Ghost of Yotei |OT| Jin there, done that
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WellSheet
Member
I did say subjectivity was rife the line before I listed these games.
Also, I found Cyberpunk to have really engaging side quests with good stories, loot/gear and fun world to explore with a lot of gameplay options.
viveks86
Member
Exactly how I'm playing it. Golden Bird disabled. Not purchasing any maps from the map maker. Even if he shows up at my camp, I feed him some fish and send him packing. Approaching 40 hours and using only the spyglass and NPC hints. Have come across several side missions and bounties without even knowing they were side missions or bounties.
There isn't the open world complexity of RDR where you do one thing and that leads to another thing etc. But the sense of discovery is certainly there, very much akin to Elden Ring. Our experiences of the world will be entirely different. This was impossible with GoT, because of the constant gating by main story, repetition and drip feed.
Cracked me up when I was trying to fast travel from a location and everything was disabled. I got a prompt that I can't fast travel while in combat. I was like "WTF. I'm NOT in combat. What is happening?" I turned around and those fuckers were just standing there silently, waiting for me.
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Kurotri
Member
I'm done. 52 hours. Wall of text time!
Anyway, some gripes here and there but overall, massive improvement over Tsushima which was already an instant classic to me personally. If I were to give Tsushima an 8, this would get something like...an 8.7 or something? Not quite a 9, that's too high. I've started to think like a games journalist to my shame.
- Great open world design. Not only is it beautiful to look at thanks to the art team's efforts, but it is also designed well. You do not get bombarded with quest markers or huge logs and what have you, instead it builds on Tsushima's foundations by having the wind carry you to all sorts of places. On your travels, you constantly get distracted and the game has a variety of content, big and small practically "hidden" behind all sorts of places that you would miss if you do not let your curiosity guide you. If you do, you will be rewarded. There's all sorts of encounters you can expect. Beyond that, content sometimes comes *to* you, in the way of NPCs hitting you up on your campfire, or randomly shouting your name throughout the world and asking for a favour. The game is FILLED with content, and most (not all) of it is pretty neat. Nothing extraordinary, but there's some good food here, namely some of the "legends" quests. Those who played Tsushima know what I'm talking about. It is surprising to me how content filled this game is despite the setting being relatively....sparse looking? It's not set in Edo or anything and yet there's so much stuff to see. Sucker Punch figured this shit out.
- Combat. Easily one of the most satisfying combat systems in today's gaming landscape. It's simple, crisp, fun and satisfying. Mixed with decent animation work and great sound design it makes for a fun experience. To me, if a game has a combat system that constantly has me wanting to actually engage with it, that means you delivered on it. They also managed to build on the foundation of stances by having you switch weapons which worked better than I expected.
- Organized layouts! Your view isn't cluttered, your map is easy to read, your questlog are some beautiful cards that automatically open on the side when you open up the map. Everything in this game is neatly organized and well structured.
- Music. One of the most important aspects to me in any game, and I was a little disappointed at first that they didn't bring back the duo from Tsushima, but my worries were unfounded. It's fantastic and totally fits with the cowboy-esque/Kill Bill vibe they got going throughout the entire game from A to Z. I played the game mostly after work, and it was so relaxing to hear some of that calm music while following a shrine trail.
- You know what I love in a game? When story and gameplay systems are neatly intertwined. The whole game is about hunting. You hunt the murderers of your family. The entirety of this game is focused on that, you hunt bounties, your legend of the Onryo grows with every kill, you do anything and everything for coin since you are a lonely mercenary. There's no distractions in that regard, you need to finance yourself. Weapons, armor, it's all there to aid your hunt. Some might say "well duh?" but I just like to see small things like this make sense.
- The romantic view of Japan as a setting. This is the base, the identity of the series. With inspiration from all sorts of Samurai cinema, they have thought of ways to deliver on that fantasy. In the first game, it was the wind being your guide so that you spend as little time on maps as possible and instead take in the view. This is further build on here. Every single flower moves, your horse gets faster when you run on those flower paths, you have a letterbox that automatically appears when you ride around, any and every time you spend in this world is geared towards showing you the beautiful romantization of this island. There is simply no one in the AAA western game world that puts this much respect towards Japan.
