Underneath my yellow skin

Tag Archives: Ghost of Tsushima

My favorite games of 2024, kinda

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Well, we’re coming to the end of the year. This year has gone by so fast. Like a blink of an eye, and it’s been the worst year of my life thus far. I lost my soul in February, and I have not gotten it back again. I keep on keeping on, but I feel empty inside.

I have never been in a less festive mood (even though I’m happy for those who celebrate), but I want to do my weird-ass end-of-the-year game awards, anyway. I want to remind everyone that this is not the best games of the years or anythin close to that. This is my list of games that I enjoyed the most this year. I thought there weren’t many games I played, but when I looked at my Steam library, there were more than I had remembered.

Today, I want to talk about three games that I quite enjoyed–and they all came in the second half of the year (for me). Two are indie games whilst one is Triple A. Let’s talk about them in the order that I played them. None of them are my game of the year, of course. There can only be one in that category, and that will be a post on a later date.

Let’s roll.

Best knock-off Hogwarts game with no awful transphobia clinging to its very marrow

Spells & Secrets (Alchemist Interactive).

This is an indie game made by two guys. That’s impressive given the scope of this game. It’s an RNG roguelite adventure tale set in a wizarding school, and that’s basically the gist of the story. In fact, the story is probably the weakest part of the game as it’s just you’re a novice wizard in your first day of wizarding school, and something is wrong with the school. That’s it. Nothing deeper than that. You have tons of classmates, but they’re just randomized characters. I do like the customization of my character and that I got to unlock clothing and a few pieces of jewelry for different achievements. And I could color my hair whenever I wanted. Although, for whatever reason, I could not make my hair true black–why is this a thing? I have found that to be true in more than one game. Black is more like dark brown.

Anyway, the layout of the rooms is procedurally generated, but there are a limited amount of rooms on each floor. Each room has a secret, but there is only one you can solve per floor (the others aren’t activated). I figured out maybe half on my own and had to look up the rest. Also, by the fiftieth time, the innovativeness wore off. I’m not complaining about that, by the way, but just noting it.

I really enjoyed learning the different spells and mixing and matching. However, and maybe this is just the way I play games, once I uncovered all the spells, there was one spell I stuck to the most–barrage. Each spell has eight artefacts you can fine that are modifiers for that spell. I used barrage, shield, and ascend roughly 80% of the time. There were some I never used, which I consider a weakness of the game. I get that different people like different builds (it’s like that in FromSoft games), but there are some spells that I completely ignore (unless I need them to solve a puzzle). I’m sad that the flame spell, bombard, just isn’t that viable for me because it takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r to cast.


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My final post on Ghost of Tsushima–for now

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I’m…maybe close to the end of the DLC for Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch Productions), and I will say that I hope so because I’m so wiped out. I want to go back to the–oh yeah.

*SPOILER WARNING*

fight with the Khan. I mentioned in my last post that my uncle ostensibly helped me with the Khan fight (by bringing his samurai to the stronghold). Why do I say ostensibly? Beccause I didn’t really see him or his samurai doing jackshit. And, as I mentioned, I had to kep an eye on my allies because if they fell, then I had to revive them.

Back to the DLC. I have included Skill Up’s video on the Director’s Cut edition below. He talks about the improvements which did not matter to me because I play on the PC and I hate haptics. He’s right on the content, though. It’s thin  on the ground and very similar to the main game. I’m glad I waited until after the main game to play it because while I could have played it at any point…I want to say as soon as I got into the second act–but definitely before I got into the third act.

I’m not into the story of the DLC, but at least I get to see bits of the main story in a different way. But, yes, there are references to my duel with my uncle and other late-game happenings. I do wonder if they simply don’t show up if you haven’t done them yet. They aren’t cutscenes or anything like that. You find different dead bodies around the island and when you examine them, the antagonist taunts you and shows you scenes from your past, but superimposed with them saying negative things to you (or the antagonist saying negative things about you).

My irritation with the DLC continued with a scrpited death–er capture. I knew the enemies were harder in the DLC than in the main game so when I went to Camp Sakai and had to take on the enemy, I wasn’t surprised that I couldn’t get them in one or two hits. I was surprised, though, that I could not get any block. I’m not trying to get parries even though they are easier than in From games, but I could at least block. I don’t think I could use my ghost tricks, either. after I kept losing health and could not actually block for the fifth or sixth time, I realized that I was supposed to die or be captured. I gave up and just let them do their thing.


