Good stuff. I didn’t get far in Ghosts of Tsushima because the open world felt very samey, but if they work on that I could probably try the sequel.
Thank fuck, that’s definitely one of the game’s more detrimental flaws. I hope they also work on varying their quest design more, as well as mixing up the tone of the writing and acting more frequently.
I enjoyed the beautiful locations, solid combat and often great boss fights, but the game in general was too monotone for me to be truly captivated by it. Towards the end I felt worn out by it, having to mentally steel myself to even finish it. I get that the serious samurai trope is what they’re going for, but while that might work in a 2-hour movie it becomes incredibly one-note over a 50-hour game. Kenji alone is not enough to break up the flow with some variety. Especially with the gameplay being very repetitive too - so many missions are simple walk-and-talk, ride-horse-and-talk and go-to-spot-kill-mongols.
I’m always surprised Ubisoft gets so much flak when other developers are doing much the same thing.
That said, my main annoyance with Tsushima is: You’re not a hero. 99% of side quests end with the people you were helping ending up dead, and possibly some other nameless NPCs rescued. It just feels tragic.
It’s a perpetual issue where it’s easier to code in 20 more enemies than 2 or 3 more innocent, living people to have conversations with.
Mostly because Ubisoft was the company to start this shitty trend, with everyone else being a trend chaser
That doesn’t really explain why Ubisoft got shat on for it, while Ghost of Tsushima often got praised into oblivion. I constantly found myself thinking that it could’ve just as well been a Ubisoft game, just with less content.
I think it’s mostly cause of the really good gameplay, rather than the open world.
Would you say horizon forbidden west also follows this trend?
Good, it’s the one thing that kept me a long time from finishing the game after chapter 1. I only wrapped up the main story last week, after not having played for like 2 years lol. The main story of the game isn’t even that very long actually, or at least chapters 2 and 3, and the open-world content got repetitive very quickly.