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[cormack12]

A lot has been made of this, and the concepts have been iterated on from other titles, but also some show innovation and improvement. I feel GoT really doesn't make the player do things just because it's expected. I've made a list of a few of the area's where they have made choices/design to suit the game/player rather than the world or realism so everyone can weigh in. Some examples:

Shrines - when you spend 5/10 mins working out how to get to the top, you can just press a single button to respawn at the bottom rather than have to retrace all your steps. Other games sometimes have an 'exit', while others make you climb all the way down. Here you just press a button and you're back at the bottom.
Clipping - The game isn't shy about using clipping, allowing you to clip through trees so you don't get 'stuck' or dismounted in forests while larger trees/shrubs are still obstructive
Fast Travel - is actually fast, not a 15-20 second loading screen
Animation/stair kinematics - animation seems to be much more 'skatey' but is responsive and fast. Sometimes it may look like you are walking up ramps in WoW rather than stone staircases but it works rather than a slow step by step animation. Kinematics does exits on hills and slopes in the wild.
Looting - Can be done from horseback or ground with one single button depress. No animation or walking over it, if it's in range just press a button and it's in your inventory
Quests - largely you'll finsih a quest on exit of the location and the quest marker jumps to the next area - no need to tail NPCs. Quests can also be paused and resumed mid way through. There are some exceptions to this
The guiding wind - really cleaned up the HUD and let you take in the world knowing you were on the general path, I felt this helped you come across things more natural as the waypoint wasn't along roads. You could just ride off in a general direction and evetnually arrive or stumble across something.

Honestly, they all sound small but when you add them up together they probably shave a good 4-5+ hours out the game if you were backtracking, looting, picking your way through thickets or being barriered off, tailing or waiting for NPC's who dno't walk at the right pace etc.

I felt the tedious nature of an open world was largely removed (could have done with a few less camps/forts though), and the needs of the player were put before the expanse of the world. Thoughts?

 

[nowhat]

I pretty much agree with everything - except for the quests, there is still too much tailing of NPCs involved. Sure, that time is mostly spent to also deliver some expository dialogue, so it's not a complete waste; at the same time, "meet me at place X" would work for me as well. And while it is easy to tune out of it after a while, I still wish we had decent inverse kinematics (still, all things considered a minor complaint).

But something like looting, at no point did I think "wow, this completely breaks immersion". Quite often I thought "thank $DEITY this is not like RDR 2".

 

[Bryank75]

I thought it was excellent in terms of respecting my time, the fast-travel was just that and the quests always seemed to be enjoyable IMO.

 

[Kev Kev]

what is GoT? game of thrones?

 

[nowhat]

what is GoT? game of thrones?

Ghost of Tsushima. An unfortunate acronym, granted.

 

[Kev Kev]

Ghost of Tsushima. An unfortunate acronym, granted.

ah right! thank you!

 

[The Cockatrice]

There's nothing special about GoT and how it respects your time. Everything it does has been done better by other recent open-world games like ACO. Its main design is just as boring as all the others. You have 50ish camps to clear, 100 shrines to find and all that crap that plagues open-world games and this is coming from someone who has cleared the entire Tsushima of enemy camps. The way they handled the UI is nice but other games let you customize UI as you see fit so it's a matter of taste. Looting is also nothing special unless you're comparing it with RDR2 which was a fucking slog like everything else animation related in that game. Quests besides the main ones and the special ones are very boring.

Also here's a negative. Every time you finish a quest, a camp, or whatever, you are placed in an unskippable cutscene with your horse or alone for like 5-10 seconds. That happens every single time and it adds up hugely to wasted time. Furthermore, you cannot enter your options screen if there's something on your screen like the Legend rank increase or quest completed and until the last particle of that UI vanishes you cannot do anything. No other game does this. It was annoying as hell.

 

[INC]

perfect size open world for me, bit like HzD

I can complete the story in 25hours if I like, or platinum in about 40-50

perfect for a boomer like me, where time is a luxury now

 

[existensmaximum]

Excellent points OP, I agree! I haven't finished the game, but so far I'm not annoyed by anything and nothing feels tedious. Just like you said

Also, without feeling dumbed-down! Very streamlined and clever design.

