Ghost of Tsushima Catch All

Aristophan wrote:

For those of you who are completionists in Act 1, be aware that you cannot completely finish the first area without going into Act 2.

For those of you just into Act 2, I suggest you prioritize raising the army. The three quest chain eventually unlocks a new ability.

I’m guessing you go back at some point?

As soon as you’re done the introductory quest to Act II and it says “ACT II”. The map is open and there IS ANOTHER TASK AVAILABLE. Just did that last night.

Successfully taking out five guys each with a single sword strike in a single stand off, then watching the 6th guy tremble with fear and book it down the road is so incredibly satisfying.

This is my game of the year. It's beautiful. Story beats are great, stealth is amazing, combat is fluid and fun, the game looks beautiful at every turn and the gameplay is just pure fun. This is what I always wanted in a game!

Do the hats and masks offer any benefits, or are they purely cosmetic? The main outfit has stats etc but the other gear doesn’t.

BlackSabre wrote:

Successfully taking out five guys each with a single sword strike in a single stand off, then watching the 6th guy tremble with fear and book it down the road is so incredibly satisfying.

This is my game of the year. It's beautiful. Story beats are great, stealth is amazing, combat is fluid and fun, the game looks beautiful at every turn and the gameplay is just pure fun. This is what I always wanted in a game!

I agree. I was looking forward to this game but I never expected to enjoy it this much. It's really fun.

Happy Dave wrote:

Do the hats and masks offer any benefits, or are they purely cosmetic? The main outfit has stats etc but the other gear doesn’t.

I don’t think headgear has any stats — I’m still only in Act I, but haven’t seen any mask, hat, helmet or headband with stats

BlackSabre wrote:

Successfully taking out five guys each with a single sword strike in a single stand off, then watching the 6th guy tremble with fear and book it down the road is so incredibly satisfying.

This is my game of the year. It's beautiful. Story beats are great, stealth is amazing, combat is fluid and fun, the game looks beautiful at every turn and the gameplay is just pure fun. This is what I always wanted in a game!

Is it a charm that let's you 5-way slice dudes?

3 from skill points, 2 from a certain set of armor max-upgraded.

Felix Threepaper wrote:
Happy Dave wrote:

Do the hats and masks offer any benefits, or are they purely cosmetic? The main outfit has stats etc but the other gear doesn’t.

I don’t think headgear has any stats — I’m still only in Act I, but haven’t seen any mask, hat, helmet or headband with stats

You are correct. Hats and masks are purely cosmetic.

Vector wrote:
Felix Threepaper wrote:
Happy Dave wrote:

Do the hats and masks offer any benefits, or are they purely cosmetic? The main outfit has stats etc but the other gear doesn’t.

I don’t think headgear has any stats — I’m still only in Act I, but haven’t seen any mask, hat, helmet or headband with stats

You are correct. Hats and masks are purely cosmetic.

Also, the armor sets that change visually (almost everything except the starter and Ronin sets, I think) as you upgrade them have an option to change the aesthetics to any of the upgrade levels you have unlocked while maintaining the stat points your upgrades. The only downside here - to me, at least - is that it changes the visual for the entire armor set and doesn't let you do things like remove just the silly shoulder boards.

Personally, I would like to see a more robust cosmetic system, but that's one of the only complaints I have about the entire game. And it's a pretty minor one at that.

After having cranked it up to hard for difficulty, I do wish it had a Very Hard setting. The jump from Normal to Hard was game changing but now I’m still just melting through piles of guys with almost no repercussions (admittedly VERY over leveled for the opening area so maybe it gets harder in act 2?)

The patch today adds a new Lethal difficulty level. Take a look at that.

You absolutely do face more challenging enemies as the game goes on, so don't worry about that.

After breezing through Act 1 (after getting a few abilities), I am now getting my ass kicked again early on in Act 2. I do like how they've increased the difficulty but it feels natural. More enemies are wearing helmets, groups tend to have one or two more highly ranked and heavily armed units, and there's an entirely new group of enemies that fight like you do.

And yes, they just patched or are patching today an additional difficulty level.

The patch also adds an option to ease the difficulty:

New difficulty level: Lethal

– Enemy weapons are more deadly, but Jin’s katana is also more deadly
– Enemies are more aggressive in combat
– Enemies detect you faster
– Tighter Parry and Dodge windows

Patch 1.05 will also include the following new options in the accessibility menu:

Lower Intensity Combat

Lower intensity mode is meant to maintain the heart and feel of Ghost of Tsushima combat while relaxing several timing-specific elements. Combat is less intense, giving you more time to react. Stealth settings are more forgiving, and enemies take longer to detect you.