- Surprisingly enough...the story and the characters? At first I thought that both would be huge step downs from Tsushima. But towards the later half of the game I found myself caring about Atsu and feeling sorry for her. I also found a bunch of other characters likeable, they got some great actors in here. There's a lot of story beats where, with the help of great cutscenes, you can feel the intensity and importance of what's going on pretty well. Presentation is another step up from Tsushima I'd say. The idea of hunting 6 bastards across Ezo wasn't something I was especially keen on at first, but it *did* work. It's not the dumpster fire that I was expecting since the premise reminded me of a certain other game..
- The tech. I played on the base PS5 and it looked beautiful, ran perfectly stable at 60 fps and the load times were *fast*. Basically bug free too.
It is a fun game. And a worthy successor to the original. I'm very impressed by Erika Ishii's performance as Atsu and Atsu herself. With that out of the way, there are *some* negatives.
- Combat. Easily one of the most satisfying combat systems in today's gaming landscape. It's simple, crisp, fun and satisfying. Mixed with decent animation work and great sound design it makes for a fun experience. To me, if a game has a combat system that constantly has me wanting to actually engage with it, that means you delivered on it. They also managed to build on the foundation of stances by having you switch weapons which worked better than I expected.
- Organized layouts! Your view isn't cluttered, your map is easy to read, your questlog are some beautiful cards that automatically open on the side when you open up the map. Everything in this game is neatly organized and well structured.
- Music. One of the most important aspects to me in any game, and I was a little disappointed at first that they didn't bring back the duo from Tsushima, but my worries were unfounded. It's fantastic and totally fits with the cowboy-esque/Kill Bill vibe they got going throughout the entire game from A to Z. I played the game mostly after work, and it was so relaxing to hear some of that calm music while following a shrine trail.
- You know what I love in a game? When story and gameplay systems are neatly intertwined. The whole game is about hunting. You hunt the murderers of your family. The entirety of this game is focused on that, you hunt bounties, your legend of the Onryo grows with every kill, you do anything and everything for coin since you are a lonely mercenary. There's no distractions in that regard, you need to finance yourself. Weapons, armor, it's all there to aid your hunt. Some might say "well duh?" but I just like to see small things like this make sense.
- The romantic view of Japan as a setting. This is the base, the identity of the series. With inspiration from all sorts of Samurai cinema, they have thought of ways to deliver on that fantasy. In the first game, it was the wind being your guide so that you spend as little time on maps as possible and instead take in the view. This is further build on here. Every single flower moves, your horse gets faster when you run on those flower paths, you have a letterbox that automatically appears when you ride around, any and every time you spend in this world is geared towards showing you the beautiful romantization of this island. There is simply no one in the AAA western game world that puts this much respect towards Japan.
- Surprisingly enough...the story and the characters? At first I thought that both would be huge step downs from Tsushima. But towards the later half of the game I found myself caring about Atsu and feeling sorry for her. I also found a bunch of other characters likeable, they got some great actors in here. There's a lot of story beats where, with the help of great cutscenes, you can feel the intensity and importance of what's going on pretty well. Presentation is another step up from Tsushima I'd say. The idea of hunting 6 bastards across Ezo wasn't something I was especially keen on at first, but it *did* work. It's not the dumpster fire that I was expecting since the premise reminded me of a certain other game..
- The tech. I played on the base PS5 and it looked beautiful, ran perfectly stable at 60 fps and the load times were *fast*. Basically bug free too.
It is a fun game. And a worthy successor to the original. I'm very impressed by Erika Ishii's performance as Atsu and Atsu herself. With that out of the way, there are *some* negatives.
- Climbing. Maybe this is me being kinda spoiled by another open world game, AC Shadows (which I remind you I heavily disliked!) but Atsu felt sloooow sometimes when climbing.
- There are instances where, for example during shrine trail quests, you think you can go on path x or y using your idea of getting there, but you are not allowed. I felt myself limited by the devs a few times where only 1 solution worked. That feeling of being "limited" happens a few times and it felt "gamey".
