Ghost of Tsushima - Busted Buttons Ep. 39 - Busted Buttons

Episode Transcript
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Red (00:17):
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 whatdo we take off six weeks?

Hick (00:27):
Yep, six weeks. It was crazy. Between holidays

Red (00:30):
both of us managed to get COVID your wife got COVID Well,
I

Hick (00:34):
never tested positive, but I think I did. COVID But yeah,
it was a little bit we never wedon't like to take off more than
one week but it does happen hereand there with life. Yes, six
weeks, man that was that wasdefinitely not planned. But you
know, life gets in the waysometimes it's

Red (00:47):
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 (00:54):
we've been doing YouTube for years, man, we got this.

Red (00:57):
We got this. Let's We are very excited this week because
we are going to be talking aboutone of our favorite PlayStation
four games of the year, theentire PlayStation four
generation and one of ourfavorite games, if not our
favorite game of 2020. And thatis ghost of Tsushima I don't
know we've been saying we'regonna do it. Next episode, we're
gonna do it next episode. Andnext episode is finally here. As

(01:20):
I say, we are

Hick (01:21):
still doing it. Next episode, it just took six weeks
to get to it. We had to spend alot of time You know what, we
didn't have anything in lifegoing on. We just need to spend
a lot of time preparing, it'sgonna take us weeks to get to
the Witcher three when we dothat.

Red (01:34):
We started on that. But no, in this, we're gonna talk about,
of course, the story, thegameplay, the world of Tsushima,
which was just beautiful. Someof the characters we meet along
the way, you know, and then somereception recognition for the
game. And kind of our finalclosing thoughts at the very
end. But just in general, youknow, go Tsushima came out
midway through the year, I'll behonest, when it first got teased

(01:56):
years ago, and I was hyped forit. Then you came out and said
it was just gonna be anotheropen world game. And I was like,
Oh, my hype kind of died alittle bit because I'd been
playing a lot of open worldgames at the time. And then it
came out. And it absolutely blewaway my expectations. What about
you?

Hick (02:15):
Yeah, I mean, like I first saw, like I said, like you said
two or three years ago, for likethe visuals of visuals. People
always get on YouTube aboutsaying that the proper way. But
anyways, like people were justlike those visuals. Like when
you saw them, it was unlikeanything that you really ever
seen it a guy just the colorsthey really popped in. It wasn't
really on my radar at that time,because it looked like a game

(02:38):
that had a lot of combat. And Igot like a huge combat guy like
I'm more exploring, you know,kind of collecting things isn't
Yeah, you have a fight here andthere. You know, that's cool.
That's why like platform is somuch because you go through
these worlds, you face usually aquick boss, and let's just order
the will of the Wisp. But youknow what, not this episode.
That's for another episode. Butso you know, it was kind of my

(03:00):
radar a little bit lookgorgeous, like, unlike anything
that I had ever seen before ingaming. 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 likeit feels like it takes me so
long to get to games. And Irarely play games when they

(03:22):
first come out. But this one Idon't know if I got it right
away, because I believe I wasfinishing up a game, but I got
it pretty quickly. And then, youknow, here's what I say. Here's
how you know a game is great.
Like how quickly that you playnow it still took me 130 hours,
but Yep, do you play that game?
And then take breaks and playother games? Or do you just fly

(03:43):
through that game and this isone of the few games that I
picked it up. I play and Iplayed it almost all the way
through without playing anothergame. And I know right now you
don't have kids or anything butlike I flew through quicker than
I did. So I think to start offright here at the top there
right there tells you that it'san excellent game we're gonna

(04:03):
kind of go into all the otherstuff about the game. So did you
have any? The yes you want soundgenerator? Or do you want to go
straight to the story

Red (04:10):
I would just say I agree completely with you that it's
one of those games that I pickedup just like you and I dumped
100 120 130 however many hoursit was into it and and never set
it down. You know is one ofthose at any time that I had
time off, whether it's from workseeing the girlfriend, whatever
I was like, I wasn't thinkingabout any other game. That's
what also again, it was greatright there. Like

Hick (04:30):
if you were like take time, like when you have free
time is it what you do with allof your free time?

Red (04:34):
Exactly. And that's I remember I kind of compare it to
you know, the one of the otherreally huge popular games of
2020 and that was the last of uspart two. I swear I picked up
and set down The Last of Us PartTwo several times because other
games drew me away like I jumpedinto Mario, Mario 3d All Stars.
And I think I started ghostbefore I finished the last of us
part two, so it was one of theera No, I think I was actually

(04:57):
patient wave. There was anothergame that I picked up somewhere
while playing Last was part two.
And that was a game it was Iremember you did something. But
I didn't do that for ghosts ofTsushima. And like you said,
that's just that's how you knowsomething has grabbed you and
kept your attention. Even after100 plus hours, you weren't
bored with it, you weren't tiredof it. And that's, you know,
before jumping into, like wesaid, you know, story gameplay,

(05:18):
all that like that, to me is agreat sign where you feel
engaged the whole time, becauseit had a strong main story, it
had strong side quests, theworld was a blast to explore.
And we will get into all that inmore detail. But let's just
start off with the story. And tobe completely honest, I mean,
the story is not necessarilythat original on the surface,
you know, the Mongols invade theisland of Tsushima, on their way

