Ghost of Tsushima - Busted Buttons Ep. 39

Red and I talk all episode long about one of our favorite games in 2020, Ghost of Tsushima. This game really helped us get through a difficult year.

We start off with some general info and thoughts before diving into the story. 

The story was surprisingly good for an open world game. We discuss what we liked and didn't like about it. During this section, we also talk about some of our favorite characters including Jin Sakai, Khotun Khan, Lord Shimura, Yuna, Masako, and Ryuzo. 

We then address the gameplay. We talk about the combat, techniques, ghost weapons, standoffs, and exploration.

Exploration leads us into the world, which is the star of this game. How beautiful was it? Did we have a favorite region among Izuhara, Toyotama, and Kamiagata? What about those colors?!

We end by hitting on some characters that we missed during the story section before we move on to reception and recognition for the video game.

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Transcript

Red: 0:17

Welcome to Episode 39 of the Busted Buttons video game podcast and I got to tell you, it feels pretty daggone good to get back to it after taking what do we take off six weeks?

Hick: 0:27

Yep, six weeks. It was crazy. Between holidays

Red: 0:30

both of us managed to get COVID your wife got COVID Well, I

Hick: 0:34

never tested positive, but I think I did. COVID But yeah, it was a little bit we never we don't like to take off more than one week but it does happen here and there with life. Yes, six weeks, man that was that was definitely not planned. But you know, life gets in the way sometimes it's

Red: 0:47

crazy. Does that work? So we may be a little rusty a little shaky getting back to it, but we're gonna power through and do the best we can. And

Hick: 0:54

we've been doing YouTube for years, man, we got this.

Red: 0:57

We got this. Let's We are very excited this week because we are going to be talking about one of our favorite PlayStation four games of the year, the entire PlayStation four generation and one of our favorite games, if not our favorite game of 2020. And that is ghost of Tsushima I don't know we've been saying we're gonna do it. Next episode, we're gonna do it next episode. And next episode is finally here. As I say, we are

Hick: 1:21

still doing it. Next episode, it just took six weeks to get to it. We had to spend a lot of time You know what, we didn't have anything in life going on. We just need to spend a lot of time preparing, it's gonna take us weeks to get to the Witcher three when we do that.

Red: 1:34

We started on that. But no, in this, we're gonna talk about, of course, the story, the gameplay, the world of Tsushima, which was just beautiful. Some of the characters we meet along the way, you know, and then some reception recognition for the game. And kind of our final closing thoughts at the very end. But just in general, you know, go Tsushima came out midway through the year, I'll be honest, when it first got teased years ago, and I was hyped for it. Then you came out and said it was just gonna be another open world game. And I was like, Oh, my hype kind of died a little bit because I'd been playing a lot of open world games at the time. And then it came out. And it absolutely blew away my expectations. What about you?

Hick: 2:15

Yeah, I mean, like I first saw, like I said, like you said two or three years ago, for like the visuals of visuals. People always get on YouTube about saying that the proper way. But anyways, like people were just like those visuals. Like when you saw them, it was unlike anything that you really ever seen it a guy just the colors they really popped in. It wasn't really on my radar at that time, because it looked like a game that had a lot of combat. And I got like a huge combat guy like I'm more exploring, you know, kind of collecting things isn't Yeah, you have a fight here and there. You know, that's cool. That's why like platform is so much because you go through these worlds, you face usually a quick boss, and let's just order the will of the Wisp. But you know what, not this episode. That's for another episode. But so you know, it was kind of my radar a little bit look gorgeous, like, unlike anything that I had ever seen before in gaming. So but that time, I didn't know his open world game, but it was on my right. Right, right. And so like, you know, shocking was preparing for this. They just came out in July like it feels like it takes me so long to get to games. And I rarely play games when they first come out. But this one I don't know if I got it right away, because I believe I was finishing up a game, but I got it pretty quickly. And then, you know, here's what I say. Here's how you know a game is great. Like how quickly that you play now it still took me 130 hours, but Yep, do you play that game? And then take breaks and play other games? Or do you just fly through that game and this is one of the few games that I picked it up. I play and I played it almost all the way through without playing another game. And I know right now you don't have kids or anything but like I flew through quicker than I did. So I think to start off right here at the top there right there tells you that it's an excellent game we're gonna kind of go into all the other stuff about the game. So did you have any? The yes you want sound generator? Or do you want to go straight to the story

Red: 4:10

I would just say I agree completely with you that it's one of those games that I picked up just like you and I dumped 100 120 130 however many hours it was into it and and never set it down. You know is one of those at any time that I had time off, whether it's from work seeing the girlfriend, whatever I was like, I wasn't thinking about any other game. That's what also again, it was great right there. Like

Hick: 4:30

if you were like take time, like when you have free time is it what you do with all of your free time?