– Most enemy attacks which are normally unblockable become blockable when Lower Intensity is enabled. Blocking with L1 will keep you safe from more attacks than standard combat, though some attacks must still be dodged.
– Enemies break off their attack combos after damaging you, giving you a chance to recover before the next wave of attacks. In addition, your heavy attacks will interrupt attacks from Brutes, giving you another way to stop their combos.
– Enemies will not attack you while you’re using Resolve to heal
– Enemy awareness builds more slowly, giving you more time to recover after being spotted

Text changes

– Large Text option: Increases text size of subtitles, mission objectives and interact prompts by 150% when enabled
– Added option to turn speaker name off when subtitles are enabled
– New subtitle text color options in addition to white: Yellow, Blue, Red, Green

Patch 1.05 also includes additional bug fixes.

I really wish they would have included "quick outfits" It is annoying to go into the menu to equip fighting armor, then switch to exploring armor, etc.

Heck I have never used the d-pad except whistle for horse so they could change the mapping for "bow" to change quick outfit.

Not sure why I would ever need a quick bow gesture anyway.

farley3k wrote:

Not sure why I would ever need a quick bow gesture anyway.

Try bowing at things to find out.

Spoiler:

For example, statues of frogs you might encounter at some shrines.

Also, watch for little wooden signs directing people to pay respects to other sorts of objects and locations.

EDIT:

Not that I fundamentally disagree, mind you -- even being able to set two quick equip sets would be WONDERFUL, and they could easily have used the trackpad for that.

That said, I love that I have an explicit input to trigger things like bowing and sheathing my sword dramatically -- they feel like very appropriate actions to be able to trigger given the rest of the design of the game.

Vector wrote:

After breezing through Act 1 (after getting a few abilities), I am now getting my ass kicked again early on in Act 2. I do like how they've increased the difficulty but it feels natural. More enemies are wearing helmets, groups tend to have one or two more highly ranked and heavily armed units, and there's an entirely new group of enemies that fight like you do.

And yes, they just patched or are patching today an additional difficulty level.

How easy or hard game is seems to be largely dependent on how fast you unlock your stances. Once you have the four primary stances, all of the non-boss opponents are a cakewalk even on Hard.

I'm always here to represent the folks that find these games hard!

Today I found out that if you lose a duel repeatedly, the game will start to give you more and more resolve to start the duel with. Also, after you lose enough times, the game will offer to allow you you abandon the duel or to reset the difficulty to easy.

farley3k wrote:

Not sure why I would ever need a quick bow gesture anyway.

I like bowing to peasants when they greet me! I'm a very polite samurai.

I’ve probably put 30 hrs into this game and I still don’t have the parry timing down. It’s a bit frustrating. I wish I could know if I’m too early or too late

IUMogg wrote:

I’ve probably put 30 hrs into this game and I still don’t have the parry timing down. It’s a bit frustrating. I wish I could know if I’m too early or too late

I had honestly forgotten parrying existed until I was looking through some of the skills last night. I gave up on parry early on and I usually dodge and counter-attack with a small smattering of blocking.

Only started parrying because of the trophy that requires it. Didn't feel very useful, too high risk (for me) for the reward it offered for. You got plenty of other useful tools to, well, kill everyone.

Finished the game today. So, so good. "Surprise hit" of the year for me. Guess it shouldn't be a surprise, but hadn't expected much from this game, maybe more a pretty, but somewhat shallow open-world game.
I especially liked the side quest content. But combat was really enjoyable as well. Even without those parries

The birds annoyed me quite a bit overall. I wish they had designed their appearance to be "smart". Like, if I am already running toward the spot the bird want to lead me to, it should not appear. Whenever I find something on my own, and run toward it, a bird always showed up to hold my hand, which takes something away from the exploration.

IUMogg wrote:

I’ve probably put 30 hrs into this game and I still don’t have the parry timing down. It’s a bit frustrating. I wish I could know if I’m too early or too late

I find the parry window to be agonizingly late. I’m almost always too early which at least just means I can block. And then I get confused why I was early, miss the red unblockable attack and smashed in the face.

Gave it a go with Lethal tonight and yeahhhhhhhh that’s my sweet spot. Two hits and you’re dead. Just unlocked the Ronin armour which combined with the damage boost from the Lethal difficulty makes it feel like every encounter is truly meaningful. It’s really fun learning and playing with the systems when you’re forced to do so.

I just hit Hero of Tsushima legend rank and haven’t even unlocked the grapple yet so I think it’s safe to say I’m on the completionist path given I have all the ghost weapons and stances unlocked already in act 1. This has been such a tasty little summer treat. I love a good open world game in the summer and this one is just hitting all the beautiful spots.

I'm largely ignoring stealth because I love standoffs so much. Love to walk into a camp and just call everybody out.

