Thanks for releasing it in parts. It is easier to get through a shorter video every week than a single long video. As a plus it is probably better for your channel since videos are getting posted more often and the watch through rate is probably better.
I just think your mind wasn't present. And probably had mentally reservations for it.Oh yeah. Third person, semi openworld, map markings, protagonist has issue, is the only one who can save the world. And you being Mr I critique everything isn't gonna be on the hype wagon when the rest of the world is. Sure the directors cut added things. Not really improved things. Cause If haptic feedback, 60 fps and things like that change an opinion about a whole game, I think I feel sorry.. there generations of games ps1,2,3,4 all Xbox Nintendo without rumble and 60fps with great stories and impressive worlds. Or.. just sometimes. We just don't feel it or see it at a certain time. It doesn't click. And time goes by. And all of a sudden it does.. It like. When we have a discussion. And I'm trying to make a point. But you don't get it. A few days go by. All of a sudden it clicks. You call me back and be like. "Yo dude..I see your point. I totally get it now. You're wrong as hell btw but I think I have a solution" Judging by your character you are probably the last thought. Great video buddy
@@MyNamesComics Then I need to remember how far into the video I am. With the video is released in sections then I can watch each video all the way through in a single sitting.
One of the greatest moments in any game is after Jin helps Yarikawa hold off the invasion. You get the ghost stance in a super epic way, and then he delivers that speech. Such a sick moment
I personally didn’t mind the Mongol occupied bases because they are most definitely repetitive, for me at least, they were sooooo addictive. Though I definitely wouldn’t mind if it was more diverse with how they present things like more diverse boss fights and what not
Same, I loved clearing them - it gave me a real sense of purpose in the game, literally liberating my island from the Mongols. Also weren't they mostly optional?
For a casual gamer like myself the camps are really useful as practice for using all the different tools, and generally finding your natural style, which you can then implement in regular missions. Like at first I just used the bow a lot, so I could stay hidden, but that only really works at the begining. Once hostages come into play you're really forced to actually be stealthy, and my overall gameplay has improved considerably as a result. I can see how for high level gamers it could be a bit dull though.
@Duncan Macaulay they were actually. The only ones that weren't optional were some of the bigger villages (the forge and I'm pretty sure the final temple)
yes if you have that kind of time. but for me having barely any time after work, i want as much handholding as possible for the objective. but i don't mind the challenge for the combat for any game.
No it’s not. It looks like when the ps4 came out and it made you use things like the touchscreen a lot. Like yeah it’s a cool gimmick for 5 minutes and then it gets excessive.
@@withoutthejuice7193 yeah but i lose interest in games that don't have clear markers. like im all about doing fun side content to get better inventory and then at the end complete the main story.
@@asadb1990 that’s fair enough. I’ve always been focused on gameplay over story, so I’m the weirdo that will do every single side activity before progressing the story
I REALLY recommended anyone who wants to play it, do it on lethal difficulty - it completely carried the game for me and feels extremely immersive and rewarding. Everything, including you, dies in 1-2 hits. For a game focussed on parrying and super smooth combat animations, this will feel satisfying for the entire playthrough
I wish I done that. I've just in the last 2 years gotten back into gaming since the 90s. This was one of my first games I played and I finished it quite easily (on standard difficulty). I've realised that games are very easy these days compared to the old days. I've found souls games thankfully and I've been considering replaying this in the near future. I will go that way for sure but I will play it full stealth like assassin's Creed 😂.
💯 Lethal is the only way to go. Makes you better and it's a decent challenge, it's no dark souls but I don't think that's what genre they were going for.
@brendane8192 this was the second game I played after getting back into gaming since the 90's, first game was FF7 remake. But this game blew me away with the story and the immersion. 5 star game from a studio who had never been known for open world games and they absolutely nailed it.
@@TheAferguson381 I'm happy you liked it. I had a good time with it. The story was fine. I just thought it was a bit easy for my liking. I played it on hard mode for a second playthrough and I ended up deleting it and starting other games. I much prefer sekiro than Ghost of Tsushima. I'm playing evil within now it's just ok. I'm also playing Sifu I highly recommend it. What are you playing/ looking forward to playing?
This is one of those games where you select the hardest difficulty and just enjoy the challenge (which isn't impossible), but makes it feel even better.
Lethal was fun but by God I could not stand the duels. They fucked up the parry timings or something, idk, but they feel like shit especially when the parries become bafflingly inconsistent and enemies will throw out quick combos full of unblockable attacks that'll kill you immediately.
Ghost of Tsushima taught me about the Japanese honor system. Not conceptually but emotionally. Thanks to it I could internally understand stories like 47 ronin. The narrative is so good and it basically all serves as thought fuel for the one choice in the game. There is one choice the world doesn't change due to player's decision at all, but this one choice weights 16 tons. For me, this game is a rare occurrence of giving a fair shot at understanding Japan culturally, not just tokenize its most bizzare out of the ordinary elements.
I absolutely adore this game. I love the use of colour, the way the gameplay can go from having a fast stand off fight with Mongols to sitting quietly to compose a poem, and the minimalistic approach to the HUD. I've played it about 5 times so far, and have a kind of set starting off path to get the most useful charms and gear early on. I'm actually in the process of uploading my latest play through onto my TH-cam channel 😉. The Golden Birds are supposed to be the spirit of your mother leading you to things, not just haiku but other things as well, where as the wind is supposed to be your father guiding you. You mentioned about it feeling a bit grindy when you ride from hot spring to bamboo stand to hot spring. The reason is that that's not the way it's intended to be done. The idea of the minimalistic HUD is that you can navigate just by looking around. So you explore the area you in and mix things up. For instance, if you visually look around you will see clues. A plume of grey smoke will signify a allied camp or mission; black smoke an enemy base; white smoke will be a hot spring, birds circling with be a haiku; and so on. So the idea is to ride around an area naturally. Do a side mission and spot a bamboo stand, from there you see an enemy camp. We've been so used to hand holding in open world games that the use of maps and tunnel vision has become a habit. Ghost is designed with the idea that you can just explore, and if you pay attention then you will discover all sorts of things. There are a number of side missions that never appear on the map at all, you only discover these by exploring. As for stances. You earn points/progression towards unlocking the next stance by either observing an enemy leader or killing him. So if you observe him before you kill him you get 2 points instead of one. But there are enough leaders that you can unlock all stances just by killing them, it just means it takes longer. All of this, plus many more tips, are available to watch on my TH-cam channel! But shameless self promotion on somebody else's channel aside, it truly is a wonderful game. I don't think it does anything revolutionary, but what is does do is take all those aspects of an open world game and polish them up. Highly recommended. Maybe Luke didn't enjoy it the first time because he was playing it for "work" purposes? When that had passed and a newly polished version is released, the pressure is off and he played it just for the enjoyment? I've played both the original PS4 version and the new PS5 version. The new one is a significant improvement and just irons out some of the wrinkles of the first.
I also think the reason the khan left Jin alive on that post, is because just like Dutch, the khan is arrogant in his ego, he legitimately acknowledged Jin as dangerous, but never s threat. I think he left Jin alive, for the soul purpose of going back to camp with yet another tale of defeat. Hoping to further scare the native people.
Well, maybe its the same as why he left lord shimura alive too. Recently watched John Wick 4 and they have a great quote. "Kill someone and he'll be a martyr. Let him live and everyone will see him as a traitor"
Interesting choice of posting the video in parts but after all, I think it is a smoother experience having the video all at once. Anyway, expecting to see the how them both perform in statistics Great video Luke!
I feel like part of the combat’s depth is finding more uses to the actual skill set as opposed to the stance. IE don’t just mindlessly swap to water for shield etc but make the decision to use a windstance kick to throw a shield into a halbred user then swap to water’s very high speed attacks to carve up the sword user while they’re mid animation and chain into the stone stance pierce to one shot the brute you stunned with your kunai while doing all that
The golden bird doesn't lead you to only haikus, they lead you to shrines, bamboo cutting places, fox dens and mythic quest givers and sometimes just to some side quests.
Which makes me think that the bit about enjoying the game only after the little directors cut’s upgrade. That’s a goofy ass reason to not enjoy this game. Imagine not enjoying Skyrim because you got it on 360 and not xbox one 😂
With the take you made with wanting more swapping of stances during combat, I've made a system that might really fix that problem. I dont use each stance for each type of enemy, I use each stance to use a different attack and use different combos. Like with the wind stance, you can kick the enemy into the air and do an execution while they're on the ground, and it works on all types of enemies other than brutes. I use the water stance for speed, and mostly on grunts, because of the fast flurry of attacks. I never really used the moon stance very often but when I did, the spin attacks were really beneficial. And finally, I used the stone stance mainly for bosses.
Moon stance spins work really well when you stagger 3-5 enemies with kunai and then do it. At times it can feel impossible to pull that off without just taking huge amounts of damage, it almost always puts you in a bad position. Can also do this with bombs but for some reason i never got used to using them.