(05:41):
to conquer like mainland Japan.
And you are a surviving Samuraiwho is fighting back. And along
the way, you recruit someallies, you free your uncle, and
you fight back against theMongols. And then on the
surface, that doesn't sound likethat. Engaging of a story, you
know, it's great for for settingup a good open world. Yeah. But

(06:03):
I gotta say the details in thisstory, and the character
development of gin, you're themain character, and Jessica was
the main character's name. Andthen you know, the supporting
characters and the way the storyunfolded, you know, we'll get
into some specific elements. ButI absolutely loved the story in
general, like it had more twistsand turns and emotions than I

(06:27):
expected from that simpledescription that I just gave.
And it really captivated me. Andthat's rare for an open world
game to like, keep the twistsand turns coming. Were you as
big a fan of the story as I was,

Hick (06:40):
I think he was still even though like, you know, the story
wasn't great. Like you said, inopen world games, it's really
hard to have a great storybecause the game is so spaced
out over 130 hours paired toother open world games, it
wasn't the best one, I think Iwas still give that to shocker,
here comes Witcher three. Butoverall, I thought was a great
story. And you can say like, youknow, it didn't change anything.

(07:01):
It was like, it was not reallyenough. I don't know if he said
that. But we've talked about itbehind this, we

Red (07:05):
definitely talked about

Hick (07:06):
it. You can sit there and say yeah, it's not really
innovative. But it is different.
And it's different. Because it'sa samurai story. It's set in
Japan, most stories like, youknow, they're set in different
locations. But we have Fantasygames that focused on the
Japanese culture, like rice gamedid. So I did love that part of
it. Because, you know, no, it'snot a history lesson or anything

(07:28):
like, you know, it's a work offiction, but you can still learn
about the culture and thesamurai 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, butit's just cool, how different it
was in, in a world gaming worldwhere we get a lot of these
stories like, you know, openworld that aren't necessarily
the same, of course, they areall different, but they're

(07:50):
similar in a way, you know, theway they're structured, and what
they're kind of based aroundlike, you know, whether it be
you know, like open or not openworld that's what we're talking
about was like GTA five intocyberpunk where it's like, you
know, more cars and guns or it'slike, like Assassin's Creed,
where it's like, you know,swords and shields and axes.
Like, yeah, this game definitelyhad the short swords. And was

(08:12):
their shields in the game?

Red (08:15):
Just on the invading Mongols?

Hick (08:17):
You didn't Okay, okay.
Okay. I couldn't remember Ididn't remember actually having
a show in the game. But anyways,well, you didn't

Red (08:23):
play in Valhalla and a couple others.

Hick (08:28):
All over the place right now and open world games. But
did you play the tours in alittle plug for the tours? That
is a good breaker for morecomplex 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'tknow. All full blown Xbox right
now. Because when I waspreparing for this game, like,
you know, the first time I playis like, Oh my god, we're gonna

(08:51):
talk more about the world. But Ifeel like of course, yeah.
numerous times already. Thispodcast may struggle a little
bit in the beginning.

Red (08:58):
But eventually,

Hick (08:59):
you I don't know. Behind the scenes, we struggle like we
just kind of played off andlaugh ourselves. But this game
is like beautiful. But now I'mlike this next gen snob because
I'm going through today. And Idon't know if it's all mental,
or if it just looks crappycompared to the Xbox series x.
But I'm like, go Tsushimadoesn't look as good as I
thought it did. I mean, I thinkI'm just a next gen snob right

(09:20):
now. That's I think that's whatit is. I think it is still
beautiful game, but I'm a littlebit but I'll continue on with
the story. What do you want tosay? Well,

Red (09:29):
so so my biggest thing with the story, like I said, on the
surface, and this is gonna playoff kind of what you said about
learning a little bit about likethe samurai in the Japanese
culture, um, even though it is awork of fiction, but it's like I
really loved how, despite thevery 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

(09:49):
development of your character ofJin sockeyes and him having the
conflicts that he faces exactlylike him having to make
decisions that kind of goagainst the honor driven
lifestyle and beliefs of theSamurai and become you know the
quote unquote the ghost andstart resorting to stealth to

(10:11):
poison to assassination, youknow, this all of that goes
against what we're told is thesamurai 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. Youknow, and, and, and we see at
the very beginning, I reallyloved this in I think it was
like the opening cutscene whereone of the Samurai steps out to
challenge coach on Khan, theleader of the invading Mongols,
and he's like, I challenge youto a duel or whatever. And the

(10:44):
coach on Khan just throws likeoil 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 bespoilers throughout this
podcast. Hopefully. Yeah, we'retalking 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 ifhe's ever gonna talk go Tsushima
entire podcast episode, butguess 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 theMongols being kind of the the
dirty, underhanded assholesright off the bat. But then as
you go through the game playingas jinn, you have to resort to
worse and worse things to getthem off the island. So it's a
really interesting take on youkind of adapting the tactics of

