Support NeoGAF

[joey Dubs]

I have a dumb question about the PlayStation 5 version. Please don't be mean though, I avoided a lot of info about the game before launch so that I could avoid spoiling too much. I am not in a headspace for mean. :/

I am trying to rate the game on PlayStation 5.

Is there a time limit played before we can rate the game? Do we have to progress the story to a certain point, all in the interest of preventing a rate bomb? Or is my game just glitched?

I have a legitimate physical disc copy, and it is completely installed.
I have completed the prologue and went home.
I pressed Start on the game tile itself and went through that menu and all of those options.
I checked the View Product tab and it has the rating box prompt, but I don't own the digital version so obviously it won't let me rate through that.
I checked the ellipsis prompt and that also didn't lead to a rating prompt.

Thank you for any help! It's ultimately not a big deal, but I don't think I've encountered this before. The game tab has the rating box with over 8k ratings, too. I just don't know why i cannot rate the game.

 

[dok1or]

 

[GymWolf]

To each their own, I wouldn't have a problem with it besides being it too obvious. Would of liked a 6th sense kind of cliffhanger.

But to have a 6th sense type of cliffanger nobody should notice her like in the movie where they carefully craft bruce wilis interactions.

But in a game she has to interact with a shitload of people.

It could work as a zombie story...

 

[Luipadre]

How do you feel about motion blur? So far, whatever I tested looks significantly better without it at 60 fps. A lot of foliage detail gets lost as they are constantly moving. Seems to add value only at 30 fps or for screenshots.

Motion blur with 60 fps? Are you mad? It was the first thing i turned off

 

[Fabieter]

I

I have a legitimate physical disc copy, and it is completely installed.

Its sadly a digital only feature.

 

[Kronark]

This is perfectly understandable, and I'd argue, necessary.

I mean seriously….. how could you ever develop something the size of Mount Yōtei, integrating it seamlessly into the world around it while keeping its relative scale? I understand players' desire to have one open seamless world to explore in, but there's no way they could've created that thing in such a manner of gameplay as people are desiring.

Then don't put things that size in your open world game and certainly don't make them the visual focal point of every god damn trailer. That's all the mountain is at this point, a marketing gimmick. Other games solve this problem by scaling things to both feel immersive at a local scale while serving development budget. Somehow Ghost of Yotei had to go backwards in time 15 years and gate it's open world into sandboxes connected by narrow hallways.

Even putting the mountain aside I expected to at least be able to explore the hill tops between valleys because they made such a big fucking deal about the spyglass and natural discovery, but no they're untouchable too despite being a good way to get a vantage point. Hell I'm even more disappointed by the map now that I've fully explored the Yotei Grasslands, what a boring location. There's very little of interest to actually explore and anything of interest is the usual sprinkling of the same set of open world activities. I completely understand why they had to add horse speed up mechanics now because it'd be tedious as hell to navigate otherwise. Having the mountain in the background doesn't add to my experience, it just constantly reminds me I'm surrounded by walls.

 

[Gonzito]

I dont like that there are only two speeds for the horse. I can go either too fast or too slow.

 

[viveks86]

Having the mountain in the background doesn't add to my experience, it just constantly reminds me I'm surrounded by walls.

Sounds like a you problem, to be honest. The fact that just because they put a mountain in the game as a landmark, they should allow you to run all over it shows how you have become a slave to traditional open world design and want things served only one way. This has nothing to do with outdated design. What you are asking for was also done before 15 years. It's ok to not like something as we can all have different tastes, but your comments are getting to the point of armchair designing what an open world should even be.

 

[Bojji]

Bojji I can confirm that the in-game model is not being swapped on engaging photo mode. They are all identical. Also did a few RTGI tests without even going to photo mode:

This above shot showed the biggest difference below (pro quality mode vs RT Pro). In addition to the interior and model lighting differences, notice how even the lighting of exterior patches look brighter when standing in a shaded area (shot was about a second apart):

A more subtle example below. Aside from what DF/NX Gamer showed, notice changes in lighting on her clothes. It's drastic enough on her clothes that despite the 4k texture detail, quality mode looks too flat and harsh, like her clothes are missing sub surface scattering (though it's really just the light bounce making the difference). Also fixes the weird glow/leak in her left eye.

