re: Ghost of Tsushima game discussion

quote:

---

I don’t think I could tell the difference between 30 FPS and 60 FPS if my life depended on it

---

I can tell, the first time I could I was playing Bloodborne/Dark Souls 3 at 30 fps exclusively, then Dark Souls remastered dropped at 60 fps and it was jarring how much smoother it was, like butter.

Then I switched back to the 30 fps games and they felt laggy

Yeah, the world design is really really good. The way they designed it, there’s always something to do within difference.

Also, the shrine climbs are pretty fun. Other games do “climb this structure” that are enjoyable but these are much more involved and more puzzly. Requires a bit more exploration to find the correct approach.

As for the combat, I may just suck at the combat in this game but I’m dying a fair amount. Maybe I need to improve skills

I’m working on DS1 and was thinking about firing up FF15 after before cyberpunk comes out. I got about 20 hours in at launch and strayed away and haven’t played since, which is weird because I’m a huge ff fan boy and it’s the only one I haven’t finished except 13-2 and 13-3. I had just finished sinking 200 hours into Witcher 3 when ff15 had come out so I think I was just burnt at the time. Looking forward to getting back to it eventually

/hijack sorry guys lol

It’s gotten much easier as I played.


There is definitely an old cowboy feel to the game that you get as play the game more with how the side quests work. Very simple vignettes of you helping into the peasants you encounter. Stylistically, something about it works other than the objectives never really stray from kill the bad guys.

I.E. you might run into a starving woman and she runs up to yelling about how she’s starving and backings stole her food and then the headline “the tale of the empty baskets” comes up and you have your 5 minute tv show episode

its really good. keeps getting better too

quote:

---

I don’t think I could tell the difference between 30 FPS and 60 FPS if my life depended on it

---

I can certainly tell the difference. It just doesn’t bother me as much as it bothers some people.

quote:

---

This really is Assasin’s Creed in an idealized setting. Combat is different and some mechanics are different and the approach is different in some ways. But the comparison is unavoidable.

---

It feels more like Shadow of Mordor with better combat for me. I loved Shadow of Mordor, so that's a compliment.

Keep going, takes about 4-6 hours to get going.

quote:

---

What about the art style do you not like? The art style is very well crafted

---

It feels inconsistent. Sometimes it wants to be realistic. Other times, it wants to be highly stylized.

Sometimes it can look quite ugly but other times beautiful.

I would've preferred a more realistic take on medieval Japan.

I could hardly pry myself off this weekend. Rough start but it just keeps getting better as you progress.

In-progress Review

Even though it has a lot of checklist gameplay bullshite like what you see in Ubisoft/EA trash, it just works here. if you put the wind gimmick in any other game, I'd write it off as just that: a gimmick. When that wind is blowing in lush fields of violet chrysanthemums, however, it delivers the "magic." The platforming shrines are fun and require just the right amount of thought, the Inari shrines have some charm with the foxes, and both the haiku and hot spring spots give you the perfect moment of respite with the reflections/poetry/music.

Combat is really satisfying once you get weapons/techniques, albeit a little too easy (even on Hard). Early players, I highly recommend yall do some main missions once you get access to the map, as important skills are locked behind them. I elected to ride south immediately and ended up at a "Destroy Log Fort" outpost, which had all enemy types, dogs, 4 different objectives, a Leader, etc. Since I had no stealth kill ability, no bow, no ghost weapons, and no techniques, it took me quite a while with the guerilla approach Now that my dude is loaded with shite, it feels pretty awesome (as someone said in here earlier) to walk into a big outpost and murder everyone with a variety of stealth, swordplay, ranged attacks, and gadgets. Usually in open world games, I get sick of random encounters. Here, though, I'll hear dudes talking shite down the road and pull up on them, initiate a standoff, and slaughter them lmao

Quest design and writing are a mixed bag. the vast majority of them are 1. Go to place and talk to someone 2. Go to another place 3. Press R2 to examine 3 items 4. Follow tracks 5. Kill a bunch of people. I've done a ton of them so far, but they haven't gotten too stale yet. Mythic quests can get a bit tiresome with the searching/exploration, but you get an epic duel and a rare weapon/armor/technique at the end.

The real meat lies in the character quests. They have some really good supporting characters (Lady Masako GOAT) that have interesting stories behind their side quests. They still follow a similar structure to the regular stuff, but the stories and execution are far better. Some really good moments so far (still in Act 1 fwiw). I can't really speak to the main quests since I've only done like 3 of them lmao. I'm excited to see whats coming.

In a year of letdowns, Ghost is a pleasant surprise. Exceeding all my expectations so far.