(11:35):
the Mongols, and going againstyour own people to save your
people. And I thought they did agreat job of showing that
conflict. And unfortunately, youknow, there wasn't a lot It
wasn't like a choice drivengame, there's not a lot of
choice like you had told youthat that's the way it pushes
you to go. But I did love thatthey they really showed off that
conflict in your character. Andthen like the elder samurai, you

(11:59):
know, your uncle is who's sodriven by his honor that he
despises what you're turninginto, and like codes on Khan is
trying to use that to drive awedge between you and your
uncle. It's a really fun, aninteresting dynamic that I
really appreciate and I think itwas probably my favorite part of
the story is just watching whatJen had to do to overcome the

(12:22):
invaders. So anyway, I told youI'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 misspermanent now some of these
names. You talked about thisgame, like quicker after I got
done with it. I probablywouldn't know every single name
but I was looking at it as likeoh crap. How do you say these
names but yeah, oh, okay, firstof all, there's some villains
both in movies and in videogames that could learn a lesson

(12:47):
or two from Kuta kooten Khan,like he said First of all, okay,
okay, the Mongols don't least Idon't know a lot about the
Mongols in their history. Butfrom what this game portrays
they don't really tell how tohonor and I love that we get
lucky you've already describedthe very first thing that you
see him do is throw it's notgasoline, but something that's
flammable. Samurai warrior andthen he throws a torch arms like

(13:12):
I'll fuck you man. Like thatright there. dedicata villain I
don't need I don't need Kylo Rentrying to figure himself out the
entire trilogy about it you knowwhat he should be? And like you
know, all you hate Chiron solike, fucking hate Kylo Ren do
did that destroy the originaltrilogy so good. Because of
Darth Vader. Now, there's a lotmore than that. But it's so good

(13:33):
because it gives me a goodvillain. And there's so many
games and movies, they give usjust a crappy villain like, you
know, you go to Zelda. And hehas Zane and Gary him that just
like we get to the end of thegaming, like, these guys weren't
really that tough. Like, give mea fucking badass like kuten con,
like, I'm gonna throw someflammable shit on you. I'm gonna
set you on fire. And then I'mgoing to be addicted and do

(13:55):
everything against the way thatyou're supposed to do that. I
want is a straight up badass.
And I think he added so much tothe story nearly game because he
really felt like, you know, atrue 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 gladthat there were a lot of choices
in this game. Because that'sactually one thing that I kind
of hate. Like when games godifferent directions. I know a
lot of people like that. Now, atthe end, if you get choice, I'm
okay with that. And if you hadany game did have, I mean, we
would kind of talk about that.
We will say that again. But likeactually kind of like when a

(14:37):
game just kind of falls ajourney falls one journey. Like
you know, there's a whole bunchof different directions because
that for me becomes too complexbecause I'm like, Well, what
happens if I did this? Whathappens 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 simplelike, Okay, first of all, we had
all these side quests, but theywere side quests based around
characters. And this is anotherthing that I absolutely love
about the game is they built upthe side characters through
these side quests, somethingthat I think was innovative, I
not really seen it hardly atall. And again, now, there's a

(15:17):
game out there does it but Idon't know if too many self, you
take these side characters inthey, there's something to them
and they have a purpose. Insteadof doing like one or two
missions, like you do numerousside quests through them. And
then I think there's a couplerandom side quests thrown in
there. But just not too many,though. Not like the villain,
the villain was awesome. Andthen Jin was awesome. He has

(15:40):
this conflict of like, you'retalking about how he's kind of
going against the honors of thesamurai. And then you have these
side characters and all theirside quests, and we see their
character arc develop, like tobe like, yeah, the stories that
they innovative. But overall,we're talking about gaming, and
we're talking about open worldgames. 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 Igave at the very beginning of
the podcast makes it soundpretty bland. It's pretty
straightforward. But the wayit's told the twists and turns,
we get along the way, thecharacters that we get
developed, and you hit that onthe head, and I absolutely loved
I didn't have this quite in thisorder on my outline, but I think
it's a good time to mention,like you said, Every character

(16:22):
had, like every important sidecharacter, I should say, had
like nine or 10 side questsbuilt around them, where they're
dealing with their own personalstruggles, and their own
personal like something thathappened in their life that they
are dealing with beyond justthis Mongol invasion. And it
really helps you to learn andcare about the side characters.

(16:44):
Plus by having all these sidequests built around, like I
said, eight or 10 of them aroundeach character. It makes the
side quests feel so much moreimportant than Oh, here's a
question mark on the map, kill10 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, buty'all just need to quit when all
these points all over the mapand 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 specificcharacters. And it really added
to the story of the individualcharacters and you got to see
their inner conflicts. They wereall dealing with some pretty
heavy shit to you every singleone of them but you know so
overall, the main story plus allthe little side stories were

(17:31):
done very well they had thetwists and like Like I said,
just gin having to turn intomore like the Mongols and then
coton con like adopts ginstrategy of poison like they
played off each other so well.
Yeah. And they really emphasizelike cotan like trying to learn
about his opponents and tryingto kind of be that manipulative
asshole where he's he's got Lordshimira, the leader of the