I would hope and assume for the sequel that they would explore the second mongol invasion that reached the Japanese mainland. It would allow Jins actions on Tsushima to have some more repercussions and could more deeply explore the ways of the Samurai and the government as a whole.
yes that would be amazing. It would be cool to see how the Mongols invade after what happened on Tsushima and what they learned from it also as their second invasion was supposedly much bigger then the first invasion so more Mongol warriors and even maybe some Chinese or Korean enemies in the second game. And on the Japanese side it would be cool to see what the Samurai think about the Ghost of Tsushima and how they fight the Mongols and even use some of the Jin’s tactics, as accounts from the Mongols during the second invasion, Samurai would sneak aboard the Mongol at night and take them out demoralizing the Mongols meaning they learned to defend themselves better against a Mongol invasion from what happened at Tsushima
I played this game a few months after it came out. Maybe more like a year. Whenever the directors cut was released. I really enjoyed it. But watching this video really startled me, because as I thought of the game I was surprised how much I actually loved it. I'm shocked at how emotional I am when I think about it. Thanks, great review!!!
I experienced the thing you were talking about in the intro, but with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. The first time I played it on PS4, with pretty mediocre performance. I didn’t think it was all too great, I rated it a 7/10. Then when I replayed it on PS5 with 60 fps I loved it. I think it has something to do with the framerate. Performance is really important in games, even if we don’t realize it.
If I am not mistaken you usually don't play games on their hardest difficulty. And though it may be counter intuitive to you I think that is how they wanted you to play. Maybe not necessarily lethal but they definitely pushed for harder difficulty. Because a lot of the combat issues you speak of are different on harder levels. The AI for combat and stealth is much different when on harder difficulties. It just seems like when you play on easy it is a boring game. But hard gives a challenge but, actually makes it unique
Im sure someone has mentioned this by now, but in regards to unlocking stances you can actually get 2 unlocks for every Mongel leader by observing them and then killing them, which doubles your unlocks and makes it much faster
Wait how do you “observe” them? Because my whole playthrough I just killed them and assumed that was it, but a lot of people have been saying that you just need to observe them, how? By just looking at them?
@@Nulify-jc4fsyou have to get close to them while undetected and it’ll give you the option to observe them, then after you can kill them to get another point towards unlocking a stance
@@Nulify-jc4fsUhhh, old comment but the response is wrong. Some places you just can’t because maybe they already got spooked out of their animation. Anyway, camps with leaders, you’ll sometimes see them doing a little attack chain in practice, then backing up. IF they’re doing that, you can stealth up to them and observe them.
I really like how op the wind chimes can get cos you have four of them and you can unlock a skill where they release a lethal amount of poison in stealth encounters
35:40 the mountain with campfires where you get cold and die without warming Jin up by the fire was one of those things in ghost of Tsushima. When I figured out there was a path to take and not just try to brute force up and figured out there was something at the top I was blown away
I think one of the reasons why the game might not have worked for you at the start is that its a game of 'arcs' and you have to trust that the developers know what they're doing. You don't find out what is interesting about many of the characters in Act 1. You might not see your combat potential in Act 1. Act 2 acts as a discovery period. All of the trails of breadcrumbs start leading to interesting places. Or at least thats my take. I'd also argue that the mountain section with the status effect is better because you dont have a way to deal with the status effect. It makes the mission stand out.
I've only started watching this and will watch the rest when i get back from work. When I first played Mass effect, I couldn't get into the control scheme and what little I had played for didn't make me enthusiastic enough about it to be persistent. I put it down, played a few more games, then maybe 4 or even 6 months later I picked it up again. I started fresh rather than where I left off. Something clicked and I could move and navigate and I fell in love with the game. I barely put it down until I had completed all the achievements. Granted, not the hardest set of achievements, but it takes a few passes of the game which is a lot of hours. I did every planet, every mineral deposit, every container, every dead Salarian laying face down in the dirt, every time. It's a difficult thing to explain or quantify but you're not alone.
The wind really is the most innovative thing this game adds to the open world genre. Otherwise it’s a very solid assassin’s creed game. I hope more games integrate similar mechanics so we don’t have to use the map as much
I bounced off GoT when it launched too. Specifically because of the combat. After unlocking all the stances. It just became pretty easy and noticeably repetitive, as I just needed to pick the correct stance for the enemy and cut through them with minimal resistance. I want to give it another go on PS5 but I'm waiting for it to go on sale as I already bought the game full price. The game is beautiful and has a lot of cool ideas and moments. Hopefully I'll get possessed by the director's cut like you were
@@kassaken6521 oh ya, would stealth to scout and take out as many sentries and elite units as I could until caught. I don't remember the gadgets as much tbh, but I do recall using different arrows and smoke bombs a fair bit. Sometimes I would just ride up to the front gate of the bandit encampment and take them on like the honorable and foolish samurai too. Just depended on how I was feeling
Yeah, the combat could use a few tweaks in the sequel. I love it, I certainly think it's better than Spider-Man 2018's derivative and simplified combat, but it pushes the rock paper scissors thing too much.
This same thing happened to me with Ghost Tsushima, I wasn’t into it at first and once I got into feel for what I was doing and how it played I really enjoyed it!
i am glad you like it Luke and all those improvements you talked about also crossed my mind when i played it. espcially the variant enemys when they change they own style to better combat yours. i really liked the one longer vid style
I played Skyrim a little when it first came out, but after a couple hours I wasn't interested in it and put it down. 6 months later I came back to it and spent hundreds of hours exploring the world and couldn't stop playing it. Sometimes it takes time to connect with a game, the game starts to grow on you, or maybe the first time you weren't in the mood for it. Over time our interests and perspectives change too, and even little changes can completely reshape the way we look and perceive something.
For me, it is often something as trivial as watching a TV show or movie etc that gets me in the mood for a game. Take RDR2...wont pick it up for weeks or longer...then find myself watching Tombstone or Deadwood and suddenly boom I am all in.
I think your problems with this game (repetitive camps and tedious haiku and the sort) stem from you playing it as a job and running through it in a few days. I don't know anybody that explored just by going from one bamboo stand to the next instead of finding them on your way to do something else. I also was so immersed in the story and the conflict of the game that the camps were enjoyable and I felt it was my duty to rid the Mongols from them. That being said this is a great critique.
My first impression of this game was the opposite. I had no expectations at all, then i played it at a friend's house on release day and as soon as i did a perfect parry i was in. Not just because the parry felt great (not as good as Sekiro, that parry is too good) but because it wasn't free, it wasn't an Assassin's Creed parry, here you have to earn them. The rest of the combat system was great too, not too complex but with enough depth to make it fun through the whole game and with well designed enemies that force the player to use their arsenal.
I really enjoyed lethal difficulty. I like higher difficulties that give global damage buffs rather than leaving the player with nothing or even a penalty. I am happy to die to one or two cuts of I can do the same sort of damage.
I had a similar experience with AC: Odyssey when it came out. I was enjoying my time with it, but nothing about the experience was hooking me. It sat in my library for forever until I came across your video defending it which gave me the urge to give it another shot. Your keen observation that it was basically AC's version of a Witcher game made me realize I was playing the game wrong, and when I started to play it like a Witcher game it finally clicked, so thanks for that and all the great content!
When I was getting back into gaming after a long layoff, this was still a year from being released. The budget wasn't there to get every console and I went with PlayStation for this game specifically. I wasn't disappointed. You make great points about some redundancy but the good far outweighs the bad for me.
Incredible video luke ghost is my favorite game of all time I think it really resonates with me because of my love for assassins creed and the sadness that I feel knowing they have taken the route that they took. You earned a like from me have a beautiful day.
I relate to what you said about not connecting with it at first. I got a PlayStation 5 for Christmas and this is one of the first games I got. Its fantastic and feels like the assassin’s creed game we never got.
I’ve been exclusively playing this game at work (radiology) and all of my coworkers have been mesmerized by the sheer beauty of this game. It’s easy on the eyes and heavy on the story and it’s mind blowing how effortlessly it all feels to play.
I had a similar experience my first time playing The Witcher 3. Maybe it wasn't what I was expecting, maybe I wasn't in the right head space, or maybe I was just insane. When I first jumped in, the game just could not grip me, so I uninstalled it and let it sit in my steam library. Then like a year later, I gave it another go, and BOOM. Three complete playthroughs, including DLC, in like a month. My eyes were opened and now The Witcher 3 is one of my all-time favorites.
lol i was the exact same, i bought it on xbox series s, played a few hours, didn't get attached to it at all, then like a year later bought it on ps4 pro, and instantly fell in love with it, and now i've even bought it on pc since getting a good gaming pc, love when this happens
I’d be completely fine if Ghost of Tsushima remained a standalone game, but if they ever do a sequel I think it’d be cool if Jin had set up some sort of clan/organisation in order to maintain his methods after he dies, and then playing as one of these members during another time of strife. Maybe during a civil war that occurred later in Japanese history. It’d be cool to see what they could do with the story and explore new or develop existing themes.
I think the sequel will have nothing to do with Jin, as his story is pretty much told. They should definitely focus on Tomoe and her journey to mainland Japan
@@VaulPianney what I hated the most at AC Valhalla was the repetitvness Talk for 2 minutes , go from point A to point B and C , talk for 2 minutes , go to point D and fight. Rinse repeat for 40 hours and it gets boring
Honestly Dragon's Dogma Dark Arisen was the game that I wasn't really feeling. I picked it up like a year later and it's one of my favorite games in general
This actually is happening to me right now. I mean it has cool ambience (the dark old anglo-saxon feel is really well portrayed), cool soundtracks and interesting class system. However, I think I suck a bit at the combat: the monsters in the sewers of the fist town killed me three times now, and I don't find the story interesting enough to keep me engaged. Also, the lack of dialogue really turns me off. But I can still see it has the bones of a great game. Idk, should I give it another go?
