Ghost of Tsushima Catch All

Couple hours in and I'm really enjoying it. Felt the opening areas didn't look great but once you're off the shore the game's scenery took centre stage. So far it's ran just fine on a base PS4. I'm not the best judge of this since I'm not sensitive to framerates.

Only played about an hour so far basically just the opening but wow I'm blown away. This game looks gorgeous and the controls/animations are so much more responsive then I imagined.

I hadn't been following this game at all so I have come in with zero expectations but voice acting, story and facial animations hooked me immediately.

Obviously still just my first take on the game so things will change but it's been awhile since a triple A game grabbed me right away like this.

I'm also on the base PS4 and framerate and performance have been good incase anyone was wondering. It's probably the best looking console game Ive played.

Rave wrote:

Only played about an hour so far basically just the opening but wow I'm blown away. This game looks gorgeous and the controls/animations are so much more responsive then I imagined.

I hadn't been following this game at all so I have come in with zero expectations but voice acting, story and facial animations hooked me immediately.

Obviously still just my first take on the game so things will change but it's been awhile since a triple A game grabbed me right away like this.

I'm also on the base PS4 and framerate and performance have been good incase anyone was wondering. It's probably the best looking console game Ive played.

I was coming here to say the same. I'm also on a base PS4 and it's clear they've learned to squeeze everything they can out of this thing.

After years of not being on a console and hearing people complain about how poorly games run on base modern consoles then playing HZD, FFVII Remake, Spider-Man, God of War, and Ghost on a base PS4, I’ve come to the conclusion that they are 100% wrong. These Sony 1st party games run smooth as hell.

Yeah, same, played the prologue stuff up until the title came up and so far I'm impressed. Obviously the game is gorgeous, and HDR really pops. Even at the beginning I'm liking the combat, I tried to button mash past a few goons a couple times and just died. It's not Souls style precision thank god, but it does actually make you think about what you're doing or you'll be punished. Definitely makes a good first impression.

Vector wrote:

After years of not being on a console and hearing people complain about how poorly games run on base modern consoles then playing HZD, FFVII Remake, Spider-Man, God of War, and Ghost on a base PS4, I’ve come to the conclusion that they are 100% wrong. These Sony 1st party games run smooth as hell.

Part of it is perspective and where the bar is set. For me, I look at how gorgeous a game like Devil May Cry 5 is and how it runs at a consistent 60fps, and in comparison other games feel like they're running more poorly. However, a lot of the PC purists are looking at 4k 120fps ray-tracing etc. etc., so their standards are even higher.

I'd say a lot of games this generation manage to hit the base target, which is 30fps at 720-1080p. Which is fine, but I've always preferred performance over graphical fidelity and therefore I'd take a resolution drop to max out that frame rate.

As for the game itself, I've actually found the controls a bit sluggish, but I'm also coming off of Hollow Knight and God of War (the latter of which itself is a bit more sluggish than I'm used to), as well as playing Bloodborne and so on. I think part of it is just learning the game, how to tell which enemy is going to try and attack so I know to watch their movements for a parry, as well as basic learning of attack patterns.

The draw so far for me is the open world, which is a nice compromise between your standard AAA open-world design and the freedom of Breath of the Wild. While this game has map markers, it's really easy to stop and go "Oh, hey, what's that?" and start exploring. I think of it like placing an objective marker as my ultimate goal that I reorient to after getting side-tracked a bit. It's easy to just spot a building, a smoke trail, a tori gate, etc. and just start heading for it. Similarly, one of the reasons I was not so taken by Horizon was because it felt so limiting after the absolute freedom to climb whatever and wherever in Breath of the Wild. Ghost of Tsushima clearly isn't as free, but if you spot a landmark there's usually at least two routes to reach it, if not more. In Horizon, I recall spending quite a bit of time trying to find the specific path the game wanted me to climb in order to reach the marker I'd spotted.

