Ghost of Tsushima

It really looks ludicrously bland to me. Other than sheer technical polish (which is a given with first party releases these days) nothing about it looks appealing. I’m always willing to be proven wrong on something I haven’t played, but would take some seriously stellar feedback to even get me on the fence in the first place.

Also, for a game boasting of a ‘black & white Kurosawa filter’, it looks or sounds nothing like classic samurai cinema from what I’ve seen. This is only notable because they’ve gone so out of their way to insist it is. Just looks more like The Last Samurai (bland, Hollywood-ised take on Japanese culture) than anything from actual Japanese cinema. But hey that’s something hard to properly get out of trailers - just think the whole mystical otherness vibe they’re going for so far seems very silly.

You’re a ‘good samurai’ who also ninja invades bases stealth-killing folk :pac:

As I’ve said before, and this is an aside from this particular game, seems to me like there’s lots of potential in a straight-up samurai sim without all the fantastical flourishes, ninja action etc... Things like the sly trickery and small-town faction dynamics of Yojimbo; the battle planning and muddy brawling of Seven Samurai; the bloody, visually stunning action of Lone Wolf and Cub (this seems to have some of that at least!); the political and moral murkiness of Hara-Kiri; the lively, unpredictable ensemble-work of Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji. There’s a lot of potential there for something that doesn’t feel like it has to be a big, sprawling AAA game. Something that can remain relatively grounded and human, without delving into mystical superheroics. Combat that’s very rare but impactful and meaningful.

And no Retr0, Way of the Samurai doesn’t count when it has a character with the surname ‘Megamelons’