt has been a master Witcher for most his life, but each new game starts you out with shit weapons and abilities that need to be “re-earned and relearned”. I chalk it up to recurring amnesia, with perhaps the idea that Geralt kinda just tries to leave the monster hunting life behind after every game. It’s ever really explained much, but it would be nice if these games put some more effort towards trying to meld gameplay and narrative together if they’re going to make them so complex and full of skill trees.

You could remove the damage and health bloat that really accomplishes nothing whatsoever that's all tied to the stupid loot system. I'm playing Divinity 2 with the mod that auto upgrades your gear as you level so you only switch out gear when you find something that is legitimately better vs just better because it's attack value is higher. And Divinity is completely a game where gear is something you wear for the skill/attribute bonuses it gives you vs its attack or armor values. I could literally lose like half my hotbar in skills if I had to switch out gear just to keep number pace with enemies. You can still learn new skills and abilities over the course of the game while losing the number bloat. Geralt in W3 should be able to handle any monster/enemy at the start of the game (assuming the player is competent). The new GOW has the exact same problem, you come across side quests you don't have the gear (aka numbers) for, which is stupid as hell (I just dropped the difficulty in those cases). In the Batman games, you have to relearn basic skills and it's not nearly as jarring because it's not like you need a level 10 batarang to beat the level 10 thugs in the level 10 part of the city. I guess a game series like Batman can read your saves and see that you already played one so you don't have to slowly learn all the skills one by one like you've never played before, or the game could just ask if you played a Batman game before. Unless your character is literally a beginning level 1 character as part of the narrative, there's no reason for the number bloat. Even in Borderlands if feels jarring because the opening usually shows your character options as these badasses and then you'll some level one lame-o when you start playing. Number bloat also causes playing with friends to be such a hassle if you're not really close in level so you have a lower level character just struggling to kill anything and a higher level character one-shotting everything (I heard they fixed that in the last game, took them long enough though).

 

[bluegate]

I keep wanting to pick that one up because I really love Sam Witwer and like to support him. Sadly it just sort of missed my radar when it came out for some reason

You're aware that you can buy games after their launch window?

 

[Casual Shinji]

The new GOW has the exact same problem, you come across side quests you don't have the gear (aka numbers) for, which is stupid as hell (I just dropped the difficulty in those cases).

Apart from maybe the side quest where you destroy the statue of Thor there's no side quests that you come across where you don't have the numbers for it. And even that one is totally doable. Nothing in the game prevents you from completing a task simple because you don't have a high enough level. I've played the game on Give Me God of War only using the armor, runes, and pommels I found in-world (buying nothing), and the only time the game came close to breaking was when I attempted the first Andvari side quest before meeting Sindri. The realm tears are the only thing where there's a serious jump in difficulty, but they're supposed to push you.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

Apart from maybe the side quest where you destroy the statue of Thor there's no side quests that you come across where you don't have the numbers for it. And even that one is totally doable. Nothing in the game prevents you from completing a task simple because you don't have a high enough level. I've played the game on Give Me God of War only using the armor, runes, and pommels I found in-world (buying nothing), and the only time the game came close to breaking was when I attempted the first Andvari side quest before meeting Sindri. The realm tears are the only thing where there's a serious jump in difficulty, but they're supposed to push you.

I can probably beat everything through just taking forever but that's all due to the numbers and nothing else. Seeing an enemy health bar very slowly dwindling isn't hard just tedious and it one-shotting you if you fuck up just once. I also found a lot of cheese because of it like hitting enemies mid-jump across a gap with arrows and boom, insta-kill. Also, your numbers often change whether a move will stagger or not stagger enemies and combat loses its consistency, which isn't good at all. GOW is a character action game, it doesn't need dumbass RPG mechanics and number scaling.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I can probably beat everything through just taking forever but that's all due to the numbers and nothing else. Seeing an enemy health bar very slowly dwindling isn't hard just tedious and it one-shotting you if you fuck up just once. I also found a lot of cheese because of it like hitting enemies mid-jump across a gap with arrows and boom, insta-kill. Also, your numbers often change whether a move will stagger or not stagger enemies and combat loses its consistency, which isn't good at all. GOW is a character action game, it doesn't need dumbass RPG mechanics and number scaling.

Again though, where is this a thing other than with the realm tears? Nothing I did during the main story content or the side content made me feel like I needed to cheese anything. Unless we're counting unleashing all your runic attacks as cheese. I never even needed to focus on the enemy health bar, since I had that turned off day-one. Number scaling has always been in this series. So have certain inconsistancies in combat; sometimes an enemy would get launched, sometimes it wouldn't.