@@jakobrenner2230 You should!! The game is very jank but you should level up your character's vocations and get core skills. These carry on to your other classes. Whenever you level up with other classes , each class has a Stat that levels up by a certain value. Plan out your route into what you need to do. When you reach Gran Soren TRY EVERY CLASS within reason.
Actually, I picked up the new Horizon game a month or so ago and didn't really vibe with it at first. I tried playing it again last week and I'm absolutely loving it now. I'm just as baffled as you are about not liking it at first and then loving it later, because it's blowing my mind rn!
1:44:19 another instance I can recall where the controller's vibration was used very well was in A Way Out. I played it recently with my little sister, and when her character died at the end, she said she could feel the controller pulsing slower and slower as her character finally died.
I’m an AC completionist and I wanted to add my pov when it comes to the encampments! There are varieties within the game between small, medium and forts within Ghost…it’s a bit weird you didn’t notice it! And I think the problem you’re mentioning appears only if you rush the game. But anything within an open world will feel repetitive if you rush it in a couple of days. If you switch in between encampments, side quests, main quests, fox dens etc it’s not repetitive. Something I did also which is incredible and does not happen in any other open world game I know is that…you can change your outfit and have a completely different playstyle almost every time you turn on the game. That’s what I did and the game felt INCREDIBLE! And no it’s not just stealth and combat. You can rely more on your bows for example. You can rely just on assassinations. You can rely on ghost weapons or you can rely on your honour samourai skills. And when you commit to using just one of these ones it changes how you approach the game completely. If you haven’t tried it you really should! It’s so dynamic and fun! And now to go back to the AC comparison…those games have an incredibly repetitive open world. Also the level based system is broken…the idea of other people being levels above you and that it s almost impossible to outskill them as a player is a BROKEN system. It does not reward the player for learning to play the game. I think Ghost deals with this problem incredibly well with enemy variety but mostly with the fact that enemies get better gear and different fighting styles across the game.
I think it would be cool if in a sequel, The Ghost of Tsushima's (as in, the character, Jin's) reputation has begun to spread to the other islands of Japan, and beyond, and as he travels, we get to see how people are reacting to it. Some people think he's a myth, some people sort of treat him the same way we would a superhero like Batman, and some people think he's a menace. We already get to see some of that in the game, but it would be cool to see how it would affect the world as it becomes widespread.
This game is like Witcher 3 for me, I played through it on normal difficulty and I definitely enjoyed it but the hardest difficulty really lets all the systems shine.
Yeah Kingdom Come was one of those games for me. I played it for like 2 hours when it came out, put it away for 3 years, just started playing it again a month ago and I have like 40 hours into it and freakin love it! BTW, Ghost of Tsushima was incredible from the moment I played it until the final credits.
One thing i love, is when u begin, every grunt will challenge you as you do a standoff. They are very confident. But as your legend grows, the grunts will run away from you. I wanted to complete the story as Sakai the Samuri. Until they killed my horse Kage. After that, i upgraded my ghost armors and was a ghost thru all of act 3. The fact this game makes u feel so much really shows how great Sucker Punch is. And RIP Taka, you deserved better
Actually my favorite part of the games is that if you’re in a camp, and some of the mongels see you if you either knockout the ones with trumpets or don’t let them get near the bells not the whole camp is gonna find out
Hard hard hard disagree on having puzzles. Most devs are awful at making puzzles. It's important that games know what they do well and stick to those things. How many puzzles do you want in Doom Eternal Eternal? Do you want dialogue choices in Sekiro? GoT does two things very very well. A pretty map to ride your horse and combat. The entire focus of a sequel should be a pretty map and deeper combat with better enemy variety. You're basically asking them to use the Ubisoft shotgun method where you make 3,000 systems and hope 20 are decent. Choose two or three systems and make them perfect. This is why Sekiro and Doom Eternal are the two best games in recent memory. Focused design that knows what it does well and does those things often.
I hope that you read this. I really agree with your critique of the game. I understand the drawing of comparisons from far cry to assassins creed, BUT as someone who has been playing the absolute life out of a Sucker Punch (SP) game since Infamous I personally think that as a SP game alone it for sure is their peak. Infamous 2 is my most favorite game of all time. The ending you get if you go the bad route was the first time I had ever cried because of a video game. The relationship you built between the first and second game the results of your actions are so impactful it just hurt my heart to have to do what the game wanted me to do. Also all of the mechanics and even cutscene aspects that Infamous and even Sly Cooper had incorporated are transferred over and expanded on in Tsushima so well from the Japanese Black Ink cutscenes to maneuvering around the world. The combat is a bit different of course because Tsushima isn't a 3rd person shooter, But the way the game plays and exists is EXACTLY how Sucker Punch does it. I just really wanted to say that you are right that the core of the game is very Far Cry and AC, I think it also shows something pretty amazing that Sucker Punch is able to keep making different bangers all these years and still keep their core fundamentals from game to game, to expanding on those ideas and make them bigger and better and refined for example Infamous 1 & 2 always had you defeating a certain amount of enemies in certain areas or freeing people that have been taken hostage by the DUP or Reapers or even the Militia. There was the aspect of finding certain areas to maneuver the map quicker with fast travels. Even like the ability to Stance Dance I think is an idea that they expanded on from Infamous. In Infamous 2 you were able to use the D-pad and quickly switch between different types of Bolts and missles and grenades that you may want to use depending on what type of enemy you are going up against. Im not trying to say the game isnt a Far Cry/AC game BUT I am trying to say that it is more of a SP game than anything else. Im sorry that this comment was so damn long. Thank you so much for the video! I really agree with everything you said honestly. I just beat the game this morning and I can for sure say this is my favorite Sucker Punch game. I have not cried so hard and felt so immersed in a game since Infamous 2. Except this time it was increased by 100%. If you took the time to read this I thank you so much. Keep up the content!
You get one slot closer to obtaining the stance for getting close enough to the Mongol leader and "observing them," by, I believe holding R2, from Pampas grass or behind a crate whichever you prefer but you do have to be quite close for the "observe," prompt to pop up. You then get another slot closer to the next stance for killing that same Mongol leader after observing them, either directly after, or later on if you don't feel equipped enough to take on a particular camp/leader. The combat system for this game is absolutely on another level. One of the most well thought out, smooth, satisfying combat systems I've ever experienced.
The combat system in the game is my favourite ever. So satisfying and absolutely cool 😌 The only thing I found a bit depressing were the little side quests. They almost never have a happy ending 😔 But I guess it enphasizes the absolute misery of the story and the war, there will be sacrifices made but no happy ending for anyone. Everyone will be hurt and scarred by the end of it. Harsh and heartbreaking at every turn. Not even your horse is safe 😭 But I thought it was a magnificent game. The atmosphere, music and story all make it an absolute classic samurai/Kurosawa movie of old 😌
I just found your channel and let me say I’m hooked with these very deep dives and explanations of the game. You just got a new subscriber keep up the fantastic work!
Yup. Happened with me with Mad Max. Played it first when it released, couldn’t get beyond the first hour. I picked it up earlier this year, and had a blast! I couldn’t put my controller away.
6:15 I started to do this with AC Odyssey and Valhalla, realized everything was level capped and they didn't put as much historical research in as I had hoped, and immediately started to watch the game crack at the seams because of how bad the gameplay/gameplay loop was.
Possible ideas for a sequel could be set in the Sengoku Jidai period. It would be interesting to see a take that considers the social upheavals of an industrializing, de-isolationist, and declining traditional values of a period coupled with the conflicts of the Samurai. They could also have important historical figures of the time like Nobunaga and the other unifiers. Alternatively, moving to mainland Asia and doing something in China could be interesting. Moving around a couple centuries gives them multiple historical moments.
Luke! Form a psych standpoint, I believe what you experienced is the mere exposure effect. Simply put, you start to enjoy/prefer things the more familiar you become with them. This happened to me with The Witcher 3. Took a long time for me to "connect" with it.
Once I got the ps5 version with the simplified ui being used, the game opened up for me. Its now one of my favorite games I've ever played, and the world is stunning. Can't wait for a sequel
Great critique. I appreciate you for the time invested. I strongly disagree with you about a point that you made several times regarding items and power-ups/rewards. I understand why you suggested them, but I greatly appreciated how the game (aside from the armor options) left cosmetics as just cosmetics. Even the most prestigious and highest accolade you are rewarded with in the entire game, the Hidden Heart, is a simple sword kit. I heard many people complain about that, but I loved it. It leaves the achievement itself as it's property. If you remember in "The Last Dragon", when Leroy showed the old master the belt buckle he had. The old master said, "A real master would only use this to hold up his pants." Too many power ups, too many inventory slots, regenerating health, too powerful weapons, too fragile or dossile enemies, or too much catering to the player will ruin the integrity of the game. Rewarding the player as much as I feel that you suggested, spoils a player. This game needs to keep the player in a disciplined mindset rather than the mindset that expects to be rewarded for everything. That also promotes achieving a higher level of skill and proficiency for players instead of relying on special weapons, OP abilities, regenerating health, and such. I think less is better for this game.
