stonechalice wrote:

Uncle what is your issue with it? So far I haven't got a single fault with it, apart from maybe the investigation missions can be a little slow. That's about it. It's a splendid time all round.

Technically it’s fine. It’s not that I hit loads of bugs or anything - it all seemed quite finished and I’m often willing to overlook technical stuff if the world or mechanics appeal.

From my actual experience with it I hated -

The SoCal view of ancient Japan that still had a very traditional western redemption story bolted in. Surely it didn’t need flashbacks and fatherly redemption themes hammering home in the most ham fisted way I’ve come across in years?

The collectibles and levelling up systems. From following yellow birds to naked bath on mountain entering to chose your own haiku.

The v/o work and script. YOU. ARE. HEROIC. From just about every npc you meet.

Tbh The whole thing just felt like a knock off AC x Far Cry (though slightly more finished than either) with Sony insisting on dad issues and themes of destiny and responsibility because that worked for ND once so get that crowbarred in.

The characters movement throughout the world lacked grace and finesse though the fights were nice (though weapon feedback was also an issue for me).

The bare bones strings, mirrors and sticky tape holding the whole thing together. Which is why I think they made the hidden collectibles so obvious because as soon as you veer away from the dev teams intended direction of movement everything falls down in a sad collapse of post it note game design.

The real great open worlders allow you to move freely and naturally - or at least naturally encourage or prevent you from moving where the devs want you or don’t (both RDR2 and BotW show how this should be done). The design of this world didn’t seem to get that far along in its implementation and so you can stumble across a burning house that you can’t interact with in any meaningful way whilst you’re heading to the mission marker 1 minute away which then starts the mission of attending to the burning farmhouse that, once you arrive back there, has allowed dead bodies and live baddies to suddenly spawn back in to trigger the next EMOTIONAL cut scene. Stuff like this occurred loads of times - I’d come across a building with no means of interaction to then be told 2 minutes later by magic computer men that I needed to turn around and quickly get to the building I’d just been at because now there were children there and those children needed saving and saving HEROICALLY at that. There were just so many times that I was allowed to peak behind the curtain or have the game world or story so obviously manipulated by heavy handed designers that I just couldn’t get over it. It feels to me like a design document from back at the start of the current gen and as a dev team they didn’t have anyone in senior roles who could really pick the game world up and control it in a less obvious and heavy handed manner.

Ultimately, it made me feel like I thought the devs would presume that I was either stupid enough to not see it or so blindly manipulated by their urge for dead dad emotion that I would just forgive it. This was my real problem with it - and I just couldn’t get past that bad will.


All imho, ymmv etc etc. I’m surprised I’m the only one who feels like that and the trickle of positive stuff from people here is making me feel like I’m some kind of bad tempered monster.

Dinostar77 wrote:

Last Guardian for sure. Utter shite.

Trico (obstinate beast) MUST DIEEE. 

Adore Ueda's other games though.

yourfavouriteuncle wrote:

I’m some kind of bad tempered monster.

That explains it.

I also think the voice work is fucking excellent and the lip sync is some of the best work I've seen in videogames. And yes, I am playing with english dub. It works perfectly for this game and I can't be doing with people saying it's not how it's meant to be played. They dubbed the lips for english. Deal with it.

Astrobot first then this when I get hold of a PS5. Not a clue if I'll like it as I find many open worlds a chore but I'm definitely up for trying to get through the story.

Edge [6] feels harsh, certainly. But that looks like an outlier review score.

Reads like a [7].

I've just played other open world games in the last few years that are either more interesting to explore or more fun as sand boxes. At the beginning of the generation, it might have impressed me.

He did review it and there’ll be a link (I guess) somewhere in the first few pages.

stonechalice wrote:

I do wonder how this game would play at 30fps on PS4 as opposed to the gloriousness of how it plays on PS5. Could make all you difference...

The game ran like a dream on PS4, silky smooth and absolutely no slowdown. What you're currently playing Chalice is a PS4 game made available for PS5 thanks to backwards compatibility. There are no extra bells and whistles on PS5 apart from the superior frame rate.

I do have to wonder however how big a difference 60fps actually makes to a game whose combat system revolves around slowing things down to change combat stances.  I'd wager very little.

The issue with this game was never it's performance. It was originally touted as the PS4's swansong ( they certainly did miraculous things with the loading speed.) The problem was the sheer blandness of its open world and the complete absence of a risk reward mechanic in its combat.

The people who are giving this game a free pass are doing so because they're probably Japanophiles. And that's cool. Because Japanese things are cool. But let that not blind us to the fact that the world that Sucker Punch created was pretty souless. No amount of petting foxes can can paper over that.

Yeah totally disagree with that Blocks mate. Blandness of it's open world? Have you played the game? You must be having a laugh FFS.

I'm not a massive fan of Japanese mythology and the culture myself, but the missus loves anything about it. I like this though, so I suppose I must be a Japanophile then? Nonsense.This is just a very, very good videogame despite the Japanese trappings.

You can get things done quickly in this game with little fuss in between the action. It respects your time. It is yet another open world game released at a time when people were mostly burnt out on them, but I've a feeling many people dismissed the game before getting properly stuck in. I've sunk hours into it and it's still popping off and throwing new stuff my way. As a moment to moment open world action game it's second only to BotW. I'm struggling to think of any other open world game that does anything better.

It's a gorgeous thing to play. More people need to play it.

yourfavouriteuncle wrote:

In fact here you go elf.  I did the digging so you don’t have to. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/reviews/ghost-of-tsushima/

Thanks. I do hate digging.

I'm looking forward to t trying legends mode. How many hours are you in Muzz? How do I check play time on PS5??

stonechalice wrote:

I'm looking forward to t trying legends mode. How many hours are you in Muzz? How do I check play time on PS5??

Legends is excellent.

What's the co-op mode in this, standard campaign or a separate thing?