(17:54):
Samurai and Jin zankel and he'slike, here's all the crazy shit
that your net that your nephew'sdoing. Yeah, it is against the
samurai way just to piss offLord chmura so like I thought
like coats on like you said hewas a great villain. It just
really added to the story butbefore we talked about story
quite a bit we should probablytalk about like the actual

(18:15):
gameplay of the video game. Butis there anything else on the
story you want to hit on beforewe 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 alsolike the Russo like story like
you know, the straw or whateverhe was like just that little
conflict like they had an issueback in the day like when they
were kids and kind of seeingthat all play out like there was
just I mean, I think as we sayhere and we talk about more and
more like I'm like thing foropen world game that was maybe

(18:45):
not groundbreaking, but that wasa good story. But I mean, we
could talk about the story in anentire podcast and go into
details but that's really notsomething we want to do an open
world game so kind of go aheadand go to the gameplay and for
me the biggest thing about thegameplay I'll talk to you here
when I get done but and here'sthe thing is I'm not a huge
combat guy I said it in thebeginning, but if you make

(19:07):
combat fun in this gamedefinitely did that. Like I came
to love combat and just fine inthis game. And so I'm gonna talk
to you right here can't talkabout 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 headequally viable. You know a lot
of games especially like theAssassin's Creed games or even
cyberpunk right now. You kind ofhave you can do it you can
either go stealth you can orhead 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'skind of maybe built for stealth
or built for the more balls tothe walls combat. I thought
every single encounter exceptfor the ones where you were
maybe forced to sneak or forcedinto a direct conflict like
every single encounter and goesto Shima with Very well
balanced. Yeah, where eitherstrategy works. I mean, because

(20:04):
you can totally be stealthy theweapons you got were great, you
know the cover of the tall grasssmoke bombs like you could clean
out entire forts under stealth.
Or you could literally walk upright to the front door and say,
I'm challenging you. Yeah andlike they would come right out
and meet you which Oh, we'regonna 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 balancebetween the stealth or the balls
to the walls actually, and youknow me we've talked about on
this podcast many times, I amnot very good at stealth. So
more often than not, especiallyas my character got stronger,
you could do the standoffsagainst more enemies like I was
much more the head to head plusto me it's just more fun. I

(20:50):
don't have the patience to sneakaround trying

Hick (20:52):
to take guys out not as crazy as when we started this
podcast you are more of thestealth guy I was more than just
run by swinging and we havetotally changes gamers like
you're sitting here you're likeI don't have the patience for
stealth. I'm like actually likestealth because obviously it's
like you know a strategy thingbut I don't die as much as I
used to because I go about themsmarter

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 andtry to beat 10 people like we
just don't have those skills yetbut i mean they may have already
said it but they may combat funlike you know you had all these
various combat stances you knowLowe's daughter when moon and
also ghosts, which was awesome.
But uh, you know, like, whetheryou find swordsman like, you

(21:39):
know, shillman people withspears or brute like you use
different stances to fight thesedifferent characters in that it
may have been because you can goin and hit like eggs and like,
you know, a turbo button like llike 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. LikeYeah, you hit those you hit
those moves as you change yourstances, but you had to change
your stances throughout thecombat directory, keep the game
fresh throughout and then as yougo along the game, you can
enhance those stances to moreand more so I mean, we talked

(22:18):
about the game like I thinkokay, yeah, the game world which
we'll get to, we will but likethat's probably the most
important thing because the gamejust actually look gorgeous.
Unless you're next gen snob likeI am right now. But the second
most important thing in the gameI would say is the combat it
mainly did it beautifully withlike all these dances and stuff
in one thing that I absolutelylove is like you just had a

(22:40):
sword. Katana is what's calledlike a little dagger. I don't
remember what that one wascalled 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'msorry. It looks like a little
dagger and they knew what Imeant right but exactly like I
said your room mispronounce soand we don't always know every
single thing and we don't meanto offend anybody. We're just
stupid you know, which is whichis a little stupid sometimes. So
ignorance ignorance, but I lovehow I don't like games that have

(23:11):
like a lot of weapons like agreat example that is Assassin's
Creed Odyssey where you just goaround you pick up so many
weapons and yes, disassemble allof them for like, you know,
component parts. And justthere's really no value to it.
Like in this game. Here's why Ilove when games do this is like
okay, you give me a sword and alittle dagger. Now I know the
names are different. But likeyou just give me those two. And

(23:34):
then you give me kits where Ican customize them. Because
customization, as all gamersknow is becoming hugely
important. Because players wantto customize to what they like
if it's just a sword, a bow,whatever. So I love the
simplicity of just having youknow, sword dagger haskovo and a

(23:54):
long bow. There have been a longbow 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 butthen you can customize them. I
thought a little bit too much.
There's a little bit to mecustomization. I mean, he's they
nailed so much when it came tothe 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 inthe combat was, you know, we
mentioned the standoffs.
Probably my favorite part of thecombat you literally walk up to
a fort, you press a button andit calls out like the opponent
and as you progress through thegame, you get to stand off
against more and more opponentsand if you time it right it's

(24:40):
literally one hit kills againstyou can get up to five enemies
right at the very beginning. Youcan eat kill all of them with
one press of the button. Andit's a great way to really like
thin out the herd of youropposition to you take out like
five of them before you evereven set

