Ghost of Yōtei

[BULUPTAX]

Oni and Kitsune done. Oshima Coast is super cool!

You and I are round about the same point in our play throughs hahaha

I'm really digging this game so far. It's far from perfect but it's keeping me intrigued so far

I honestly thought a lot of people were blowing smoke up their ass when they said the first was ''the best Assassin's Creed game'', but this one is legit probably the best AC game i'v played in a while. Such an improvement over the original.

My criticisms so far are mostly centered around the stealth system - it wouldn't have hurt to develop a better system than the original imo. More tools around manipulating light/dark and the ability to go prone and stuff like that like AC Shadows would have been cool - it just feels like it lagged behind compared to combat, even though the remote assassinations with the kusarigama are super cool.

I agree about the stealth. The combat feels way too satisfying to do stealth instead. Besides, I'm a little tired of the modern game trend of sneaking around in patches of tall grass.

TBH I kinda like the "Ubisoft open world" type game if it's done right. I like having a sandbox full of tasks to do and I feel like the Ghost games do it right.

[Aragorn]

Beat it last night. Overall still a great improvement over the original, even if the story doesn't entirely stick the landing with the third act. There is some missed potential there - but overall Yotei has taken a franchise i'v been lukewarm on to one i'm actively on the lookout for.

Spoiler:

The story is by the books and well told, so i'm cognizant that this criticism is more preference than objective per se - but I think I would have liked the game to end up being a Shakespearean tragedy which Atsu outlines at the very start: kill the Yotei Six, and join her family in the afterlife. I think it would have been refreshing to see a protagonist actively reject their chances at redemption to chase a single minded, blood thirsty goal - but there is nothing inherently strong with the story of healing and moving forward that we have now.

Act 3 was a little half baked and we could have spent more time with the dragon/spider respectively.

Where I do strongly think the game missed the mark is with Saito. He is a vast improvement on the cartoonish Khan of the first game; but what made him interesting to me is if you take the time to read the scrolls and hear what he says - he is kind of a progressive leader. He actively rejects the strict caste system of Feudal Japan, he lets anyone join up (peasants and women) and gives them rank. I would have liked if the game turned him into a Colonel Kurtz like figure - a charismatic leader who's a net good for Ezo and maybe even more benevolent than the Matsumae; so the player will have to balance their personal grievances with him and Atsu's desire for vengeance against his impact as a leader.

[NateDog]

Beat it last night. Overall still a great improvement over the original, even if the story doesn't entirely stick the landing with the third act. There is some missed potential there - but overall Yotei has taken a franchise i'v been lukewarm on to one i'm actively on the lookout for.

Spoiler:

The story is by the books and well told, so i'm cognizant that this criticism is more preference than objective per se - but I think I would have liked the game to end up being a Shakespearean tragedy which Atsu outlines at the very start: kill the Yotei Six, and join her family in the afterlife. I think it would have been refreshing to see a protagonist actively reject their chances at redemption to chase a single minded, blood thirsty goal - but there is nothing inherently strong with the story of healing and moving forward that we have now.

Act 3 was a little half baked and we could have spent more time with the dragon/spider respectively.

Where I do strongly think the game missed the mark is with Saito. He is a vast improvement on the cartoonish Khan of the first game; but what made him interesting to me is if you take the time to read the scrolls and hear what he says - he is kind of a progressive leader. He actively rejects the strict caste system of Feudal Japan, he lets anyone join up (peasants and women) and gives them rank. I would have liked if the game turned him into a Colonel Kurtz like figure - a charismatic leader who's a net good for Ezo and maybe even more benevolent than the Matsumae; so the player will have to balance their personal grievances with him and Atsu's desire for vengeance against his impact as a leader.

How long did it take you Gorny? I'm heavily contemplating getting this at some stage in the next few months. Didn't like the look of Tsushima enough to get it as I thought it looked a bit underwhelming regarding the world and combat (and it seems like a lot agreed at least in part after playing it) but this looks and sounds like it has fixed a lot of that.

[Aragorn]

Beat it last night. Overall still a great improvement over the original, even if the story doesn't entirely stick the landing with the third act. There is some missed potential there - but overall Yotei has taken a franchise i'v been lukewarm on to one i'm actively on the lookout for.

Spoiler:

The story is by the books and well told, so i'm cognizant that this criticism is more preference than objective per se - but I think I would have liked the game to end up being a Shakespearean tragedy which Atsu outlines at the very start: kill the Yotei Six, and join her family in the afterlife. I think it would have been refreshing to see a protagonist actively reject their chances at redemption to chase a single minded, blood thirsty goal - but there is nothing inherently strong with the story of healing and moving forward that we have now.

