Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch Productions) has been on my radar for quite some time. It was a Sony/Playstation exclusive, so of course I was not going to be playing it for as long as it was locked off from the PC. Now, it’s on the PC. Nixxes Software did the port, and, apparently, they do good ports. I didn’t know that, but I knew that PC ports in general have not been great. Looking at you, FromSoft.
Steam had its autumn sale and this game was 20% off. I wasn’t feeling it, but then Ian told me it was 30% off on Fantastical so I decided to give it a go. I have heard so many good things about it, and it looks gorgeous. I installed it and was ready to go.
First of all, it really does look good. Hell, it looks great. One of my favorite things is riding around on my black horse named Shadow (Kage), marveling at the scenery around me. The golds, the reds, the greens, the blues, and more. My favorite part is just thinking, “Hm. I wonder what’s over there?” And then I go there, completely forgetting what I had planned on doing.
Full disclosure. I don’t like open world games as a whole because they overwhelm me. I get panicky when I open a may and see all the highlighted things you can do. One of my favorite things about Elden Ring was how unobtrusive the map was. Instead of having everything listed and telling you a million things you can do in each area a la Assassins Creed Syndicate (Ubisoft) or have icons popping up everywhere in the way of so many open world games.
In Elden Ring (FromSoft, obvs), the map is fogged out until you get the map fragment for an area. Then, that area is there in color, but there are no icons, no instructions, no points of interest, nothing. There are faint structures, but you won’t know what they are until you’ve gone by a few and they fill themeslevse in. It feels very organic and does not intrude upon my exploration.
Ghost of Tsushima also does it well. The map is blank until you go by a place, and then it’s filled in. It doesn’t pop you in the face with all the things you can do on the map, though you can see all your objectives in your journal. I know some people don’t like the gusting winds that point where you’re supposed to go with your pinned objective, but as someone with absolutely no sense of direction, I really appreciated it. And, I think you can turn it off if you want. That’s what is most important to me–that you have a choice.
I have to say that there’s something about the movement that gives me slight nausea. I need to fiddle with the options to see if I can smooth it out. Oh, I also had to switch the controls to the option tthat was more soulslike because that’s what I know best. Light attack on RB and heavy attack on LB. I hate that crouch is pushing in the right stick when it’s pushing in the left stick for Elden Ring. We will get to the combat in a minute, believe you me.Does that sound vaguely ominous? It should.
I have included the official PC Features Trailer above just so you can see how gorgeous it still is. Also, apparently the Japanese talking, English subtitles was an addition for the PC port, which pleases me because that’s how I prefer to play Japanese games. It’s a bit harder in this game because there is so much dialogue. Or at least, compared to a FromSoft game.
Did I mention that I love my horse? Though I wish I just automatically mounted like I do on Torrent in Elden Ring. You blow a whistle and then pop up automatically on his back. Here’s the weird thing about horseriding in GoT. Y is to mount the horse, but it’s not Y to dismount. Guess what it is? B. B! How the hell is it B?? I wasn’t told that, either. I figured it out by pressing every button until I hit the right one.
I think the game has a good balance in giving tutorials. They could do a bit more, but it’s one of the better tutorials.
Which leads to the *sigh* combat. There are four modes: Easy, Medium, Hard, and Lethal. I knew I wasn’t going to do lethal, and when I read thatt hard is very reliant on parries, I said, nah, I’m good. Here’s the thing. If I’m not playing a FromSoft game, I don’t want to be challenged. I have not liked hardly any soulslikes, and the vaunted Nioh games (Team Ninja) left me cold. Or rather, I just could not play them. I did not like any of their games, truth to be told.
There are some soulslike elements to the game, mostly the motherfucking deflect/parry. Which, ugh. But it’s more generous in this game and you can put points in it to make it easier. That goes up against the dodge, which is much more my jam. Though, to be really real with you, my jam is walking backwards briskly and cursing, which I have used liberally in this game as well. I put my first point into dodge so that a B B means you evade a hit. Then I put the next into parry and will be putting more into that category as the RKG Discord was almost in unison that it was the better choice.
I don’t like the coombat. There, I said it. The same Discord had several people who said it’s so smooth and the best combat ever. This was when I asked if there really wasn’t a lock-on. There is, but it’s clumsy and clunky, and apparently added after many poeple decried the lack of one. YIou have to flick the up button on the D-pad per encounter. Not per combat situation, but per encounter. What I mean is if three guys rush you, you have to flick up on the D-pad, and then if you want to flick between them, you have to hit the right stick. Oh, and it chooses who to target first–not you. Then, if three more guys come along, you have to do the same thing. Whereas in From games, you lock on with the right stick and flick between enemies with the right stick as well.
I might try it some more, but so far, lock-off is actually easier. Except I end up with the camera facing the wrong way because I can’t move with the left stick, hit with the RB or the RT (for melee) or LT/RT with the bow, AND use the right stick to see the enemy.
Also, tthere is always an archer in the group of enemies. ALWAYS. Hanging out in the back and sniping away. Of course, I want to rush down the archer because they do an insane amount of damage, but there are two lightweights and one heavy guarding him. Every time! And there are several groups of enemies in one go. I can’t see them, and I can’t focus on them fast enough. The archer does a whistle so the others can crouch and not be hit, but I can’t react to that by the time it registers in my brain.
I’m done for now. I’ll right more later.