- Vendors. They seemingly haven't changed one bit since Tsushima. Who honestly cares for all those dyes? This includes named characters like that little boy Taro. I don't remember buying a *single* item from him. It all seems useless. This is an area that needs improvement or change, because now we have two games where they don't really matter a lot. Not to mention that some dyes are just straight up ugly.
- Puzzles. Goddamn. Some of them treat you like you are a drooling idiot.
- The "past" sections where you play as little Atsu. It was especially a bad idea to have that happen in the first hour of gameplay or something, atleast in my experience. You want to draw your katana and go around killing people but then there are those boring sections where you are severely limited and they just kinda shove it down your throat. It's not necessary to engage with them, but you are kind of "made" to engage with it since it provides context for your hunt, the entire point of the game. They even marketed this thing like it's some grand feature, but you don't actually engage with it past the first hours of gameplay.
- Stealth. It plain sucks. It's not fun. 0 need to do this when combat is simply much more fun and works better.
- Last point as I really struggle to find something here, but this is in regards to the story: Warning, ending spoilers!
- There are instances where, for example during shrine trail quests, you think you can go on path x or y using your idea of getting there, but you are not allowed. I felt myself limited by the devs a few times where only 1 solution worked. That feeling of being "limited" happens a few times and it felt "gamey".
- Vendors. They seemingly haven't changed one bit since Tsushima. Who honestly cares for all those dyes? This includes named characters like that little boy Taro. I don't remember buying a *single* item from him. It all seems useless. This is an area that needs improvement or change, because now we have two games where they don't really matter a lot. Not to mention that some dyes are just straight up ugly.
- Puzzles. Goddamn. Some of them treat you like you are a drooling idiot.
- The "past" sections where you play as little Atsu. It was especially a bad idea to have that happen in the first hour of gameplay or something, atleast in my experience. You want to draw your katana and go around killing people but then there are those boring sections where you are severely limited and they just kinda shove it down your throat. It's not necessary to engage with them, but you are kind of "made" to engage with it since it provides context for your hunt, the entire point of the game. They even marketed this thing like it's some grand feature, but you don't actually engage with it past the first hours of gameplay.
- Stealth. It plain sucks. It's not fun. 0 need to do this when combat is simply much more fun and works better.
- Last point as I really struggle to find something here, but this is in regards to the story: Warning, ending spoilers!
I was enjoying it a lot, especially in the later half, even though it reminded me a little too much of The Last of Us Part 2. While I liked that story and it did work here for me too, I hope Sony stops this whole revenge thing and goes for something else in their stories.
The *one* thing that I really did NOT like was the COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY death of her brother, Junpei. That was the dumbest fucking thing!! He basically was the "light" of of Atsu's dark story where he showed her that moving on and building something new is possible. He has a kid now, Atsu is an aunt! And the entire time, he finds himself berating the way of life Atsu chose, and gave anything and everything to protect his daughter in the hopes that she grows up in a way that doesn't mirror Atsu's life. He chose another path and build himself a new life. Atsu contemplates a lot of the time, be it in the story or even in smaller side content like in hot spring baths, that part of what made her the way she is was because she was alone. At a point, she even told Junpei to never leave her side. And instead of doing that, he returns in the final battle all battered and bruised to help Atsu defeat Saito and of course he fucks up and dies. Lmao.
That was so stupid and unnecessary, you could have just continued living your life with your daughter but no, let her grow up without her father instead for no good reason at all. Atsu at that point in the story is a weapons master same way Saito is. Just let her fucking handle it. As you can tell I'm a bit pissed. What a waste, he was probably one of my most liked characters (his voice actor really carried hard here) and then they just do him dirty like that just for some unnecessary attempt to tug at your heartstrings. Fuck's sake! And not a SINGLE mention of who the mother is. No one even asked, not a *single* time. Who did Junpei fuck, dude?
The *one* thing that I really did NOT like was the COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY death of her brother, Junpei. That was the dumbest fucking thing!! He basically was the "light" of of Atsu's dark story where he showed her that moving on and building something new is possible. He has a kid now, Atsu is an aunt! And the entire time, he finds himself berating the way of life Atsu chose, and gave anything and everything to protect his daughter in the hopes that she grows up in a way that doesn't mirror Atsu's life. He chose another path and build himself a new life. Atsu contemplates a lot of the time, be it in the story or even in smaller side content like in hot spring baths, that part of what made her the way she is was because she was alone. At a point, she even told Junpei to never leave her side. And instead of doing that, he returns in the final battle all battered and bruised to help Atsu defeat Saito and of course he fucks up and dies. Lmao.