I did the same thing with The Arkham series. Bought all 4 of them on a steam sale, started the first one and didn't care about anything. A couple years later I binged them in a week and loved all of them
You're not alone. I play A LOT of videogames and it happens to me quite often. I'll pick up a game, play for a while, not enjoy it, quit, pick it up again later and love it. I Entertainment is kinda like food.. for your brain. People have tastes, preferences and cravings. Sometimes you just don't feel like eating something one day then crave it the next.
your argument about the camps being repetitive i can understand. However, i believe they do have a lot of variety as they are all in different shapes and sizes and have different objectives. Also freeing camps and villages was my favourite thing to do cos i could go in however i wanted and could change my playstyle every time giving that variety.
Really well put together. I do appreciate your work. I mostly listen to your vids in the background but now that I’m actually watching, what’s up with the 10,000 jump cuts lmaooo
Your in depth reviews are amazing man!! I don’t agree with some of your thoughts on quite a few games but I think that’s where we have gone astray in society. That being, seeing someone else’s perspective and not hating them/shitting on them. Anyways, appreciate the video I will be recommending your channel to anyone who wants great game reviews! 👊🏽
It honestly weirds me out how alike we are. I've watched most of your major critiques now for the big gun games and I felt the exact same way about this game. I played a few hours and felt no connection, put it down for months then came back to it and fell in love with it on the directors cut, lol. I went from feeling nothing for it to platinuming the entire game + DLC.
Haven't finished the video yet but just passed the section which discussed the yellow birds and wanted to add they lead to several things other than haikus such as pillars, bamboo strikes, new side quests and more. Great overview though I just wanted to add that 👍
I agree with a desire for a sequel to explore more creative challenges to expose the player to in the open world. However, I couldn’t help but laugh that your Zelda-cold mountain example is literally in Ghost of Tsushima too 😂. I mean minus the spicy peppers, and in the last act vs the beginning of the game, but that example is the one time they did do it. I definitely would love more of that
I’m still going through the 100% experience with this game. I started it back in July 2023 and I’m still working on the legends mode here in 2024. I also need to complete my new game plus run but I spread out my game time over the course of two or three months when I was completing the initial platinum trophy for this game and I enjoyed my time a lot I even did the Isle of ikki expansion somewhere in the middle of act two and 100% the trophies and content on the island, the DLC is pretty fantastic and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I never felt any particular burnout from the camps but I do understand what he means when he says the game is tiring because it does feel very tiring at times. That’s why I took my time with it. One of the trophy guides even pointed out That the game needs to be done in chunks and that it played it all at once you might not love it as much as if you played it in bits.
About needing to change mindset to like the game: I felt the same way about the Witcher 3. So many people told me about this game, how amazing it was and how you totally don't need to play or read anything beforehand to understand what's happening. But after the third massive info dump in the first hour of playing the game I got bored and just dropped it. But on my second playthrough a few months later I just let myself breathe, went to some points of interest, played Gwent for a while - and it was a lot of fun, I loved it. I could take the main story at any pace I liked, so I just ran around doing fun shit and that's it
My first time playing I came at it from an Asssassin's Creed mindset, had some fun, got about 50hrs in, got bored and quit. Second time I started a new game but came at it with a mindset more of it being a Samuri game that has some stealth if you want it and am having a lot more fun embracing the idealized Samuri Japanese culture while keeping stealth in my back pocket when things get tough.
The experience between 30 and 60 is definitely a factor. I remember when i got in to DRD2 on console and had many issues until i got a bit accustomed to the controller and low fps. But my take assumption is that it had nothing to do with that but about being overloaded, maybe you just played and are satiated by some other game that is similar in gameplay and feeling, and then taking some pause to regroup to really taste the game. I know i have that with many games. Steam library full of games but some how can't find one to play, but after some pause from gaming watching movies or doing other stuff, then i see some video or whatever that reminds me of a game that sits idle in my library and give it a go and stay with it for some time.
Personally as a Sony fan from uncharted to Rachet and clank Horizon GOW,I love the familiarity of the games but in a new world this game has sentiment beyond every thing I love it !! Felt like a kid watching a Bruce and Jet Li film It’s aesthetically insane and plays very well ,talk about 9 ways to skin a cat . Plus IKI island was mad !
I slept on this game until recently just like you! I really think like you said haptic feedback and 60fps on ps5 took it to the next level it really seems like a native ps5 exclusive now that it’s so polished! Only complaint was picking my horse and the game was like hey you have a dlc horse don’t you want that one? I was like no I don’t lol. That was right at the beginning and only one time I literally can’t complain about anything else 99/100 game highly recommend
i feel like alot of the fun is locked in the beginning. once you upgrade your weapons & abilities a bit more it becomes one of the best games of all time
Yes! I couldn’t connect with this game on PS5. I upgraded to the PS5 version and couldn’t put the controller down. I knew you’d have done a video on it at some point, so I’m watching it now and plan to boot up the game and go for a second play through when I get home!
watched all the single parts but i enjoy it way more if its one big video. so i will watch this thing again start to finish. love your detailed videos.
Mafia 3(my absolute favorite), origins, rage 2, odyssey, anthem, Valhalla, mad max, syndicate, unity (my god the catacombs and hidden doors), red dead 2, watchdogs 1&2 all have welcoming exploration.
I also love this game as well as your critiques, however a lot in this critique didn’t bother me or I just didn’t notice - I was so engrossed in this I enjoyed everything overall. When I finished this Forbidden West had just come out so I went from one open world experience to another. Side note, had to fast forward through parts where you started going into detail of another game’s story spoilers. Love these videos though!
I feel like the stealth is meant to be very easy to show how easy Jin fell from the code and how much more simple it is to attack an enemy when they’re unaware compared to head on like a samurai
Xd. Don't justify poor design for the lore. '' Yeah the game was really shit in the begining to show how jin lost the battle and was in the dirt '' .. Like come on man
@@gabrielolsen2648 playing ghost of tsushima is like eating bland rice. I enjoyed some of the duels, the first hour of fighting and the ending. But the game is painfully mediocre
![[LIVE] : ONE ลุมพินี 86 | คู่เอก "คมเพชร vs ชาติพยัคฆ์"](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/m3q_dRYDuU8/mqdefault.jpg)
I love you all so much. Thank you for watching. It means more than you know.
💥ALL MY LINKS: linktr.ee/LukeStephens💥
Thanks for releasing it in parts. It is easier to get through a shorter video every week than a single long video. As a plus it is probably better for your channel since videos are getting posted more often and the watch through rate is probably better.
I just think your mind wasn't present. And probably had mentally reservations for it.Oh yeah. Third person, semi openworld, map markings, protagonist has issue, is the only one who can save the world. And you being Mr I critique everything isn't gonna be on the hype wagon when the rest of the world is. Sure the directors cut added things. Not really improved things. Cause If haptic feedback, 60 fps and things like that change an opinion about a whole game, I think I feel sorry.. there generations of games ps1,2,3,4 all Xbox Nintendo without rumble and 60fps with great stories and impressive worlds.
Or.. just sometimes. We just don't feel it or see it at a certain time. It doesn't click.
And time goes by. And all of a sudden it does..
It like. When we have a discussion. And I'm trying to make a point. But you don't get it. A few days go by.
All of a sudden it clicks. You call me back and be like. "Yo dude..I see your point. I totally get it now. You're wrong as hell btw but I think I have a solution"
Judging by your character you are probably the last thought.
Great video buddy
@@username65585 just watch the video in 1 section if it’s so hard to finish it my guy☠️ you can watch it in parts
@@MyNamesComics Then I need to remember how far into the video I am. With the video is released in sections then I can watch each video all the way through in a single sitting.
@@username65585 lmao no you don’t , youtube automatically starts the video where you left off. Stop making excuses
One of the greatest moments in any game is after Jin helps Yarikawa hold off the invasion. You get the ghost stance in a super epic way, and then he delivers that speech. Such a sick moment
The "for yarikawa" rallying cry gives me chills everytime
@@leonrussell9607 ikr. Its a hell of a moment
Hell yeah, there are only few games that did these kinda stuff nowadays where you got the chills.
I wish I could rewind to the first time i played through that part. It’s rare to get a feeling like that. I felt powerful af lol
The exchange of ‘We’re not warriors!’ and ‘Then who defended Yarikawa?’ made me want to run through a brick wall 😤
I personally didn’t mind the Mongol occupied bases because they are most definitely repetitive, for me at least, they were sooooo addictive. Though I definitely wouldn’t mind if it was more diverse with how they present things like more diverse boss fights and what not
Same, I loved clearing them - it gave me a real sense of purpose in the game, literally liberating my island from the Mongols. Also weren't they mostly optional?
That element simply never got old for me.
I've never played a game for as long as I've been playing this game.