Red: 4:34

Exactly. And that's I remember I kind of compare it to you know, the one of the other really huge popular games of 2020 and that was the last of us part two. I swear I picked up and set down The Last of Us Part Two several times because other games drew me away like I jumped into Mario, Mario 3d All Stars. And I think I started ghost before I finished the last of us part two, so it was one of the era No, I think I was actually patient wave. There was another game that I picked up somewhere while playing Last was part two. And that was a game it was I remember you did something. But I didn't do that for ghosts of Tsushima. And like you said, that's just that's how you know something has grabbed you and kept your attention. Even after 100 plus hours, you weren't bored with it, you weren't tired of it. And that's, you know, before jumping into, like we said, you know, story gameplay, all that like that, to me is a great sign where you feel engaged the whole time, because it had a strong main story, it had strong side quests, the world was a blast to explore. And we will get into all that in more detail. But let's just start off with the story. And to be completely honest, I mean, the story is not necessarily that original on the surface, you know, the Mongols invade the island of Tsushima, on their way to conquer like mainland Japan. And you are a surviving Samurai who is fighting back. And along the way, you recruit some allies, you free your uncle, and you fight back against the Mongols. And then on the surface, that doesn't sound like that. Engaging of a story, you know, it's great for for setting up a good open world. Yeah. But I gotta say the details in this story, and the character development of gin, you're the main character, and Jessica was the main character's name. And then you know, the supporting characters and the way the story unfolded, you know, we'll get into some specific elements. But I absolutely loved the story in general, like it had more twists and turns and emotions than I expected from that simple description that I just gave. And it really captivated me. And that's rare for an open world game to like, keep the twists and turns coming. Were you as big a fan of the story as I was,

Hick: 6:40

I think he was still even though like, you know, the story wasn't great. Like you said, in open world games, it's really hard to have a great story because the game is so spaced out over 130 hours paired to other open world games, it wasn't the best one, I think I was still give that to shocker, here comes Witcher three. But overall, I thought was a great story. And you can say like, you know, it didn't change anything. It was like, it was not really enough. I don't know if he said that. But we've talked about it behind this, we

Red: 7:05

definitely talked about

Hick: 7:06

it. You can sit there and say yeah, it's not really innovative. But it is different. And it's different. Because it's a samurai story. It's set in Japan, most stories like, you know, they're set in different locations. But we have Fantasy games that focused on the Japanese culture, like rice game did. So I did love that part of it. Because, you know, no, it's not a history lesson or anything like, you know, it's a work of fiction, but you can still learn about the culture and the samurai a little bit for a game like this. So, like, you know, there's, I want to say I was like really learned a lot, but it's just cool, how different it was in, in a world gaming world where we get a lot of these stories like, you know, open world that aren't necessarily the same, of course, they are all different, but they're similar in a way, you know, the way they're structured, and what they're kind of based around like, you know, whether it be you know, like open or not open world that's what we're talking about was like GTA five into cyberpunk where it's like, you know, more cars and guns or it's like, like Assassin's Creed, where it's like, you know, swords and shields and axes. Like, yeah, this game definitely had the short swords. And was their shields in the game?

Red: 8:15

Just on the invading Mongols?

Hick: 8:17

You didn't Okay, okay. Okay. I couldn't remember I didn't remember actually having a show in the game. But anyways, well, you didn't

Red: 8:23

play in Valhalla and a couple others.

Hick: 8:28

All over the place right now and open world games. But did you play the tours in a little plug for the tours? That is a good breaker for more complex games. Y'all go out there. It's on game pass. Xbox, try it out. I think it's on the other systems. I really don't know. All full blown Xbox right now. Because when I was preparing for this game, like, you know, the first time I play is like, Oh my god, we're gonna talk more about the world. But I feel like of course, yeah. numerous times already. This podcast may struggle a little bit in the beginning.

Red: 8:58

But eventually,

Hick: 8:59

you I don't know. Behind the scenes, we struggle like we just kind of played off and laugh ourselves. But this game is like beautiful. But now I'm like this next gen snob because I'm going through today. And I don't know if it's all mental, or if it just looks crappy compared to the Xbox series x. But I'm like, go Tsushima doesn't look as good as I thought it did. I mean, I think I'm just a next gen snob right now. That's I think that's what it is. I think it is still beautiful game, but I'm a little bit but I'll continue on with the story. What do you want to say? Well,

Red: 9:29

so so my biggest thing with the story, like I said, on the surface, and this is gonna play off kind of what you said about learning a little bit about like the samurai in the Japanese culture, um, even though it is a work of fiction, but it's like I really loved how, despite the very simple story setup, and the very straightforward mission, you have get the Mongols off the island of Tsushima. You know, it's pretty straightforward. The development of your character of Jin sockeyes and him having the conflicts that he faces exactly like him having to make decisions that kind of go against the honor driven lifestyle and beliefs of the Samurai and become you know the quote unquote the ghost and start resorting to stealth to poison to assassination, you know, this all of that goes against what we're told is the samurai way which is

Hick: 10:19

stabbing people in the back. Yeah, like this.

Red: 10:23

So the same right way is all like, you know, face your opponent head to head honor. You know, and, and, and we see at the very beginning, I really loved this in I think it was like the opening cutscene where one of the Samurai steps out to challenge coach on Khan, the leader of the invading Mongols, and he's like, I challenge you to a duel or whatever. And the coach on Khan just throws like oil on him and torches him.

Hick: 10:49

Yeah. It's very beginning. Yeah,

Red: 10:51

that's the very beginning of the game. I guess. We should have said there's gonna be spoilers throughout this podcast. Hopefully. Yeah, we're talking about a game we're talking about something

Hick: 11:00

at the beginning of the game, but yes, there will be spoilers I don't even know if he's ever gonna talk go Tsushima entire podcast episode, but guess what? We're talking the entire pockets episode but no, um, there's gonna be spoilers. So