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Ghost of Tsushima is amplifying my flaws

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I finished Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch Productions) yesterday. I will once again talk about the story in detail as I did in the last post. Yet again:

*SPOILERS*

I mentioned in the last post how I thought things with my uncle would go after killing the Khan (as they call Khotun Khan)–and I will say that they got the ending with the uncle right. Yes, I’m going to go into spoilers yet again–not that it’ll be very surprising to most people who played the game.

I said that I would reconcile with my uncle because that’s the way it would have happened in a Western game (and, yes, this game was done by an American developer). Since they had done so much of the story very Westernized, I assumed it would be the same with this as well. Instead, they had Lord Shimura show up to aid in the last fight against the Khan, but then he sends a message to Jin that he (Lord Shimura) wants to talk to him (Jin). They meet and walk around, talking and reminiscing. As they did this, it slowly dawned on me that they were not going to reconcile. The grave countenance of my uncle tipped me off that this was going to end very differently, indeed.

I suddenly realized that he was going to kill me. Or rather, he was going to try to kill me. Because I had betrayed him, and while he did help me (ostensibly) with the Khan–I’ll get to that in a minute–he wa still the jito of the area. He could not countenance me defying a direct order because that just would not do.

I could undrestand that (as the player, and as an Asian person), especially during feudal times. There was a rigid hierarchy that had to be followed and while I was way more on Jin’s side than on his uncle’s, I could at least understand why Lord Shimura thought the way he did. He wasn’t wrong as much as he had a different way of looking at things. He thought it was better to die with honor than to win through trickery, and while I don’t agree with him, I can see his point of view.

I’m not going to rehash my issues with the big moments of the second act, but I do need to talk about the end of the third.

I will say that I should have taken a break after the second act. And then the third. I am in the DLC now, and…well, I’ll get to that in a bit. Also, I have included the trailer for it below.

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Ghost of Tsushima–I am so done

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Back to pour more salt on my already irritated wound.

Before I start, though, I have to say that one thing you gotta know about me–I will play the hell out of a game. It’s my personality that I will gorge myself on something I like well past the point where I should quit. That’s on me–but I know that it’s not going to change any time soon.

I have finished up the NPC questlines, the map has opened up to me again, and I am on the final story mission. Funnily enough, there is still one ghost technique still locked off to me so I have no idea if I did something wrong, missed it, or if it comes later. I don’t need it, though, so there’s that.

I talked yesterday about how bored I am with the gameplay, and I need to elaborate on that today–along with talking about the NPC questlines. So, once again:

*SPOILER WARNING* 

There are three NPC questlines that span the whole game. That means that they get locked off after you finish the parts that are meant to be played in that act, and you can’t pick it up again until you get into the next act. Oh, and for some weird reason, in the second act, they show you every sub-mission within the mission, so you can do them out of order–and, apparently, lock yourself out of some steps (though you can still finish the mission itself). This is a erally odd choice, but whatever. I don’t need to put too much thought into it.

I found the NPC sidequests to be pretty interesting–until the third act. Like every other part of the story, they fell apart at the end. Again, I have the strong feeling that the team wanted to pack an emotional punch, but they went waaaaay overboard with the drama. And I didn’t feel the stories were that authentic. What I mean is that they felt very much like what Westerners would think Easterners would think/feel. That could just be my bitterness, though.

The first NPC questline I finished was Masako Adachi’s. There was only one part left to her questline, which was hunting down her sister (who betrayed her) and enact justice (revenge). I felt that this was utter bullshit and very much pulled out of the collective asses of Sucker Punch for shock value. I have talked about earning reactions/emotions, and I didn’t feel they earned this one. It was her sister who betrayed her. Her sister who she thought was dead. Her older sister who felt that Madame Adachi stole the life she (the sister) was supponed to have as the older sister.