Field tests:

Biggest difference on Atsu's back and Shamisen. Getting lit properly without flat shadow.

A more dramatic effect on horse. Notice how the quality mode is slightly brighter outside (a few seconds apart in my shot), yet the horse has much darker and flat shadows. With RT pro, the horse lights up so beautifully as the whites reflect it so much. Also shout out to the fantastic texture work on the saddle. You can see how light behaves differently on the stirrups (footrest) as well

Not seeing noticeable change to the foliage itself when it's directly lit. Though I do see fog often behaving differently (reflect light more and blooms out). Need to test that more to be sure I'm not imagining it.

And the last comparison is of our favorite rock texture. I'm still in the opening area of the game, but it's not actually as bad as we thought it would be. Decent texture detail. RTGI softens up the flat, harsh shadows of quality mode quite nicely as well.

And one bonus shot of a thatched roof on RT Pro as that was apparently an exciting debate on that other graphics showdown thread:

More NPC testing tonight as I'm still way too early in the game. I'm so obsessed with photo mode that I'm yet to even start any main or side quest. Lol.

Very obvious differences here, RTGI improves closed spaces A LOT. This is good usage of PS5 Pro, RT and PSSR combo is what imagined would be happening when they announced it (so far not many games have RT).

I hope rest of Sony studios will start to use RT more often now.

 

[Skitso]

It's odd there's a lot of areas that you need to cut bamboo walls to reach but then there's Saito's men (or other people) inside this completely secluded area. It's completely not required (as a masked loading screen or anything) and just further highlights the gamey map design.

 

[Skitso]

Sounds like a you problem, to be honest. The fact that just because they put a mountain in the game as a landmark, they should allow you to run all over it shows how you have become a slave to traditional open world design and want things served only one way. This has nothing to do with outdated design. What you are asking for was also done before 15 years. It's ok to not like something as we can all have different tastes, but your comments are getting to the point of armchair designing what an open world should even be.

I do agree with Kronark to a degree. I prefer Tsushima's map where everything is 1:1 with natural borders. Yoteis more walled off areas feel more artificial and gamey - especially when you travel around the outer borders. I understand the reasons why it's done the way it is, but it doesn't make me like it. Love the game, but map design isn't it's strongest point for that reason.

 

[GooseMan69]

The open world is actually really good. Plenty of variety, and it all feels handcrafted. Not procedurally generated slop like AC Shadows (sorry, hard not to compare).

The companion side quests in Tsushima got obnoxious with how drawn out they were. The smaller bite sized activities and quests here are much better imo. It leads to much better pacing. I get on my horse and stuff just kinda happens. I'm not in the menus deciding what quest to do next.

 

[viveks86]

I do agree with Kronark to a degree. I prefer Tsushima's map where everything is 1:1 with natural borders. Yoteis more walled off areas feel more artificial and gamey - especially when you travel around the outer borders. I understand the reasons why it's done the way it is, but it doesn't make me like it. Love the game, but map design isn't it's strongest point for that reason.

That's fair. As I said, not liking a design is perfectly understandable. Some people hate open worlds altogether (or linear game altogether). I'm just pushing back on a claim that there should only be one way to make an open world going forward. Prancing about in a massive, uninhabited mountain for hours with nothing to do doesn't really make the actual game any better. As long as boundaries are drawn with a clear vision, I don't see an objective design issue. Even "full" open worlds eventually do have made up boundaries (like unclimbable mountains or oceans) as they aren't earth sized spherical maps you can go around.

 

[Skitso]

That's fair. As I said, not liking a design is perfectly understandable. Some people hate open worlds altogether (or linear game altogether). I'm just pushing back on a claim that there should only be one way to make an open world going forward. Prancing about in a massive, uninhabited mountain for hours with nothing to do doesn't really make the actual game any better. As long as boundaries are drawn with a clear vision, I don't see an objective design issue. Even "full" open worlds eventually do have made up boundaries (like unclimbable mountains or oceans) as they aren't earth sized spherical maps you can go around.

I think one of the reasons GTA games are always islands surrounded by water is that Rockstar doesn't want these artificial feeling borders in their games. Invisible walls or walls of impassable shrubbery just rubs some people the wrong way. In Witcher 3, CDPR made it work a lot better immersion wise: the map continued naturally without any clear walls but Geralt just turned back when the player ventured too far away from the playable area.