I've only completed one optional outpost, and it was with a mix of hit-and-run assassination tactics. I'm still not quite great with the melee combat so I'm sticking to stealth when I can. We'll see how things expand in time.

As with others, I'm on a base PS4, a Last of Us Remastered bundle bought in 2015. The fan is always going, though not always at full blast "prepare to take off" volumes. Which is pretty standard for Sony's first-party titles, really.

I'm enjoying it so far but I have a few things I'd change:

1: Let me lock on. I'm fighting the camera more than I'd like. And that leads directly to
2: Give me Souls-Controls. Using R1/2 frees up your thumb for things like moving the camera and dodging without losing the ability to attack. All games should map attacks to R buttons, imo.

I thought the Last of Us Part 2 looked amazing, but damn, this looks great. I can't believe they can push the PS4 like this.

I can't parry. I just suck. Any tips? Also, stand off, how do you do it? When do you start holding triangle?

For the stand off, I believe you hold triangle as the enemy is approaching you and then you let go once he attacks.

I'm still wrapping my head around the combat, and it has been relatively quick to reload when you die. Which I have. A lot.

The game looks and sounds great.

Any time I approach a group of enemies, I get a prompt to initiate a stand off (hold triangle). If you do, you get the cut scene-like confrontation.

As I've begun exploring the world, I'm finding myself loving the lack of intrusive UI. I don't have arrows or paths on the ground. I see a yellow bird and follow it, a fox leading me from its den, or a pleasant wind effect that points me in the right direction. These UI decisions have made me pay close attention to the details in the world, something I usually have to jump through hoops to do (e.g., disabling the UI completely).

There should be a prompt to tell you when you can start holding the Triangle button. You hold down until the enemy lunges forward, at which point you release. Eventually you can unlock the ability for other guys to run in, upon which you just tap the triangle button then. In order to initiate, you press up on the D-Pad when prompted.

The timing for the perfect parry has been iffy for me as well. Ultimately I'm trying to remember that I now have bombs and kunai to also use in combat.

The hardest decision in the game so far:

Spoiler:

Horse color.

I was having a good time with the game for the first 3 hrs or so and then I hit the mission where you have to

Spoiler:

defend the forge and they send waves of enemies at you. So frustrating. Fighting groups isn’t great and fight anyone indoors is awful. Maybe I was supposed to level up on side missions or something, but up to this point I wasn’t having too much trouble. I probably died 10 times on that mission

Balthezor wrote:

Also, stand off, how do you do it? When do you start holding triangle?

Something I don't think the replies offered clearly, that confused me at first:

You can't just initiate a standoff any time you want. You should see a prompt at the bottom of the screen to hold the "up" button to initiate one. Once you do that, you'll get a two-second cutscene as Jin calls out to the foes, and then be prompted to hold triangle.

You'll quickly gain the ability to stealth assassinate, and I can see there being an interesting tradeoff: do you do a standoff for an easy kill at the cost of alerting all nearby foes, or do you go for stealth?

Speaking of which: the first couple story missions give you vital abilities like stealth assassination and a bow. (This isn't a spoiler, the waypoints on the map tell you the mission rewards.) Don't go picking random fights in the open world before doing those unless you want to make things way harder on yourself. (Although that's as far as I've gotten, after dying repeatedly trying to pick fights I'm not ready for.)

beeporama wrote:
Balthezor wrote:

Also, stand off, how do you do it? When do you start holding triangle?

Speaking of which: the first couple story missions give you vital abilities like stealth assassination and a bow. (This isn't a spoiler, the waypoints on the map tell you the mission rewards.) Don't go picking random fights in the open world before doing those unless you want to make things way harder on yourself. (Although that's as far as I've gotten, after dying repeatedly trying to pick fights I'm not ready for.)

