Been playing it all night. I was hesitant because samurai games tend to get perverted by their presentation, going off the rails and into anime territory so I'm not usually a fan. I had a hard time getting into Sekiro and button mashing with swords never made a lot of sense to me. This one does swordplay amazingly well and manages to stay well grounded and engaging without combat feeling like a chore. I'm loving it.
It has a ton in common with the newer AC games but the setup is a little tighter. You don't always have the option to run in yelling for people to come at you because the enemy - invading mongolians - have studied the samurai's code and are using it against you so they'll start killing hostages or whatever so you're encouraged to stay quiet. The main character hates this, however, since he was born and raised samurai and killing without looking someone in the eyes is what thieves and animals do. So there's an interesting wrinkle there, do you rush in and defend the hostage in open combat or do you swallow all that and go in smart? As it goes on you get new tools and gadgets that help either way.
But yeah, as far as open world goes there's all the usual stuff. Collecting things, random encounters, base raids, horse riding, side quests. What I like is that everything has a motivation to it as essentially you're Tsushima's last surviving peacekeeper and the people need real help and lives are almost always at stake.
That sounds like a good Assassin's Creed game to me. Is good enough to get within the first week or wait? Since it's not Ubisoft, it probably won't drop as quickly as Assassin's Creed.
I don't regret it and I haven't loved a lot this summer. I'm not one to push for a buy if I'm not genuinely enjoying it, but I say pick it up. Also:
It's the last PS4 exclusive.
PS5 is teasing upgrades for PS4 games and this is a AAA title, so it's likely. This also means they'll be hesitant to discount it.
If it goes on sale, it probably won't be until November when the big yearly sales hit.
Edit: Now that I think about it, if you loved Sekiro this is a must get. Combat is 75% the same but Sekiro really felt like it was geared for 1 on 1 combat but it often hit you with fights where you were outnumbered. Tsushima fixes that but still doesn't hold your hand in combat when shit hits the fan and 4 more guys roll up in the middle of a fight.
I don't see how it can be close to Sekiro if it's close to Assassin's Creed.
What I like about Sekiro is that it's flexible. If you mess up, you can retreat quickly. If you get surrounded by semi-weak enemies in something like the Souls games, you're extremely likely to die.
Combat. World design and lore is nowhere close but combat is similar. Parry/guard mechanics are identical, combo system, stagger gauge are the same. In Tsushima, there's a stamina limit in place where after several swings your speed and damage drop off so you have to use patience and wait for an opening and do what you can rather than Sekiro's system where a nonstop onslaught without a retreat can pay off for skilled players. That's just not possible in every fight with Tsushima, though as you get better you can learn new stances which are better at creating openings on different enemy types.
The worlds aren't similar except for theme. Map structure is closer to Creed but the traversal system in Sekiro was smoother on foot.
Tl;dr combat is extremely similar but it stops there. IMO combat is the star of the show in both games. If you liked Sekiro's combat, you'll like GoT.
Based on the size of the map on first viewing, its likely minimum 30 hours. So I'd say full price is worth it if it sounds up your alley.
And one thing worth mentioning that other guy didn't touch on. Game is fucking gorgeous. Sounds like its melting my original model PS4 with the sheer quality of its graphics. You might spend chunks of time just staring into open fields of flowers.
Shit your main character will reach down the side of his horse to run his fingers through the flowers and that's the most 10/10 gesture I've seen.
In terms of the open world its basically AC Odyssey, right down to the horse mechanics.
Combat is quite fun. Harder than expected because you are made of paper and have to react extremely fast to properly counter all the attacks coming at you quickly, because Mongolians have no honor. Bows are literally demons with how cheap they are mid fight.
Story is amazing, and has a strong theme of honor vs survival. The first scene alone had me immediately invested in killing these fucking savages.
I'm only a couple hours in, but so far seems well worth it. The "Kurosawa Mode" also looks like an amazing bit of replayability.
Also, a weird minor detail. If you choose native language mode with subtitles, lips are still synced to English and Japanese voices are dubbed. This is putting some purists off. Voice performances are top notch either way and the action will make you miss some subtitles, but if that's your thing just be aware of how they set it up.
The problem with mo-cap. It was weird for me watching the FFXV movie when it was doing that. Well, the whole FFXV franchise threw me off by how bad and convoluted it was.