Hick (24:58):
foot read in a basket.
Fucking Hazel standoff becausethen it got me every single time
and when they get better andbetter and quicker and quicker I
can't tell you how many I don'tthink I want standoff like the
last third of the game likeeither they were too fast or
that fake move every single timeso you can continue with the

(25:23):
standoffs but I was not a fancuz 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 theystarted faking you out with that
initial fake and then later onthey fake two times or three
times and you're sitting therejust holding down the button
because like once they attackyou release the button and you
kill them but yeah, if yourelease early you get hit you
take a shit ton of damage yeahalmost kills you actually. And

(25:50):
so it is very nerve wracking.
But man I just love thatmechanic and then the duels like
throughout the game you had I'mnot even sure how many there was
it's well there were there werea lot more than that there were
like 22 like when we look at thehub

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 didthem unless you cut you're
talking about different dealsbut like I'll let you continue
but though those were a blasttailored Absolutely.

Red (26:21):
Absolutely were and they were usually in like awesome
location Yeah, and just having aone on one sword fight with a
guy or girl that you kind of youlearn their attack pattern. And
you know and once you've youknow, seen their attack pattern
a couple of times it got alittle easy to dodge and deflect
and counter attack especiallyonce you learn some of the more
powerful attacks in the gamethat are kind of unblockable

(26:44):
Yeah, man I love the duels theywere basically like little mini
boss fights and to me bothbetween like the locations that
you fought them and then justthe one on one feel of them I
thought it was just one of myfavorite favorite parts of the
game you know there's a lot moreinto the combat we can get into
you know, you had your like theycall them ghost weapons like you
know, your smoke bombs, you'rethrowing knives, which I think

(27:05):
you're called cuckoo Nye q&a,again, probably butchering that
you know, and I loved havingthose little like, I almost call
them gadgets they're reallyhelpful in combat. You know, you
like you said upgrading yourstances and flipping between the
stances was so easy youliterally 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 justyou flow through your stances so
easily and they just as game didgreat at was not making those
moves complex. Like there's somany games where it's just too
complex, like I only played alittle bit of Asia calamity.
Hyrule Warriors agent grimy, butit was so complicated that it

(27:48):
was crazy. Like this game, likethere was a lot of stances there
was a lot of techniques therewas a lot of different combat
that you could do, but theystill made it simple. So I
absolutely loved that and youcan't talk about the ghost
weapons. Um, how do you use thatmedium? Well the black powder
bomb I used all the time whichis why the other ones but yeah
that could I like you weresaying you weren't really saying

(28:10):
anything you were justmentioning it but I didn't use
it until like later in the gameby usually like once or twice I
think by accident. I was like ohthis is awesome. Yeah, this
thing is great right here so um,those were awesome but um, I
didn't really use the halo bombthat 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 saylike, apologies for butchering
it and then a black powder ballOh my God, I use that all the
time. Like you know in additionto like you know all these
stances in these techniques youhave like it you add in these
ghost weapons that are justlittle tiny things here I

(28:53):
believe they were our one is allthey work but they add a little
bit to the game and they makeyou like you know fight
different kind of ways. Sothere's just when it came to the
combat there was just so muchand then we weren't going to
this too much. But like youknow, the actual techniques like
you know, the skill trees, theabilities and stuff like that,
um, you know, deflection evasioncrap like that.

Red (29:12):
It added some added good light RPG elements to the game.
Yeah, great, like these skilltrees. And you can, you can do
enough to where you can almostupgrade 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 likedhaving that little bit of that
light RPG because it does makeit feel like you're getting
stronger and stronger as thegame goes on. But man on top of
the combat, which as we said,was absolutely amazing, like the
exploration of the island andhere was another area where I
thought this game reallyinnovated the guiding wind, like

(29:48):
using just the way the wind wasblowing, to guide you to
wherever your destination was. Imassively loved that. What did
you think of the guiding windmechanic? First of all,
exploration of being in theworld 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 thosecharts, I thought there was way
too many charts and this getsinto complexity. Like I always
sit there and read thedescriptions of every charm and
try to figure out which one Iwant to fit in my six slots. So
overall, I'm gonna talk a lotabout how much I love this game.
But I hate the charms. Iabsolutely hate it. Yeah, they

(30:34):
were nice. They were kind oflike little arm but common games
ruins I guess is what you'redriving it. But um, anyways, on
the exploration, I'm the guidingwind was probably one of my
favorite things of the game.
Because there's so many gameslike where you put an objective
or a pin or wherever you wantcaught on the map. And then you
just usually follow a trail youcan faster however you do it.
But you usually like go, youdon't explore, like, you usually

(30:57):
just go to that objective likein your strike there. It's like
a straight line. Becauseobviously, the quickest way
somewhere is a straight line,like guiding when like I love
it, because it made you exploreareas that you would not usually
explore if you just had a pin onthe map. And the reason I did
that is because like if you hadto go around the mountain or
something like you know, you hadto get the wind back and go in a

(31:17):
certain direction. So instead oflike keeping you on a path or
something like that, it actuallylike you know, made you go off
the path. Like for more, and youdidn't have to like, you know,
when you're kind of phone thatJacob like I said, a straight
line. This one you can kind ofgo 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 adestination on the map, like the
mini map literally gives you theline. Yes, yeah.

