if the first hour is any indication, Ghost of Yotei does what Tsushima did a few years ago already, which has been handily summarized by our own resident @thecatamites
this is another wonderful hangoutitude photography sandbox software with a story tacked on for maximum emozione, so just gonna post my impressiones from the Kuorsawa mode:
then becomes
or
random pixx galore:
I too am installing 100 GB of landscape photography feat. Playstation Exclusive Ninjas
my wife really loved Tsushima, but then the game kind of traumatized her when they fucking kill your horse that she felt very attached to, and she dropped it completely. so idk if this one will also be played. she’s kind of interested, but I think still feeling kind of stung
Important note: do not ask Isfet’s wife to play Shadow of the Colossus
that one is a fake-out, though! I could at least offer some kind of consolation there
There definitely is a problem when a game will take away what it assumes to be your number 2 or 3 favorite thing about a game to raise the emotional stakes, when actually it takes away your number 1.
If one of these kinds of games really wanted to take something away to raise the emotional stakes, they’d take away your map markers, or your xp bar.
I think you have a wolf companion in this game, just saying. You know what’s going to happen.
We’re going to pet the doggo
I hope the main character dies protecting the wolf instead of the other way around, and then you get to play the ninja wolf for the last half of the game.
So is Yotei just more of the same or does any of it feel meaningfully different? I heard it went from a stance themed RPS system to a weapon themed RPS system, but is that mostly just a flavor difference?
I still haven’t booted it up yet but I’m hoping they junk the stance systems and just do a straightforward attack and parry thing than trying to create a universe in which only certain mooks can be hit by a sword in the right way
First impression after an hour or two is a bit meh.
The game looks very nice but I do not like the cinematic black boxes coming in every time you mount your horse. It feels like they’re trying to capture a remembered cinematic experience than make you feel like you’re riding through a world.
Combat seems fine. Seems like they’re leaning towards weapons being tools more than hard counters. I liked kicking up a guys sword and throwing it through another guy.
The worst thing so far is the UI and control design causing lots of problems. R2 picks stuff up by default but also brings up weapon select if you don’t have the contextual prompt up. So you end up accidentally bringing up weapons when you mean to pick stuff up. Throwing a weapon doesn’t require aiming it but throwing a ‘distraction bottle’ does. They also really want you to use motion controls and the microphone. You can switch these inputs for button inputs but not for everything. Cooking requires motion inputs. Starting a campfire has you flinting tinder and blowing on it. You can press R2 to blow or use the microphone but if you’re using an accessibility controller R2 doesn’t work so I gotta blow with my cheeks. Feels strangely undertested.
The first area I come to with stealth has about 86 distraction sake bottles lying around for me to throw. I just ignored stealth and was fine.
ah, so that’s how the game normally looks like! 
(the white flowers boost-pad had me laughing too, unfortunately i only know one person that actually can ride a horse and does so, so next time i will meet her i’ll ask if that checks out in RL, and will report back astonished - astonished! - that horses do not boost over white flowers (or maybe they do and i will be enlightened!)
Also realized that the bottle (called Gourd Hyotan, careful tho: that leads to a lot of NSFW results if you spell it incorrectly…) tied to the saddle has been used somewhere else before, thought it was SotC but that was wrong as a quick check confirmed. Maybe one of the Dynasty/Samurai Warriors titles, I guess?
So it turns out this problem was caused by me putting toggle on but you can’t set toggle and hold for individual actions so I’ve turned this off and will try to avoid using ranged weapons where I have to hold aim. Crouch meanwhile is toggle by default and can only be bound to R3 or L3 >:(
It turns out you can just skip this after you do it once.
Turns out it’s the same as Tsushima. I guess there’s some logic to different weapon types working against each other but it almost feels worse than just stances since it feels like the different weapons should be differently expressive rather than only chosen for a specific enemy type. Just feels like really rigid balance and works against options. Use all the weapons, no favourites allowed.
At least the lip sync for the JP dub feels more natural and Atsu feels more likeable than Jin. There’s none of the angst about honour which plagued the entire character arc. I’m kinda hoping they do something weird as a cost for her revenge but Tsushima didn’t really do anything too crazy or memorable.
Constantly being shoved around by Sucker Punch’s invisible hand in combat, or when escorting an NPC, or when the camera refuses to obey you because it wants to force you into some sort of rule of thirds composition.
Wolf pack is the most cardboard mechanic I’ve seen in a while. It’s basically an interactive mural of NPC vendors and weapon trainers you meet and develop no real relationship with. Just gives the impression that Atsu just inducts them into her club against their will whilst also self-identifying as a lone wolf. Named NPCs collected in a list does not a pack make. It’s also highly arbitrary. Why the bowyer and not the map salesman? Just feels like someone on the team wanted some thematic link between the Yotei Six and you. ‘What if Atsu also had a squad?’.
Had to get over the initial health deficit that makes early combat so spiky but now that I’ve got some upgrades and seen a decent chunk of the game, I feel like it’s evening out.
It doesn’t feel much different 5 years after Tsushima came out, but I’ll highlight some things I like.
I’ve had a big hiatus because other stuff has just stolen my interest and Pokemon Legends is about to drop. I’d like to hang in the Ainu region for a while but I’m wondering if I’ll finish the whole thing.
This woman is not ruthless enough given her war veteran history and life empty of anything but revenge. she’s constantly letting people go she should just kill. she should be more of a thousand yard stare psycho