 

[Ravi_elite]

Shouldnt be called GoT

 

[kruis]

A lot has been made of this, and the concepts have been iterated on from other titles, but also some show innovation and improvement. I feel GoT really doesn't make the player do things just because it's expected. I've made a list of a few of the area's where they have made choices/design to suit the game/player rather than the world or realism so everyone can weigh in. Some examples:

Shrines - when you spend 5/10 mins working out how to get to the top, you can just press a single button to respawn at the bottom rather than have to retrace all your steps. Other games sometimes have an 'exit', while others make you climb all the way down. Here you just press a button and you're back at the bottom.
Clipping - The game isn't shy about using clipping, allowing you to clip through trees so you don't get 'stuck' or dismounted in forests while larger trees/shrubs are still obstructive
Fast Travel - is actually fast, not a 15-20 second loading screen
Animation/stair kinematics - animation seems to be much more 'skatey' but is responsive and fast. Sometimes it may look like you are walking up ramps in WoW rather than stone staircases but it works rather than a slow step by step animation. Kinematics does exits on hills and slopes in the wild.
Looting - Can be done from horseback or ground with one single button depress. No animation or walking over it, if it's in range just press a button and it's in your inventory
Quests - largely you'll finsih a quest on exit of the location and the quest marker jumps to the next area - no need to tail NPCs. Quests can also be paused and resumed mid way through. There are some exceptions to this
The guiding wind - really cleaned up the HUD and let you take in the world knowing you were on the general path, I felt this helped you come across things more natural as the waypoint wasn't along roads. You could just ride off in a general direction and evetnually arrive or stumble across something.

Honestly, they all sound small but when you add them up together they probably shave a good 4-5+ hours out the game if you were backtracking, looting, picking your way through thickets or being barriered off, tailing or waiting for NPC's who dno't walk at the right pace etc.

I felt the tedious nature of an open world was largely removed (could have done with a few less camps/forts though), and the needs of the player were put before the expanse of the world. Thoughts?

There's more! For instance, ...

... you get popups when you can update weapons or armor if you've found enough resources.
... Upgradeable items are marked differently in the UI
... When an item is upgradable, you can press square and a location where that item can be upgraded is automatically selected in the map.

 

[GlockSaint]

50+ camps, 40+ fox dens, 80 banners, 50 of this, 70 of that. Doesn't really sound like respecting your time. But the way the game is designed they don't really overwhelm you.

 

[Sorc3r3r]

Yeah it is a clear choice to put QoL over ""realism"" can't but be appreciated in a videogame.
I really hope this will start a new trend over dumb muh """realism"""!

 

[dezzy8]

I love the clipping and the fact that they didn’t try to make the animations realistic like LoU2 or RDR2. My first thought was literally “this feels like an actual game”. I’m in love with this game.

 

[Woo-Fu]

While the mechanics of the collectables in Tsushima might respect your time they certainly don't reward it. Collect 80 banners for some saddle reskins you can't even use for half the game. Collect a bunch of crickets for some new flute tunes, flute tunes used in gameplay once the entire game.

On the other hand, making the rewards mostly fluff is good news for the people who don't like going after that stuff, they won't feel like they're missing out on anything.

 

[BluRayHiDef]

This game's animations may not be as realistic as other games, such as those of The Last of Us Part II or Red Dead Redemption 2, but its gameplay is incredible and addicting. The combat system is very complex, consisting of time-sensitive parries, dodges, and counter attacks, as well as special moves such as being able to ignite a smoke bomb during battle to obscure yourself from enemies and then attack them by surprise or being able to strike three enemies in rapid succession. The upgrade system for armor and weapons, of which there is a variety, is also noteworthy; it makes grinding for specific resources an exciting task.

So, I couldn't care less about how the animations stack up against other triple-A games; they're not even bad but are stylized in a cool way, especially in combat.

Yesterday, I played this game for twelve hours.

 

[GymWolf]

the game has a shitton of quality of life stuff in it, it's probably one of the most user friendly open world ever.

except that fucking countdown where you are following someone and you see something that you wanna pick a couple of meters away from the quest character.