For a casual gamer like myself the camps are really useful as practice for using all the different tools, and generally finding your natural style, which you can then implement in regular missions. Like at first I just used the bow a lot, so I could stay hidden, but that only really works at the begining. Once hostages come into play you're really forced to actually be stealthy, and my overall gameplay has improved considerably as a result. I can see how for high level gamers it could be a bit dull though.
@@dmacfilm for the most part yeah, only thing is they aren’t optional for some quests and upgrade locations
@Duncan Macaulay they were actually. The only ones that weren't optional were some of the bigger villages (the forge and I'm pretty sure the final temple)
playing this game without using the map, using the wind , natural elements to the quest and other contents, is absolutely beautiful
yes if you have that kind of time. but for me having barely any time after work, i want as much handholding as possible for the objective. but i don't mind the challenge for the combat for any game.
No it’s not. It looks like when the ps4 came out and it made you use things like the touchscreen a lot. Like yeah it’s a cool gimmick for 5 minutes and then it gets excessive.
@@asadb1990 I find the game is a lot more enjoyable when your goal isn’t to complete the objective, but to just live in the world and be a samurai
@@withoutthejuice7193 yeah but i lose interest in games that don't have clear markers. like im all about doing fun side content to get better inventory and then at the end complete the main story.
@@asadb1990 that’s fair enough. I’ve always been focused on gameplay over story, so I’m the weirdo that will do every single side activity before progressing the story
I REALLY recommended anyone who wants to play it, do it on lethal difficulty - it completely carried the game for me and feels extremely immersive and rewarding. Everything, including you, dies in 1-2 hits. For a game focussed on parrying and super smooth combat animations, this will feel satisfying for the entire playthrough
I wish I done that. I've just in the last 2 years gotten back into gaming since the 90s. This was one of my first games I played and I finished it quite easily (on standard difficulty). I've realised that games are very easy these days compared to the old days. I've found souls games thankfully and I've been considering replaying this in the near future. I will go that way for sure but I will play it full stealth like assassin's Creed 😂.
💯
Lethal is the only way to go. Makes you better and it's a decent challenge, it's no dark souls but I don't think that's what genre they were going for.
@brendane8192 this was the second game I played after getting back into gaming since the 90's, first game was FF7 remake. But this game blew me away with the story and the immersion. 5 star game from a studio who had never been known for open world games and they absolutely nailed it.
@@TheAferguson381 I'm happy you liked it. I had a good time with it. The story was fine. I just thought it was a bit easy for my liking. I played it on hard mode for a second playthrough and I ended up deleting it and starting other games. I much prefer sekiro than Ghost of Tsushima. I'm playing evil within now it's just ok. I'm also playing Sifu I highly recommend it. What are you playing/ looking forward to playing?
@@Barney_rubble983try Metal Gear Solid.
This is one of those games where you select the hardest difficulty and just enjoy the challenge (which isn't impossible), but makes it feel even better.
Nah. Easy mode.
Honestly i get pissed off by dying over and over.. It makes me quit the game its better to keep it easy and not die once
Lethal was fun but by God I could not stand the duels. They fucked up the parry timings or something, idk, but they feel like shit especially when the parries become bafflingly inconsistent and enemies will throw out quick combos full of unblockable attacks that'll kill you immediately.
@@negative6442 yeah lethal is dope and very realistic but duels we're the bane of my existence haha.
@@negative6442 yeah lethal mode has very low perfect parry/dodge windows and if youre playing on a monitor that has any input lag, then dont bother
Ghost of Tsushima taught me about the Japanese honor system. Not conceptually but emotionally. Thanks to it I could internally understand stories like 47 ronin. The narrative is so good and it basically all serves as thought fuel for the one choice in the game. There is one choice the world doesn't change due to player's decision at all, but this one choice weights 16 tons. For me, this game is a rare occurrence of giving a fair shot at understanding Japan culturally, not just tokenize its most bizzare out of the ordinary elements.
I absolutely adore this game. I love the use of colour, the way the gameplay can go from having a fast stand off fight with Mongols to sitting quietly to compose a poem, and the minimalistic approach to the HUD. I've played it about 5 times so far, and have a kind of set starting off path to get the most useful charms and gear early on.
I'm actually in the process of uploading my latest play through onto my TH-cam channel 😉. The Golden Birds are supposed to be the spirit of your mother leading you to things, not just haiku but other things as well, where as the wind is supposed to be your father guiding you.
You mentioned about it feeling a bit grindy when you ride from hot spring to bamboo stand to hot spring. The reason is that that's not the way it's intended to be done. The idea of the minimalistic HUD is that you can navigate just by looking around. So you explore the area you in and mix things up. For instance, if you visually look around you will see clues. A plume of grey smoke will signify a allied camp or mission; black smoke an enemy base; white smoke will be a hot spring, birds circling with be a haiku; and so on. So the idea is to ride around an area naturally. Do a side mission and spot a bamboo stand, from there you see an enemy camp. We've been so used to hand holding in open world games that the use of maps and tunnel vision has become a habit. Ghost is designed with the idea that you can just explore, and if you pay attention then you will discover all sorts of things. There are a number of side missions that never appear on the map at all, you only discover these by exploring.
As for stances. You earn points/progression towards unlocking the next stance by either observing an enemy leader or killing him. So if you observe him before you kill him you get 2 points instead of one. But there are enough leaders that you can unlock all stances just by killing them, it just means it takes longer. All of this, plus many more tips, are available to watch on my TH-cam channel!
But shameless self promotion on somebody else's channel aside, it truly is a wonderful game. I don't think it does anything revolutionary, but what is does do is take all those aspects of an open world game and polish them up. Highly recommended.
Maybe Luke didn't enjoy it the first time because he was playing it for "work" purposes? When that had passed and a newly polished version is released, the pressure is off and he played it just for the enjoyment? I've played both the original PS4 version and the new PS5 version. The new one is a significant improvement and just irons out some of the wrinkles of the first.
I appreciate getting to have something like this to watch while I spend a few nights in the hospital. Thanks Luke
Hope you get better.
rest well and get better brother
Get well soon
You shouldn't be in hospital?
I don't know how anyone could dislike this game. I had my jaw on the floor.... All three playthroughs.
Because it’s boring
I also think the reason the khan left Jin alive on that post, is because just like Dutch, the khan is arrogant in his ego, he legitimately acknowledged Jin as dangerous, but never s threat. I think he left Jin alive, for the soul purpose of going back to camp with yet another tale of defeat. Hoping to further scare the native people.
Yeah, he believed Jin was the same as on the bridge, and believed that he could simply prove to Jin that he can get to him and those he cares about
Well, maybe its the same as why he left lord shimura alive too. Recently watched John Wick 4 and they have a great quote. "Kill someone and he'll be a martyr. Let him live and everyone will see him as a traitor"
yes, a long video. No more parts!
I heard you guys! :D
@@LukeStephensTV thank you for actually listening! Means a lot
@@LukeStephensTV idgaf you suck dude and your content is ...... is....good lol just kdding love u mate.
Interesting choice of posting the video in parts but after all, I think it is a smoother experience having the video all at once.
Anyway, expecting to see the how them both perform in statistics
Great video Luke!
I feel like part of the combat’s depth is finding more uses to the actual skill set as opposed to the stance. IE don’t just mindlessly swap to water for shield etc but make the decision to use a windstance kick to throw a shield into a halbred user then swap to water’s very high speed attacks to carve up the sword user while they’re mid animation and chain into the stone stance pierce to one shot the brute you stunned with your kunai while doing all that
The golden bird doesn't lead you to only haikus, they lead you to shrines, bamboo cutting places, fox dens and mythic quest givers and sometimes just to some side quests.
In all honesty whenever I play this game at my Aunts and Uncles house, I just completely jive with the gameplay.
Which makes me think that the bit about enjoying the game only after the little directors cut’s upgrade. That’s a goofy ass reason to not enjoy this game. Imagine not enjoying Skyrim because you got it on 360 and not xbox one 😂
With the take you made with wanting more swapping of stances during combat, I've made a system that might really fix that problem. I dont use each stance for each type of enemy, I use each stance to use a different attack and use different combos. Like with the wind stance, you can kick the enemy into the air and do an execution while they're on the ground, and it works on all types of enemies other than brutes. I use the water stance for speed, and mostly on grunts, because of the fast flurry of attacks. I never really used the moon stance very often but when I did, the spin attacks were really beneficial. And finally, I used the stone stance mainly for bosses.
Moon stance spins work really well when you stagger 3-5 enemies with kunai and then do it. At times it can feel impossible to pull that off without just taking huge amounts of damage, it almost always puts you in a bad position. Can also do this with bombs but for some reason i never got used to using them.
Mate, just discovered your channel. This is some of the best-delivered gaming content I've found on here. Zero cringe. Instant sub.
I would hope and assume for the sequel that they would explore the second mongol invasion that reached the Japanese mainland. It would allow Jins actions on Tsushima to have some more repercussions and could more deeply explore the ways of the Samurai and the government as a whole.
yes that would be amazing. It would be cool to see how the Mongols invade after what happened on Tsushima and what they learned from it also as their second invasion was supposedly much bigger then the first invasion so more Mongol warriors and even maybe some Chinese or Korean enemies in the second game. And on the Japanese side it would be cool to see what the Samurai think about the Ghost of Tsushima and how they fight the Mongols and even use some of the Jin’s tactics, as accounts from the Mongols during the second invasion, Samurai would sneak aboard the Mongol at night and take them out demoralizing the Mongols meaning they learned to defend themselves better against a Mongol invasion from what happened at Tsushima
@@esmariducky114 Exactly it would show that some Samurai are willing to bend the code of honor in order to save their home.