Red: 11:12

I love like they show and I'll let you go here in a second. So they showed the Mongols being kind of the the dirty, underhanded assholes right off the bat. But then as you go through the game playing as jinn, you have to resort to worse and worse things to get them off the island. So it's a really interesting take on you kind of adapting the tactics of the Mongols, and going against your own people to save your people. And I thought they did a great job of showing that conflict. And unfortunately, you know, there wasn't a lot It wasn't like a choice driven game, there's not a lot of choice like you had told you that that's the way it pushes you to go. But I did love that they they really showed off that conflict in your character. And then like the elder samurai, you know, your uncle is who's so driven by his honor that he despises what you're turning into, and like codes on Khan is trying to use that to drive a wedge between you and your uncle. It's a really fun, an interesting dynamic that I really appreciate and I think it was probably my favorite part of the story is just watching what Jen had to do to overcome the invaders. So anyway, I told you I'd let you go again. So first,

Hick: 12:26

I do want to say something first of all, we will probably or at least I will miss permanent now some of these names. You talked about this game, like quicker after I got done with it. I probably wouldn't know every single name but I was looking at it as like oh crap. How do you say these names but yeah, oh, okay, first of all, there's some villains both in movies and in video games that could learn a lesson or two from Kuta kooten Khan, like he said First of all, okay, okay, the Mongols don't least I don't know a lot about the Mongols in their history. But from what this game portrays they don't really tell how to honor and I love that we get lucky you've already described the very first thing that you see him do is throw it's not gasoline, but something that's flammable. Samurai warrior and then he throws a torch arms like I'll fuck you man. Like that right there. dedicata villain I don't need I don't need Kylo Ren trying to figure himself out the entire trilogy about it you know what he should be? And like you know, all you hate Chiron so like, fucking hate Kylo Ren do did that destroy the original trilogy so good. Because of Darth Vader. Now, there's a lot more than that. But it's so good because it gives me a good villain. And there's so many games and movies, they give us just a crappy villain like, you know, you go to Zelda. And he has Zane and Gary him that just like we get to the end of the gaming, like, these guys weren't really that tough. Like, give me a fucking badass like kuten con, like, I'm gonna throw some flammable shit on you. I'm gonna set you on fire. And then I'm going to be addicted and do everything against the way that you're supposed to do that. I want is a straight up badass. And I think he added so much to the story nearly game because he really felt like, you know, a true villain. So he did a

Red: 14:12

bad guy. He was a well developed bad guy.

Hick: 14:14

And I want to go back to like you said, You're talking about choices. I'm actually glad that there were a lot of choices in this game. Because that's actually one thing that I kind of hate. Like when games go different directions. I know a lot of people like that. Now, at the end, if you get choice, I'm okay with that. And if you had any game did have, I mean, we would kind of talk about that. We will say that again. But like actually kind of like when a game just kind of falls a journey falls one journey. Like you know, there's a whole bunch of different directions because that for me becomes too complex because I'm like, Well, what happens if I did this? What happens if I do that? Yeah, no. So so you want to see

Red: 14:52

those alternatives to you want to see how those choices play out?

Hick: 14:56

Yeah, and I like the simplicity of the game in the story. What It's really simple like, Okay, first of all, we had all these side quests, but they were side quests based around characters. And this is another thing that I absolutely love about the game is they built up the side characters through these side quests, something that I think was innovative, I not really seen it hardly at all. And again, now, there's a game out there does it but I don't know if too many self, you take these side characters in they, there's something to them and they have a purpose. Instead of doing like one or two missions, like you do numerous side quests through them. And then I think there's a couple random side quests thrown in there. But just not too many, though. Not like the villain, the villain was awesome. And then Jin was awesome. He has this conflict of like, you're talking about how he's kind of going against the honors of the samurai. And then you have these side characters and all their side quests, and we see their character arc develop, like to be like, yeah, the stories that they innovative. But overall, we're talking about gaming, and we're talking about open world games. I still do think it was a great story.

Red: 16:01

I do too, just I mean, like the way it was told, because like I said, that description I gave at the very beginning of the podcast makes it sound pretty bland. It's pretty straightforward. But the way it's told the twists and turns, we get along the way, the characters that we get developed, and you hit that on the head, and I absolutely loved I didn't have this quite in this order on my outline, but I think it's a good time to mention, like you said, Every character had, like every important side character, I should say, had like nine or 10 side quests built around them, where they're dealing with their own personal struggles, and their own personal like something that happened in their life that they are dealing with beyond just this Mongol invasion. And it really helps you to learn and care about the side characters. Plus by having all these side quests built around, like I said, eight or 10 of them around each character. It makes the side quests feel so much more important than Oh, here's a question mark on the map, kill 10 bores and tournament for reward.

Hick: 17:00

you'd listen to Assassin's Creed. He could put his day I love the Assassin's Creed, but y'all just need to quit when all these points all over the map and all the side quests that just don't matter. But go ahead.

Red: 17:10

Exactly. So I loved how they built the side quests around these specific characters. And it really added to the story of the individual characters and you got to see their inner conflicts. They were all dealing with some pretty heavy shit to you every single one of them but you know so overall, the main story plus all the little side stories were done very well they had the twists and like Like I said, just gin having to turn into more like the Mongols and then coton con like adopts gin strategy of poison like they played off each other so well. Yeah. And they really emphasize like cotan like trying to learn about his opponents and trying to kind of be that manipulative asshole where he's he's got Lord shimira, the leader of the Samurai and Jin zankel and he's like, here's all the crazy shit that your net that your nephew's doing. Yeah, it is against the samurai way just to piss off Lord chmura so like I thought like coats on like you said he was a great villain. It just really added to the story but before we talked about story quite a bit we should probably talk about like the actual gameplay of the video game. But is there anything else on the story you want to hit on before we kind of we kind of jumped to the next topic?