I had more than enough fun with the combat that whatever inconsistencies or creases it might've had didn't bother me in the slightest. And that's probably what it all comes down to. People swear by how terrific the combat is in Bloodborne, but since I don't have fun with the mechanics of it I only see the things that annoy me about it. And as a result it becomes difficult and tedious, because the actual act of fighting just isn't fun for me. Since I had fun with the combat of GoW'18 I stuck with it, and either learned strategies to overcome certain difficulties or learned to live with the certain inconsistencies it had.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

Again though, where is this a thing other than with the realm tears? Nothing I did during the main story content or the side content made me feel like I needed to cheese anything. Unless we're counting unleashing all your runic attacks as cheese. I never even needed to focus on the enemy health bar, since I had that turned off day-one. Number scaling has always been in this series. So have certain inconsistancies in combat; sometimes an enemy would get launched, sometimes it wouldn't.

I had more than enough fun with the combat that whatever inconsistencies or creases it might've had didn't bother me in the slightest. And that's probably what it all comes down to. People swear by how terrific the combat is in Bloodborne, but since I don't have fun with the mechanics of it I only see the things that annoy me about it. And as a result it becomes difficult and tedious, because the actual act of fighting just isn't fun for me. Since I had fun with the combat of GoW'18 I stuck with it, and either learned strategies to overcome certain difficulties or learned to live with the certain inconsistencies it had.

I recall a Soul Eater/Devourer side quest fight somewhere that required doing the whole "process" like 6+ times. There was a dog fight room where the dogs would one-shot me with the gear I had. It was the area where you got a middle platform and you do like 4 or so rooms all around you. There was island that had an area rather high up that I used the arrow trick on when they jumped platform-to-platform. And of course, the tears. Why is there content that you can go to where your underleveled in a character action game? I'm not coming back to some area in a GOW game, I'm here, I'm going to do the content. And just beginning hours of the game are notorious for having enemy "axe" sponges because the game is horribly balanced; beginning has axe sponges, middle is just right, last third is joke easy on Hard.

I wasn't a fan of the new GOW at all, you had all these combat inconsistencies and you couldn't depend on anything working except for the runic attacks. I hate how both you and the enemies slide across the floor to land attacks, I still remember the 1st Valkyrie fight where she has this spin move and it gets to you no matter what really. The move assist garbage makes you have to block or dodge everything because you can't trust knowing the move and the distance it travels because it always varies. I only ever really liked the 1st GOW and I don't recall not being able to launch an enemy unless that enemy was just not launchable. I don't get why people dig Souls combat so much, it's simple, average at best, and still hasn't figured out how to actually do a stamina system (*cough*MonsterHunter*cough*). Bloodborne is the probably the best feeling combat (I only played DS1 and BB) with easily the best parry (that you don't have to read a FAQ on to know what you can parry) but it's at best reaching just into good territory.

 

[happyninja42]

You're aware that you can buy games after their launch window?

You're aware there is a thing called a budget, and a pandemic limiting income to vast swaths of the planet?

 

[bluegate]

You're aware there is a thing called a budget, and a pandemic limiting income to vast swaths of the planet?

Yup.

The phrasing in your post just made me laugh;
Keep wanting to pick up a game that has been on sale for $20 multiple times, but sadly you missed the game when it launched over a year ago.

 

[happyninja42]

Yup.

The phrasing in your post just made me laugh;
Keep wanting to pick up a game that has been on sale for $20 multiple times, but sadly you missed the game when it launched over a year ago.

Well I mainly meant, by the phrase, missed my radar, that it just fell off my awareness of it. It got almost no discussion or chatter in the fan base, almost no promotion that I recall. I only really heared about it pre-launch because of listening to Sam on some star wars podcasts, discussing his other work, and plugging it. I don't watch TV so if it had commercials being run I didn't see them. I don't recall it getting a lot of youtube ad mileage, so I missed it there. I'd occasionally see mention of it somewhere. But seeing as I almost never buy any game when it's brand new, partly for budget, and partly to see if it's actually something worth my time, it's not something that I kept close tabs on. And then, I just forgot about it. And it stayed forgotten, along with a plethora of other games that slip my mind that I had a vague interest in at some point.