That was so stupid and unnecessary, you could have just continued living your life with your daughter but no, let her grow up without her father instead for no good reason at all. Atsu at that point in the story is a weapons master same way Saito is. Just let her fucking handle it. As you can tell I'm a bit pissed. What a waste, he was probably one of my most liked characters (his voice actor really carried hard here) and then they just do him dirty like that just for some unnecessary attempt to tug at your heartstrings. Fuck's sake! And not a SINGLE mention of who the mother is. No one even asked, not a *single* time. Who did Junpei fuck, dude?
Anyway, some gripes here and there but overall, massive improvement over Tsushima which was already an instant classic to me personally. If I were to give Tsushima an 8, this would get something like...an 8.7 or something? Not quite a 9, that's too high. I've started to think like a games journalist to my shame.
ByWatterson
Member
PS2 game, really
Topher
Identifies as young
Ah.....that'll help. Thanks
Topher
Identifies as young
GooseMan69
Member
Is it perpetually overcast weather in anyone else's game or is it just me?
ScHlAuChi
Member
Yeah would be nice if the game had some sort of single frame advance option.Respect toScHlAuChi for catching that lightning strike in one of those shots. I tried many times and failed.
This game really does have some of the most beautiful sky visuals.
The way I did it is by alterating between pressing left to stop the animation and Square to start it hundreds of times till I got a shot I liked.
Lucifers Beard
Member
Just made it the second area on the map and I'm about 8h30m in. I've done everything I can find, including all cartographer map pieces and bounties so far. Really great game so far, absolutely love it.
Slothbeingg
Member
Just beat Takezo on lethal. He is not that hard if you wear bounty hunter armor and parry charm. Took me like 15 deaths to kill that guy.
ShaiKhulud1989
Gold Member
TwiztidElf
Member
Awesome game though.
GooseMan69
Member
Awesome game though.
lol the ole Uncharted trope.
They just always have been there
Awesome game though.
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TheDuskwalker
Member
Did the storm blade side quest last night before I went to bed. Good shit.
Was cool learning a little about what happened to Jin post Tsushima, and a nice way to finally get the upgrade to the L1+R1 attack fighting a boss that used Jin's moves. Nice area too.
semiconscious
Member
hell, i'm still looking for whoever it is that lights & replaces all the candles & torches in all the souls games...
Awesome game though.
Certinty
Member
I'm 30 hours into this and since starting it i've totally swept aside my backlog of MGS Snake Eater, Donkey Kong Bananza, Silent Hill f, Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 and a few others.
Yet despite that I know when I finish this i'll be left empty on the inside and not even want to touch any of those other games.
Easily my GOTY.
Yet despite that I know when I finish this i'll be left empty on the inside and not even want to touch any of those other games.
Easily my GOTY.
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Some base PS5 landscape shots
Jinxed
Member
Out of respect for the dead I won't make fun of the guy but...Some base PS5 landscape shots
"Video games can never be art"
Right.
Justin9mm
Member
I haven't watched this review of GoY yet, but SkillUp is one of the only reviewers I trust as I relate to how he ususally feels about games. Except for TLOUII, he hated on that game and I just don't agree with some of his sentiments either. So I'm guessing this one is going to be the another exception to the rule lol
viveks86
Member
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Disregard my accidental spoiler.
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viveks86
Member
Earlier? I… shouldn't have clicked that spoiler. So he is alive after all?Yay! Say no more. We may be playing this in a different order.
I knew there was more to it, but not… that. I can only imagine this being super confusing as Atsu. Anyway, loving the way this is unfolding. Even basic shit like the listen ability was presented so naturally.
Though I do feel like I've become crazy OP by completely clearing out that region before getting to the main storyline, even on lethal. Hopefully something knocks me back down.
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adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Whoops, lemme edit that shit out, too late tho. I thought the game naturally leans you towards one part of the map first.
Sorry bro.