Hick: 18:22

I'm not gonna go to the notes that you wrote down here but I mean there's like also like the Russo like story like you know, the straw or whatever he was like just that little conflict like they had an issue back in the day like when they were kids and kind of seeing that all play out like there was just I mean, I think as we say here and we talk about more and more like I'm like thing for open world game that was maybe not groundbreaking, but that was a good story. But I mean, we could talk about the story in an entire podcast and go into details but that's really not something we want to do an open world game so kind of go ahead and go to the gameplay and for me the biggest thing about the gameplay I'll talk to you here when I get done but and here's the thing is I'm not a huge combat guy I said it in the beginning, but if you make combat fun in this game definitely did that. Like I came to love combat and just fine in this game. And so I'm gonna talk to you right here can't talk about the combat and what all you loved about it.

Red: 19:19

Well, my biggest thing I was a huge fan that they made both stealth or head to head equally viable. You know a lot of games especially like the Assassin's Creed games or even cyberpunk right now. You kind of have you can do it you can either go stealth you can or head to head on most missions. Hold on second

Hick: 19:36

cyberpunk just crashed my Xbox again so

Red: 19:42

but like so but you can usually tell when you start a mission or get to an area. It's kind of maybe built for stealth or built for the more balls to the walls combat. I thought every single encounter except for the ones where you were maybe forced to sneak or forced into a direct conflict like every single encounter and goes to Shima with Very well balanced. Yeah, where either strategy works. I mean, because you can totally be stealthy the weapons you got were great, you know the cover of the tall grass smoke bombs like you could clean out entire forts under stealth. Or you could literally walk up right to the front door and say, I'm challenging you. Yeah and like they would come right out and meet you which Oh, we're gonna talk about

Hick: 20:24

that. glugging It wasn't as damn close enough Yeah,

Red: 20:27

we're gonna talk about them Don't worry because I've yet but like so I love the balance between the stealth or the balls to the walls actually, and you know me we've talked about on this podcast many times, I am not very good at stealth. So more often than not, especially as my character got stronger, you could do the standoffs against more enemies like I was much more the head to head plus to me it's just more fun. I don't have the patience to sneak around trying

Hick: 20:52

to take guys out not as crazy as when we started this podcast you are more of the stealth guy I was more than just run by swinging and we have totally changes gamers like you're sitting here you're like I don't have the patience for stealth. I'm like actually like stealth because obviously it's like you know a strategy thing but I don't die as much as I used to because I go about them smarter

Red: 21:16

you get better at it

Hick: 21:17

I'm okay I'm at a certain level let's let's not run in with you know swords blazing and try to beat 10 people like we just don't have those skills yet but i mean they may have already said it but they may combat fun like you know you had all these various combat stances you know Lowe's daughter when moon and also ghosts, which was awesome. But uh, you know, like, whether you find swordsman like, you know, shillman people with spears or brute like you use different stances to fight these different characters in that it may have been because you can go in and hit like eggs and like, you know, a turbo button like l like lt and x or something like that.

Red: 21:55

You weren't just spamming the same button. Yeah,

Hick: 21:57

usually your combats are like an attack and a heavy attack in like this game. Like Yeah, you hit those you hit those moves as you change your stances, but you had to change your stances throughout the combat directory, keep the game fresh throughout and then as you go along the game, you can enhance those stances to more and more so I mean, we talked about the game like I think okay, yeah, the game world which we'll get to, we will but like that's probably the most important thing because the game just actually look gorgeous. Unless you're next gen snob like I am right now. But the second most important thing in the game I would say is the combat it mainly did it beautifully with like all these dances and stuff in one thing that I absolutely love is like you just had a sword. Katana is what's called like a little dagger. I don't remember what that one was called Tonto

Red: 22:46

or something like oh yeah,

Hick: 22:48

but um we apologize if we offended anybody Yeah, this I didn't know the name of it. I'm sorry. It looks like a little dagger and they knew what I meant right but exactly like I said your room mispronounce so and we don't always know every single thing and we don't mean to offend anybody. We're just stupid you know, which is which is a little stupid sometimes. So ignorance ignorance, but I love how I don't like games that have like a lot of weapons like a great example that is Assassin's Creed Odyssey where you just go around you pick up so many weapons and yes, disassemble all of them for like, you know, component parts. And just there's really no value to it. Like in this game. Here's why I love when games do this is like okay, you give me a sword and a little dagger. Now I know the names are different. But like you just give me those two. And then you give me kits where I can customize them. Because customization, as all gamers know is becoming hugely important. Because players want to customize to what they like if it's just a sword, a bow, whatever. So I love the simplicity of just having you know, sword dagger haskovo and a long bow. There have been a long bow read get the weapon dry. Okay, there's a dagger, which

Red: 24:00

is obviously right.

Hick: 24:01

Um, oh, did I have Boehner Lobo but the weapons were simple. Yes, did upgrades but then you can customize them. I thought a little bit too much. There's a little bit to me customization. I mean, he's they nailed so much when it came to the combat and also the weapons in my opinion.