Hick (31:48):
And it's not always the best. Well, that's different
because that's a frickin citymap. 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, asopposed to like looking at the
world to like, that's one thingyou miss out on when you're
staring at that little dottedline that's telling you exactly
where to go. I think Grand TheftAuto was the same way where like
you said, I know those are morecity maps, you're also going 150
miles an hour instead of ahorse, whatever the speed of a
horse is, or even on foot butlike I love that the guiding

(32:18):
wind technique really itsimplifies like your screen your
your user interface, and letsyou look at the beautiful world.
What you know it was for a ps4.
Err, I know and now you're likeyeah, next gen snob, but I was a
massive fan of the guiding windmechanic just in general, but
the other like, explorationthing I really liked and there
weren't that many instances ofit. That was the platforming.

(32:41):
Yeah, like the the there were afew shrines there was like 10 or
12 or so I'm honestly not surehow many scattered across the
island had great platformingsegments. Were you a fan of
those areas as well.

Hick (32:54):
Anything that involves platforming I absolutely love
like 2d platforming, 3dplatforming I'm always a huge
fan of it unless it's toodifficult like many 2d
platformers are but um yeah justlike having these shrines like
you kind of like you platformyou go around the edges you know
you got well you don't climbthis game I keep on getting my
open world games mixed up alittle bit but you know you jump

(33:15):
across ledges and stuff likethat. Yeah, like Yep, I would
say I was there say that it wasvery simple but it was very
difficult once but that made itfun. And then you get to the top
and you just see this beautifulgame world at the top of most of
these shrines. It just looksabsolutely gorgeous which now

(33:36):
brings me to the world andthat's the star of this game and
for me we're gonna go into a lotbut just the colors of this game
that's what initially attractedme to this game. And you know
it's not something like okay thegraphics look good but I think
their use of all these differentcolors and the palettes I think
that's what really made thisgame stand out so I'm not sure

(33:59):
where exactly you want to takeit but overall the game world
like I know you're high on itbut 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 ofBreath of the Wild from the
standpoint that okay it's morerealistic than Brenton the wild
was but he also takes advantageof

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 isstill just a gorgeous gorgeous
world because they use thisreally good style that's like
close to being realistic. Andthen like you said, the color
palette. Yes game the sunrisesand sunsets, you know, the
contrast of the terrain with thesky and you know, the water and

(34:42):
rivers and waterfalls,waterfalls. Anyone who's
listening to us knows we loveour 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 alittle 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 feltlike the regions and you might
disagree the regions kind offelt a little too similar in how
they looked. But I also get thatit 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 myopinion, like, okay, yeah, it is
an island, it would make sense,that's not very big, but you can
make it very different. And Isort of agree with you with
that, because like the first twoparts of the Act, were did Act
One, act two, the first, thefirst two southern parts of the
game, or the back of the world,whatever you want to fucking

(35:42):
call it. Those were verysimilar. And here's where I
think they messed up. And theycould have done better and is
where they start. Because thegame basically went from the
south and to the north, it wentfrom summer until the tool, the
winner, and so on, I think theystarted fall too late in that
second area, like now you had alittle bit of fall with the

(36:04):
golden forest in the original,you know, quote, summer area.
But like you said, those firsttwo areas were very similar,
they should have had falldropped. Now I'm a huge fall
fan, and huge fan. So that'sprobably why I'm saying this.
But to me, like they start thelike false scenery, until you

(36:25):
almost got to the very Northernpart. And I think that's why
those first two areas look sosimilar. But it didn't really
bother me like I know, I thinkyou also have an issue with the
terrain like I can tell youtoday I was riding around a
horse. And there's a lot terrainin that game. There's a lot
elevation, there are numerous,like things that I had to go
round. But just, you know, youcan't talk about water. And the

(36:47):
reason we like waterfall so muchis because water is a beautiful
scenery, and kind of go intothat this game like you know,
they had small legs, but theyalso had these little streams
everywhere. Now a lot of openworld games have that. But just
like the way they broke them offand put them throughout the game
world look absolutely beautiful.
The the water effect, I don'tknow what you want to call, but

(37:10):
water looks different. And everysingle open world game I play
does. Judge a game is like, Whatdoes their water look like in
the water. And that's it. That'show I felt. That's how I judge
gays. But the water lookedabsolutely gorgeous and just
happy. I know, we've alreadytalked about the college man.
But Ronnie bring all thesestreams, these waterfalls, like

(37:32):
you know, these different areaslike even the winter area, like
just and these colors to thegame like that's why and there's
one thing you haven't mentioned,the flowers. That's really what
this game stand out from othergames is because they had a
bunch of these flowers that hadthese different color petals.
And so like I remember, I don'tremember the exact name of this
place. I want to say it's in thesecond area. But there was just

(37:54):
just this huge field of redflowers, right is absolutely
gorgeous. And then when youstart to gang, oh my god, man,
when you start the gang, andyou're going through the woods,
and then you hit on those whiteflowers in the field, and then
it's like, yeah, a sucker punchproduction or they just said
Sucker Punch presents orwhatever it said, right? And

