I have more in me to say about Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch Productions), apparently. This is not part of the A Quick Look series, though the last post of that is here. This is more a post about–well, you’ll see. I’m pushing on in the main story, and the seams are starting to show. Now let’s be clear. I’m not talking about the story, which is pretty bog -standard save your country, honor, do I want to do the thing with honor or do I just want to shank everyone along the way kind of thing.
Here’s my issue. Well, issues. Part of it is on me and part of it is the game. Another part is a combo of both. The part that is on me is how I try to do everything but the main mission before doing the main mission. I’m currently working on the story mission because I was getting a bit fatigued and because I wanted to get into Act II. I mistakingly thought that the story mission I was doing was the last one I needed to do, but it wasn’t even close.
What I was slow to grasp was that the story mission had a million billions parts to it, so each mini-mission led to another. What I thought was the last mission of the first act, was actually just the first mini-mission of several in the story mission. I’ve done about half-a-dozen of them, and I have no idea how many more I need to do. I thought
*SPOILER WARNING*
freeing my uncle and taking back his castle would be the end of the first act, but it is not.
Let me digress for a moment.
Part of the story mission is to help Yuna, the woman who saved me at the beginning. Her brother has been captured by the Mongols, and if we save him, he can make a tool that will help me go rescue my uncle. Now that I’ve finally done it, it’s the sigh grappling hook. Every game seems to have a grappling hook. I fucking hate it. With my spatial issues, traversing through the air in any given direction is hellish.
I have to press A to jump and then Y at the right time to grapple. And then, I have to hit A again to jump down, or Y again to hit the next grapple point. While traversing and spinning the camera around to see where the next grapple point is. Which is frustrating as fuck for me. I can’t tell you how many times I fell because I could not hit the Y in time (and they give a generous amount of time. My brain just can’t). Oh, and there are times when you have to grapple to a ledge and then jump up to another ledge and then grapple. Ugh. I hate the ledge climbing by itself. You’re supposed to be able to just move the left stick in the direction you want to go, but it rarely works on the first go for me. EIther I’m not pushing it in exactly the right direction or I’m not pushing it hard enough or whatever.
I was trying to get to a shrine today. One I could only access after I got the grappling hook. I got so hopelessly lost, I nearly gave up in frustration. Yes, I am going to mention FromSoft again. One thing they’re usuallyl very good at is subtly moving you in the direction you need to go. Whether it’s the use of lanterns or just the way the flora is pointing, I can tell which way I need to go more often than not.
In this game? Hell if I know. It’s one reason I hate the stealth sections or missions in which I have to follow someone. If I lose sight of them, i have no idea which way to go. And then I lose the mission and have to start over. I think this is mostly on me, but I don’t think the game is doing any favors, either. I’m not talking about the guiding winds, by the way. That is pretty fantastic on its own. Except that it can’t differentiate between different elevations.
I have a hunch that it’s going to be the stealth that makes me quit the game. If I can do a mission in some other way, I’m good. If it has to be stealth, though, then I am resigned to do it more than once. I will fail, and not through any fault of my own. Again, I know this is more on me than on the game, but I wish there was a way to do things other than to use stealth.
Back to the main mission. I pushed through several mini-missions quickly, and there are jsut too many hordes in this. Even when you’re not meant to fight them alone, it gets tiring. There was one story mission in which I was supposed to help a friend by freeing six of his men who had been captured by the Mongols. When I got to the camp, I tried to sneak around to assassinate the Mongols as I looked for the prisoners. That went tits up, and I suddently had a dozen hard enemies relentlessly chasing me. Usually, I could just peel one or two off, but not this time. And it was nearly impossible to fight them because all of them were attacknig me at the same time (which was not like them, either).
Eventually, I gave up because there was no way I was defeating them and raced around, trying to find the prisoners. I was beefy enough that I could withstand a few attacks as I held down Y to free the prisoners in a cage. Once I found all six, I realized that the reason the enemies were so hard was because of this–I was supposed to release the prisoners before fighting the enemies. That way the prisoners would fight the enemies with me. Duh! Oh, but I hate that your allies can fall down, and you have to revive them during the battle. I also hate having to rescue hostages who are in danger of being killed by certain enemies (they have a red skull over their heads. The hostage has a shield that goes down as they are attacked).
I love the cinematics and the epic nature of the game. And yet. There is still a feeling that this is a popcorn game at the core of it. That’s not a bad thing, I hasten to add. It’s a very cinematic experience, and the game awes me on that level. However, it leaves me hollow on a more emotional level. I’m fine with that, but I would have liked to have known it going into the game.
All-in-all, still an enjoyable game. I just wonder if I’ve already seen the best of it.
Addendum: Apparently, I have entered Act II as I thought I would have. And we did not take back my uncle’s castle–we just freed the castle he was in at the moment.