I love how your opponents can do a fake-out.

Then my mind was blown when

Spoiler:

Wait ... they can do a SECOND fake-out??

This game is just delighting me in so many small ways.

zeroKFE wrote:

Not that I fundamentally disagree, mind you -- even being able to set two quick equip sets would be WONDERFUL, and they could easily have used the trackpad for that.

That said, I love that I have an explicit input to trigger things like bowing and sheathing my sword dramatically -- they feel like very appropriate actions to be able to trigger given the rest of the design of the game.

100%

vypre wrote:

How easy or hard game is seems to be largely dependent on how fast you unlock your stances. Once you have the four primary stances, all of the non-boss opponents are a cakewalk even on Hard.

Aristophan wrote:

I'm always here to represent the folks that find these games hard!

Today I found out that if you lose a duel repeatedly, the game will start to give you more and more resolve to start the duel with. Also, after you lose enough times, the game will offer to allow you you abandon the duel or to reset the difficulty to easy.

Thanks Aristophan, not just me! I haven't yet been given the option to abandon a duel or reset the difficulty, but some of them have killed me multiple times. (Side note: Piercing Strike from Stone Stance is surprisingly useful, as you can back away then leap forward as opponents come at you. Also, Heavenly Strike can be used when you unlock it. But, ultimately, it's a struggle if you're not on point with your parries and dodges.)

With all four stances, everyday foes are certainly easier, but once I hit act 2 it became a challenge again. Yes, a single opponent is a cakewalk, but get a couple in there and honor goes out the window. Especially the new foes in act 2.

Between Clan Sakai armor, stealth skill points, and the Dance of Wrath skill, you can walk into a camp and usually insta-kill up to 8 opponents by issuing a Standoff followed by DoW or up to 6 if you use chained stealth kills and then DoW. Obviously, the Standoff method is more rewarding in terms of kill count, but it also requires tricky timing.

A player of pretty much any skill level can use the stealth method and it doesn’t require fully upgraded Sakai armor. IF there’s anything left, it’s usually only one or two that were outside range of DoW that can be handled with stances and/or one of those annoying, but weak archers that can be taken down with just one or two strikes.

In terms of skill, I’m borderline a border-line button masher when the action gets tense or frantic. If I can pull this stuff off, I promise you guys/girls can too.

Some additional tips for group combat from a mediocre player:

Get the double dodge skill and fully upgrade all of the stances. Try to keep your back to the outside of the group as much as possible. Single out an enemy on the edge of a group and use 2-3 heavy attacks from the enemy's corresponding stance and/or a kunai to stun lock them and follow-up with an attack combo. Rinse and repeat as needed to kill them.

If the rest of the group starts to move in, double dodge roll to get away and move/dodge roll to position yourself behind another enemy on the edge of the group. Change your stances as needed to ensure you can stun your selected foe quickly.

Don’t over-commit to trying to kill an enemy when you engage. If enemies start to move in, dodge roll away and don’t be afraid to reposition on a different enemy. You’ll come back to and kill the original opponent eventually.

Also, it’s usually better to take out archers first. They’re usually on the outskirts of the group anyway. Even better if you can take them all out with stealth bow headshots before engaging the melee group.

Bonus tip: time pauses when changing gear. Don’t be afraid to change armor mid-battle. Wear the Clan Sakai or your favorite stealth set to start and then pause and change to the Clan Set (Non-Sakai - it is the best defensive armor in the game) after you assassinate 1-3 enemies and your position is discovered.

Spoiler:

I haven't had a chance to use it a ton yet, so there may be some caveats, but once you unlock the blowgun/poisons, you have access to another insta-kill that terrifies surrounding foes and causes them to flee.

Also, upgrade smoke bombs and assassination chains and you've got an instant win button. I still haven't pushed into act 2 yet, so maybe changes there will limit the effectiveness, but it's wild how powerful that combo is. And, add to the fact that more often than not one of the three goons you've instant killed in your smoke cloud will drop a smoke bomb to refill your ammo, and you can make VERY fast work of big crowds no matter how tough they are.

zeroKFE wrote:

Also, upgrade smoke bombs and assassination chains and you've got an instant win button. I still haven't pushed into act 2 yet, so maybe changes there will limit the effectiveness, but it's wild how powerful that combo is. And, add to the fact that more often than not one of the three goons you've instant killed in your smoke cloud will drop a smoke bomb to refill your ammo, and you can make VERY fast work of big crowds no matter how tough they are.

I just unlocked smoke bombs as my last ghost weapon last night. I'll have to upgrade and try that!

I have like 17 upgrade points banked at this point because I've already upgraded all the stances and Samurai abilities, and I don't like the Ghost abilities enough to bother. I want a trophy for having 20 unused points!