But since it's been mentioned here, and thus resurfaced in my "oh yeah! I wanted to check that game out" category of things, I'll probably put it on my wishlist or something to get later....and then promptly forget about it again. I have like 300 games in my steam library alone that I haven't really played yet, that one will likely be buried in the pile.

Maybe if I buy it for the PS 4, and have it be one of the new "big open roaming games I play with my wife" for couples time, I will actually pick it up. But the reality is I buy very few games these days, and have even less time to play them.

 

[Dreiko]

Apart from maybe the side quest where you destroy the statue of Thor there's no side quests that you come across where you don't have the numbers for it. And even that one is totally doable. Nothing in the game prevents you from completing a task simple because you don't have a high enough level. I've played the game on Give Me God of War only using the armor, runes, and pommels I found in-world (buying nothing), and the only time the game came close to breaking was when I attempted the first Andvari side quest before meeting Sindri. The realm tears are the only thing where there's a serious jump in difficulty, but they're supposed to push you.

I played GoW4 on hard on my first playthrough all the way through and the only legit unbeatable thing I came across were those realm things that you stick you hand in and assholes pop out. There was one of them up with the valkyrie braziers at lvl 6 and I was lvl 2, but that wasn't a sidequest I was supposed to be doing then. None of the ones the game actually listed in your missions tab was undoable like that.


Even the actual Valkyrie boss fights were doable as soon as you run into them on hard on first playthrough with whatever random gear I had going into them. Granted I did die like 20 times on a couple of them until I learned their patterns cause on hard you die in 2 touches, but still doable. Nothing compared to Sekiro lol. Hell, the game even has those revival stones that fill your rage up. Those feel almost like cheating.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I recall a Soul Eater/Devourer side quest fight somewhere that required doing the whole "process" like 6+ times. There was a dog fight room where the dogs would one-shot me with the gear I had. It was the area where you got a middle platform and you do like 4 or so rooms all around you. There was island that had an area rather high up that I used the arrow trick on when they jumped platform-to-platform. And of course, the tears. Why is there content that you can go to where your underleveled in a character action game? I'm not coming back to some area in a GOW game, I'm here, I'm going to do the content. And just beginning hours of the game are notorious for having enemy "axe" sponges because the game is horribly balanced; beginning has axe sponges, middle is just right, last third is joke easy on Hard.

What do you mean by process? The soul eater fight itself? Because I never had much touble with those fights. Even if you don't have the projectile parry it's pretty easy to time your dodges and axe throws in between attacks. That area itself even has pillars to hide behind.

The dog room is hard just as most of the rooms in that area are hard. And the dogs will kill you very quickly if you don't make it your goal to kill them as fast as possible. But I can't say they ever one-shotted me. The dogs also stagger less with the axe then they do with bare handed attacks, as well as the latter obviously filling up their stun meter a lot faster.

And yes, the beginning hour has spoogey enemies... if you totally neglect the freeze throw. Once you get beefier there's little reason to use it much, but at the start it makes all the difference. You can shatter them against the walls, you can kick them into other enemies for a slow-down effect, or just leave them frozen to temporarily take them out of the fight while you focus on other enemies.

The only time I ever felt underleveled was with the realm tears.

I wasn't a fan of the new GOW at all, you had all these combat inconsistencies and you couldn't depend on anything working except for the runic attacks. I hate how both you and the enemies slide across the floor to land attacks, I still remember the 1st Valkyrie fight where she has this spin move and it gets to you no matter what really. The move assist garbage makes you have to block or dodge everything because you can't trust knowing the move and the distance it travels because it always varies. I only ever really liked the 1st GOW and I don't recall not being able to launch an enemy unless that enemy was just not launchable.

Yeah, I didn't get that from the combat at all. Moves worked fine and connected fine. The only move that could sometimes miss was the executioner's cleave, and it's meant to be more of a high risk high reward kind of attack. And once I started air-juggling them with Atreus I barely ever missed with that move as well.

In GoW1 you could launch the gorgons and the minotaurs, except not always. This was likely done to avoid easily spamming the attack and just keeping them airborne indefinitely, but it was an inconsistency. And lot of deaths were had due to me launching a gorgon, but the gorgon staying on the ground, yet I flew into the air and then got stone-gazed and shattered on the floor. I think in GoW3 you could way more easily launch them and together with the chain hook/shoulder rush they became an absolute joke.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Well I mainly meant, by the phrase, missed my radar, that it just fell off my awareness of it. It got almost no discussion or chatter in the fan base, almost no promotion that I recall. I only really heared about it pre-launch because of listening to Sam on some star wars podcasts, discussing his other work, and plugging it. I don't watch TV so if it had commercials being run I didn't see them. I don't recall it getting a lot of youtube ad mileage, so I missed it there. I'd occasionally see mention of it somewhere. But seeing as I almost never buy any game when it's brand new, partly for budget, and partly to see if it's actually something worth my time, it's not something that I kept close tabs on. And then, I just forgot about it. And it stayed forgotten, along with a plethora of other games that slip my mind that I had a vague interest in at some point.