(38:14):
then it goes to Tsushima you'rejust like, Damn, that looks
amazing, man. I didn't know youhad yellow. I mean those flower
callers that's really what madethe 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 theWitcher three map or a cyberpunk
map. Like it's just got so manyof those question marks on it.
There are so much to do and goesto Tsushima has a little bit of
that. But for the most part,they're more like towns or forts
or settlements. And then therewere some places of interest

(38:53):
like you could go to like youhad the hot springs. You had
these pillars of honor theycalled you had you had the
shrines or the platform for likewe mentioned you had Fox? A few
a few too many Fox dens In myopinion, but like I didn't feel
like they overwhelmed the magarywith these question marks like
you see in a modern dayassassin's creed or a modern day

(39:14):
you know like the cyberpunk orsomething like that and each one
of those like points of interestlike the springs the pillars of
honor the shrines they gave yousome kind of reward like if you
do enough hot springs you get aboost to your health if you do
the Shinto shrines gave you acharm 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 youjust felt like you were checking
off question marks like okay gointo this one. Go into this one
go into this like that gets oldin open world games and a lot of
games from a lot of differentcompanies are guilty of that.
But man, I will say the map themap is A huge part of why like I

(40:01):
don't think this game overstayedits welcome just because it
didn't have 10 bazillion frickinlittle question marks. There
were some there were a numberDon'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 funlittle collectibles like that
you could find in camps and intowns like you had like Mongol
artifacts, which gave youdetails 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 bepretty accurate, I would think
to what happens during thosetimes.

Red (40:36):
Yeah. And then you throw in like the records, which was like
correspondence between differentpeople. And it kind of filled in
a little bit of the side storiesand things like that you had the
banners, you could collect that,just like the story was it was
part of preserving the historyof these different clans. So I
liked that we had those littlecollectibles, but they weren't,
they didn't just have a bigquestion mark on the map. You

(40:57):
know, you just found them as youwent through towns and
encampments and everything. Wereout in the world.

Hick (41:03):
They weren't question marks originally, though, that's
at least was going back to thegame today, cuz I still had some
question marks somehow. So theydidn't start out like that. But
what I love that you're notmentioned yet with the bamboo
strikes like that, but thosewere a ton of fun to do, just
kind of like, you know, it feltlike Mortal Kombat. Like you
gotta get to fatality. Right,you know. So, absolutely love

(41:26):
those. And those actuallyincrease your resolve, which you
could use to increase yourhealth. So I absolutely just
love that in red. I remember ifyou remember the last podcast
six weeks ago, but the sun wasshining through this blonde
right to my eyes. And then theshits going on again, man, like
I said, I travel a lot and I amfucking blind. He was nothing I

(41:46):
love was a haikus man. I justfor fun. It's like I mean, open
world games open world gameslike yeah, there's a part where
there are relaxing stuff, butthis game with all the combat
like I mean, for an open worldgame, it was pretty fast paced.
I just love these areas whereyou could just sit down meditate
you can actually select theHaiku that you want to do is it

(42:09):
right peacefulness to the gameand then awesome most of those
views were absolutely amazing.
Is there anything else you wantto 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 especiallyit was I thought was one of the
more beautiful game worlds ofthe last generation I know we're
in next gen now but yeah, youknow it was just it was very fun
to explore without being somassive that you you lost all
sense of where you were like yesmaybe it could have been broken
up a little better withdifferent regions having a

(42:39):
little different features butall 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 throughoutthis entire podcast episode but
there's a couple that I want tomention I think you do too. And
one was kanji dude like we'renot making kanji like that dude
is comedic Lee This came likelike you know just a socket
Okay, first of all is a sockeven or which is absolute like
just a bolt. Okay, guys ship. Itgets like in trouble for like

(43:10):
swindling townspeople and like,just I love the comedy that he
brings to the game. Like hedidn't really have a big part in
the game, but just I felt we hadto mention him. Like we
mentioned most of thecharacters. We're not gonna
really stay on too long. But Iabsolutely love kanji. Is there
any other characters that wedidn'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 Ilike we kind of talked about
with with the story earlier inthe side characters. Like I love
that they all had somethingcomplex going on. Yeah, like
Lady Mexico. She's like tryingto avenge that her family was
slaughtered. It turns out it washer sister who did it. And her
sister was like, jealous andwanted revenge because she got

(43:50):
sold off to like an abusivehusband. Whereas the lady Mexico
got to marry like a samurai andhave a great life. And then
Ishikawa was he's chasing down aformer student who he thinks
betrayed him. And it turns out,she didn't really betray him,
she got captured. And the onlyway to keep herself alive was to
think they essentially like shewas helping to train the

(44:12):
Mongols. She was actually givinglike, quick, easy deaths to
prisoners, and so they wouldn'tget tortured. So she was so I
love that every one of thesecharacters and then Rio, Rio,
Rio, I'm going to get his cruiseI mentioned like he had the
head, the childhood, you know,beef with Jen, but then he
betrays Jin, because he's tryingto feed his his the straw hat,