 

[Northeastmonk]

It wasn’t hard to finish 1-2 quest in half an hour. The main quest goes by real fast. If you don’t explore, you won’t be as powerful and you miss the exciting side quest. There’s incredibly useful skills and items from the side stuff. It makes it easy to get in, accomplish something, and move on. The era the game takes place in hasn’t really been perfected. AC loves to stick to Europe. People have wanted an AC set in China or Japan since the first couple AC games came out. Ubisoft doesn’t do it. I like Ghost of Tsushima more than I have enjoyed AC games in the last couple years. There’s not a ton of items to manage and what’s there is easy to manage. That’s my two cents.

 

[Ozzie666]

Yes there were definitely some quality of life features that did not go under appreciated. The quick exit from the shrines being one of them. I never really thought about how the wind feature removed the mini map and clutter.

 

[Vroadstar]

There's nothing special about GoT and how it respects your time. Everything it does has been done better by other recent open-world games like ACO. Its main design is just as boring as all the others. You have 50ish camps to clear, 100 shrines to find and all that crap that plagues open-world games and this is coming from someone who has cleared the entire Tsushima of enemy camps. The way they handled the UI is nice but other games let you customize UI as you see fit so it's a matter of taste. Looting is also nothing special unless you're comparing it with RDR2 which was a fucking slog like everything else animation related in that game. Quests besides the main ones and the special ones are very boring.

Also here's a negative. Every time you finish a quest, a camp, or whatever, you are placed in an unskippable cutscene with your horse or alone for like 5-10 seconds. That happens every single time and it adds up hugely to wasted time. Furthermore, you cannot enter your options screen if there's something on your screen like the Legend rank increase or quest completed and until the last particle of that UI vanishes you cannot do anything. No other game does this. It was annoying as hell.

Combat alone, GoT trumps AC Odyssey it's not even a competition and it's amusing that you find cutscene after you finish a quest, camp taking a second or two a negative (your 10 seconds is hyperbole) and huge time waster when the game loads so fast when you fast travel, returning to game when you die, quick exit to shrine and menu to game is faster too, all of this things are better compared to other open world games much less compared to your beloved ACO

No they don't but there's a lot to talk about when it comes to "open world design". Considering this thread is in response to GoT probably I'm just going to be blunt. AC Odyssey is better than GoT in almost every aspect except artistic design.

 

[INC]

50+ camps, 40+ fox dens, 80 banners, 50 of this, 70 of that. Doesn't really sound like respecting your time. But the way the game is designed they don't really overwhelm you.

Theyre optional, I will say they're a chore now I've completed, but it seems like a decent platinum to get, unlike infamous "find the shards" bulshit trophy

 

[JohnnyFootball]

How about calling it GoTo?

 

[Bartski]

Some mentioned QoL attributes like the quick shrine descending, or upgrade options highlight, are simply excellent.

The clipping/stairs/pickups points however are nothing but the game having piss poor animation and collision tech outside combat and owning it, for the better of the overall experience.

I see a lot of confusion when people associate contextual animation with movement hindrance, I really hope all becomes a relic of the past when tech like motion matching becomes the standard.

 

[Kuranghi]

A really nice thing is that there are also actual exit paths from (usually with a small reward, flowers, etc) the top of the shrine so if you don't want to teleport down to the bottom you get rewarded for taking the path down.

I liked that a lot, I just wish the different flowers had rarity values so when you found that flower in the hidden area it gave you 2-3 "dyes" instead of just one for every flower, so it felt like more of a reward.
___________________________

Off Topic: I kinda miss "Hunger Games Aristocrat Facial-hair"-styled Kev Kev but I am coming around to "Point Break"-style Kev Kev

 

[The Cockatrice]

Combat alone, GoT trumps AC Odyssey it's not even a competition and it's amusing that you find cutscene after you finish a quest, camp taking a second or two a negative (your 10 seconds is hyperbole) and huge time waster when the game loads so fast when you fast travel, returning to game when you die, quick exit to shrine and menu to game is faster too, all of this things are better compared to other open world games much less compared to your beloved ACO

You must be quite bored to search through my posts to post something that was already clear from my post on this topic but congrats pal. Game loading fast is not a gameplay mechanic. A lot of open-world games load just as fast and sure theres some who load painfully slow, at least on PS4. 10 seconds is not a hyperbole, the cutscenes where you're feeling a bit sad and the horse pets you takes 10 seconds, even more, when the games shows you the people returning to their village or you destroy a camp with the fire/explosive and their quite frequent. It's a negative whether you like it or not but let me be fucking clear, ACO also has a lot of wasted time gimmicks. All I was saying GoT is no exception.