Red: 24:19

And that's why like, you know, to the areas I really thought that they innovated in the combat was, you know, we mentioned the standoffs. Probably my favorite part of the combat you literally walk up to a fort, you press a button and it calls out like the opponent and as you progress through the game, you get to stand off against more and more opponents and if you time it right it's literally one hit kills against you can get up to five enemies right at the very beginning. You can eat kill all of them with one press of the button. And it's a great way to really like thin out the herd of your opposition to you take out like five of them before you ever even set

Hick: 24:58

foot read in a basket. Fucking Hazel standoff because then it got me every single time and when they get better and better and quicker and quicker I can't tell you how many I don't think I want standoff like the last third of the game like either they were too fast or that fake move every single time so you can continue with the standoffs but I was not a fan cuz he's like I got my ass kicked

Red: 25:30

well let's just and honestly like they could be difficult because the once they started faking you out with that initial fake and then later on they fake two times or three times and you're sitting there just holding down the button because like once they attack you release the button and you kill them but yeah, if you release early you get hit you take a shit ton of damage yeah almost kills you actually. And so it is very nerve wracking. But man I just love that mechanic and then the duels like throughout the game you had I'm not even sure how many there was it's well there were there were a lot more than that there were like 22 like when we look at the hub

Hick: 26:04

like they only list five doors on there so it's kind of like going off of

Red: 26:08

and those are like those were all around one one quest if I'm not mistaken

Hick: 26:11

but no like a random I think he just found them on the map and I believe you just did them unless you cut you're talking about different deals but like I'll let you continue but though those were a blast tailored Absolutely.

Red: 26:21

Absolutely were and they were usually in like awesome location Yeah, and just having a one on one sword fight with a guy or girl that you kind of you learn their attack pattern. And you know and once you've you know, seen their attack pattern a couple of times it got a little easy to dodge and deflect and counter attack especially once you learn some of the more powerful attacks in the game that are kind of unblockable Yeah, man I love the duels they were basically like little mini boss fights and to me both between like the locations that you fought them and then just the one on one feel of them I thought it was just one of my favorite favorite parts of the game you know there's a lot more into the combat we can get into you know, you had your like they call them ghost weapons like you know, your smoke bombs, you're throwing knives, which I think you're called cuckoo Nye q&a, again, probably butchering that you know, and I loved having those little like, I almost call them gadgets they're really helpful in combat. You know, you like you said upgrading your stances and flipping between the stances was so easy you literally held down one and push the direction on the D pad

Hick: 27:26

and you switch stances It was like so well done. And once you got the hang of it, you just you flow through your stances so easily and they just as game did great at was not making those moves complex. Like there's so many games where it's just too complex, like I only played a little bit of Asia calamity. Hyrule Warriors agent grimy, but it was so complicated that it was crazy. Like this game, like there was a lot of stances there was a lot of techniques there was a lot of different combat that you could do, but they still made it simple. So I absolutely loved that and you can't talk about the ghost weapons. Um, how do you use that medium? Well the black powder bomb I used all the time which is why the other ones but yeah that could I like you were saying you weren't really saying anything you were just mentioning it but I didn't use it until like later in the game by usually like once or twice I think by accident. I was like oh this is awesome. Yeah, this thing is great right here so um, those were awesome but um, I didn't really use the halo bomb that much the sticky bomb in like a smoke bomb or

Red: 28:31

plasma grenade the

Hick: 28:32

wind chime in in the firecracker I thought were kind of jokes but then I have you say like, apologies for butchering it and then a black powder ball Oh my God, I use that all the time. Like you know in addition to like you know all these stances in these techniques you have like it you add in these ghost weapons that are just little tiny things here I believe they were our one is all they work but they add a little bit to the game and they make you like you know fight different kind of ways. So there's just when it came to the combat there was just so much and then we weren't going to this too much. But like you know, the actual techniques like you know, the skill trees, the abilities and stuff like that, um, you know, deflection evasion crap like that.

Red: 29:12

It added some added good light RPG elements to the game. Yeah, great, like these skill trees. And you can, you can do enough to where you can almost upgrade them all fully, if I'm not mistaken, but it's

Hick: 29:24

actually I upgraded everything fully, actually. Oh,

Red: 29:27

I think you do get enough experience points, like just upgrade everything. So I liked having that little bit of that light RPG because it does make it feel like you're getting stronger and stronger as the game goes on. But man on top of the combat, which as we said, was absolutely amazing, like the exploration of the island and here was another area where I thought this game really innovated the guiding wind, like using just the way the wind was blowing, to guide you to wherever your destination was. I massively loved that. What did you think of the guiding wind mechanic? First of all, exploration of being in the world but

Hick: 30:01

Okay, we're gonna talk about right now. But no game it was part of my gameplay I

Red: 30:05

thought it was exploration.

Hick: 30:08

Something else

Red: 30:09

did you read the outline?

Hick: 30:12

Oh, I knew I was gonna say is the one thing I didn't like about the gameplay was those charts, I thought there was way too many charts and this gets into complexity. Like I always sit there and read the descriptions of every charm and try to figure out which one I want to fit in my six slots. So overall, I'm gonna talk a lot about how much I love this game. But I hate the charms. I absolutely hate it. Yeah, they were nice. They were kind of like little arm but common games ruins I guess is what you're driving it. But um, anyways, on the exploration, I'm the guiding wind was probably one of my favorite things of the game. Because there's so many games like where you put an objective or a pin or wherever you want caught on the map. And then you just usually follow a trail you can faster however you do it. But you usually like go, you don't explore, like, you usually just go to that objective like in your strike there. It's like a straight line. Because obviously, the quickest way somewhere is a straight line, like guiding when like I love it, because it made you explore areas that you would not usually explore if you just had a pin on the map. And the reason I did that is because like if you had to go around the mountain or something like you know, you had to get the wind back and go in a certain direction. So instead of like keeping you on a path or something like that, it actually like you know, made you go off the path. Like for more, and you didn't have to like, you know, when you're kind of phone that Jacob like I said, a straight line. This one you can kind of go off course, which is I'm basically just reiterating

Red: 31:40

something like like we've both been playing cyberpunk recently, where when you put a destination on the map, like the mini map literally gives you the line. Yes, yeah.