(44:34):
Ronan? Yeah, I mean, they showthem as this starving group
that's like just barelysurviving. And Rosa wants to get
the bounty. It's if we can feedhis people. So like all these
people, they have these flaws,but they tell great stories and
they are longer drawn out storyarcs. But Kenji was just his
one. You got it all out just

Hick (44:54):
because he did. Norio.
Norio was another character thatreally did like that warrior
model. The monk just like youLike he also had, like, you
know, he had a lot of conflictsgoing on, but he didn't really
exactly but there's somethinghis 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 thatmantle. 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'tput too much into the game, but
did play a part in the game. Butum, as far as characters, I
think it's kind of all we wantto talk about. So let's kind of
go on to the recognition of thegame before we wrap it up. But
here's actually one thing thatkind of shocked me, I thought, I
can't believe this game was soldlike 5 million units. Like, I

(45:37):
thought this game was sold somuch more. Now. I know that it
is a ps4 exclusive. But thisthought 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 Julythe 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 thegap between the user score and
the metal? Yes, are in like thecritic score. And I know we
talked about when we talkedabout the last of us part two,
we talked about how it was theother way, the critical scores
were through the roof and theuser scores were in the
basement. Of course, that wasbecause some butthurt people

(46:16):
were Yeah, that was a wholedebacle. But this game, it seems
like everyone I've talked towho's played this has loved it
more than the ratings. It's gotlike it's sitting in an 83 on
Metacritic, which don't get mewrong, isn't bad. But the user
score is over a nine. It's at anine point yeah, as of today,
I'm like, that divide is kind ofshocking to me. And have you

(46:38):
talked to anyone who's playedthis 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 pointsdifference, you know, in
hypotheticals but like, I justthink it is too low like the
game. It does have someglitches, I said that it wasn't

(47:04):
as polished as it probablyshould be. But now that point
cyberpunk freakin ghost.
Giselle,I know we have our differences
in that game, and we will talkabout it in the next episode.
But yeah, it's a little bit toolow for me, because I've not met
anybody that doesn't like thegame. It's one of my favorite
games that play lately, one ofmy favorite, right, one of my
most favorite open world games.

(47:25):
So like, you know, it's a top 10game for me, I don't know, if I
put in the top five either, youknow, kind of sit there and
think about that, which I'mnever gonna take that take some
thought I just say top five ortop 10 I would say it's
definitely one of my top 10games. Like one of the best
games I've played lately. Sooverall, I was very, very
impressed with the game. Likeyou can say, I know, they had to
release it at certain time. Butmaybe if you want to wait to the

(47:48):
next gen, like, you know, maybeyou could done a little bit
more, but um, you know, Got Gameof the Year nominations from
both the Game Awards, and thenlike, you know, other
publications, so it did gettingready. 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 otherlike, that's not really closing

(48:09):
thoughts that we just did. Butdid 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 anamazing game. I think it
deserves a little better. And Iknow the biggest knock that I
read when I was going back andlooking at critical reviews, but
it's like, you know, it doesn'tinnovate 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 genrenow for for a number of almost a
decade probably I mean, sinceopenworld really became
something that we had thehardware to do and to do well.
So to me like I just thoughtthough, it took so many great
open world concepts and did themall very, very well like it

(48:55):
polished them up like the combatwas very fun. The story was
engaging the side characterswere well developed the
exploration the world were alltop notch and like you put it
all together, and yes, maybe itdidn't reinvent the wheel in any
of those areas. But all in all,it brought them together into
one of the most polishedpackages that I've ever seen.

(49:17):
And that's what I

Hick (49:18):
nominate. I don't even really get my closing thoughts,
because I pretty much just agreewith every single thing. Right
there. So for the wrap up, let'skind of talk about the next
episode. Let's just get back tothe gaming industry next next
episode, because I want to talkwe've been off for six weeks
people there's a lot that I wantto talk about and actually our
last pockets episode. I don'teven know if I got my Xbox

(49:39):
series x by that time, but Ihaven't. If you did. cyberpunk,
we're definitely gonna betalking about cyberpunk and some
other gaming industry stuff onthe next episode, but let's go
ahead and wrap it up. All theselinks will be in the
description. You can support uson Patreon or PayPal. If you
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(50:01):
that kind of helps with SEO andlike when people search for
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(50:22):
shop so we may earn a commissionon purchases through our links
read can talk about our YouTubediscord 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 gottgp z gaming we've got two guys
playing Zelda obviously thatone's more dedicated to just
Zelda tgp z gaming's a littlemore open discord is is one of
our big focuses now weabsolutely love the interaction
we have with other gamers onthere we talk general gaming

(50:51):
PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendobooze TV shows sports like we
talked about a little biteverything so hit us up over on
the discord in a bash peoplethat aren't spammers, apparently
cuz I did that yesterday. A guygot 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 BustedButtons pc for podcasts. So look
for us. Great to get back to ithit yes. been way too long. I'm
glad we were all kind ofrecovered from from COVID from
the holidays. It's good to getback at it. I'm looking forward
to getting back at it. Nextepisode.

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Ghost of Tsushima - Busted Buttons Ep. 39

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Ghost of Tsushima - Busted Buttons Ep. 39