 

[GooseMan69]

I personally like the more sectioned open world. I just got to the Omi region and it has a totally distinct feel from the grasslands.

 

[Sethbacca]

Very obvious differences here, RTGI improves closed spaces A LOT. This is good usage of PS5 Pro, RT and PSSR combo is what imagined would be happening when they announced it (so far not many games have RT).

I hope rest of Sony studios will start to use RT more often now.

I haven't regretted my Pro puchase at all, but it is nice to finally see some actual proper support for it.

 

[viveks86]

I think one of the reasons GTA games are always islands surrounded by water is that Rockstar doesn't want these artificial feeling borders in their games. Invisible walls or walls of impassable shrubbery just rubs some people the wrong way. In Witcher 3, CDPR made it work a lot better immersion wise: the map continued naturally without any clear walls but Geralt just turned back when the player ventured too far away from the playable area.

I actually found that much more annoying in Witcher 3. Remember that in Destiny as well. Would start getting warnings and countdowns like a bomb was about to go off. lol. I think communicating the boundaries is always tricky and subjective. That's certainly valid criticism though, as opposed to criticizing having any boundaries at all

 

[GooseMan69]

I will say Mount Yotei is a bit disappointing. You can't go there organically and there's not much up there when you do go. Maybe they'll do more with it later in the game. I'll reserve judgement for now.

 

[viveks86]

Ha... I didn't know there was a Watanabe version of the main theme. Love it! May be this is what I'll switch to when I'm just walking around to take pictures.

 

[Skitso]

I actually found that much more annoying in Witcher 3. Remember that in Destiny as well. Would start getting warnings and countdowns like a bomb was about to go off. lol. I think communicating the boundaries is always tricky and subjective. That's certainly valid criticism though, as opposed to criticizing having any boundaries at all

Yeah, I never thought mt Yotei or all the vast land masses shown in the trailers were seamless playable space - that was clear from the beginning it wasn't feasible both technically or gameplay wise. What bugs be is the walled off feeling the used method gives me. If the border was more organic it would have been fine.

 

[viveks86]

I dont like that there are only two speeds for the horse. I can go either too fast or too slow.

Wish they used the full range of the analog stick to control run speed (or an analog trigger or something)

 

[SJRB]

If you open the map when it rains you can actually see drops of rain hitting the map inside the map menu.

That is pretty cool.

 

[Edgelord79]

Never said a female MC is a woke element, the ability to kill hundred of better trained and physcaly strong men on 1v1 combat is the woke element.

If a man is killing hundreds of other physically strong men in 1 v 1 combat it's unrealistic. If it's a woman it's "woke".

Seriously this whole thing is a fantasy anyhow.

Lots of "woke" games out there but this ain't one of them in any way. No preaching, no ideology, nothing.

 

[Embearded]

Never said a female MC is a woke element, the ability to kill hundred of better trained and physcaly strong men on 1v1 combat is the woke element.

That argument is pretty stupid.
Most things you do in games are totally unrealistic.

 

[Saiyan-Rox]

No one tell this guy about Ms Pacman.

Yeah but at least she's hot and wifey material

 

[DavidGzz]

Guys, I just went on a hike in Turkey Run in Indiana(actually did, just got here lol). I found a rock outcropping and could barely pull myself up. I'm a fit strong man. How is this woman, climbing up mountains like it's nothing. How is her grappling hook essentially teleporting to dead tree stumps? This game is so unrealistic. Refunded.

People arguing about realism in games always make me laugh.

 

[scydrex]

Very obvious differences here, RTGI improves closed spaces A LOT. This is good usage of PS5 Pro, RT and PSSR combo is what imagined would be happening when they announced it (so far not many games have RT).

I hope rest of Sony studios will start to use RT more often now.

I think this is the best usage of the PS5 Pro. There are some good ones like KCD2 and others but this one has the complete combo.

 

[PanzerAzel]

Then don't put things that size in your open world game and certainly don't make them the visual focal point of every god damn trailer. That's all the mountain is at this point, a marketing gimmick. Other games solve this problem by scaling things to both feel immersive at a local scale while serving development budget. Somehow Ghost of Yotei had to go backwards in time 15 years and gate it's open world into sandboxes connected by narrow hallways.