I definitely did exactly this (rode off in the opposite direction), and the game has been tough at times. Still, nothing stops you from exploring rather than sticking to the story. Stuff seems to unlock as you encounter it (mostly), and I did find some useful items by doing so!

Yeah, I highly recommend doing the first two main story quests they offer before going off exploring. Yuna teaches you stealth and Ishikawa (that was his name, right?) gives you archery abilities. Even then, I avoided some of the encampments until I felt more prepared for them. I'd say early on focus on smaller outposts, then worry about the bigger logging encampments or shipyards once you've gotten abilities like taking out 2 or 3 guys in a standoff, being able to double-assassinate, moving at normal speed with Ghost vision, etc.

Which brings me to address some of the stealth. I'm currently fine with it, I like empowering assassination things where I get to one-hit kill stuff while being all sneaky sneaky. However, it's definitely very Metal Gear Solid 1 in that enemies might discover a body and alert everyone else, but after X amount of time they'll quit their patrol and revert back to their relaxed status. It might have been nice for them to have included a middle-ground, where they're alert but not actively searching. This way there was a bit more consequence to bodies being discovered (though it's not like you can hide them anyway). There also seems to be time between an initial corpse discovery and when a guy blows his horn to alert his buddies, but I haven't taken advantage of that yet.

Where the "AI is stupid" thing becomes surprisingly exploitable is in how deaf these guys are. I jumped onto a platform where an archer was facing away, with the game providing a nice rumble feedback to indicate impact alongside the sound of Jin's feet planting into the wood. Dude not five feet away? Didn't notice at all.

I don't mind it, I signed on to sneak through like the hand of God through Egypt and that's what I'm getting for a bunch of these encampments. Leader characters can't be one-shot (yet), but given how many enemies can be that's fine.

I did more exploring this morning, and I'm starting to see how copy-paste a bunch of these houses are. It feels like fewer and fewer have supplies in them as well, so I'm not sure it's worth going inside them so much. To that end, I can definitely see the open-world formula getting exhausting for reviewers. Especially when you consider they're going to have to play another Assassin's Creed later this year, and perhaps are energized off their five hour Cyberpunk 2077 previews. While I think this is a good execution of the formula, it's still a formula.

Nonetheless, I'm having a good time for now.

I'd also recommend, if combat is giving you trouble, doing Lady Masako's first mission or two after helping Ishikawa. You'll get armor that reduces damage and adds a health boost, as well as regaining resolve upon receiving damage.

Oh, and I stumbled upon a shrine that told me I'm lacking the necessary equipment for it? That was unexpected, so I'm curious what I need in order to do that.

I know the odds are so slim as to be effectively zero, but I'm holding off on this one in hopes of a PC port a la Horizon Zero Dawn.

If that doesn't come to pass, I'll eventually pick this one up once I've migrated to the PS5 in a couple years. I'm pretty excited for Ghost of Tsushima, but I just don't think that the base model PS4 is going to be the best way to experience this one.

ccesarano wrote:

Oh, and I stumbled upon a shrine that told me I'm lacking the necessary equipment for it? That was unexpected, so I'm curious what I need in order to do that.

I found that also. I’m assuming it requires

Spoiler:

the grappling hook. I saw in the trailers there was a grappling hook and the quest line with yuna is to save her blacksmith brother so he can make a weapon that will get you into the castle to save your uncle. I’m assuming that is the grappling hook too. Not sure though. Haven’t finished that quest line

This game is amazingly chill and relaxing outside of combat. The world is just gorgeous and satsfying to explore.

I've put just over an hour into the game, I'm enjoying it quite a bit. I chose hard upon hearing the game being a cakewalk (mostly) on normal. I was also fairly proficient at Sekiro & I hate games being too easy.

I thought the starting was fairly strong, rushing the army on the beach with the fire arrows flying towards you. It teaches you the basics of the combat in this section, the parry is a lot more forgiving than Sekiro but not so generous that you can land it everytime (on hard anyways). The combat feels deadly & responsive.

