When one has made a decision to kill a person, even if it will be very difficult to succeed by advancing straight ahead, it will not do to think about doing it in a long, roundabout way. One’s heart may slacken, he may miss his chance, and by and large there will be no success. The Way of the Samurai is one of immediacy, and it is best to dash in headlong.
Our bodies are given life from the midst of nothingness. Existing where there is nothing is the meaning of the phrase, “Form is emptiness.” That all things are provided for by nothingness is the meaning of the phrase, “Emptiness is form.” One should not think that these are two separate things.
Even if a samurai’s head were to be suddenly cut off, he should still be able to perform one more action with certainty. If one becomes like a revengeful ghost and shows great determination, though his head is cut off, he should not die.
According to what one of the elders said, taking an enemy on the battlefield is like a hawk taking a bird. Even though it enters into the midst of a thousand of them, it gives no attention to any bird other than the one that it has first marked.
There is something to be learned from a rainstorm. When meeting with a sudden shower, you try not to get wet and run quickly along the road. By doing such things as passing under the eaves of houses, you still get wet. When you are resolved from the beginning, you will not be perplexed, though you will still get the same soaking. This understanding extends to all things.
In the words of the ancients, one should make his decisions within the space of seven breaths. It is a matter of being determined and having the spirit to break through to the other side.
I love it. Great work Drem.
Dang so this game is just Assassin’s Creed? Who knew
Honestly now that I know that’s what this is I’m sorta more interested? I thought it was like, another Souls-like and I think I’ve accepted I’m never going to have the fortitude to put myself through more of those.
But I could go for AC:JP once this game gets discounted some probably
does the movement feel good or does it feel bad?
does the sword slashing feel good or does it feel bad?
I did have too much interest in this game until I saw it had jank, and then I thought maybe that could be fun. But I barely ever play open world games and went into this looking for a checklist game to wallow in, and it serves that purpose to a T. It doesn’t even waste you’re time- after 30 minutes you hit the open world and can go wherever you want and checkmark all the boxes.
The movement doesn’t feel bad but it doesn’t feel notably good either. You are agile enough that turning your character and moving the camera don’t feel cumbersome but there isn’t a lot to say about it other than it’s probably like most other open world games. The combat doesn’t feel quite as automatic as Batman and Spider-man because it doesn’t have as generous a magnetism-into-animation on attacks but it’s still the popular attack x parry/dodge x guard break triangle (plus tools like your kunai/batarangs/spider-balls). I will say that I like how both you and your enemies typically die in 2-4 hits since that emphasizes the strength of your swords, but the combat pacing follows the formula of guard break and enemy with heavy attacks, get two light attacks in, then you have to guard break them again.
The world is ludicrously pretty to the point that it is kind of ridiculous that you can’t find a normal looking patch of land. I don’t think my monitor can handle the color of the game very well but I’m sure it looks very nice on a good TV. The wind-based compass actually works better than I expected. Even though you still have something telling you where to go it looks very natural and un-obstructive since it’s usually a very gentle breeze unless you specifically call on a large gust by swiping on the touch pad. There are also things like following foxes and birds to Map Stuff which is nice.
If you play a lot of open world games I don’t know that there’s anything here for you. I don’t play a lot of open world games and there wouldn’t be anything here for me either if I wasn’t specifically looking for a mindless checklist game to play for a bit. It is a game that plays exactly like you expect the stereotypical open world game to play like. Except with striking visual direction.
i’m in.
Oh yeah, this seems like a real cool videogame feature.
There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment. A man’s whole life is a succession of moment after moment. If one fully understands the present moment, there will be nothing else to do, and nothing else to pursue.
If by setting one’s heart right every morning and evening, one is able to live as though his body were already dead, he pains freedom in the Way. His whole life will be without blame, and he will succeed in his calling.
Can you customise the map legend display? Extremely icon-busy maps are a pet peeve for open world for me.
Also these clips are fantastic and @Drem is fantastic.
This image shows what is actually a very large portion of the map where getting from one icon to the next would take a couple of minutes. The map is actually relatively sparse and uncluttered, only showing icons discovered quests, towns/encampments, and some shrines and hot springs which can be used as fast travel points. The map does not actually show marks for all the various collectibles and there’s no mini-map either. However you can obtain an armor early on that has an ability that allows you to use the Guiding Wind (the wind based compass) to direct you to the nearest of any particular type of collectible of your choosing while you have not assigned the wind to anything else.
One big caveat I’d like to add to the “this is like Assassin’s Creed” thing is that climbing is not that big of a thing in this game. It is present but to a minor degree and with defined paths. The world is mostly plains and hills. I just now hit a battle that took place around a bridge and the cliffs below it and it was kind of shocking to have a battle where traversal and positioning came into play rather than the typical battle in a small field/village square.
What this map and straightforward traversal combine into is a fairly easy going and laid back experience with brief periods of intensity (combat). The world placement is designed in such a way that you have long periods of just riding through the trees listening to the rustling of leaves, enjoying the view. It eschews music for something more naturalistic and it gives the game this tranquil quality opposite of many other open world games which are always trying to make you stop to see something, to do something, to climb something- something is always within eyesight.
This game instead makes you follow the wind or animals to find new things so it feels natural to just adjust your path and take your horse in another direction. You can constantly be going somewhere but you are not constantly starting and stopping to collect a treasure or climb a building. It also helps that you can collect material while moving on the horse.
Ghost of Tsushima is about strolling with your horse, occasionally stopping at a hot spring to think about your uncle, following a fox to pray at a local shrine, or sitting on a cliff side to look at a river and write a bad haiku.
Edit: I feel like I’m kind of over-selling it so I do want to emphasize that this is an extremely by the book open world game regardless.
I liked this video about the game:
He goes a bit into the art and design of the game world and brings up some good points about HUDs. Basically too many games (like AssCreed) rely on them too much when they should be figuring out how to convey that information without a bunch of text and symbols overlaid on the game itself. He has a preview of the latest AssCreed where he talks a bit more about that.
He also has this video, which is just a couple hours of scenery from the game:
I’ll probably play this at some point since I like open worlders and collectibles and stuff. Thinking about waiting until next gen though for any newer AAAA games.
A person who does not want to be struck by the enemy s arrows will have no divine protection. For a man who does not wish to be hit by the arrows of a common soldier, but rather by those of a warrior of fame, there will be the protection for which he has asked.
Im just kind of excited to see elaborate costumes that dont seem to clip through themselves
Oh, this is neat.