As for combat both games have ups and downs. ACO is better because it has better stealth mechanics and more variety but sure, tastes differ.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

A lot has been made of this, and the concepts have been iterated on from other titles, but also some show innovation and improvement. I feel GoT really doesn't make the player do things just because it's expected. I've made a list of a few of the area's where they have made choices/design to suit the game/player rather than the world or realism so everyone can weigh in. Some examples:

Shrines - when you spend 5/10 mins working out how to get to the top, you can just press a single button to respawn at the bottom rather than have to retrace all your steps. Other games sometimes have an 'exit', while others make you climb all the way down. Here you just press a button and you're back at the bottom.
Clipping - The game isn't shy about using clipping, allowing you to clip through trees so you don't get 'stuck' or dismounted in forests while larger trees/shrubs are still obstructive
Fast Travel - is actually fast, not a 15-20 second loading screen
Animation/stair kinematics - animation seems to be much more 'skatey' but is responsive and fast. Sometimes it may look like you are walking up ramps in WoW rather than stone staircases but it works rather than a slow step by step animation. Kinematics does exits on hills and slopes in the wild.
Looting - Can be done from horseback or ground with one single button depress. No animation or walking over it, if it's in range just press a button and it's in your inventory
Quests - largely you'll finsih a quest on exit of the location and the quest marker jumps to the next area - no need to tail NPCs. Quests can also be paused and resumed mid way through. There are some exceptions to this
The guiding wind - really cleaned up the HUD and let you take in the world knowing you were on the general path, I felt this helped you come across things more natural as the waypoint wasn't along roads. You could just ride off in a general direction and evetnually arrive or stumble across something.

Honestly, they all sound small but when you add them up together they probably shave a good 4-5+ hours out the game if you were backtracking, looting, picking your way through thickets or being barriered off, tailing or waiting for NPC's who dno't walk at the right pace etc.

I felt the tedious nature of an open world was largely removed (could have done with a few less camps/forts though), and the needs of the player were put before the expanse of the world. Thoughts?

EviLore should make a new rule. Any thread with an acronym in the title should be defined in the fist line of the first post.

 

[Vawn]

Yeah. It doesn't even attempt to hide when it's sacrificing realism in order to make it a more enjoyable gaming experience. A lesson I wish games like Red Dead Redemption 2 could have learned.

Ghost is a lengthy game, but you don't really feel it as much because of the game's flow. If they wanted they could have made it more "realistic" and slowed you down for every little thing like so many open-world games. The gameplay time would have doubled and the enjoyment factor would have halved. I'm glad they didn't.

 

[Aion002]

Yes! Being able to loot while on the horse and no animations to get stuff are things that I wished for so many games!

I get RDR 2! It's cool that when you skin an animal it has a detailed animation.... But after the 150 time it get's so freaking annoying!

 

[Shai-Tan]

Also here's a negative. Every time you finish a quest, a camp, or whatever, you are placed in an unskippable cutscene with your horse or alone for like 5-10 seconds. That happens every single time and it adds up hugely to wasted time. Furthermore, you cannot enter your options screen if there's something on your screen like the Legend rank increase or quest completed and until the last particle of that UI vanishes you cannot do anything. No other game does this. It was annoying as hell.

Haven't played this game yet but if it's like The Witcher it's an obvious point to load in new npc and changes to map

 

[Kev Kev]

A really nice thing is that there are also actual exit paths from (usually with a small reward, flowers, etc) the top of the shrine so if you don't want to teleport down to the bottom you get rewarded for taking the path down.

I liked that a lot, I just wish the different flowers had rarity values so when you found that flower in the hidden area it gave you 2-3 "dyes" instead of just one for every flower, so it felt like more of a reward.
___________________________

Off Topic: I kinda miss "Hunger Games Aristocrat Facial-hair"-styled Kev Kev but I am coming around to "Point Break"-style Kev Kev

thanks! here, just for you for old times sake...

