Ghost of Tsushima

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

Maxing stances doesn't help outside of avoiding getting hit (Auto parry on spear guys is pretty useful). It just keeps you on an even playing field. Now that you're in Act II you'll start to notice it. Shield and Spears, and eventually sword guys will start staggering you before you can fully break their guard to land strikes, by Act III they'll parry too. Even with a broken guard they'll recover faster. I was heavy on the smoke bombs like you at your point, but after a while I did a lot of Bow and Blowguns to thin out crowds. Kunai are always handy as well as you've noted. The blowgun is the single best weapon in the game. In act 2 there is a middle grassland and an area in the northwest to farm the darts, by Act III they're everywhere. The hallucination darts are what I was talking bout earlier. Pop a spear guy and he'll single handedly take out 3-4 other guys.

I recorded this after a few runs of this happening.

The real ease comes from the mythic abilities being able to be performed in duels. Once you get Heavenly Strike and Dance of Wrath, you can basically just go easy mode and open up with a lot of damage, pocket a few resolve in case you need to heal and when they're low enough pop them again and finish it. Things become even easier when you get Way of the Flame and the final stance of the game half way through Act II. If you go into a showdown fully loaded, its over in seconds... mechanics need not apply. Way of the Flame can't be blocked like the others and it uses ammo instead of resolve. So you can just mercilessly brutalize the opponent. I'd pop one, get regular strikes in, and pop the next when their guard returned. It's extremely busted tbh, but it does make you feel super powerful. It doesn't bother me like it will probably some people that like challenge.

Edit: Yeah I felt the same way as you did and picked that ending. You're feelings will be even more validated after you take the second castle.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

I got platinum on this game. It's only the second game I've ever gotten all the trophies for. Thats how a feel about it in the end.

[slippers 3,168]

i ordered it this monday (under $60) and got my new copy just yesterday in mail. it arrived fast considering it was estimated 2-3 wks delivery time. i was surprised that price dropped pretty quick too bc i was tempted to order it when it was like $120..several days after its launch day..thinking itll take forever to drop its price like how ff7 remake sellers tried to screw ppl w/ price gouging for over a month. good thing i was occupied with other games and waited a week otherwise i wouldve been mad lol. i only played for like 15 mins so far. so far so good

[slippers 3,168]

funny thing..fresh out of a shark game at the start i put on a full samurai armor and started swimming along the coast as soon as i saw the open sea. after 30 mins in, i realized jin cant drown lol..unless you drift far far away from land and it starts 30 sec countdown. those water tides and waves looked awesome from a cliff but i couldnt figure out how to work the damn camera so i didnt get any snapshots

beat the game yesterday but i ended up rushing it bc all the side missions are same and repetitive. basically you go to point a and b and kill all bandits and mongols..rinse & repeat. at first i was experimenting with all 4 fighting stances so it was fun, but enemies are scattered around the map and even at camps, it was hard to get them attention to attack me if they stood somewhat far away. i rarely used any ghost weapons bc it felt like cheating and towards the end i only stuck with a stone stance cause that was more challenging. it would have been great too if jin could learn to use mongol weapons like spear and shield. i liked the main story, especially fueding with straw hats and storming in to take back shimura castle but i just stopped caring about side characters like masako or warrior monk storylines and i didnt complete them all. despite that i had more than enough tech points so upgrading skill trees wasnt that hard. i also have made my mind about jins uncle early on so it wasnt a difficult choice when it came to make end decision

i was somewhat disapponted at its lack of monetary system (flowers? really?) and hunting was pretty much useless too. i know they were in war and game seems to  only focused on fighting but even gold was used for mere sword and armor upgrade so it felt somewhat incomplete. it would also have been nice if they had taverns/inns so day and night actually meant something bc jin didnt eat nor sleep. overall i liked it, if i have time ill play again and not try to rush it. well worth the money

 

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

So I finally beat it (yea I know, Strider bringing up the rear but I wanted to really enjoy it and Platinum it (which I did)). Have to hand it to Sucker Punch, this was a hell of a game. Probably my second favorite story behind Detroit (yea yea Nier was a great story, a fantastic story but Detroit was just so much better (for me, granted I know a lot of people had differing opinions on it)) though there are a few areas I found it lacking (just little gripes, mostly with how Jin's treated (hypocritical as fuck considering Samurai were just as devious and underhanded historically, even worse than Jin in some cases (though I'm not 100% sure I agree with the Act II finale shenanigans (not going to ruin it for Sledge) but I understand why it happened). I will say this that finale though was spectacular even if that final fight with the Khan was underhanded and while I still disagree with Shimura's treatment of Jin that whole end sequence is fucking heart wrenching (yea you know what ending I chose). Again though my favorite part of the story was watching Jin come to terms with what he was becoming and what he had to do to save his people. Act II was the real turning point for his character and it was really great watching him finally settle into his role (and if there was any reason I'd give to play this game it would be that. Jin's progression as a character is by far the best part of this game and is a wonderful arc).

Spoiler

God damnit SP why you have to do my bro Taka like that. Fucking christ that was rough to watch. Cried some manly tears I did. Don't worry Taka, I gutted that motherfucker for you.

Also what the hell, you're just going to up and kill Kage like that. That horse was like my brother man and you just up and kill him. God damnit SP not cool, not cool. Granted I now have Kaze but still no cool.

