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Reviewers saying Ghost of Tsushima is "not innovative", but I've seen so many charming, interesting or subtle improvements to the genre, that It's a shame everyone's looking for big banner changes to the genre.
Here are a few things that I think deserve to be called out.
Here are a few things that I think deserve to be called out.
1) Obviously the way they use the wind to signify where to go. Its a great mechanic when there's a huge GUST but also slight subtle particle drift means that it breaks me out of repeatedly pausing to check the map every 30 seconds or moving via minimap/compass. Huge!
2) The day/night and weather systems in general are incredible, the world has so much life and movement. They leveraged the tech they had so well its worthy of note. Just playing with the photomode shows you how great their tech is and what it's capable of.
3) The NPCs actually move at the player's speed. Absolute gamechanger. No more 'halfway between walking and running', they match your movement speed so if you want you can SPRINT to the next waypoint. This is a metacritic score point.
4) The Fog of War reveal of the world map means that you are not exhausted with content early on; you instead reveal content as you go. This is so nice as you may as well engage with the story mode until you discover side adventures. Such a nicer solution than Ubi-Towers.
5) The rumours and information given by peasants slowly fills in the map earlier than if you discovered it yourself, giving you an earned rate of discovery rather than icon overload at the start. Again, a nice contextual way of revealing missions than just populating at the start
6) The Resolve points are awesome ways of building up a charge that can be spent on heals, special attacks or even extra-lives; building and spending resolve efficiently during battle is a wonderful additional tactical layer you can engage with or not. I love it.
7) The 'stances' in combat is a nifty way of giving the player 4 different weapons for the price of 1. Rather than traditionally giving the player multiple weapons to equip that are effective against different enemies, now the player can change stances and adapt quickly. So good!
8) Story Missions have (x of y) as subtitles in the UI. That's great! Now you know how much content you likely have coming on quest chains, rather than just having it go on and on. I know if I'm starting quest 2 of 9 its going to be a while, so not to expect to finish tonight.
9) Locations on the world map are highlighted gold if they have new content available to purchase/pick up there. It's not a game-changer, but it means when I'm searching for my next quest whether I need to swing by a town for supplies on the way through. Nice!
10) I'm a huge collectables open-world games fan, so I love that the guiding wind can point me to the nearest uncollected item (and i can search by type) and that if I'm wearing travellers clothes, the controller rumbles when I'm close!
A huge help but still keeping discovery fun
A huge help but still keeping discovery fun
11) The world design really feels varied and different as you move through it. The golden forest, the cherry blossom groves, the rice fields, and more. Different colours and lighting give each biome a unique feeling that makes you feel "I am in a different place" every time.
12) The standoffs are such fun. As you get stronger at them, the way the enemies start to feint and trick you to draw first is great. https://twitter.com/JimboLacy/status/1287473160942747649
13) The way the fog of war is revealed more by wearing travelling clothes, so the player is incentivised to switch out of their armour between combat encounters. Mechanics encouraging roleplay is lovely to see.
14) A lot of people have called it out: The load times are out of this world. Kotaku hit the nail on the head: "I was blown away by how little time it afforded me to check my phone or get a drink". Loading is 'dead time', incredible optimisation work. https://kotaku.com/ghost-of-tsushima-devs-slowed-down-load-times-so-you-co-1844409624
15) The horses absolutely! Nothing new in having them, but they are so much more user-friendly (as listed the RT) in that they cannot be killed but will move away during combat and return immediately. Also you get to NAME THEM. A+ expression opportunity https://twitter.com/EmptyHeath/status/1287788474192596997?s=20
16) Totally passed me by (because of how honourable I am, haha) but the weather changes based on your approach to combat. The weather effects were already well used, but to leverage the world to reflect Jin's inner darkness and dishonour growing is great https://www.gamespot.com/articles/ghost-of-tsushimas-weather-changes-depending-on-ho/1100-6479889/
17) So useful, and it happens * all * the * time * in these games, to not just have icons/through walls vision of the remaining soldiers but to call them out and have THEM thematically rush YOU if you opt into it is such a smart trick. https://twitter.com/TSJCommunity/status/1287825900613050368?s=19
18) Despite not being primary mechanics, there are emotes to bow and to play the flute. Bowing at key locations (graves, shrines etc.) triggers particle effects. Playing the flute will change the weather depending on which songs you've learned. Thematically changing the world.
