Gaming thoughts, bite-size chewables - new orange flavor!

[PlasticExistence]

I loved Ghost of Tsushima! It's worth practicing the sword play, IMO. It's really satisfying to challenge the Mongols openly knowing that those chumps won't stand a chance against your might.

But if that's not your cup of tea, you can always lean into sneaking and guerilla warfare.

 

[timezon3]

From what I've heard, the system feels more natural the longer you play with it. There's definitely some hoops to jump through and a learning curve when it comes to the stances, but the game will also steadily ramp up the difficulty in a way that requires you to become more familiar with the stances and abilities over time.

For a good bit, I was not even changing the stance, but I have started doing that, trying to match the enemy I'm fighting. But what I mean is, I try to hit triangle three times quickly for swordbreaker / shieldbreaker / spearbreaker, and it hardly ever seems to do anything. Sometimes I will see that there is some special attack that may or may not actually break the thing, but a lot of the time, it seems like it just does regular attacks. I'm not sure if I need to go faster, or if I need to be closer to the enemy for it to trigger or what. Also the "hold triangle, then tap triangle" things I have a hard time getting to fire. Is there a training place I can try this stuff?

 

[Artichoke Sap]

Not sure if the game has a plot, or if I'm just trying to survive.

While the story beats can be a bit far apart, it actually does have a story, unlike most tree-punching games.

Playing on easy is a good call; if there's additional granular difficulty settings, I'd recommend turning down (or off) weapon/armor degradation. It takes a decent effort to get the amount of drops necessary to build a full suit of armor (helmet / chest / legs), and the amount of time you spend on "farming for parts" from those same enemies to keep your equipment repaired takes an inordinate amount of the game time, and it can make Grounded far too long of a game; you can feel like you played for an hour, and kind of did nothing. Same thing if eating/drinking just takes up too much time, turn hunger and thirst down or off. It's a big enough world to explore and build out without any of the actual survival mechanics.

 

[yarness]

For a good bit, I was not even changing the stance, but I have started doing that, trying to match the enemy I'm fighting. But what I mean is, I try to hit triangle three times quickly for swordbreaker / shieldbreaker / spearbreaker, and it hardly ever seems to do anything. Sometimes I will see that there is some special attack that may or may not actually break the thing, but a lot of the time, it seems like it just does regular attacks. I'm not sure if I need to go faster, or if I need to be closer to the enemy for it to trigger or what. Also the "hold triangle, then tap triangle" things I have a hard time getting to fire. Is there a training place I can try this stuff?

Matching stance definitely increased how fast you stagger them but it still takes multiple hits. Faster with a parry and then mash on them iirc. I don't recall having any problems with the basic combos. Never could get into the ones with the pause between hits either. Also if you're into staggering there will be equipment options to help. Heck even the basic thrown quick weapon helps with that I think?

Damnit I just finished Yōtei not too long ago I should go back and clean up the stuff I missed...