Even putting the mountain aside I expected to at least be able to explore the hill tops between valleys because they made such a big fucking deal about the spyglass and natural discovery, but no they're untouchable too despite being a good way to get a vantage point. Hell I'm even more disappointed by the map now that I've fully explored the Yotei Grasslands, what a boring location. There's very little of interest to actually explore and anything of interest is the usual sprinkling of the same set of open world activities. I completely understand why they had to add horse speed up mechanics now because it'd be tedious as hell to navigate otherwise. Having the mountain in the background doesn't add to my experience, it just constantly reminds me I'm surrounded by walls.

Scaling a 6,200 foot high mountain would be difficult, and there's a line to be drawn in scale, otherwise you risk either breaking immersion, or making a mockery of the relative scale of the other parts of the world if you don't. You're also wasting developmental resources and time in crafting something that the majority of players won't even bother exploring, or would find it boring and irrelevant to the central conceit of the game if they did.

What they should have done would be to have a trail leading up to the mountain and granting the player the illusion of its immense size towering over them, and then using cloud layers to partition sections that would retain the appearance of size and seamless continuity while ascending in two-three stages by a few thousand feet at a time, until the summit was reached. I think most would have been alright with that, as it would have retained the sense of scale while affording relevant gameplay in being able to actually climb to the top.....but to demand an entire mountain be created (even scaled down by half) and explorable is completely absurd. It wouldn't work for gameplay, it wouldn't interest the player in the gameplay it afforded, and it would, again, make a mockery of the open world that existed at its feet while affording nothing of value except to take up dead space.

Personally, I love the open world construct and vast, flat plains. I find it far more grounded and believable than Tsushima's world.....it grants scale, is beautiful in its vistas, is less "gamey" and artificial, and has a certain serenity I appreciate. To each their own, though.

 

[TheMan]

If I have the itch to play this but I never even finished Tsushima, is there any reason to get this instead of just playing what I have?

 

[Sethbacca]

If I have the itch to play this but I never even finished Tsushima, is there any reason to get this instead of just playing what I have?

It's mostly more of the same with improvements, so I guess it depends on whether or not you think you'll get any value out of it. If it's just FOMO go play Tsushima for a while.

 

[Chuck Berry]

If you open the map when it rains you can actually see drops of rain hitting the map inside the map menu.

That is pretty cool.

Alright now I'm sold

 

[YCoCg]

 

[Nocty]

If I have the itch to play this but I never even finished Tsushima, is there any reason to get this instead of just playing what I have?

it is better in every way imaginable.

 

[Fabieter]

If I have the itch to play this but I never even finished Tsushima, is there any reason to get this instead of just playing what I have?

Fomo is a bitch. I know her really well. I bought hell is us but iam not in the mood for that game rn so iam kind of on the fence as well but I know its just fomo.

 

[ShaiKhulud1989]

5 hours in and for me it's a perfect sequel, bar secondary NPCs facial animations.

On PS5 Pro it looks stunning, directors modes are nuanced and really stylish and way more than a simple gimmick. I can totally see my second playthroug in Kurosawa mode, tbh. Atmosphere of frontier is top-notch and Atsu is, really, surprisingly well-crafted protagonist and not some silly mary sue.

The flow of the game is maybe the strongest point. Everything just feels so... Natural? Combat, crafting, traversal, side content, map exploration... It just flows and I'm finding myself very rarely using menus or map at all.

Some screenshots from PS5 Pro 60fps RT mode.

 

[adamsapple]

Topher

Got my copy today, Gamefly is on FIRE this year with 2-day deliveries. I hope they continue this shit for the foreseeable future.

-


Also, isn't modern gaming fantastic? Insert disc, now wait 1 whole hour before starting the game. For many people, they can probably just download the fucking thing faster than this.

 

[Nocty]

eating some ramen, burning some good ass incense and playing this on a friday night. Vibe like hell boys

 

[Luipadre]

5 hours in and for me it's a perfect sequel, bar secondary NPCs facial animations.

On PS5 Pro it looks stunning, directors modes are nuanced and really stylish and way more than a simple gimmick. I can totally see my second playthroug in Kurosawa mode, tbh. Atmosphere of frontier is top-notch and Atsu is, really, surprisingly well-crafted protagonist and not some silly mary sue.