Combat wise this was a blast. As I said before it's punishing until you master the basic combat fundamentals. Quite honestly I don't agree with the massive difficulty spike between Act's I and II (was kinda eye opening how powerful enemies became in the matter of one tale) but I was disappointed by the lack of difficulty in Act III (granted it wasn't a complete cake walk but considering the jump between I and II I was expecting III to be harder than it was). I guess you can chock that up to being comfortable and more familiar with the combat system but once you get Ghost Stance the game is practically easy mode (especially if you wear the fully upgraded Ghost Armor). Three guaranteed kills with a 25% chance to scare other enemies is broken as fuck (and I generally terrified 3 mongols on average every time I used Ghost Stance making liberating areas a cake walk). I gave up on being stealthy toward the end and just bum rushed into combat. I still had fun don't get me wrong but I guess I just wanted more challenge (hell the so called most difficult duel in the game was a cake walk, two shotted him no problem). Plus once you max Wind stance spear guys are a joke. Really wishing I would of known that in the beginning, I'd of just maxed it as soon as I unlocked it (yea I didn't read the upgrades right away, I was more interested in being stealth ninja man and upgrading my Ghost weapons).

I really enjoyed the side quests with your four (five if you count Kenji) main supporting NPC's. Very interesting and rather personal tales that fit in well with the story as a whole. As a whole I really enjoyed Masako and Norio's tales the most (with Masako's being my favorite. Hey I like crazy old ladies with a vendetta apparently) but Yuna's probably had my favorite part (I won't say what but I'm sure you can guess). Overall I thought all the other tales were rather interesting but like slippers said a lot of them get repetitive and after awhile it becomes a chore to do them (much like liberating areas) and the mythic tales were quite interesting though I fail to see the need for some of them (I really don't see the need for the flaming sword one, while cool that tale was a bitch to complete).

I give it a 9/10 (would be a 10/10 if it wasn't for some of the choices they made with the story) and like I said earlier I'd give this my Game of the Year if it wasn't for the fact Cyberpunk is coming out this year. Well that and the remaster of Kingdoms of Amalur coming out next month (probably one of my favorite games of the PS3/360 generation). Overall though a thoroughly enjoyable game well deserving of the hype it received. SP made a very rare gem in this rather bland era of gaming history and I tip my hat to them. Now to see what this new co-op mode brings to the game this fall (what with it's supernatural theme and whatnot).

Edited August 30, 2020 by Strider Hiryu

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

I think when reviewers said there was no real jump in difficulty they meant the transition from II to III. from I to II was a bit of an adjustment, probably depending on where you were on upgrades. But by Act III, I had all my weapons maxed, almost all the stances and skills (I didn't spend a single technique point on the guiding winds until the end), and I had my charms set up for healing and resolve regen. I could easily pop a Dance of Wrath or Heavenly Strike in a fight and regain the resolve back easily. It was a double edge sword of "this is too easy now" and "damn I'm a fucking monster". It felt satisfying but at the same time it diminished some of the showdowns at the end. I agree about the flame sword. That was the only time I really got frustrated with the game. The Uchitsune quest was my favorite Mythic Quest from the searching to the actual visuals of the duel. They set the bar so high for that one, the rest of them were kind of a letdown. Yarikawa's Vengeance would have looked better if they would have kept the firefly visuals you saw walking too it. The showdown in the cave with the floating candles looked nice too... but nothing touched Uchitsune.... not even close.

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

I was kitted for full on damage, health gain, and stealth (those two up-gradable charms you get from the Inari shrines are broken). I was two shotting enemies like they were nothing in the end (and if I was wearing the Sakai Clan armor I was damn near just insta-killing people). With that I had no problem gaining resolve since I was literally decimating people left and right (once I got sprinting slash I felt bad for archers, bastards just dropped dead and I sprinted by them). I guess for me I was fully upgraded on everything come the end of Act II so I guess that would make Act III a cake walk (fully upgraded sword, fully upgraded Sakai Clan armor, maxed out stance trees and ghost weapons) but I still wish there was a noticeable increase in difficulty. Than again not everyone plays a game like I do and actively seeks to make sure they're in top form before beating an area (80% of my gameplay is just me searching for charms, supplies, and anything else to give me an edge in battle (and with the Charm of the Inari it was a cake walk to have enough supplies to upgrade everything by the end of Act II (gold was the only issue since it's linked to liberation areas))).

Out of all the Mythic quests Uchitsune, Heavenly Strike, and Yarikawa's Vengeance were my favorite just on their visuals alone (and lets face it in a game littered with amazing visuals topping the standard is rather hard and they did it). See I hated the duel in the cave as I couldn't see shit and while the ambience was cool after I beat Kojiro I couldn't find my way out of the blasted cave (pissed me off, spent almost 5 minutes searching for the exit (might need to tweak my brightness settings on my TV)).

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

12 minutes ago, Strider Hiryu said:

 See I hated the duel in the cave as I couldn't see shit and while the ambience was cool after I beat Kojiro I couldn't find my way out of the blasted cave (pissed me off, spent almost 5 minutes searching for the exit (might need to tweak my brightness settings on my TV)).

Yeah... I just turn up the brightness on the game way more than "the icon is barely visible" I'm not down with the almost blind vibe anymore in areas that are suppose to be dark.