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Bartski
Member
I've been playing the game some more post-Plat and I keep bumping into random encounters like side quests while just clearing some remaining bits of fog of war. I have every piece of vanity gear tracked by shamisen, and just found a new hedaband... How much hidden stuff can there be?
Does the fog of war clear over the whole land when I find absolutely everything?
Does the fog of war clear over the whole land when I find absolutely everything?
viveks86
Member
No worries. Suspected as much anyway. I went straight to that region as my wife is obsessed with Kunai. Been hanging out there ever since. In terms of available objectives early on, the game leans you in whichever direction you do the interrogations.
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TheDuskwalker
Member
That quest was so good.Some base PS5 landscape shots
GymWolf
Member
The whole mission with the blue lips grandma was pretty borning ngl, secondary characters are not as steong as tsushima for now, i miss the bow master and the lesbian lady or even that kenji fucker 
The closest thing has been the double katana master but his quest was super fast.
This is probably one of the few downgrade compared to tsushima.
The closest thing has been the double katana master but his quest was super fast.
This is probably one of the few downgrade compared to tsushima.
midnightAI
Member
The developers also mentioned that (in the state of play I think) that their favourite way of playing was just pulling out the spy glass, finding something interesting and then letting the wind guide them there, so not really using the map at all.
midnightAI
Member
Cant say I agree there, I find the side quests much more interesting and varied this time (for the most part)The whole mission with the blue lips grandma was pretty borning ngl, secondary characters are not as steong as tsushima for now, i miss the bow master and the lesbian lady or even that kenji fucker
The closest thing has been the double katana master but his quest was super fast.
This is probably one of the few downgrade compared to tsushima.
GymWolf
Member
I'm not talking about what you do (that usually always boils down to stealth or combat or a minigame or a climb) but the side characters you do these things with, old baba getting old and his son being worried is not exaclty as interesting as jin old caretaker having dementia and teaching me how to poison mongols or the lesbian lady in search for revenge if we want talk about old ladies in tsushi.
I think the 2 biggest downgrade for now are side characters and mongols being way more thematically interesting than "saito mens being bad".
Lucky for us the game has more upgrades than downgrades but main sidecharacters are a pretty big aspect of a good story so i hope the game improve on that side, if not, i hope that at least the yotei 6 are gonna have something good going on, the main targets in shadows were shit and deep as a puddle, i doubt sucker punch can be as shit so i have hope.
The best charas have been the weapon masters but they are still not quite on the level of tsushi best.
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midnightAI
Member
Ah, I see what you mean, the main (friendly) side characters who help Jin out have more personality (Kenji is just awesome) but I think that is the difference between the stories here. Jin wasn't a loner, he had friends and he is helping out the people, whereas Atsu is more of a loner on a revenge mission, no real friends just acquaintances. I'd say the main side characters in Yotei are the Yotei 6 and they are far better bad guys than the ones in Tsushima and have way more personality (you can tell that immediately with The Snake in my opinion) so what you lose in friendly side characters you gain in enemy side characters.
GymWolf
Member
I can understand why they did it, but the result feels kinda like a downgrade for now, a story should have both good villains and good allies.
I did liked the snake in his brief appereance but i do feel like he was the filthy\weak but charismatic\unique one of the group so i hope the others are not just different shades of menacing, stoic mustache twirling villains with a different gimmick, not sure if i'm clear, i think they killed the snake too fast.
Khotun was a shit villain other than the first 2-3 hours so i hope they improved their villain writing.
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GymWolf
Member
Yeah the parry armour is way too useful, 3 guaranteed attacks after a perfect parry is way too over-tuned to use any other armour
It make even short work of duels with the big damage of the odachi, and i don't even have the parry pendant yet.
It should be like an endgame armour, not something you can get after a couple of hours
They probably made it kinda ugly on purpose so people are gonna be conflicted between utility and cosmetic drip...
It make even short work of duels with the big damage of the odachi, and i don't even have the parry pendant yet.
It should be like an endgame armour, not something you can get after a couple of hours
They probably made it kinda ugly on purpose so people are gonna be conflicted between utility and cosmetic drip...
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nowhat
Member
There really should be a transmog feature.