I played this game a few months after it came out. Maybe more like a year. Whenever the directors cut was released.
I really enjoyed it.
But watching this video really startled me, because as I thought of the game I was surprised how much I actually loved it.
I'm shocked at how emotional I am when I think about it.
Thanks, great review!!!
I experienced the thing you were talking about in the intro, but with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. The first time I played it on
PS4, with pretty mediocre performance. I didn’t think it was all too great, I rated it a 7/10. Then when I replayed it on PS5 with 60 fps I loved it. I think it has something to do with the framerate. Performance is really important in games, even if we don’t realize it.
Been waiting for the ultimate critique excited to listen🎉
If I am not mistaken you usually don't play games on their hardest difficulty. And though it may be counter intuitive to you I think that is how they wanted you to play. Maybe not necessarily lethal but they definitely pushed for harder difficulty. Because a lot of the combat issues you speak of are different on harder levels. The AI for combat and stealth is much different when on harder difficulties. It just seems like when you play on easy it is a boring game. But hard gives a challenge but, actually makes it unique
Im sure someone has mentioned this by now, but in regards to unlocking stances you can actually get 2 unlocks for every Mongel leader by observing them and then killing them, which doubles your unlocks and makes it much faster
Wait how do you “observe” them? Because my whole playthrough I just killed them and assumed that was it, but a lot of people have been saying that you just need to observe them, how? By just looking at them?
@@Nulify-jc4fsyou have to get close to them while undetected and it’ll give you the option to observe them, then after you can kill them to get another point towards unlocking a stance
@@Nulify-jc4fsUhhh, old comment but the response is wrong. Some places you just can’t because maybe they already got spooked out of their animation. Anyway, camps with leaders, you’ll sometimes see them doing a little attack chain in practice, then backing up. IF they’re doing that, you can stealth up to them and observe them.
I really like how op the wind chimes can get cos you have four of them and you can unlock a skill where they release a lethal amount of poison in stealth encounters
Wait, you get 8 tho
It took a long time to click for me, and the director cut really helped. It's a masterpiece
35:40 the mountain with campfires where you get cold and die without warming Jin up by the fire was one of those things in ghost of Tsushima. When I figured out there was a path to take and not just try to brute force up and figured out there was something at the top I was blown away
I think one of the reasons why the game might not have worked for you at the start is that its a game of 'arcs' and you have to trust that the developers know what they're doing. You don't find out what is interesting about many of the characters in Act 1. You might not see your combat potential in Act 1. Act 2 acts as a discovery period. All of the trails of breadcrumbs start leading to interesting places.
Or at least thats my take.
I'd also argue that the mountain section with the status effect is better because you dont have a way to deal with the status effect. It makes the mission stand out.
I've only started watching this and will watch the rest when i get back from work. When I first played Mass effect, I couldn't get into the control scheme and what little I had played for didn't make me enthusiastic enough about it to be persistent. I put it down, played a few more games, then maybe 4 or even 6 months later I picked it up again. I started fresh rather than where I left off. Something clicked and I could move and navigate and I fell in love with the game. I barely put it down until I had completed all the achievements. Granted, not the hardest set of achievements, but it takes a few passes of the game which is a lot of hours. I did every planet, every mineral deposit, every container, every dead Salarian laying face down in the dirt, every time. It's a difficult thing to explain or quantify but you're not alone.
The wind really is the most innovative thing this game adds to the open world genre. Otherwise it’s a very solid assassin’s creed game. I hope more games integrate similar mechanics so we don’t have to use the map as much
I bounced off GoT when it launched too. Specifically because of the combat. After unlocking all the stances. It just became pretty easy and noticeably repetitive, as I just needed to pick the correct stance for the enemy and cut through them with minimal resistance. I want to give it another go on PS5 but I'm waiting for it to go on sale as I already bought the game full price. The game is beautiful and has a lot of cool ideas and moments. Hopefully I'll get possessed by the director's cut like you were
Did you ever approach combat using assassination techniques and other gadgets?
@@kassaken6521 oh ya, would stealth to scout and take out as many sentries and elite units as I could until caught. I don't remember the gadgets as much tbh, but I do recall using different arrows and smoke bombs a fair bit. Sometimes I would just ride up to the front gate of the bandit encampment and take them on like the honorable and foolish samurai too. Just depended on how I was feeling
Yeah, the combat could use a few tweaks in the sequel.
I love it, I certainly think it's better than Spider-Man 2018's derivative and simplified combat, but it pushes the rock paper scissors thing too much.
Were you playing on Hard?
@@ir-dan8524 swapped to it about half way through my playtime. Never played on the super hard difficulty they added later
ahhhh the big beefy MOVIE is here… looking forward to finishing this when I get home. Thanks as usual for the video.
This same thing happened to me with Ghost Tsushima, I wasn’t into it at first and once I got into feel for what I was doing and how it played I really enjoyed it!
Same. It grew on me.
luke, i know it took extra time from you to put the parts into one long video. thank you so much for this. ❤️
i am glad you like it Luke and all those improvements you talked about also crossed my mind when i played it. espcially the variant enemys when they change they own style to better combat yours. i really liked the one longer vid style
I played Skyrim a little when it first came out, but after a couple hours I wasn't interested in it and put it down. 6 months later I came back to it and spent hundreds of hours exploring the world and couldn't stop playing it. Sometimes it takes time to connect with a game, the game starts to grow on you, or maybe the first time you weren't in the mood for it. Over time our interests and perspectives change too, and even little changes can completely reshape the way we look and perceive something.
For me, it is often something as trivial as watching a TV show or movie etc that gets me in the mood for a game. Take RDR2...wont pick it up for weeks or longer...then find myself watching Tombstone or Deadwood and suddenly boom I am all in.
@Marine Willis exactly. Whenever I'm playing a game, I also got an ear bud in listening to videos about it, or the theme it's representing.
I think your problems with this game (repetitive camps and tedious haiku and the sort) stem from you playing it as a job and running through it in a few days. I don't know anybody that explored just by going from one bamboo stand to the next instead of finding them on your way to do something else. I also was so immersed in the story and the conflict of the game that the camps were enjoyable and I felt it was my duty to rid the Mongols from them. That being said this is a great critique.
My first impression of this game was the opposite. I had no expectations at all, then i played it at a friend's house on release day and as soon as i did a perfect parry i was in. Not just because the parry felt great (not as good as Sekiro, that parry is too good) but because it wasn't free, it wasn't an Assassin's Creed parry, here you have to earn them.
The rest of the combat system was great too, not too complex but with enough depth to make it fun through the whole game and with well designed enemies that force the player to use their arsenal.
I really enjoyed lethal difficulty. I like higher difficulties that give global damage buffs rather than leaving the player with nothing or even a penalty. I am happy to die to one or two cuts of I can do the same sort of damage.
I had a similar experience with AC: Odyssey when it came out. I was enjoying my time with it, but nothing about the experience was hooking me. It sat in my library for forever until I came across your video defending it which gave me the urge to give it another shot. Your keen observation that it was basically AC's version of a Witcher game made me realize I was playing the game wrong, and when I started to play it like a Witcher game it finally clicked, so thanks for that and all the great content!
When I was getting back into gaming after a long layoff, this was still a year from being released. The budget wasn't there to get every console and I went with PlayStation for this game specifically. I wasn't disappointed. You make great points about some redundancy but the good far outweighs the bad for me.
Incredible video luke ghost is my favorite game of all time I think it really resonates with me because of my love for assassins creed and the sadness that I feel knowing they have taken the route that they took. You earned a like from me have a beautiful day.
I relate to what you said about not connecting with it at first. I got a PlayStation 5 for Christmas and this is one of the first games I got. Its fantastic and feels like the assassin’s creed game we never got.
I’ve been exclusively playing this game at work (radiology) and all of my coworkers have been mesmerized by the sheer beauty of this game. It’s easy on the eyes and heavy on the story and it’s mind blowing how effortlessly it all feels to play.
fellow work gamer :D i work nights lol
I'm curious on how or why you have time to do that at work but that sounds awesome. I bring my switch to mine but only play on breaks
I had a similar experience my first time playing The Witcher 3. Maybe it wasn't what I was expecting, maybe I wasn't in the right head space, or maybe I was just insane. When I first jumped in, the game just could not grip me, so I uninstalled it and let it sit in my steam library. Then like a year later, I gave it another go, and BOOM. Three complete playthroughs, including DLC, in like a month. My eyes were opened and now The Witcher 3 is one of my all-time favorites.
lol i was the exact same, i bought it on xbox series s, played a few hours, didn't get attached to it at all, then like a year later bought it on ps4 pro, and instantly fell in love with it, and now i've even bought it on pc since getting a good gaming pc, love when this happens
I was about to comment the exact same thing
Absolutely epic! 👏🏿I Loved Ghost. Can't wait for the next installment
I’d be completely fine if Ghost of Tsushima remained a standalone game, but if they ever do a sequel I think it’d be cool if Jin had set up some sort of clan/organisation in order to maintain his methods after he dies, and then playing as one of these members during another time of strife. Maybe during a civil war that occurred later in Japanese history. It’d be cool to see what they could do with the story and explore new or develop existing themes.