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Doing the Ghost of Tsushima slog

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I want to expand on my aggravation for the end of the second act of Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch Productions) and why I’m dragging my feet on doing the third act. In yesterday’s post, I talked about my issues with the story. Now, I want to get more into the gameplay. I’m halfway through the third act, and I’m bored. Again:

*SPOILER WARNING*

In the third act, I have to go to a bunch of different homesteads and get the piece fo armor that a famed armorer made for Khan. The armorer ran instead of giving the armor to the Mongols, but he was caught. I think he hid the pieces before getting caught or he gave them to the villagers or whatever. I don’t remember nor do I care. Each Mongol stronghold has one of the pieces of armor, so there are two reasons why I have to liberate each stronghold.

Instead of doing this, I spent several hours just wandering around and gathering supplies while I had my traveler’s outfit on. Why? Because you get a ton more resources that way. Or rather, because I have a certain charm equipped with that outfit. Instead of, say, one predator hide, I’ll get two, and then a bonus of three to four others. I wanted to max out all my armors, so this was a good way to get the money (“supplies”) needed to do so.

Which brings me to another issues with the game–though it’s not really the game’s fault. Before I get to that, though, let’s talk about Ryuzo. My childhood best friend turned betrayer. Of course I knew he was going to betray me–that was something I saw coming a mile off. However, when I confront him for that betrayal, I (as the player) find myself wanting to let him live. Not because I forgive him, but because I understand what he did. And because it’s not really his fault. And because he doesn’t really deserve to die for what he did to Jin.

Do I get that choice? Of course not. The game tells me I have to kill Ryuzo, so I reluctantly do just that. There’s a side mission in which I do not want to kill the purported baddie of that side mission, either,. but I must to finish the mission. I’m not mad about not having the choice necessarily because that’s how games go. I am just not happy with the direction of the story–that’s all.

Back to the issue of min/maxing. I love the armors of the game. They are very different from each other, and there are reasons to wear certain ones for certain situations. The traveler’s out fit is for resource gathering. The Sakai armor is for standoffs. The ghost armor is for, well, ghosting around. There is a second armor that is also good for ghosting. And another for archery.


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I’m such a weirdo–and why I’m miffed at Ghost of Tsushima

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In yesterday’s post, I talked about how I had lost all enthusiasm for Ghost of Tsushima. There were reasons for that in the end of the second act, and I want to talk explicitly about it. This is the big warning that I am going to spoil the shit out of the end of the second act/beginning of the third act.

*SPOILERS WARNING*

So many people loved the story in the game. I was surprised because I found it so generic. Only one person said he didn’t really gel with Jin because Jin was such a blank slate (Blessing from Kinda Funny Games), and the others said he was that way beacuse you can imprint yourself on him. Which I get, but I did not find him very interesting until the end of the second act, but I really resent how I got there.

Here’s when I’m going to be more specific. I am going to go into the details of the story because I can’t get over it. Again, I know it’s just me because most people (guys) were creaming in their jeans about how great the story was. The (guys) is important because this kind of power fantasy is more appealing to men than non-men in general.

Anyway.

Back to the end of the second act. Here’s the thing. I had an ex who had a description for situations in movies in which the action seems backwards-designed. He called it, “Please move your face to hit my fist” and what he meant was that the action was written in such a way that this had to happen in order for this to happen in order to get the end result the director wanted.

I bring this up because I strongly felt this at the end of the second act. Yuna, who has had my back the whole game up to this point (but with the very clear motive of getting her brother off the island) inexplicitly says that she can’t go with me on a mission because my uncle gave her the boat she wanted to get to the mainland. She says that Ryuzo (my childhood friend turned enemy, more on that later) was my problem so she wasn’t going to help me.

I was like, “Excuse me, what?” I had helped her rescue her brother,  get her revenge for her village and her friend, and now she’s doing me like this? It didn’t make any sense to who Yuna was as a person, and what’s more, I had a sinking feeling it was setting me up for something that was supposed to be Very Emotional.

I was not wrong. I got betrayed by Ryuzo and captured, along with Taka, Yuna’s brother. He idolized me and followed me to the camp (wherever I was going. I forget the details because they were so bland and generic). We’re tied up and Khotun Khan (the main baddie) unties Taka and hands him a sword.

