I want to talk more about open world games design just because I can. In my last post, I was talking about what made me lose interest in an open world game. And I was comparing Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch Productions) with Elden Ring (FromSoft). I have to give props to Sucker Punch for one small thing–as you upgrade an armor set, each piece gets refined. So by the end, you look very different than you did in the beginning. The picture I included in yesterday’s post is the final form of that armor set. The picture at the beginning of this postt is the Sakai family set, but after it’s been upgraded twice, I believe.
This is a little touch that really brightens my day. I also appreciate that the different armor sets offer different perks. Such as, the one in the picture above gives you one more chance at an automatic kill in the standoffs. What I mean is that when you do a standoff, if you time it right, you automatically kill the enemy. I have unlocked the perks that give me two added enemies who offer themselves up for an insta-kill (though you still have to time it right). Or maybe three? At any rate, I can insta-kill five enemies in a row, which is great!
FromSoft, on the other hand, has a very different approach to the leveling up part of RPG. In all the games except Sekiro, you just simply put points into roughly a half-dozen stats, depending on what you want to focus on. The names of the stats change in each game (annoyingly so), but they are basically the same. Health, stamina/equip load (though that can be separated out at times), magicks power, strength, dex, int., faith, and then one other random one like arcane. There are no skill trees at all. Yes, you can upgrade your armor and weapons in some of the games and all of the games respectively (except Sekiro, which was its own thing), but that’s pretty basic. Oh, and I’m including the trailer for Elden Ring: Nightreign below just because I can.
I like leveling up my character and choosing what I want to put points into. Weirdly, this is something Sekiro had that the other From games didn’t. Maybe there’s something about being a samurai/shinobi/ninja that inspires skill trees. Probably because the playstyles are so different.
I don’t mind that FromSoft games don’t have skill trees. Probably because they’ve never had them so it would seem weird if they start putting them in. Heres’ the thing about From games. Dark Souls was the first hard-as-nails hardcore game I played (and like the fourth not-casual game I’d played in general), so their button scheme is the only one I’m comfortable with.
It wasn’t until I tried to play other games that I realized how weird this particular button combo was, and I have read that it is, indeed a not-great buttton combo. Most action adventures use X for light attack and Y for heavy attack. I don’t know many other games that use RB for light attack and RT for heavy attack. Heal is X, run/dash is on B, and interact is A.
In Ghost of Tsushima, the buttons were more typical of the genre. At first, I thought I couldn’t change it which made me deeply unhappy. Fortunately, there is a button layout that is similar to Souls, so I chose that. I also chose the second difficulty mode (out of four) which was called medium. There were two harder than that,, but I wasn’t trying to get my ass kicked in a non-FromSoft game. I want to feel like a badass, and if I need to parry, I want it to be as generous as possible.
Which it was in this mode. Also, I got advice from the RKG Discord to max out the parry skill tree, which I did. It makes it so much easier. And I am here for it. One good thing about playnig the game the way I do is that I got OP pretty quickly. I’m almost at the end of the ssecond act, and the only time I’m seriously in danger is when I’m doing the one-on-one duels. Which, ugh.
I really wish that games would stop with mandatory stealth sections. There was one in Ghost of Tsushima (in an NPC questline) that had me gnashing my teeth in irritation. Why? Because it just emphasized how my brain is just broken. As is my perception radar and a bunch of other things. In this case, I had to find three asshole brothers amidst a bunch of Mongols and assasssinate them without alerting the guards. They were not together, so it meant three separate mini-missions.
They did not look any different than the other Mongols. When I went into the first hut, there was a single Mongol with a crying prisoner/peasant. Was it one of the brotthers? Who knows? I assassinated him, and lo and behold, it was one of the brothers. Nice!
One thing I appreciate about this game is that they checkpoint missions after each objective is achieved. I remember when I played Saints Row IV (Volition)–oh, hey. That’s an open world game that I finished and enjoyed for the most part. The missions were really long and if you didn’t do the whole thing, you had to start over from the beginning. Gr.
In the three brothers mission, I wandered around a bit and found the second brother in another hut. OK. Fine. There were no more huts, though, and I did not know where to find the third brother. I was so frustrated, and about ready to Google it. I wandered about some more and heard the third brother talking to some peasants, but I could not see him. He was threatening the peasants, of course, but where was he?
This has been one of my issues with the game. I can’t see the person who is speaking. It’s probably in part because I usually have a video going on my other monitor, but it’s really frustrating. And there is nothing to indicate who was a brother and who wasn’t (at least not as far as I could see). So, because I knew that if I messed it up, I would just start again after the second brother killed, I picked one guy who might be the brother and killed him.
It wasn’t him.
I picked another guy who might be the brother and killed him. It also wasn’t him.
I found a third guy who could conceivably be a brother. I assassinated him, and it was him. Then I had to sneak back to Yuna (my ally) without being seen, and I was even more frustrated. At that point, who cares? I could have just killed the guards and be done with it.
I get that this game is partly about stealth; it doesn’t mean I like it. I hate stealth, and I really would prefer that I be given a different way to do it. Especially as there are so few missions in this game where you have to stealth.