Let’s talk about how and why Ghost of Tsushima is such a good game.

[Yautja_Warrior]

Ghost of Tsushima was really awesome. Excellent combat, good main story and side quests, great graphics / art style, brilliant soundtrack and an open world that was rewarding to explore and felt more natural, thanks to the guiding wind mechanic and use of animals to show players the way, instead of only using tons of map markers.

 

[Uzumaki Goku]

Honestly, in 2020.

This was my GOTY.

 

[Mafro]

I think it's probably the best game I've played in the genre. Absolutely loved it.

 

[Noctis Winters]

I really enjoyed it (especially some characters and the Stealth) but felt overall I had to make myself play it rather than being compelled to do so.

I think this is probably primarily down to its open world design - a game style I don't typically play alot of.
But even with that, I loved other games with that template - Mad Max, Days Gone, Vampyr are a few that I love

They excel or captured me with other elements (atmosphere and world for all, soundtraxk and voice work for Vamp) in a way that GoT didn't. It's beautiful and serene at times but I don't hold it in the same regard. Still, I'll probably finish the remaining trophies eventually.

 

[-Tetsuo-]

Its aight

 

[kimbo99]

It was the combat for me. Hoping for a sequel but who knows.

 

[Ascenion]

I'd prefer infamous return. It was basically an Assassin's Creed game. And honestly after playing it I get why Ubi doesn't want to make a game like that. It's not bad but it's not like a game I needed to play like I hoped it would be.

 

[Qudi]

Honestly the best PS4 SIE game in my book. Everything from the the characters, soundtrack, presentation, combat and open world kept me going till end twice. Narrative and limited facial animations budget constraints (or complete lack of in sidequests) were my only complaints, but will be probabaly adressed in the sequel. (HZD:FW alike hopefully)

In addition the multiplayer Legends and Iki expansion makes the game an awesome package all around.

We need to talk about the Mythic Tales...

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This right here 👆 everyone of these quests were ace.



Unrivaled Intro



And my most favorit sequence in the game.

 

[MeBecomingI]

Absolutely loved this game so much. The setting was perfect, the story was fantastic, the visuals were incredibly good, and the combat was so good.

I can't wait for sequel.

 

[Oreiller]

It's ok. It's basically an assassin's creed game with more polish and a really beautiful world. I enjoyed it quite a bit but it really overstays its welcome in its last third, and I couldn't finish the DLC because I was all burned out.

 

[ThatNerdGUI]

It was the best Assassin's Creed game in years; but felt formulaic and repetitive the deeper you got.

Great setting, fantastic atmosphere. Good gameplay.

Enjoyed it enough but didn't love it.

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This is exactly how I feel.

 

[Rodelero]

It's hugely carried by the quality of the combat and is otherwise just solid as an open world game. The story is good, the side content is a real mix, the stealth gameplay is pretty lacklustre. The multiplayer stuff is really good, a lot of potential on that front.

For a sequel I'd want to see a huge jump on the stealth gameplay, and to see exploration revolve a little less around a variety of different types of breadcrumb trail. Better/more varied rewards for side quest chains would be nice too -- the mythic quests aside it's all quite underwhelming.

 

[happydeer]

The game didn't really work out for me, sadly. The story was pretty good, but the open world, in my opinion, wasn't. It had too much copy pasted content. After only a few hours you've already seen and experienced all the open world activities and it's just repetition after that. There are only so many shrines, haikus, bandit camps, hot springs... I can get excited about.

 

[ZeroX]

It was alright. Not too interesting. seems about accurate.

It's just your run of the mill open world game. I couldn't really tell you much about it now and I played it like six months ago.

I can't believe i'm saying this, but i did liked Days Gone a bit more than Ghost. At least hordes are more fun than fighting mongols.

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Yeah playing post patch Days Gone, it was kinda janky, but aimed to be a more enjoyable, varied experience.

 

[score01]

Loved it and can't wait for the sequel. I'm glad I don't play that many open world style game and feel any burnout - the graphics, the settings, the combat, that title card and that ending. This was definitely my jam.

 

[Saiyaman]

Visually it's a stunning game, but it could never hook its claws into me. I've given up on it twice now, both before finishing Act 1. It feels like I've seen most of the world by the time I get to the end of Act 1, but then I look at the map, and it's like I've barely seen anything.

 

[Khanimus]

Generally it feels quite good

But the game gets real old, real fast. Gave up after I felt the game showed no interesting tension points, and had me repeating the same mission types again and again with no meaningful variance.

By the time I was ready to drop it, I pretty explicitly said to myself "this is fucking boring."