Taka has been portrayed as not a fighter. He is a blacksmith and the one who fashioned my grappling hook (which I hate). We had to save him, and Yuna told me the sad tale of their childhood. She had always looked after him and protected him, whicgh was why she was doing everything she’s doing. This was all fine and good. This was a serviceable story, and I really liked Yuna. In fact, I liked most of the NPCs and their stories–much more than I did Jin. I didn’t dislike Jin, but he was just so forgettable (again, until the end of the second act/beginning of the third).


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I may be done with Ghost of Tsushima

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I said I was done talking about Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch Productions), but I’m not. I’m at the very end of the second act, and I may not go into the third. Why? Well, let me tell you all about it. Needless to say, there will be *SPOILERS*. 

I was already getting weary by the end of Act 1. That was roughly 35 hours of play. Now, 25 hours later, I am not sure I want to push on to Act 3. I’m in the last mission of the sceond act, and once again, I had to push myself to finish the main story missions once again because it’s the least-interesting part of the game to me.

Yeah, I’ll say it. It’s very bog standard honor, loyalty to family/clan/country, yadda yadda yadda. There is very little that stands out about Jin Sakai or his uncle, Lord Shimura. The side characters are more interesting, but I’ll get to that in a bit. There is tension between the two because Lord Shimura is all about honor and the samurai way. Jin isn’t so straightforward–at least not how I play him. You can do the honorable thing, but you can also do the dishonorable thing like assassinate enemies.

Lord Shimura: Blah, blah, blah, honor. Blah, blah, blah, look them in the eye as you kill them.

Me as Jin: Shank them hard, shank them fast, shank them often.

I have now acquired a ghost technique that means if I stealth kill a warlord or kill enough enemies without getting hit, I can press in RS and LS to auto-kill three enemies while the screen goes black-and-white. It’s called ghost mode, I believe, and it’s sick as hell. I have a hard time getting in that mode because I’m going to get hit. I am just going to get hit. I accept it and have made my peace with it.

It’s sick as fuck, though. I will admit that when I was farming for predator hides (I’ll get that in a second), I was able to mow down enemies without getting hit because I was farming in a very low-level area. So, I was able to get in ghost mode, and, man, I felt so fucking powerful.


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Let’s ttalk some more about open world games

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black Sakai armor set with antlers on the helmet
This definitely makes a statement

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.


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More on open world game design

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samurai in all black ronin armor (and straw hat)
My fit is (black) fire!

I want to ttalk more about open world game design. So, not specifically about Ghost of Tsushima (which I’m pushing through), but about the genre in general. Basically, I’m comparing  Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch Productions) and Elden Ring (FromSoft) because I haven’t played many other completely through. In fact, Skyrim (Bethesda) and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (CD Projekt Red) are the two I can think of off the top of my head. I really enjoyed Skyrim for the first 50 hours, but then I just started hating it. It was my fault because I tried to do all the covenants/groups in one go. And, I just had my fill about then. I finished it up in 75 hours and never touched it again.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was really enjoyable–until a cave mission about two-thirds of the way through. It was a follow Pippa (I think that’s her name) in the cave, and I got hopelessly lost. I think it was supposed to be a fifteen minute mission or so, but it took me hours. I hated it so much, I considered quitting. I knew I was near the end, though, so I stuck it out and eventually stumbled my way out of the cave. Disheartened and unhapp,y I finished up the game as quickly as I could. I hated the first DLC and did not play the second. The main game did have one of the best written quests I’d ever played, though (Bloody Baron). I think I put roughly 115 hours into this game.

In yesterday’s post, I made comparisons between Ghost of Tsushima and Elden Ring. I want to continue down that path today.

I have noticed that I play open world games in a way that makes me less and less enthused about them as I go. I explore every nook and cranny as I go, leaving no stone unturned. I play for hours on end and am super-absorbed. Then, at some point, my interest starts waning, but I still try to do everything available. Until I don’t. Usually, that’s when I stop playing the game. Or in the case of Skyrim and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, start mainlining the main story.

With Elden Ring, I still explored every inch of the domain, but the luster dimmed as the game went on. Part of the issue is that the mid-to-late game was balls-hard. Also, it was set in a snowy area (which I love) with limited visibility (which I hate). I could not see anything in this area, and I plunged to my death so many times. In addition, I had no desire to fight the stronger enemies when I could not see them, and I started riding past them. Esepcially as they were all repeat enemies.


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More thoughts on Ghost of Tsushima

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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.


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