I think the sequel will have nothing to do with Jin, as his story is pretty much told. They should definitely focus on Tomoe and her journey to mainland Japan
@@ulrichleukam1068 Tomoe could work, but I was talking about playing a separate character anyway
I love Ghost of Tsushima.
Just imagine if Assassin's Creed would have had this type of combat, overall world and spectacular atmosphere!!
Neither of them have a great open world
Valhalla had a great world.. but it’s too big, ui is terrible, messy phasing.
@@VaulPianney what I hated the most at AC Valhalla was the repetitvness
Talk for 2 minutes , go from point A to point B and C , talk for 2 minutes , go to point D and fight.
Rinse repeat for 40 hours and it gets boring
@@VaulPianney it’s world was super empty
AC >>>>>>> Tsushima which was super boring and overhyped/overrated
The gold birds lead you to any undiscovered location, not just haikus
Honestly Dragon's Dogma Dark Arisen was the game that I wasn't really feeling. I picked it up like a year later and it's one of my favorite games in general
This actually is happening to me right now. I mean it has cool ambience (the dark old anglo-saxon feel is really well portrayed), cool soundtracks and interesting class system. However, I think I suck a bit at the combat: the monsters in the sewers of the fist town killed me three times now, and I don't find the story interesting enough to keep me engaged. Also, the lack of dialogue really turns me off.
But I can still see it has the bones of a great game. Idk, should I give it another go?
@@jakobrenner2230 You should!! The game is very jank but you should level up your character's vocations and get core skills. These carry on to your other classes.
Whenever you level up with other classes , each class has a Stat that levels up by a certain value. Plan out your route into what you need to do. When you reach Gran Soren TRY EVERY CLASS within reason.
I did the exact same thing! I started it didn't connect and just left it. People kept saying it's great so I went back and loved it.
Actually, I picked up the new Horizon game a month or so ago and didn't really vibe with it at first. I tried playing it again last week and I'm absolutely loving it now. I'm just as baffled as you are about not liking it at first and then loving it later, because it's blowing my mind rn!
1:44:19 another instance I can recall where the controller's vibration was used very well was in A Way Out. I played it recently with my little sister, and when her character died at the end, she said she could feel the controller pulsing slower and slower as her character finally died.
I’m an AC completionist and I wanted to add my pov when it comes to the encampments! There are varieties within the game between small, medium and forts within Ghost…it’s a bit weird you didn’t notice it! And I think the problem you’re mentioning appears only if you rush the game. But anything within an open world will feel repetitive if you rush it in a couple of days. If you switch in between encampments, side quests, main quests, fox dens etc it’s not repetitive. Something I did also which is incredible and does not happen in any other open world game I know is that…you can change your outfit and have a completely different playstyle almost every time you turn on the game. That’s what I did and the game felt INCREDIBLE! And no it’s not just stealth and combat. You can rely more on your bows for example. You can rely just on assassinations. You can rely on ghost weapons or you can rely on your honour samourai skills. And when you commit to using just one of these ones it changes how you approach the game completely. If you haven’t tried it you really should! It’s so dynamic and fun! And now to go back to the AC comparison…those games have an incredibly repetitive open world. Also the level based system is broken…the idea of other people being levels above you and that it s almost impossible to outskill them as a player is a BROKEN system. It does not reward the player for learning to play the game. I think Ghost deals with this problem incredibly well with enemy variety but mostly with the fact that enemies get better gear and different fighting styles across the game.
Thanks for bringing back the long format videos.
I think it would be cool if in a sequel, The Ghost of Tsushima's (as in, the character, Jin's) reputation has begun to spread to the other islands of Japan, and beyond, and as he travels, we get to see how people are reacting to it. Some people think he's a myth, some people sort of treat him the same way we would a superhero like Batman, and some people think he's a menace. We already get to see some of that in the game, but it would be cool to see how it would affect the world as it becomes widespread.
It will happen for sure,this game came just 1+ year ago and it's a banger.They can't just finish it like this , there's a lot more to the invasions
This game is like Witcher 3 for me, I played through it on normal difficulty and I definitely enjoyed it but the hardest difficulty really lets all the systems shine.
🧢 Ghosts of Tsushima is leagues better.
Yeah Kingdom Come was one of those games for me. I played it for like 2 hours when it came out, put it away for 3 years, just started playing it again a month ago and I have like 40 hours into it and freakin love it! BTW, Ghost of Tsushima was incredible from the moment I played it until the final credits.
One thing i love, is when u begin, every grunt will challenge you as you do a standoff. They are very confident. But as your legend grows, the grunts will run away from you. I wanted to complete the story as Sakai the Samuri. Until they killed my horse Kage. After that, i upgraded my ghost armors and was a ghost thru all of act 3. The fact this game makes u feel so much really shows how great Sucker Punch is. And RIP Taka, you deserved better
Actually my favorite part of the games is that if you’re in a camp, and some of the mongels see you if you either knockout the ones with trumpets or don’t let them get near the bells not the whole camp is gonna find out
Hard hard hard disagree on having puzzles. Most devs are awful at making puzzles. It's important that games know what they do well and stick to those things. How many puzzles do you want in Doom Eternal
Eternal? Do you want dialogue choices in Sekiro?
GoT does two things very very well. A pretty map to ride your horse and combat. The entire focus of a sequel should be a pretty map and deeper combat with better enemy variety.
You're basically asking them to use the Ubisoft shotgun method where you make 3,000 systems and hope 20 are decent.
Choose two or three systems and make them perfect.
This is why Sekiro and Doom Eternal are the two best games in recent memory. Focused design that knows what it does well and does those things often.
I hope that you read this.
I really agree with your critique of the game. I understand the drawing of comparisons from far cry to assassins creed, BUT as someone who has been playing the absolute life out of a Sucker Punch (SP) game since Infamous I personally think that as a SP game alone it for sure is their peak. Infamous 2 is my most favorite game of all time. The ending you get if you go the bad route was the first time I had ever cried because of a video game. The relationship you built between the first and second game the results of your actions are so impactful it just hurt my heart to have to do what the game wanted me to do. Also all of the mechanics and even cutscene aspects that Infamous and even Sly Cooper had incorporated are transferred over and expanded on in Tsushima so well from the Japanese Black Ink cutscenes to maneuvering around the world. The combat is a bit different of course because Tsushima isn't a 3rd person shooter, But the way the game plays and exists is EXACTLY how Sucker Punch does it. I just really wanted to say that you are right that the core of the game is very Far Cry and AC, I think it also shows something pretty amazing that Sucker Punch is able to keep making different bangers all these years and still keep their core fundamentals from game to game, to expanding on those ideas and make them bigger and better and refined for example Infamous 1 & 2 always had you defeating a certain amount of enemies in certain areas or freeing people that have been taken hostage by the DUP or Reapers or even the Militia. There was the aspect of finding certain areas to maneuver the map quicker with fast travels. Even like the ability to Stance Dance I think is an idea that they expanded on from Infamous. In Infamous 2 you were able to use the D-pad and quickly switch between different types of Bolts and missles and grenades that you may want to use depending on what type of enemy you are going up against. Im not trying to say the game isnt a Far Cry/AC game BUT I am trying to say that it is more of a SP game than anything else. Im sorry that this comment was so damn long. Thank you so much for the video! I really agree with everything you said honestly. I just beat the game this morning and I can for sure say this is my favorite Sucker Punch game. I have not cried so hard and felt so immersed in a game since Infamous 2. Except this time it was increased by 100%. If you took the time to read this I thank you so much. Keep up the content!
You get one slot closer to obtaining the stance for getting close enough to the Mongol leader and "observing them," by, I believe holding R2, from Pampas grass or behind a crate whichever you prefer but you do have to be quite close for the "observe," prompt to pop up. You then get another slot closer to the next stance for killing that same Mongol leader after observing them, either directly after, or later on if you don't feel equipped enough to take on a particular camp/leader. The combat system for this game is absolutely on another level. One of the most well thought out, smooth, satisfying combat systems I've ever experienced.
The combat system in the game is my favourite ever. So satisfying and absolutely cool 😌 The only thing I found a bit depressing were the little side quests. They almost never have a happy ending 😔 But I guess it enphasizes the absolute misery of the story and the war, there will be sacrifices made but no happy ending for anyone. Everyone will be hurt and scarred by the end of it. Harsh and heartbreaking at every turn. Not even your horse is safe 😭 But I thought it was a magnificent game. The atmosphere, music and story all make it an absolute classic samurai/Kurosawa movie of old 😌
I just found your channel and let me say I’m hooked with these very deep dives and explanations of the game. You just got a new subscriber keep up the fantastic work!
Yup. Happened with me with Mad Max. Played it first when it released, couldn’t get beyond the first hour.
I picked it up earlier this year, and had a blast! I couldn’t put my controller away.