Hick: 31:48

And it's not always the best. Well, that's different because that's a frickin city map. True. But I understand the point you're making,

Red: 31:54

you're you're looking at that and like just following a straight line, like you said, as opposed to like looking at the world to like, that's one thing you miss out on when you're staring at that little dotted line that's telling you exactly where to go. I think Grand Theft Auto was the same way where like you said, I know those are more city maps, you're also going 150 miles an hour instead of a horse, whatever the speed of a horse is, or even on foot but like I love that the guiding wind technique really it simplifies like your screen your your user interface, and lets you look at the beautiful world. What you know it was for a ps4. Err, I know and now you're like yeah, next gen snob, but I was a massive fan of the guiding wind mechanic just in general, but the other like, exploration thing I really liked and there weren't that many instances of it. That was the platforming. Yeah, like the the there were a few shrines there was like 10 or 12 or so I'm honestly not sure how many scattered across the island had great platforming segments. Were you a fan of those areas as well.

Hick: 32:54

Anything that involves platforming I absolutely love like 2d platforming, 3d platforming I'm always a huge fan of it unless it's too difficult like many 2d platformers are but um yeah just like having these shrines like you kind of like you platform you go around the edges you know you got well you don't climb this game I keep on getting my open world games mixed up a little bit but you know you jump across ledges and stuff like that. Yeah, like Yep, I would say I was there say that it was very simple but it was very difficult once but that made it fun. And then you get to the top and you just see this beautiful game world at the top of most of these shrines. It just looks absolutely gorgeous which now brings me to the world and that's the star of this game and for me we're gonna go into a lot but just the colors of this game that's what initially attracted me to this game. And you know it's not something like okay the graphics look good but I think their use of all these different colors and the palettes I think that's what really made this game stand out so I'm not sure where exactly you want to take it but overall the game world like I know you're high on it but just go into like is how amazing it was.

Red: 34:07

Well I think you're absolutely right when it's it reminds me a little bit of Breath of the Wild from the standpoint that okay it's more realistic than Brenton the wild was but he also takes advantage of

Hick: 34:18

but it's not as realistic as other open world games

Red: 34:21

right like you like maybe like Assassin's Creed Valhalla or something like that but it is still just a gorgeous gorgeous world because they use this really good style that's like close to being realistic. And then like you said, the color palette. Yes game the sunrises and sunsets, you know, the contrast of the terrain with the sky and you know, the water and rivers and waterfalls, waterfalls. Anyone who's listening to us knows we love our waterfalls. I mean, it's just a very beautiful, like, rustic kind of game world. You know, it's not like you know, we've been playing cyberpunk now and stuff like that. It's a little more modern world Yeah, but are futuristic.

Hick: 34:59

That's not modern. All man,

Red: 35:01

but just I really loved the world, my only like little little complaint would be I felt like the regions and you might disagree the regions kind of felt a little too similar in how they looked. But I also get that it is a it's an island, it's not the biggest landmass

Hick: 35:20

ever. So you're having this is where games don't have to follow like logic, in my opinion, like, okay, yeah, it is an island, it would make sense, that's not very big, but you can make it very different. And I sort of agree with you with that, because like the first two parts of the Act, were did Act One, act two, the first, the first two southern parts of the game, or the back of the world, whatever you want to fucking call it. Those were very similar. And here's where I think they messed up. And they could have done better and is where they start. Because the game basically went from the south and to the north, it went from summer until the tool, the winner, and so on, I think they started fall too late in that second area, like now you had a little bit of fall with the golden forest in the original, you know, quote, summer area. But like you said, those first two areas were very similar, they should have had fall dropped. Now I'm a huge fall fan, and huge fan. So that's probably why I'm saying this. But to me, like they start the like false scenery, until you almost got to the very Northern part. And I think that's why those first two areas look so similar. But it didn't really bother me like I know, I think you also have an issue with the terrain like I can tell you today I was riding around a horse. And there's a lot terrain in that game. There's a lot elevation, there are numerous, like things that I had to go round. But just, you know, you can't talk about water. And the reason we like waterfall so much is because water is a beautiful scenery, and kind of go into that this game like you know, they had small legs, but they also had these little streams everywhere. Now a lot of open world games have that. But just like the way they broke them off and put them throughout the game world look absolutely beautiful. The the water effect, I don't know what you want to call, but water looks different. And every single open world game I play does. Judge a game is like, What does their water look like in the water. And that's it. That's how I felt. That's how I judge gays. But the water looked absolutely gorgeous and just happy. I know, we've already talked about the college man. But Ronnie bring all these streams, these waterfalls, like you know, these different areas like even the winter area, like just and these colors to the game like that's why and there's one thing you haven't mentioned, the flowers. That's really what this game stand out from other games is because they had a bunch of these flowers that had these different color petals. And so like I remember, I don't remember the exact name of this place. I want to say it's in the second area. But there was just just this huge field of red flowers, right is absolutely gorgeous. And then when you start to gang, oh my god, man, when you start the gang, and you're going through the woods, and then you hit on those white flowers in the field, and then it's like, yeah, a sucker punch production or they just said Sucker Punch presents or whatever it said, right? And then it goes to Tsushima you're just like, Damn, that looks amazing, man. I didn't know you had yellow. I mean those flower callers that's really what made the color palette palette stand out so much to me.

