Ghost of Tsushima

Got the platinum. The ending of the game was powerful,
This game could have done with more time in the oven though. It's buggy. I remember when they announced it went gold thinking that it was rather early and I was right. I usually don't mind buying Sony first party titles at release because they're always polished but looks like Sucker Punch can be excluded from that list. Wasted quite a bit of time trying to find where a certain banner was, as my traveller's gear kept buzzing like mad indicating I was upon it. When I saw it was stuck in an NPC's back and i could't pull it out that's when I stopped attempting to find them all. Oh, and when I fast travelled that NPC had moved, taking the banner with him to goodness knows where lol. Silly stuff like that is easy to fix when you don't rush releases, no excuse for it really.

The game is also a bit too in love with its look - the constant black bar cut scenes for every NPC conversation grew wearisome. The weather and day night cycles are too frequent in order to show off and the constant thunder almost feels broken. I feel some of us are in agreement over the overbearing wind mechanic. I have a feeling there will be a patch that gives you settings to tone it down upon player feedback.

There have certainly been superior open world games in the past few years. It's not as good as Horizon Zero Dawn, for instance, which has a far more engaging story and lore. I can totally see why someone could drop this early. However, it is the relaxing nature of it that enabled me to get lost in it's world for hours and hours. Pretty much every side activity is designed to chill you out. The devs recognised that in an open world ravaged by war with depressing images and stories on every turn these moments are a welcome reprieve.

I loved composing haikus and feeling proud or disappointed in my poem. I liked testing my memory of the ps4 controller by cutting down bamboos. I liked scaling mountain puzzles to reach the shrines. I liked going to hidden shrines and bowing to see the mystical effect it would give. I would be racing to my next side quest objective only to stop my horse to go to a dead body on the ground and pay my respects. That's the mark of a game that immerses you. It's the little things. You know the expression death by a thousand cuts? Well, this game is orgasm by a thousand little kisses.

And the idea that unless you're going for platinum you don't have to do any of that is so powerful. They put content in the game that you can actually miss. There are NPC interactions and activities that aren't ever marked on the map and are not part of any side quests. You have to listen to the NPC calling Jin's name then run up to them to discover you can even talk to them. So if you're getting bored of the open world fluff then just play it as a linear campaign and only do side activities if you need to get certain upgrades.

Outside of story missions, I felt like I had many choices as to how to approach encounters. The fact that you could roll under a house mid combat to lose enemies at the other side of it then climb up on the roof and chain air assassinate them as you throw a smoke bomb is awesome. You're not limited as to what actions you can perform in certain statuses. You don't have to get into position to air assassinate an NPC if the prompt is not appearing, you can jump and press assassinate mid air. Stuff like this seems so basic but you'd be surprised how many open world games limit what you can do contextually.

The combat in general is very satisfying and fair and every hit has an impact whether given or taken. When you perform a move really well the game lets you know it by slowing down time, feels so badass. I actually wanted to master the combat against every enemy type even though with the lower level enemies I could have easily one shot them. I would regularly refresh my memory on the stances upgrades just so I could get the best out of each stance.

There are some bugs with the combat upgrades though - there are certain blue attacks that can be parried upon a certain upgrade but some of them still seem to register as unblockable despite showing blue. You kind of work out which blue attacks are not going to be parried but they need to fix that.

Also some tips:

- Fast travelling fully replenishes health so if you have no resolve left and you're low on health just fast travel somewhere. Alternatively, if upgraded you can drop a few smoke bombs to heal you.

- Don't forget to collect your gifts. I didn't find out about the gifts system until late game and I had so many! These gifts are often very useful such as supplies and other rare items used for upgrading.

- Don't sell items. It's not worth it.

- The leader in a camp is typically the big guy training with himself.

- Make sure you take full advantage of your charms. They essentially make up for any shortcomings of your chosen outfit. I chose the traveller outfit for the majority of my playthrough which is the weakest one and got through most boss fights with it just by equipping the right charms.

- If you don't like the aesthetic of your outfit upgrade, you can down downgrade the look while retaining the upgraded perks.

- Some activities like haikus are part of quests so don't be frustrated if you're not finding them all.

- It is always better to lose a standoff by being too slow rather than being too fast. If you're too slow you only lose a little health. If you're impatient you're left in a near death state. In short, when facing an enemy in a standoff who has some good bluffs don't rush. Always let them attack first no matter what.

Lastly, IMO the best way to play GOT is to simply run around and explore. When you see a yellow bird follow it, when you see smoke in the distance go to it, when you see a speech bubble above an NPC's head talk to them. I think that's probably why it didn't feel so repetitive to me as it did for others. I didn't think about all the things I'll probably need to do, I just went wherever the wind would take me so to speak. Oh, and try not to liberate the entire island right away as clearing camps and forts pop question marks all over the place so you'll just be overwhelmed.


Overall, a good game. I'd wait for a slight price drop just because of the bugs but if you want to buy it now I'd say it's worth it.

Temptamperu wrote: »

What about the stuff i'm fully upgraded on? I got tonnes of Bow and sword materials just sitting there.

The game gives you more tools and armour each time you progress so unless you're sure you've got all equipment you'd be selling things you might need later.