Great game so far. Combat is challenging but fair. I didn't go for the Kurosawa play mode but will on my second run through, really like that they put that in their, Japanese dialogue with English subtitles. It looks great. The parts of the island I've been in are beautiful. I've spent a decent amount of time just slowly trotting around on my horse and I'm usually a objective minded player. I loved old Samurai movies and this channel's that really well. Highly recommend this game.
Game goes through all its content in the first act and becomes very repetitive. I'm on the final Act now and already I'm getting tired of the same old activities I have to do.
The game tries to go for scale in big battle moments but the engine can't put out that many characters on the screen so all the "epic" battles in the game feel weak as a result. The game does have a very fast loading system and fast travel is really quick compared to games like Fallen Order which had me wait for up to 90 seconds at times. I wish developers spent less time making bigger worlds and instead focused on making smaller, but more memorable worlds with excellent content.
I was thinking how developers at Naughty Dog spent three months on the rope physics (it's cool but you use a rope like 7 times in the game) and I just learned they created a breathing system for all the characters and enemies in the game that I never knew existed till I read an article about it.
Seems like programmers and designers are spending a lot of time in doing things they think is cool but has like zero impact in terms of the game. I get a feel of that from Ghost of Tsushima too at times, judging by the big map with barely enough content being repeated over and over again in an effort to pad out the game.
EDIT : I'd like to add that the duels are some of the best things about the game. I'm playing on Hard Mode and they are a lot of fun. The more resolve you have when you start the duel, the easier the fight becomes (I used the Ghost Stance to tear through one particular duel in Act 2) but it's when you fight with little to no resolve that the fight becomes really fun. I kept dying in one of the Mythic Tales (the six blades one) till I mastered the timing of all the attacks and was able to dodge attacks that needed to be dodged and parry what could be parried. Duels are really, really good. At no point do you feel they are cheap or unfair.
Been playing it all night. I was hesitant because samurai games tend to get perverted by their presentation, going off the rails and into anime territory so I'm not usually a fan. I had a hard time getting into Sekiro and button mashing with swords never made a lot of sense to me. This one does swordplay amazingly well and manages to stay well grounded and engaging without combat feeling like a chore. I'm loving it.
Does it play like Assassin's Creed?
Also, Sekiro was amazing.
It has a ton in common with the newer AC games but the setup is a little tighter. You don't always have the option to run in yelling for people to come at you because the enemy - invading mongolians - have studied the samurai's code and are using it against you so they'll start killing hostages or whatever so you're encouraged to stay quiet. The main character hates this, however, since he was born and raised samurai and killing without looking someone in the eyes is what thieves and animals do. So there's an interesting wrinkle there, do you rush in and defend the hostage in open combat or do you swallow all that and go in smart? As it goes on you get new tools and gadgets that help either way.
But yeah, as far as open world goes there's all the usual stuff. Collecting things, random encounters, base raids, horse riding, side quests. What I like is that everything has a motivation to it as essentially you're Tsushima's last surviving peacekeeper and the people need real help and lives are almost always at stake.
That sounds like a good Assassin's Creed game to me. Is good enough to get within the first week or wait? Since it's not Ubisoft, it probably won't drop as quickly as Assassin's Creed.
I don't regret it and I haven't loved a lot this summer. I'm not one to push for a buy if I'm not genuinely enjoying it, but I say pick it up. Also:
It's the last PS4 exclusive.
PS5 is teasing upgrades for PS4 games and this is a AAA title, so it's likely. This also means they'll be hesitant to discount it.
If it goes on sale, it probably won't be until November when the big yearly sales hit.
Edit: Now that I think about it, if you loved Sekiro this is a must get. Combat is 75% the same but Sekiro really felt like it was geared for 1 on 1 combat but it often hit you with fights where you were outnumbered. Tsushima fixes that but still doesn't hold your hand in combat when shit hits the fan and 4 more guys roll up in the middle of a fight.
I don't see how it can be close to Sekiro if it's close to Assassin's Creed.
What I like about Sekiro is that it's flexible. If you mess up, you can retreat quickly. If you get surrounded by semi-weak enemies in something like the Souls games, you're extremely likely to die.
