Topic: Ghost of Tsushima OT II

@JohnnyShoulder Yeah, I would compare it to AC Origins as well, with better combat, a tighter narrative and side quest structure, and less bloat. Of course I say this when I’m only still in Act 1. And I think it’s easier to draw the comparison due to similar historical settings. I wonder if the long-standing complaint that Assassins Creed games would be better off if they ditched the modern day storyline played into Sucker Punch’s approach. Fans have repeatedly suggested that the games would be better to just stay in the historical time period. Here we basically have that type of game.

@Th3solution Yeah the only other games apart from Origins I'm thinking off while playing it really is Zelda: BOTW, The Witcher 3 and Horizon Zero Dawn.

I think I preferred the side quests in AC Origins slighty, but i did not play it for a year after I initially started it. After finishing the story in Origins I did start to try and clear the map, but eventually got sick of the gameplay loop, so decided to stop before my overall enjoyment of the game declined too much. I don't feel that will be the same with this as I've already cleared the first two regions, so already feels like far less bloat than Origins.

I understand the comparisons between Ghost and the newer Assassin's Creed games. But I actually stopped playing Odyssey while I was cleaning up the last trophies to play Ghost, and then I went back to Odyssey, and lemme tell you kids, going back to Odyssey after Ghost of Tsushima SUCKS.

@johncalmc I felt like that after I played BOTW and wanted every developer to incorporate the climbing into their games.

@JohnnyShoulder I know everyone loves the Breath of the Wild climbing but I don't love the Breath of the Wild climbing.

@JohnnyShoulder From what I’ve seen, the stances are similar to Nioh’s so in a sense it really is just like Nioh x Assassin’s Creed.

@nessisonett When do you think you'll get around to playing it? I've only just started it, so we might be able to play at the same time, conceivably

@nessisonett Not as fast paced as Nioh, and with GoT you really do need to switch stances to effectively fight the different types of enemies. In Nioh you could effectively play the game without switching stance. I mean it would be dumb to do so, but you could.

@Draco_V_Ecliptic When I have the money so probably the end of next month. I think I’ll use Shopto and get some vouchers so I can pick up TLOU2 at the same time, I did enjoy the first one and I fancy something linear I can blast through.

@nessisonett The protagonist is said to be trans isn't she? Do you know if that's been verified? (In TLOU2) it would certainly add an unusual flair to the game if that were the case.

@Draco_V_Ecliptic That was all a weird hoax perpetuated by a group of very silly people with somewhat spiteful intentions. Lev is trans though.

Back on topic, I really appreciate how hardly anything is gated off by your level, it is all unlocked by doing story missions. At the start I just went off exploring and not once did I feel that I was underpowered. Sure I still got my ass handed to me on times, but that was more down to my inexperience with the game.

I’m continuing to really enjoy the game and the great balance of exploration, story content, and combat.

I’ve consigned myself to the fact that I’m pretty bad at the combat. I died many times on my last session. Mostly because I let myself get overwhelmed by enemies and got stabbed in the back with a spear while I was dueling with a swordsman. I have discovered that in spite of the fact that I used some of my earliest skill points in leveling up my parry, Jin doesn’t parry an attack to which his back is turned. It appears that you need to be facing the enemy to parry or defend the attack, so it does no good to just spam the L1 button when you’re in a crowd. You have to watch your back. I died several times learning this. Most games will have the character block attacks from all angles if you hold the defensive button, but this is more realistic.

Still, like @JohnnyShoulder says, my deaths are not so much because I wandered into an area with enemies that are over my level, rather because I am not very skilled at the mechanics yet. I’m sure as I acquire more skill points it will become easier to take on speared enemies and groups, but they are all beatable even now with my low level.

I also learned that you can get credit for both sneaking into a camp and observing the Mongol leader (with the R2 button while hidden), as well as for killing him. I was stoked that it counted for two points toward my next stance to do both to the same leader.

For the first time I also felt a little bit of Infamous while I was doing some of the platforming at a shrine. It felt vaguely like Delsin as I was running and hopping about. Not a bad thing, just an observation. I hadn’t really felt like this game resembled Sucker Punch’s previous work until last night.

Also, can someone confirm — what exactly do the yellow birds lead you to? Most of the time I follow them they have taken me to a hot springs, but last night I followed one and it just took me to a marker where a quest begins, and another time it just took me to a random abandoned forge where there was a lot of pick ups but nothing else I could find. I searched the place high and low and all I found was iron, linens, supplies, etc. and no quests, shrines, Fox dens, hot springs, or the like. Do they just lead you to a point of random interest?

@Th3solution Yeah the yellow birds take you to any point of interest. You will know when you are there as it will land near close to whatever it is, if you have followed it correctly.

If you want to get a bit better at parrying I would advise not to just spam the button as this will only get you so far. Try to get the timing right, it shouldn't take that long to get some practice in and you are certainly not short of opportunities to either.

I had upgraded Jin fully by the time I reached Act 3 so I'm not getting any technique points (or anything towards being rewarded them) from any fights or completing missions. I had almost liberated the first two areas though.

@Th3solution I found parrying hard at first. Two things that helped is that trying a perfect parry is about hitting the button and timing but you can hold down parry and largely deflect an attack and I THINK (but don't quote me on that), if you are not being attacked from the front, then you can deflect an attack from behind. Also some other tips I found was to use your Kunai if you are being rushed because you can normally halt all attackers - very useful if getting charged by a brute and a spear wielder at the same time.

Other than that - do put points into different stances as you get them. The Brute one in particular, as you progress makes a huge different as it means you can interrupt their red flashing attacks with triangle rather than get walloped all over the place (as I was).

Sword upgrades are good to as they make killing minions quicker and I found more useful than the Ghost stabby stab stab little sword.

As for yellow birds, I have had a few times they have led me places and I wasnt sure what was there but I have found that there can be stuff such as banners or other collectibles hidden. For example, I was led to a large templte and had to climb to the top and found a banner thing.

Glad you are enjoying it. I am still in Act 2 and have almost cleared everything in the area so far except for some story missions.

@JohnnyShoulder Yeah, I’ve never been particularly good at parrying. I actually am annoyed by the mechanic in most games. I’m getting better at the timing of it in GoT, but I still stink. I’m playing on medium difficulty and the perfect parry window seems pretty tight. I find I’m more successful at roll/dodging, which I abused ad nauseaum in Bloodborne to survive that game. The problem with dodge here is you roll so far away that you’re too far to counter attack most of the time. I guess I need to level up my dodge tree because I think there’s a counter attack skill there. But if I do that then I might rely on it too much and I should be perfecting my parry timing. 😅

@Rudy_Manchego Yeah, I think I tried experimenting with the “push L1 to block/ parry with my back turned to him” technique and it wasn’t successful. But it could have been an unblockable attack, so I don’t know. I thought the blue glinted attacks were blockable and the red ones were not, but blue attacks were getting through my defenses last night. Perhaps you have to do a perfect timed parry to deflect a blue one?

Good to know about checking roofs at points of interest though. And I’ll be sure to level up my stances as I’ve been ignoring those so far.

@Th3solution I think and I could be wrong that you do have to parry the blue ones but could be talking rubbish. I just button mash!

blue attacks do indeed need a perfect parry to counter. it's a skill you need to unlock though.

@LN78
Yeah there was either 17 or 18 in the second area, and the trophy unlocked straight away for me. I still had one or two to do in the first two areas by the time I got into act 3, but don't remember if any were hidden for me, but i do not think so. It could be an area is still clouded over, I'm finding that now in the third area.