Once you get out of the linear opening its feels like the chains break off & you can go wherever you want. There are a couple of things that surprised me. Firstly the little crawl spaces under the houses in the various settlements/villages, it goes into a first person view & its super smooth. The other thing is the running & jumping feels really good. You can jump a decent distance if you run & jump off a roof, easily being able to land on adjacent roofs or other structures. This should make stealth kills from above a very viable option, even if the enemy isn't directly underneath your position.

I’m at about just over 11 hours now. Pretty much agree with everyone. It’s a damn beautiful game. Runs outstandingly well on a base PS4.

Combat is getting deeper as I progress through the skill tree. Just unlocked the third stance and it’s basically a jump kick. I’m playing on Hard and not having any troubles as long as I take out archers first, remember to use my tools, switch stances, and back off when I get surrounded.

Anyone else have a traveling outfit and a combat outfit?

I haven’t even uncovered half of the first map. This could be a VERY long game.

Since you can switch outfits at any time, I try to keep my traveling outfit on between missions.

Any suggestions on where to spend your technique points? First of all, I'm tending to keep them until I feel I need an upgrade. Also, while the starting parts of the skill trees require just one point, I have seen later ones which require two.

Unyielding Sword Parry is just after the first deflection skill (Perfect Parry), and allows you to parry the unblockable attacks by the double sword guys. Right after that is Deflect Arrows, which seems useful.

Far Hearing allows you to see more enemies, and is really useful for sneaking around.

Standoff Streak is much more useful than I thought, since I'm often forced into standoffs by missions.

When my legend increased, I could chose a new ghost weapon, and I picked Wind Chime, which has been very helpful in stealthily taking out camps.

I NEED MORE OUTFITS.

The skill tree that allows you to kill up to three guys in a Stand Off is essential and badass. I actually threw all the point I could into the small exploration tree. I have arrow deflection but the more useful anti-archer skill is the one where you attack while sprinting.

Amoebic wrote:

I NEED MORE OUTFITS. :D

When you upgrade them they change in appearance and you can cycle through the older appearances too! Each outfit has 4 variations!

I’ve got the red level 3 traveler garb with a Red Robin straw hat and going with the white level 2 samurai armour with the white headband for combat.

I actually meant to comment, when I wake my base PS4 up from suspension and load the game up, it's perfectly ready to go. Normally this wouldn't be a major point except I just got done replaying God of War, which had single-digit framerate and took a minute to "wake up" and be playable.

I also need to hook my USB drive up and get some screenshots downloaded. I normally don't do photo modes in games but there've been a few moments I thought "I need a photo of this". I dunno if Sony just issued a company-wide mandate that their games need photo modes, but Ghost of Tsushima has so many options that I'm curious to see what sort of photos others put together.

Vector wrote:

I’m at about just over 11 hours now...

I haven’t even uncovered half of the first map. This could be a VERY long game.

Yeah, this is the thing that's throwing me off. I don't even know how many hours in I am, but I feel like I "must be almost done the first zone" and... then I look at the map. The next two zones seem smaller than the first, so it wouldn't surprise me if the first third is also the longest third. Still, it's a lot of game and I'm wondering if I'll want to take occasional breaks so exhaustion doesn't set in.

I, too, am still in the hinterlands...

How does this game run on the base PS4?

Middcore wrote:

How does this game run on the base PS4?

I can’t tell if you’re joking or not.

If not, it runs great and pretty much every post has mentioned how impressive it looks and feels.

Vector wrote:
Middcore wrote:

How does this game run on the base PS4?

I can’t tell if you’re joking or not.

If not, it runs great and pretty much every post has mentioned how impressive it looks and feels.

Yeah pretty sure the last page or page-and-a-half has plenty of us discussing how it runs on the base PS4.

I've noticed some framerate dips but overall it runs fine, especially when you consider all the stuff flying around on screen at once.