But since it's been mentioned here, and thus resurfaced in my "oh yeah! I wanted to check that game out" category of things, I'll probably put it on my wishlist or something to get later....and then promptly forget about it again. I have like 300 games in my steam library alone that I haven't really played yet, that one will likely be buried in the pile.

Maybe if I buy it for the PS 4, and have it be one of the new "big open roaming games I play with my wife" for couples time, I will actually pick it up. But the reality is I buy very few games these days, and have even less time to play them.

Have you tried this yet?

You can favorite stuff and get email notifications on price drops. Has saved me hundreds since I started using it.

 

[happyninja42]

Have you tried this yet?

You can favorite stuff and get email notifications on price drops. Has saved me hundreds since I started using it.

No I haven't tried that, but I am aware of such features. It's just....I don't really bother buying lots of titles these days. My game purchasing habits have drastically tapered off over the years. Pre Covid problems, just in general. Buying new games, or even old games that I always meant to check out, just isn't a high priority anymore. I mean steam gives me updates on the stuff I have on wishlist

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I recall a Soul Eater/Devourer side quest fight somewhere that required doing the whole "process" like 6+ times. There was a dog fight room where the dogs would one-shot me with the gear I had. It was the area where you got a middle platform and you do like 4 or so rooms all around you. There was island that had an area rather high up that I used the arrow trick on when they jumped platform-to-platform. And of course, the tears. Why is there content that you can go to where your underleveled in a character action game? I'm not coming back to some area in a GOW game, I'm here, I'm going to do the content. And just beginning hours of the game are notorious for having enemy "axe" sponges because the game is horribly balanced; beginning has axe sponges, middle is just right, last third is joke easy on Hard.

I wasn't a fan of the new GOW at all, you had all these combat inconsistencies and you couldn't depend on anything working except for the runic attacks. I hate how both you and the enemies slide across the floor to land attacks, I still remember the 1st Valkyrie fight where she has this spin move and it gets to you no matter what really. The move assist garbage makes you have to block or dodge everything because you can't trust knowing the move and the distance it travels because it always varies. I only ever really liked the 1st GOW and I don't recall not being able to launch an enemy unless that enemy was just not launchable. I don't get why people dig Souls combat so much, it's simple, average at best, and still hasn't figured out how to actually do a stamina system (*cough*MonsterHunter*cough*). Bloodborne is the probably the best feeling combat (I only played DS1 and BB) with easily the best parry (that you don't have to read a FAQ on to know what you can parry) but it's at best reaching just into good territory.

Idk why you always say that. It goes down when you attack and take poise damage. You have to be neutral (not guarding) to refill it faster. That’s really all it needs to do for these games.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Even the actual Valkyrie boss fights were doable as soon as you run into them on hard on first playthrough with whatever random gear I had going into them. Granted I did die like 20 times on a couple of them until I learned their patterns cause on hard you die in 2 touches, but still doable. Nothing compared to Sekiro lol. Hell, the game even has those revival stones that fill your rage up. Those feel almost like cheating.

The only time I use a revival stone is with the final Valkyrie fight, and that's mainly because that fight can last just a bit too long for me to keep my focus laser sharp. Otherwise I never bother. Not that I don't get killed in a lot of fights, but I rather just start over fresh in that case.

 

[Kwak]

Well I mainly meant, by the phrase, missed my radar, that it just fell off my awareness of it. It got almost no discussion or chatter in the fan base, almost no promotion that I recall

Honestly it's a real sad injustice that it got so 'mehed' - the character acting/animations are incredible, the characters are very compelling and seem very true in a post-traumatic world, and the countryside is gorgeous.
Gameplay is pretty addictive and tense.
It seems to have been summarily dismissed for no real reason other than some fashionable prejudice against it at the time.
Although I only got it relatively recently on sale, so maybe it was more bugged at launch and that didn't do it any favours.
Still the lukewarm reviews seem baffling to me. A lot of quality talent and work went into it.