Combat. World design and lore is nowhere close but combat is similar. Parry/guard mechanics are identical, combo system, stagger gauge are the same. In Tsushima, there's a stamina limit in place where after several swings your speed and damage drop off so you have to use patience and wait for an opening and do what you can rather than Sekiro's system where a nonstop onslaught without a retreat can pay off for skilled players. That's just not possible in every fight with Tsushima, though as you get better you can learn new stances which are better at creating openings on different enemy types.
The worlds aren't similar except for theme. Map structure is closer to Creed but the traversal system in Sekiro was smoother on foot.
Tl;dr combat is extremely similar but it stops there. IMO combat is the star of the show in both games. If you liked Sekiro's combat, you'll like GoT.
Based on the size of the map on first viewing, its likely minimum 30 hours. So I'd say full price is worth it if it sounds up your alley.
And one thing worth mentioning that other guy didn't touch on. Game is fucking gorgeous. Sounds like its melting my original model PS4 with the sheer quality of its graphics. You might spend chunks of time just staring into open fields of flowers.
Shit your main character will reach down the side of his horse to run his fingers through the flowers and that's the most 10/10 gesture I've seen.
In terms of the open world its basically AC Odyssey, right down to the horse mechanics.
Combat is quite fun. Harder than expected because you are made of paper and have to react extremely fast to properly counter all the attacks coming at you quickly, because Mongolians have no honor. Bows are literally demons with how cheap they are mid fight.
Story is amazing, and has a strong theme of honor vs survival. The first scene alone had me immediately invested in killing these fucking savages.
I'm only a couple hours in, but so far seems well worth it. The "Kurosawa Mode" also looks like an amazing bit of replayability.
I totally forgot I have a sealed copy of AC Odyssey somewhere. ?
The black and white mode seems hard for a first run because the detail changes and can throw you off.
Yeah, I would definitely not play first run on it. Game's quite rough already, don't need more problems.
And AC Odyssey is a decent enough game too. I got a solid 70 hours of an alright time out of it.
Also, a weird minor detail. If you choose native language mode with subtitles, lips are still synced to English and Japanese voices are dubbed. This is putting some purists off. Voice performances are top notch either way and the action will make you miss some subtitles, but if that's your thing just be aware of how they set it up.
The problem with mo-cap. It was weird for me watching the FFXV movie when it was doing that. Well, the whole FFXV franchise threw me off by how bad and convoluted it was.
Probably couldn't afford double the work for motion capture.
Great game so far. Combat is challenging but fair. I didn't go for the Kurosawa play mode but will on my second run through, really like that they put that in their, Japanese dialogue with English subtitles. It looks great. The parts of the island I've been in are beautiful. I've spent a decent amount of time just slowly trotting around on my horse and I'm usually a objective minded player. I loved old Samurai movies and this channel's that really well. Highly recommend this game.
As long as it's only out for wokestation4 it doesn't matter. Don't support fucking Sony if possible...
Game goes through all its content in the first act and becomes very repetitive. I'm on the final Act now and already I'm getting tired of the same old activities I have to do.
The game tries to go for scale in big battle moments but the engine can't put out that many characters on the screen so all the "epic" battles in the game feel weak as a result. The game does have a very fast loading system and fast travel is really quick compared to games like Fallen Order which had me wait for up to 90 seconds at times. I wish developers spent less time making bigger worlds and instead focused on making smaller, but more memorable worlds with excellent content.
I was thinking how developers at Naughty Dog spent three months on the rope physics (it's cool but you use a rope like 7 times in the game) and I just learned they created a breathing system for all the characters and enemies in the game that I never knew existed till I read an article about it.
Seems like programmers and designers are spending a lot of time in doing things they think is cool but has like zero impact in terms of the game. I get a feel of that from Ghost of Tsushima too at times, judging by the big map with barely enough content being repeated over and over again in an effort to pad out the game.
EDIT : I'd like to add that the duels are some of the best things about the game. I'm playing on Hard Mode and they are a lot of fun. The more resolve you have when you start the duel, the easier the fight becomes (I used the Ghost Stance to tear through one particular duel in Act 2) but it's when you fight with little to no resolve that the fight becomes really fun. I kept dying in one of the Mythic Tales (the six blades one) till I mastered the timing of all the attacks and was able to dodge attacks that needed to be dodged and parry what could be parried. Duels are really, really good. At no point do you feel they are cheap or unfair.