I do think the weapon swapping thing is a good idea to address people who were critical of the stances in GOT, but maybe it is just my skill issue, but when I am facing groups of enemies, and they have a wide range of weapons, or keep swapping weapons, I find it kinda clunky to rapidly swap from one to the other. Especially as the weapons share a basic control scheme, but all fundamentally work differently. I feel like more work could have been done in making each weapon feel like a piece in a flowing combo string, but instead I just feel like I am frantically pulling out and putting away weapons in a chaotic scramble. I dunno, maybe it will click more with more time. I also feel like I have zero use for the bow this time around, and am just upgrading and buying bows so the upgrade icon goes away.
@Pizzamorg Yeah it takes a bit to get used to, I still struggle with parrying spears. Got my ass handed to me by one of the bounty targets who just kept thrusting the spear repeatedly 😄.
I only use the bow for stealth when clearing a hideout, It's just too slow for regular combat.
As I said before, I'm playing on hard and when you come up against a big group it can be brutal sometimes, I have died a fair few times as I tried switching weapons to beat the person I'm currently fighting but then someone comes out of the wood work and two taps me. I have found the Katana is straight up the best for anything (even more so if you are good perfect parrying), followed by the dual Katanas (Tempest strike is god tier) and third is Kusarigama (which I got last) for when you want to keep distance. Overall the combat is great, but on high difficulty and against groups is does get strained somewhat.
@Hapless Good to know, I had no idea that was blocked. I used imgbb, do the pictures show now? I just want to make sure I used the right link for the photos.
@Pizzamorg agree on the bow. I was thinking it doesn't really suit the character anyway. And on top of that, I have no real use for it, myself. Base clearing on GoT was good for shooting the lanterns to make fire, don't know if that is in it. And sometimes you could snipe someone on a platform/tower. But I feel like this is a full on melee game and character.
@Oram77 i've yet to get a second weapon to try switching (I was about to get dual Katanas when I last played) but I feel like I will still mainly use mostly swords if they are still competent enough on defence. Maybe the odd bit of specialised offense when it feels right. Can't see me changing on the fly all the time if parry and dodge is still viable, as, like you, I could see it being a bit of a clumsy hindrance, at times, on harder modes trying to switch for each enemy. Stances were fine enough once you got used to the switching pattern, but switching weapon seems like something you wouldn't do a lot in a real fight, so I will try to limit it if possible.
Yeah I mostly used the bow early in GOT for stealth before I got better tools, but the kushi.... however it is spelt, being a long range stealth takedown in itself kinda means I never need to use the bow. Just chained assassinations for enemies in range and then the kushi if they are out of my reach. There is also armour when extends the range of the kushi stealth takedown too.
So, anyone able to give a good ‘compare-and-contrast’ of Ghost of Yotei, Ghost of Tsushima, Assassins Creed: Shadows, and Rise of the Ronin.
Not sure if anyone’s played the other three on the list, but I’m curious about how they stack up against one another. I see a lot of GoT and GoY comparisons, which is natural, but I now have started to notice people compare GoY to AC: Shadows and their narrative and gameplay sounds quite similar, as well as both having a nice overall polish. RotR is another feudal Japan open world game that seems to also be quite similar too. Has a nice historical backdrop with an open world. It’s fallen out of the conversation but is a game I’d kept one eye on the background because it seems a pretty good one as well. So of these, which has the best combat? Which has the best story? Which has the best characters? Which had the best open world? Which has the best quests? Which has the best overall structure and run-time? Etc.
The only one I’ve played of the four is GoT. I was probably just going to play GoY and ignore the others, but I’m seeing some opinions out there that AC Shadows holds its own against Yotei. And RotR supposedly has excellent combat, which sounds like is a step beyond its peers.
As an aside, soon there will be others to add to the mix - 3rd person samurai-type of action games, which I’m losing count of (Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Nioh 3, Phantom Blade 0) I think a lot of those coming out in the next year are less open world narrative / exploration, and are more character action, and have more supernatural elements (with monsters and such) rather than strict feudal Japan/Asia historical fiction. A lot of them are more Souls-y / Sekiro-y and DMC-like, or more hack-n-slashy than these games seems to be. So I guess those are different, even if they are ‘guy with a katana’.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
Rise of the Ronin is actually probably the most similar to Yotei really, given its an open world samurai game about warring factions, and over the course of your playthrough you unlock a range of weapons / firearms to tackle your foes with. The key differences is that it is an actual looter, rather than just unlocking new items at story moments, and it is a lot more complex than Yotei with different weapons forming less of a rock paper scissors thing and instead each weapon being its own unique playstyle, with unique unlockable moves, completely unique combo strings etc The story was a total mess though, and the combat was kind of a mixed bag given it was very much Souls coded with how the parry windows and stuff worked.