Also I don't know how they didn't have a less obnoxious solution for uncovering the map being tied to a weaker armor, and having to switch every time i am going to get into a bigger fight.

 

[lcd]

I wanted to love it but I felt the combat system was too restrictive, the main character too boring, and I think I may have been a bit jaded by the prospect of it being mapless, or without a constant pointer towards the next objective.

Rather then being able to decipher geographies, they brought the quest pointer from the UI into the game itself through the foxes and birds which just meant you can't turn them off. This isn't a bad thing per se, I think I had just built up the concept of the quests and directions towards them being more organic in to something else. But I think it was mostly the combat. Oh, I also found the stealth to be too formulaic. I have the same issue towards Horizon Dawn's human based stealth - it feels very mechanical.

I played the PS3 Infamouses for the first time in preparation for it. This might also have been why I felt quite disappointed with it - Infamous 1 is a bit sloppy in the way PS3 initial releases are, but is a very good game, and Infamous 2 is even better.

 

[Qudi]

Loved it and can't wait for the sequel. I'm glad I don't play that many open world style game and feel any burnout - the graphics, the settings, the combat, that title card and that ending. This was definitely my jam.

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Yeah part of the reason i dont mind these open world games is, that i dont play a ton of them. Like i skipped all mainline Assassins Creed games since AC2 or almost all of Ubisoft games in general (watchdogs/farcry/ghost recon).

 

[Deleted member 8257]

This right here.

Absolutely loved the friendship between Jin and Yuna. It did not devolve into tropes and was very well established.

Really loved the sense of scale and magnitude of the game and its events. Really, thoroughly enjoyed the japanese Samurai movie vibe throughout.

 

[ExhaustedWalrus]

Edit: ignore, accidentally posted in the wrong thread

 

[RightChandMan]

My goty of 2020 and it's one of the best games ever. I absolutely loved it.

 

[Deleted member 9241]

It had some innovation and more polish than many, but at the end of the day it was just another version of an open world game I have played dozens of times before. I enjoyed it for what it was, but as soon as I beat it, I never looked back.

 

[Desma]

The PS5 version is sublime, the Dualsrnse is oh so good on it. Walking over a wooden bridge with your horse is simply divine.

The game starts off strong, but it gets tiring after a while. Will still finish it tho

 

[SuperBoss]

The core and soul of the game, the samurai sword combat, is just impeccably well designed. If you were to narrow down why the game is such a success, that combat would be at the heart of it.

 

[BetterGraphics]

The open world needs a lot more variety in building types, emergent events, and things to do. It needs to be the same game but with a world that feels lived in. For all the things with foxes etc. it felt quite surface level.

 

[AllChan7]

Definitely a better AC game than any recent AC games. However there are areas I want to see improvement in for another game like animations and side quests while making stealth more meaningful.

 

[DeadmansTheory]

Really loved it. Had the Ubisoft openworld influence but the setting/world/characters/lore that made the whole experience its own. I will never get tired of the foxes and the haikus. The world was breathtaking and fun to explore. Combat was good, nothing amazing though but did wish there were more samurai duels.

Music was fantastic as was the graphics. It definitely had repetition with it side content, like helping citizens and enemy types. Would buy the sequel on launch and it also showed me how great a Assassin's Creed could be in that setting.

 

[gdt]

Enjoyed it but wore out it's welcome towards the mid-end.

Gorgeous

 

[Sprat]

There was no option in the poll for how I felt.

I really loved this game but I really don't want a sequel.

 

[Naner]

It's nice but drags longer than the gameplay sustains itself. Gets quite repetitive about halfway through, since most of the missions are about the same. The world looks nice but is not very fun to engage with and most collectibles just feel like busywork.

Honestly? Bring back inFamous.

 

[Jeronimo]

I found the colors and art direction really beautiful and liked it overall but I could have done without so much repetitive side content. The duels were the best part of the combat, but normal standoffs and regular combat usally weren't that interesting. I mainlined the story about a third of the way through because I had seen enough of the side missions/distractions.

The cultural touches like haikus, shrines, and animals leading you to points of interest was well done. Not sure I would call the whole experience fun, but I enjoyed it enough.

 

[LastNac]

I found the colors and art direction really beautiful and liked it overall but I could have done without so much repetitive side content. The duels were the best part of the combat, but normal standoffs and regular combat usally weren't that interesting. I mainlined the story about a third of the way through because I had seen enough of the side missions/distractions.

The cultural touches like haikus, shrines, and animals leading you to points of interest was well done. Not sure I would call the whole experience fun, but I enjoyed it enough.

Click to shrink...

"Reflect on a lovers touch."
"Reflect on your father."