The flow of the game is maybe the strongest point. Everything just feels so... Natural? Combat, crafting, traversal, side content, map exploration... It just flows and I'm finding myself very rarely using menus or map at all.

Some screenshots from PS5 Pro 60fps RT mode.

Yes the gameplay flow is exceptional. Its an organic open world where you play 99.9% of the time and going through menus 0.1% of the time. Wish they did something with the secondary conversations and "cutscenes" because that part feels like a AA production while everything else is immaculate

Game is gonna take a while. Im 14 hours in, only 20% main story and 1.5 maps discovered out of 5?

 

[Topher]

Topher

Got my copy today, Gamefly is on FIRE this year with 2-day deliveries. I hope they continue this shit for the foreseeable future.

-


Also, isn't modern gaming fantastic? Insert disc, now wait 1 whole hour before starting the game. For many people, they can probably just download the fucking thing faster than this.

 

[Bojji]

Topher

Got my copy today, Gamefly is on FIRE this year with 2-day deliveries. I hope they continue this shit for the foreseeable future.

-


Also, isn't modern gaming fantastic? Insert disc, now wait 1 whole hour before starting the game. For many people, they can probably just download the fucking thing faster than this.

But at least you can still sell this thing and game is YOURS, not just some license. Not to mention prices:

vs.

I can live with long ass installs. Disc drive for PS5 Pro pays for itself after few games.

 

[adamsapple]

I guess it helps that I'm in Virginia, which is pretty close to the Pittsburg, PA fulfillment center.

I was looking up some info on Reddit and apparently for folks who live in Pittsburg, they just get the same delivered the same day they ship.

But at least you can still sell this thing and game is YOURS, not just some license. Not to mention prices:

vs.

I can live with long ass installs. Disc drive for PS5 Pro pays for itself after few games.

Oh yeah, I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Digital sales are few and far between and new games, like Yotei, aren't getting any reasonable discounts until Holiday '26 at the earliest.

 

[DavidGzz]

Flow is a good word for it. It feels better than any other open world RPG I can think of. Hard to put down. Also, I hadn't played my PS5 Pro is so long I had forgotten about the feature where you can turn your TV or PS5 on and it automatically turns on the other and puts the TV on the right input. That and the suspend feature makes it really easy to jump in here and there.

 

[viveks86]

I think this is the best usage of the PS5 Pro. There are some good ones like KCD2 and others but this one has the complete combo.

I think they could have done more with the pro RT 30 fps mode. May be added RT reflections or shadows as I still see shadow pop-in. Or even multi-bounce RTGI instead of single bounce so it travels further into closed spaces.

Now that I've said that, may be I should do some testing on that mode too. Given even DF and NXGamer couldn't bother to look for more examples, I wouldn't be surprised if something significant was overlooked.

 

[Skifi28]

I really like the exploration so far, has to be one of the better examples on how to do open world games. I don't know how it'll be after 20 hours, but for now it's very organic. the way you randomly meet NPCs and they open up main or side quests. Just your random travelling merchant or group or ronin out to kill you will have a small cutscene with bespoke dialogue that will open up something. It's also nice when you are given a choice, I personally went for the Odachi before anything else. I hope we can stop putting this in the Ubisoft design camp, they really tried to do something different.

 

[Karim]

Topher

Got my copy today, Gamefly is on FIRE this year with 2-day deliveries. I hope they continue this shit for the foreseeable future.

-


Also, isn't modern gaming fantastic? Insert disc, now wait 1 whole hour before starting the game. For many people, they can probably just download the fucking thing faster than this.

Think for a second to play on Series X. You will find such long loading time a marvelous experience. I promise you.

 

[adamsapple]

Think for a second to play on Series X. You will find such long loading time a marvelous experience. I promise you.

 

[Karim]

 

[Zathalus]

Even though your comment was about console disc installs in general, it could still be interpreted as being slightly negative to the PS5 which is a big no-no for some.

 

[Karim]

Even though your comment was about console disc installs in general, it could still be interpreted as being slightly negative to the PS5 which is a big no-no for some.

 

[Zathalus]

Then why bring up the Series X? Nobody was talking about it all until you decided to mention it for some reason. It has zero relevance in this thread.