6:15 I started to do this with AC Odyssey and Valhalla, realized everything was level capped and they didn't put as much historical research in as I had hoped, and immediately started to watch the game crack at the seams because of how bad the gameplay/gameplay loop was.
Possible ideas for a sequel could be set in the Sengoku Jidai period. It would be interesting to see a take that considers the social upheavals of an industrializing, de-isolationist, and declining traditional values of a period coupled with the conflicts of the Samurai.
They could also have important historical figures of the time like Nobunaga and the other unifiers.
Alternatively, moving to mainland Asia and doing something in China could be interesting. Moving around a couple centuries gives them multiple historical moments.
Game I didn't connect to and came to later and loved? Mass Effect legendary. Turned out to be one of the greatest gaming experiences I've ever had.
Luke! Form a psych standpoint, I believe what you experienced is the mere exposure effect. Simply put, you start to enjoy/prefer things the more familiar you become with them. This happened to me with The Witcher 3. Took a long time for me to "connect" with it.
I had the exact same thing. I had to come back to this game 2 times before enjoying it, but now it is one of my favourite games of all time
Once I got the ps5 version with the simplified ui being used, the game opened up for me. Its now one of my favorite games I've ever played, and the world is stunning. Can't wait for a sequel
Great critique. I appreciate you for the time invested. I strongly disagree with you about a point that you made several times regarding items and power-ups/rewards. I understand why you suggested them, but I greatly appreciated how the game (aside from the armor options) left cosmetics as just cosmetics. Even the most prestigious and highest accolade you are rewarded with in the entire game, the Hidden Heart, is a simple sword kit. I heard many people complain about that, but I loved it. It leaves the achievement itself as it's property. If you remember in "The Last Dragon", when Leroy showed the old master the belt buckle he had. The old master said, "A real master would only use this to hold up his pants." Too many power ups, too many inventory slots, regenerating health, too powerful weapons, too fragile or dossile enemies, or too much catering to the player will ruin the integrity of the game. Rewarding the player as much as I feel that you suggested, spoils a player. This game needs to keep the player in a disciplined mindset rather than the mindset that expects to be rewarded for everything. That also promotes achieving a higher level of skill and proficiency for players instead of relying on special weapons, OP abilities, regenerating health, and such. I think less is better for this game.
I did the same thing with The Arkham series.
Bought all 4 of them on a steam sale, started the first one and didn't care about anything.
A couple years later I binged them in a week and loved all of them
The golden birds will actually lead you too more than just haikus, pretty much everything of interest they will lead you too
You're not alone.
I play A LOT of videogames and it happens to me quite often. I'll pick up a game, play for a while, not enjoy it, quit, pick it up again later and love it. I
Entertainment is kinda like food.. for your brain. People have tastes, preferences and cravings. Sometimes you just don't feel like eating something one day then crave it the next.
your argument about the camps being repetitive i can understand. However, i believe they do have a lot of variety as they are all in different shapes and sizes and have different objectives. Also freeing camps and villages was my favourite thing to do cos i could go in however i wanted and could change my playstyle every time giving that variety.
I had the exact same experience on ps4, tried it last summer and loved it this summer
Really well put together. I do appreciate your work. I mostly listen to your vids in the background but now that I’m actually watching, what’s up with the 10,000 jump cuts lmaooo
Your in depth reviews are amazing man!! I don’t agree with some of your thoughts on quite a few games but I think that’s where we have gone astray in society. That being, seeing someone else’s perspective and not hating them/shitting on them. Anyways, appreciate the video I will be recommending your channel to anyone who wants great game reviews! 👊🏽
It honestly weirds me out how alike we are. I've watched most of your major critiques now for the big gun games and I felt the exact same way about this game. I played a few hours and felt no connection, put it down for months then came back to it and fell in love with it on the directors cut, lol. I went from feeling nothing for it to platinuming the entire game + DLC.
Same dude, I think the PS5 experience made it so much better. The 60 FPS, haptic feedback, and Japanese lipsync fix were all huge for me
@@dathunderman4 Its amazing how a few little tweaks to a game can be the difference between hating it or loving it..
Haven't finished the video yet but just passed the section which discussed the yellow birds and wanted to add they lead to several things other than haikus such as pillars, bamboo strikes, new side quests and more. Great overview though I just wanted to add that 👍
I downloaded it after your Review, I hope it will captivat me. Normally I am not in to ancient Japan but you convinced me to give it a try.
I agree with a desire for a sequel to explore more creative challenges to expose the player to in the open world. However, I couldn’t help but laugh that your Zelda-cold mountain example is literally in Ghost of Tsushima too 😂. I mean minus the spicy peppers, and in the last act vs the beginning of the game, but that example is the one time they did do it. I definitely would love more of that
I’m still going through the 100% experience with this game. I started it back in July 2023 and I’m still working on the legends mode here in 2024. I also need to complete my new game plus run but I spread out my game time over the course of two or three months when I was completing the initial platinum trophy for this game and I enjoyed my time a lot I even did the Isle of ikki expansion somewhere in the middle of act two and 100% the trophies and content on the island, the DLC is pretty fantastic and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I never felt any particular burnout from the camps but I do understand what he means when he says the game is tiring because it does feel very tiring at times. That’s why I took my time with it. One of the trophy guides even pointed out That the game needs to be done in chunks and that it played it all at once you might not love it as much as if you played it in bits.
About needing to change mindset to like the game: I felt the same way about the Witcher 3. So many people told me about this game, how amazing it was and how you totally don't need to play or read anything beforehand to understand what's happening. But after the third massive info dump in the first hour of playing the game I got bored and just dropped it.
But on my second playthrough a few months later I just let myself breathe, went to some points of interest, played Gwent for a while - and it was a lot of fun, I loved it. I could take the main story at any pace I liked, so I just ran around doing fun shit and that's it
My first time playing I came at it from an Asssassin's Creed mindset, had some fun, got about 50hrs in, got bored and quit.
Second time I started a new game but came at it with a mindset more of it being a Samuri game that has some stealth if you want it and am having a lot more fun embracing the idealized Samuri Japanese culture while keeping stealth in my back pocket when things get tough.
The experience between 30 and 60 is definitely a factor. I remember when i got in to DRD2 on console and had many issues until i got a bit accustomed to the controller and low fps.
But my take assumption is that it had nothing to do with that but about being overloaded, maybe you just played and are satiated by some other game that is similar in gameplay and feeling, and then taking some pause to regroup to really taste the game. I know i have that with many games. Steam library full of games but some how can't find one to play, but after some pause from gaming watching movies or doing other stuff, then i see some video or whatever that reminds me of a game that sits idle in my library and give it a go and stay with it for some time.
Personally as a Sony fan from uncharted to Rachet and clank Horizon GOW,I love the familiarity of the games but in a new world this game has sentiment beyond every thing I love it !! Felt like a kid watching a Bruce and Jet Li film It’s aesthetically insane and plays very well ,talk about 9 ways to skin a cat . Plus IKI island was mad !
I slept on this game until recently just like you! I really think like you said haptic feedback and 60fps on ps5 took it to the next level it really seems like a native ps5 exclusive now that it’s so polished! Only complaint was picking my horse and the game was like hey you have a dlc horse don’t you want that one? I was like no I don’t lol. That was right at the beginning and only one time I literally can’t complain about anything else 99/100 game highly recommend
i feel like alot of the fun is locked in the beginning. once you upgrade your weapons & abilities a bit more it becomes one of the best games of all time
Yes! I couldn’t connect with this game on PS5. I upgraded to the PS5 version and couldn’t put the controller down. I knew you’d have done a video on it at some point, so I’m watching it now and plan to boot up the game and go for a second play through when I get home!
Ghost os Tsushima was my game of the year in 2020, can’t wait for part 2
watched all the single parts but i enjoy it way more if its one big video.
so i will watch this thing again start to finish.
love your detailed videos.
The length is perfect. Thank you
New game plus. Kurosawa mode. Lethal difficulty. Platinum trophy. One of my favorite games of all time
Mafia 3(my absolute favorite), origins, rage 2, odyssey, anthem, Valhalla, mad max, syndicate, unity (my god the catacombs and hidden doors), red dead 2, watchdogs 1&2 all have welcoming exploration.
Odysseys copy paste exploration you mean
I also love this game as well as your critiques, however a lot in this critique didn’t bother me or I just didn’t notice - I was so engrossed in this I enjoyed everything overall. When I finished this Forbidden West had just come out so I went from one open world experience to another.
Side note, had to fast forward through parts where you started going into detail of another game’s story spoilers.
Love these videos though!
I feel like the stealth is meant to be very easy to show how easy Jin fell from the code and how much more simple it is to attack an enemy when they’re unaware compared to head on like a samurai
Xd. Don't justify poor design for the lore. '' Yeah the game was really shit in the begining to show how jin lost the battle and was in the dirt '' .. Like come on man
@@josediogo1015 the game wasn’t really shit in the beginning?
@@gabrielolsen2648 playing ghost of tsushima is like eating bland rice. I enjoyed some of the duels, the first hour of fighting and the ending. But the game is painfully mediocre
@@josediogo1015 I’m sorry you feel that way lol. You’re in the vast minority.
Absolutely love these longer videos!
And I absolutely love this game couldn’t really get into the online tho