 

[Scruffy8642]

Definitely too formulaic and it botched the open world design. Combat, aesthetics, graphics, feel and all that are great, but it was really monotonous to play and it wasn't much fun to spend time outside of missions in the world. Leant too hard into Assassins Creed territory. Enjoyed it, but was frustrated that it wasn't so much more.

 

[I KILL PXLS]

I thought the campaign was pretty mediocre open world stuff wrapped in a pretty beautiful skin and atmosphere. I didn't even make it out of the first island before I got bored and dropped it.

The raids though. Oh baby the raids were amazing. I bought it specifically when it went on sale to do the raids and multiplayer with friends and loved it. I didn't start playing the campaign until I had played hours of those modes and I think it's part of the reason I got bored of the campaign so quick. After having played so much of the multiplayer it really exposed how, despite how good the combat felt, it was pretty shallow overall.

Probably in the minority (especially on this forum), but I'd be way more excited for a whole GoT game focused on the Legends mode rather than a regular campaign sequel unless they really blew up and rethought how they approach the open world design.

 

[Antoo]

the multiplayer is where the game shines because it takes full advantage of the combat, which is the game's biggest strength

in the main game you can just switch to the correct stance then spam triangle through every fight

 

[NightShift]

I really, really liked it, I just wish the open world wasn't so formulaic. The game is unique in so many ways and is one of the few that have felt truly cinematic but to have it wrapped in such generic game design felt off.

 

[J_ToSaveTheDay]

I think it's formulaic design wise but the good news is that I'm not quite fatigued on the design. And to its credit, I think the combat felt far more engaging and satisfying than its peers. The story and characters were charming during the time of play but not really memorable, but I adored the aesthetic of the game from start to finish.

Great game. I'd be glad for a sequel but don't really NEED one.

 

[nDesh]

An Assassin's Creed game with Sony's polish and budget.

I loved it.

 

[secretanchitman]

Completely agreed OP. One of the extremely few open world games that I couldn't put down - excellent game start to finish.

 

[Son of Sparda]

For as much as people love to complain about boring fetch/side quests in open world RPGs (and rightfully so), I feel like Ghost of Tsushima, and now Horizon Forbidden West as well, have some of the most interesting side quests in an open world RPG, yet it feels like they barely get any acknowledgment for it.

 

[Sande]

It didn't grab me. Structurally and narratively it was just going through the motions, so gameplay had to carry everything. And I think gameplay was ultimately undermined by the stance system. Having different enemy types be hard countered by specific stances was a huge mistake in my opinion.

 

[Instro]

I thought it ended up being pretty boring. The most praise you can give it is that it looks nice and is "cinematic".

Also, I have a hard time praising the combat when the enemy variety is so awful. You've basically exhausted the entire game's combat variety within the early hours of the game. Which is pretty much the same criticism that can be leveled at most aspects of the game.

 

[Deleted member 87246]

It's on par with Horizon, Days Gone, Spider-Man and Uncharted 4 imo as a solid 8/10 but nothing special, new or particularly memorable and not on the level of TLOU 1&2, Bloodborne, God of War 2018 or Horizon II.

I hope there's a sequel and it can take that next step to become one of Sony's first party jewels. Give the team a huge budget and as much time as they need like they did with Horizon II.

 

[capybara-dive]

Loved it and was surprisingly emotionally impacted during certain parts of the story (if you've beaten it you know lol). Probably the best Ubisoft style open world game I've played. Absolutely beautiful too.

 

[JaseMath]

Loved it but it was a one-and-done experience for me. The controls don't really lend themselves for jumping back in.

 

[spman2099]

Serviceable story. Solid combat that is dragged down by elements that it lifted from Assassin's Creed (especially when it comes to the unparriable attacks). Wonky balance (the sub-weapons are just utterly broken). Beautiful. Excellent multiplayer. Incredible value.

All in all, it is a good game. However, I do feel like it is just a better Assassin's Creed title. It is too bad they felt the need to stick SO close to some of the elements they cribbed from Assasin's Creed, because that stuff really held the game back at times.

 

[FuturaBold]

A video on YouTube stated it has one of the best implementations of HDR is that true?

 

[mcruz79]

Loved it. One of my favorite open world games. Plenty to do, but not overwhelming. Loved the combat and graphics. Story was solid. Sequel just needs more story-driven side quests ala Horizon FW vs. the first in that franchise.

Click to shrink...

i love the game.
I was going to mention the forbidden west upgrade for the mission design and motion capture, cinematics.
If sucker punch can bring this upgrades like Guerrilla did, them the sequence can be a truly masterpiece.

 

[AIan]

Please bring back Sly Cooper instead***