Red: 38:31

And I really loved it like we we kind of mentioned or you mentioned a little bit earlier, you know, like the Assassin's Creed maps or even like the Witcher three map or a cyberpunk map. Like it's just got so many of those question marks on it. There are so much to do and goes to Tsushima has a little bit of that. But for the most part, they're more like towns or forts or settlements. And then there were some places of interest like you could go to like you had the hot springs. You had these pillars of honor they called you had you had the shrines or the platform for like we mentioned you had Fox? A few a few too many Fox dens In my opinion, but like I didn't feel like they overwhelmed the magary with these question marks like you see in a modern day assassin's creed or a modern day you know like the cyberpunk or something like that and each one of those like points of interest like the springs the pillars of honor the shrines they gave you some kind of reward like if you do enough hot springs you get a boost to your health if you do the Shinto shrines gave you a charm charm Thank you

Hick: 39:34

charmer set the hot springs

Red: 39:36

right

Hick: 39:38

armor stuff from other things well

Red: 39:40

yeah, but it was nice that there was like you know, there weren't so many of them that you just felt like you were checking off question marks like okay go into this one. Go into this one go into this like that gets old in open world games and a lot of games from a lot of different companies are guilty of that. But man, I will say the map the map is A huge part of why like I don't think this game overstayed its welcome just because it didn't have 10 bazillion frickin little question marks. There were some there were a number Don't get me wrong,

Hick: 40:10

but not so much it was the right amount for the size of the man really

Red: 40:14

was it really was. And I did like that throughout the game world. There were some fun little collectibles like that you could find in camps and in towns like you had like Mongol artifacts, which gave you details about the Mongol culture.

Hick: 40:29

I didn't do that was like a history lesson right there. Like, you know, that had to be pretty accurate, I would think to what happens during those times.

Red: 40:36

Yeah. And then you throw in like the records, which was like correspondence between different people. And it kind of filled in a little bit of the side stories and things like that you had the banners, you could collect that, just like the story was it was part of preserving the history of these different clans. So I liked that we had those little collectibles, but they weren't, they didn't just have a big question mark on the map. You know, you just found them as you went through towns and encampments and everything. Were out in the world.

Hick: 41:03

They weren't question marks originally, though, that's at least was going back to the game today, cuz I still had some question marks somehow. So they didn't start out like that. But what I love that you're not mentioned yet with the bamboo strikes like that, but those were a ton of fun to do, just kind of like, you know, it felt like Mortal Kombat. Like you gotta get to fatality. Right, you know. So, absolutely love those. And those actually increase your resolve, which you could use to increase your health. So I absolutely just love that in red. I remember if you remember the last podcast six weeks ago, but the sun was shining through this blonde right to my eyes. And then the shits going on again, man, like I said, I travel a lot and I am fucking blind. He was nothing I love was a haikus man. I just for fun. It's like I mean, open world games open world games like yeah, there's a part where there are relaxing stuff, but this game with all the combat like I mean, for an open world game, it was pretty fast paced. I just love these areas where you could just sit down meditate you can actually select the Haiku that you want to do is it right peacefulness to the game and then awesome most of those views were absolutely amazing. Is there anything else you want to say on the world?

Red: 42:19

Not Not a whole lot i mean it was like we said it's just a beautiful game world especially it was I thought was one of the more beautiful game worlds of the last generation I know we're in next gen now but yeah, you know it was just it was very fun to explore without being so massive that you you lost all sense of where you were like yes maybe it could have been broken up a little better with different regions having a little different features but all in all, I was a huge fan, but like kind of you know we've

Hick: 42:46

talked about there's a couple characters now we talked about characters yeah throughout this entire podcast episode but there's a couple that I want to mention I think you do too. And one was kanji dude like we're not making kanji like that dude is comedic Lee This came like like you know just a socket Okay, first of all is a sock even or which is absolute like just a bolt. Okay, guys ship. It gets like in trouble for like swindling townspeople and like, just I love the comedy that he brings to the game. Like he didn't really have a big part in the game, but just I felt we had to mention him. Like we mentioned most of the characters. We're not gonna really stay on too long. But I absolutely love kanji. Is there any other characters that we didn't mention or that we didn't talk about as much that you

Red: 43:29

would kind of like to mention? Well, Kenji was obviously an amazing one like I like we kind of talked about with with the story earlier in the side characters. Like I love that they all had something complex going on. Yeah, like Lady Mexico. She's like trying to avenge that her family was slaughtered. It turns out it was her sister who did it. And her sister was like, jealous and wanted revenge because she got sold off to like an abusive husband. Whereas the lady Mexico got to marry like a samurai and have a great life. And then Ishikawa was he's chasing down a former student who he thinks betrayed him. And it turns out, she didn't really betray him, she got captured. And the only way to keep herself alive was to think they essentially like she was helping to train the Mongols. She was actually giving like, quick, easy deaths to prisoners, and so they wouldn't get tortured. So she was so I love that every one of these characters and then Rio, Rio, Rio, I'm going to get his cruise I mentioned like he had the head, the childhood, you know, beef with Jen, but then he betrays Jin, because he's trying to feed his his the straw hat, Ronan? Yeah, I mean, they show them as this starving group that's like just barely surviving. And Rosa wants to get the bounty. It's if we can feed his people. So like all these people, they have these flaws, but they tell great stories and they are longer drawn out story arcs. But Kenji was just his one. You got it all out just

Hick: 44:54

because he did. Norio. Norio was another character that really did like that warrior model. The monk just like you Like he also had, like, you know, he had a lot of conflicts going on, but he didn't really exactly but there's something his brother was murdered by the Mongols or something like that. He felt guilty about it. So

Red: 45:10

he was brilliant was considered like a projector. And he had to take that on that mantle. Yeah, I liked him do

Hick: 45:16

he just he was big enough that that we should mention, like, you know, like, it didn't put too much into the game, but did play a part in the game. But um, as far as characters, I think it's kind of all we want to talk about. So let's kind of go on to the recognition of the game before we wrap it up. But here's actually one thing that kind of shocked me, I thought, I can't believe this game was sold like 5 million units. Like, I thought this game was sold so much more. Now. I know that it is a ps4 exclusive. But this thought is gonna be more than that man.