Act 3 was a little half baked and we could have spent more time with the dragon/spider respectively.

Where I do strongly think the game missed the mark is with Saito. He is a vast improvement on the cartoonish Khan of the first game; but what made him interesting to me is if you take the time to read the scrolls and hear what he says - he is kind of a progressive leader. He actively rejects the strict caste system of Feudal Japan, he lets anyone join up (peasants and women) and gives them rank. I would have liked if the game turned him into a Colonel Kurtz like figure - a charismatic leader who's a net good for Ezo and maybe even more benevolent than the Matsumae; so the player will have to balance their personal grievances with him and Atsu's desire for vengeance against his impact as a leader.

How long did it take you Gorny? I'm heavily contemplating getting this at some stage in the next few months. Didn't like the look of Tsushima enough to get it as I thought it looked a bit underwhelming regarding the world and combat (and it seems like a lot agreed at least in part after playing it) but this looks and sounds like it has fixed a lot of that.

The PS App says 69 hours - and this is with me finishing most side content before the ending. I think when you remove idle time where I have the game on pause and i'm dozing off or fucking around with my cat, it's probably a 40-50 hour experience for completionists.

[Bread]

Just did a Mythic Quest called The Storm Blade

That was really nice. Really lovely.

[BigBrother]

Petty quibble given that this isn't a player choice driven narrative, but a gut reaction.

Spoiler:

Very annoyed I couldn't kill Oyuki. I kept trying to stab her from behind and literally nothing happened. Can you at least kill her and have a game over state?

PS: Just battled her the second time.

Spoiler:

[Aragorn]

Got the plat. Solid game, on to Ninja Gaiden 4 now.

[Bread]

Platinum'ed in 50 hours and 11 minutes.

Overall, excellent stuff as expected from Sucker Punch. Naturally there'll be comparisons with Tsushima and which you prefer I think will depend on whether you prefer gameplay vs story. Yotei is unbelievably satisfying to play and improves on Tsushima's combat, but I'll admit that I felt myself more immersed with Tsushima's plot, Jin's story and how his world view changes over time, as well as his relationships with others characters and how those relationships progress/deteriorate as he becomes the ghost. Yotei is a bit more cookie cutter in that regard, and the final act plays out exactly how I expected it to.

[Aragorn]

Platinum'ed in 50 hours and 11 minutes.

Overall, excellent stuff as expected from Sucker Punch. Naturally there'll be comparisons with Tsushima and which you prefer I think will depend on whether you prefer gameplay vs story. Yotei is unbelievably satisfying to play and improves on Tsushima's combat, but I'll admit that I felt myself more immersed with Tsushima's plot, Jin's story and how his world view changes over time, as well as his relationships with others characters and how those relationships progress/deteriorate as he becomes the ghost. Yotei is a bit more cookie cutter in that regard, and the final act plays out exactly how I expected it to.

It's a functional story but I really wish they committed to the premise. I still prefer it to Tsushima, even story wise - because Jin isn't really all that interesting and his inner conflict is more interesting conceptually than its execution. He has very few moments of introspection and the fact that the game is unironically easier to play as a combat first Samurai than a stealthy ninja made the dissonance pretty funny.

Spoiler:

I think an alternate version of the story where Atsu hard commits to her revenge and does not get a happy ending would have been interesting. The game starts off super strong and she has a very clearly outlined goal: kill the six, join your family in death. The Atsu we see when she first confronts the Spider and when she kills The Dragon - I wanted more of that. Sparing Oyuki made sense because she ultimately let her go at the night of the burning tree; but I wish they had done a little more with that as a means of Atsu to reflect on her inability to let her vendetta go.

Part of me wonders if the aversion was due, as weird as this may sound, The Last of Us II. That game had a very similar premise in retrospect and was dismissed as ''misery'' porn.

[Helikaon]

Got the game last night. Goddamn, what an incredible opening. Instantly hooked on Atsu's revenge quest. Fuck The Snake, and this Lord Saito dude. I was worried I'd be facing a bit of Japanese ninja revenge burnout, as I was about a third of the way through Assassin's Creed: Shadows when the game installed, but damn this is on another level compared to an AC game. It's like night and day quality wise. Got up to just after the open world opened up, but then I had to sleep.

Already feels like a pretty significant upgrade gameplay wise on GoT.

Probably won't be playing AC again until long after I'm done with this, haha. Can easily see myself Platinuming this game, even though I don't have the Tsushima Plat yet (I needed one Trophy on my old account, but I think I hit a bug with the Side Tales), which I plan on doing someday.