I personally tried, and skipped, AC Shadows, mostly cause I thought the controller mapping was horrible and it offered the ability to remap your controls, but in a way that actually made it impossible to move anything, cause it wouldn't let you double up inputs like they can, so you would run out of unique inputs and not be able to proceed.
@Th3solution I'm not a fan of Assassin's creed so I can't speak on that.
Tsushima set the gold standard with its cinematic style, emotional story, and polished sword combat. Yotei has improved on that in every way, weapon variety, better side content, and a grittier tone. It's alot darker and more brutal.
Rise of the Ronin is the most action heavy.
Fast, technical combat, tons of weapon options, and player choice though it’s less polished and the story’s a bit scattered. Personally I loved Rise of the ronin but I can see why some don't. I'm a big fan of Team ninja so I'm biased in that regard.
@Pizzamorg Ah, I now remember your Rise of the Ronin review. And I actually responded to you then as I found it quite helpful and insightful. Apologies for my poor memory. I’m glad you found it and linked it because it was a good refresher to re-read your thoughts.
As someone who values story and character development as high as gameplay and mechanical framework, I think RotR might be less enjoyable than Yotei. I like the idea of what RotR is trying to do though, I think, with the warring factions and East vs West tension of the time period. At surface level it sounds more unique and interesting than a personal revenge tale. But what I’m taking from your thoughts there is that the execution of the story is just very poor and unsatisfying in RotR. As much as I’ve enjoyed many Japanese games over the years, I do see some of these kinds of plot quirks that you mentioned in various games and anime over the years and I do think there’s a fundamental difference in how storytelling is done compared to the Western style. Still, as you mention in the review, it sounds like it goes beyond that to the point of being unfinished or altered mid-development.
And as I replied back in early 2024, I’m not particularly good with parries and you raised rhe issue of the difficult and changing parry windows and inability to stop some enemies combo streaks against you and that sounds quite frustrating to me. It’s too bad because I love that it has such a robust character creation, weapon and combat options, and the skeleton of an intricately designed historical world. Still, I’ll keep it in mind in case it falls to a really cheap price or drops onto PS+.
And that’s really strange about Shadows having basically a broken controller input remap. I could see where it would be frustrating if the inputs don’t feel intuitive. It’s telling that the game didn’t seem interesting enough to push through and retrain your muscle memory.
@Hapless Thanks for your reply. I’ve not really played any Team Ninja games to speak of, so I’m not familiar with their style. I know that they have a knack for really deep and satisfying combat though. I’m an average gamer at best but can ‘get good’ at most things if I devote enough time and energy. It’s just the lack of those, especially time, that makes me have to be selective of which games to devote myself to. I appreciate your input and I know RotR has other fans who have lobbied for it. I think maybe when I’m in the mood for something more combat heavy and less story-driven then it might be the perfect fit.
I’m curious why you’ve never really been an Assassin’s Creed fan. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but there’s usually overlap between Ghost of Tsushima (and now Yotei) fans and the AC franchise.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution I would highly recommend Team Ninja games if you're looking for action focused games, particularly Nioh. Although be warned I found them rather difficult. I'm a big Fromsoft fan and platinumed every game of theirs except Armoured core and yet I struggled quite a bit with Nioh. If you don't find difficult games fun then it's not for you. Sorry for the brag in there I just wanted to get the point across 😅.
As for Assassin's creed I've never been much of a fan. I've always found them rather dull and tedious. I really don't like the gameplay at all and the narrative has never hooked me in the way something like Tsushima or Yotei has. I've always been drawn to the historical settings and I think it's really cool to be able to explore something like ancient Egypt or Greece, Just I hated the trailing missions, the modern world stuff and the overall gameplay. The shift to open world rpg was the last straw for me, I did pick up Odyssey as I was interested in the setting but I couldn't get with the gameplay and I hated having to grind to move the story on. I dropped it after a few hours.
I don't much like Ubisoft games in general so take this with a large pinch of salt. Although PoP The Lost Crown was a welcomed surprise.
@Th3solution I like AC games but fell off shadows for one reason: they said it was smaller, but it was not, there was just too much of everything. The quest/target board was like they just sneezed a bunch of npcs on to a page, and it felt like the mission was to assassinate half of the population of Japan.
Saying that though, watching Shogun has kind of made me want to revisit it, due to the underlying Portuguese Catholic story. But i'm going to be playing GoY, so that won't be for a while.
…The quest/target board was like they just sneezed a bunch of npcs on to a page, and it felt like the mission was to assassinate half of the population of Japan…
🤣 I enjoyed this assessment of the game.
But yes, of the three historical samurai-type of games, Yotei seems to be the one for me. I am trying to be open-minded and not blindly turning to Sony first party, but it sounds like indeed the best of these similarly themed games is going to be Yotei.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
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