Red: 45:45

And it was at the very end of the console generation, you got to point out at what July the new councils and that numbers as of

Hick: 45:53

they should have waited, they should wait until next year.

Red: 45:56

Oh, and then I think that was as of November of 2020. So it may be a little higher. Now. What blew my mind though? Is the gap between the user score and the metal? Yes, are in like the critic score. And I know we talked about when we talked about the last of us part two, we talked about how it was the other way, the critical scores were through the roof and the user scores were in the basement. Of course, that was because some butthurt people were Yeah, that was a whole debacle. But this game, it seems like everyone I've talked to who's played this has loved it more than the ratings. It's got like it's sitting in an 83 on Metacritic, which don't get me wrong, isn't bad. But the user score is over a nine. It's at a nine point yeah, as of today, I'm like, that divide is kind of shocking to me. And have you talked to anyone who's played this who didn't like it?

Hick: 46:42

No, everyone I've talked to is like, and I think, you know, a three is like a B, almost a b minus man. So I don't think it's great to score, especially considering a 9.2 could be like, you know, translate to a 92%. So, I mean, it's only like nine points difference, you know, in hypotheticals but like, I just think it is too low like the game. It does have some glitches, I said that it wasn't as polished as it probably should be. But now that point cyberpunk freakin ghost. Giselle, I know we have our differences in that game, and we will talk about it in the next episode. But yeah, it's a little bit too low for me, because I've not met anybody that doesn't like the game. It's one of my favorite games that play lately, one of my favorite, right, one of my most favorite open world games. So like, you know, it's a top 10 game for me, I don't know, if I put in the top five either, you know, kind of sit there and think about that, which I'm never gonna take that take some thought I just say top five or top 10 I would say it's definitely one of my top 10 games. Like one of the best games I've played lately. So overall, I was very, very impressed with the game. Like you can say, I know, they had to release it at certain time. But maybe if you want to wait to the next gen, like, you know, maybe you could done a little bit more, but um, you know, Got Game of the Year nominations from both the Game Awards, and then like, you know, other publications, so it did getting ready. GTZ awards, man. Yes. TGPZ Media. Ward's Yeah, but um, that's how I want to say on go Tsushima Did you have any other like, that's not really closing thoughts that we just did. But did you have any closing thoughts on the game?

Red: 48:12

I mean, the my biggest thought is like, I completely agree that it was it was an amazing game. I think it deserves a little better. And I know the biggest knock that I read when I was going back and looking at critical reviews, but it's like, you know, it doesn't innovate enough you know it Where's

Hick: 48:29

what open world games open? Like, you know, and that's

Red: 48:32

why even like, it's it's hard to innovate when open world has been such a dominant genre now for for a number of almost a decade probably I mean, since openworld really became something that we had the hardware to do and to do well. So to me like I just thought though, it took so many great open world concepts and did them all very, very well like it polished them up like the combat was very fun. The story was engaging the side characters were well developed the exploration the world were all top notch and like you put it all together, and yes, maybe it didn't reinvent the wheel in any of those areas. But all in all, it brought them together into one of the most polished packages that I've ever seen. And that's what I

Hick: 49:18

nominate. I don't even really get my closing thoughts, because I pretty much just agree with every single thing. Right there. So for the wrap up, let's kind of talk about the next episode. Let's just get back to the gaming industry next next episode, because I want to talk we've been off for six weeks people there's a lot that I want to talk about and actually our last pockets episode. I don't even know if I got my Xbox series x by that time, but I haven't. If you did. cyberpunk, we're definitely gonna be talking about cyberpunk and some other gaming industry stuff on the next episode, but let's go ahead and wrap it up. All these links will be in the description. You can support us on Patreon or PayPal. If you can't support financially, leave a review or a review writing that kind of helps with SEO and like when people search for video games we show up higher the more reviews and ratings we get and then also we have merchandise on our websites on two guys playing Zelda I don't really focus on that too much but T tg PC gaming comm I'm adding products almost daily over there so definitely check that out and it is an affiliate shop so we may earn a commission on purchases through our links read can talk about our YouTube discord and some of the social media stuff we got going on.

Red: 50:31

Well basically we're on YouTube discord and social media but on YouTube though, we got tgp z gaming we've got two guys playing Zelda obviously that one's more dedicated to just Zelda tgp z gaming's a little more open discord is is one of our big focuses now we absolutely love the interaction we have with other gamers on there we talk general gaming PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo booze TV shows sports like we talked about a little bit everything so hit us up over on the discord in a bash people that aren't spammers, apparently cuz I did that yesterday. A guy got a big in the video games. I

Hick: 51:05

thought he's a spammer. I was like, get off of here spammer

Red: 51:08

Oh, yeah, we were wrong on that one. Also on Twitter and Instagram Busted Buttons pc for podcasts. So look for us. Great to get back to it hit yes. been way too long. I'm glad we were all kind of recovered from from COVID from the holidays. It's good to get back at it. I'm looking forward to getting back at it. Next episode.