 

[Mozzarella]

Respect my time? What does that even mean? LOL. If i feel my time is being wasted then i simply stop playing the game and voila, problem solved. If im enjoying my time with it then its not wasted. Thats it..Unless im a reviewer that must finish all games then the whole premise of this questions is just pointless.
I assume thats side content, regarding main content or what we call main story/campaign there is an aspect called pacing, if it doesnt feel right it can be a negative but i dont think its a major issue, I can always take breaks and come back for the game if i feel the pacing is bad.

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

Respect my time? What does that even mean? LOL. If i feel my time is being wasted then i simply stop playing the game and voila, problem solved. If im enjoying my time with it then its not wasted. Thats it..Unless im a reviewer that must finish all games then the whole premise of this questions is just pointless.
I assume thats side content, regarding main content or what we call main story/campaign there is an aspect called pacing, if it doesnt feel right it can be a negative but i dont think its a major issue, I can always take breaks and come back for the game if i feel the pacing is bad.

It helps to read the post

 

[levyjl1988]

I mean it was good while it lasted.

 

[Danjin44]

Fuck yeah! I love how smooth the open world is in Tsushima, I can pick stuff fast and with fast travel and everything just fellows well together. I don't need "realism" to get me immersed, I was immersed in games like DQXI which it had very cartoony visuals but it still was able to get me immersed because I love the world. those "realism" mechanics actually makes frustrated rather than immersed to its world.

 

[Esca]

The game is doing something right. I find myself exploring more than anything else and I don't normally do that much in open world games anymore.

 

[MastAndo]

I like to describe it as a video game not forgetting that it's a video game. Plenty of otherwise good games lose sight of this in the name of realism and it detracts from an otherwise enjoyable experience.

All these little things GoT does to keep the pace of play are really appreciated - let's also not forget the lack of a stamina meter. I know Jin gets tired after a while, but he can just roll and keep running, and your horse can run forever. I really don't care to micromanage my character like that, so I'm glad they went that route.

 

[Danjin44]

like to describe it as a video game not forgetting that it's a video game. Plenty of otherwise good games lose sight of this in the name of realism and it detracts from an otherwise enjoyable experience.

This my biggest problem with modern R* these days, I feel like with RDR2, their goal was this game to show off their tech rather than making proper video game.

 

[MastAndo]

This my biggest problem with modern R* these days, I feel like with RDR2, their goal was this game to show off their tech rather than making proper video game.

Yep, that's the main game (and company) I was alluding to - otherwise brilliant game marred by the insistence on having these realistic elements that just aren't any fun. I also have trouble with GTA games, mainly because they insist on having characters move like ocean liners. I just don't care for it.

 

[SinDelta]

what is GoT? game of thrones?

Not gonna lie I think a Game of Thrones game using the lessons from Ghost of Tushima could be amazing. Heck Breath of the Wild 2 could probably do to learn a few of those lessons.

 

[jakinov]

I'm still playing, and throughout the week I was actually thinking of many time wasting things that bother me.

- The talking after saving someone. It's not really needed considering they literally give me nothing tangible in-game. If they are going to give me a rumor then sure, otherwise they should just say thanks.
- The duel animation
- The standoff animation
- The naked butt animation
- Haikus
- Surveying is a waste of time too, they make you survey everything, when the character could just observe and say it.
- The end mission screens when you sleep with your horse
- Those mission start transitions, at first it was cool I like the effort/presentation-value but when you are trying to clear all missions it's annoying
- The ends are also annoying because you can press start and start tracking ur next quest until your quest art fully "dissolves"



Things that I liked not mentioned in original post in terms of time saving:

- range from pick up is pretty good, you can pick things up from ladders and from other side of medium height objects
- if you run or take a horse in follow the NPC missions, the NPC will do the same so you don't have the problem that memes often describe of NPCs slowing you down.
- Climbing in the game doesn't try to let me feel like I'm doing the actual jumps by making me hit jump every time. I use stick, i point where the character should go and only tell it to jump when I'm in regular control.
- Unrealistic grappling hook and painted grab-able rocks
-The fall damage absorbing jump