The RNG in Ghost of Tsushima Legends reminds me why I hate looters

[Ingel Riday]

It's such a miserable, pointlessly grindy progression system. Not as miserable as some other looter systems? Sure, but the bar is real low in this genre. You can be best-in-class and still be barbarously tedious.

Now don't get me wrong, here. The combat is fun. The level designs are great. The community is surprisingly helpful and friendly. The customization options are robust. The soundtrack and ambiance are top notch. There's plenty to love in this mode and Sucker Punch has a lot to be proud of. I mean that. Also, it was released FREE.

But wow.... I forgot why I stopped playing game modes like this. The sheer mountain of time wasting rubbish heaped up here is astounding.

A. Grind up to 105. Thankfully, Sucker Punch left a clear path of least resistance. The first level can easily be played solo, completed in 12 to 14 minutes each go, and gives 4 gear each time. Just spam this. Fastest leveling method.

B. Great. That was 50+ runs of Severed Hearts (again, path of least resistance to get 4 pieces of gear every 12 to 14 minutes). But... now you're 105 without any best-in-slot items. Grind to get 'em.

C. Awesome, you got 'em. Well, mostly. You gave up on one legendary and settled for a purple instead. Good enough. Lost count of how many Severed Hearts runs it took? Don't worry. Everyone does. But now you need 2,500 honor to get all five of your hand-picked items up to 110 via reforging, and you only get 50 or so honor per run (25 for doing the run, 25 from scrapping stuff).

D. Hey, you made it to 110 for every gear piece? Cool, but all their perks suck. That's RNG fun for you. RNG to even get the item in the first place, and then RNG for the perks on the item itself (don't worry, it gets worse). Better reforge them some more until you have an attribute you want and at least one perk you want. You can change the second perk later. Costs 110 honor to reforge each time, which is 2.5 runs per reforge. Suffer.

D.1 - Ah, you got a perk you wanted... but it's 5.4% out of a possible 10%. Hahaha!!!! Screw you. We have RNGs ON TOP OF OTHER RNGs ON TOP OF OTHER RNGs, SON!!! Back to grinding mats for reforges.

E. You finally did it. All your gear is 110 with a decent attribute and one decent perk at a good enough % to be acceptable. Time to grind honor for changing the second perk. Remember, you still have a RNG between you and your desired second perk, and a second RNG that might render said second perk too low %-wise to be worth it. 55 honor per perk reset. Good luck.

F. Well, that sucked. A lot. But hey, all your perks are good and you finally don't have to feel like groups are carrying you... except they are, because you're not 120 and don't have second attributes on any gear.

G. Time to bind the gear to yourself and do a bunch of tedious, time-consuming mastery challenges. 5 for each piece of gear, each challenge boosting your gear piece up 2 levels. I hope you like Severed Hearts. Also, I hope you weren't planning to switch any piece out, because each is now a major commitment. Swapping something out now would add hours upon hours of more grinding to endure.

H. You made it. All that gear is 120. But... you need to get second attributes on them. Time to grind up a bunch of cursed gear, equip them, and complete tedious tasks to "purify them." A purified gear piece gives you a purity token, which you can use to add second attributes to gear.

What? Oh no, you don't get to pick which second attribute you get. What are you thinking? This is another RNG. You love those, right? Good luck. If you don't get Hidden Blade on your kunai, you'll have to grind until you get another cursed "ghost weapon slot 1" item, complete its tedious quest to get ANOTHER purity token, and then try again. And again. And again. Because your time is meaningless to us.

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This whole system feels hateful and miserable. It feels designed by Corporate to suck time and boost engagement figures, probably because it was.

I don't know why Legends doesn't just have the same kind of upgrade system seen in Ghost of Tsushima - Base Game. Pick the items you want to use, upgrade them via moderately generous materials doled out in even intervals, and modify them with static runes that don't make you RNG to find out if they add 5% or 10%.

Well... actually I do know why. Looters cram in RNGs to drag out the gearing up process and create grind, which improves engagement figures and looks good to shareholders. :-/

Grumble grumble grumble. I've had fun doing the Legends story and the community is genuinely pretty awesome, but I don't have much more of this in me. I'm planning to get a few more gear levels, see the raid, and peace out. Just... oi.

I wish I didn't care about being carried. I hate inconveniencing three other people because I don't want to be inconvenienced by finely-crafted tedium.

TLDR: I ranted and complained about all the RNG systems in Legends. It's a great mode, but jeez... I detest looters. There is no good reason for this amount of madness.

[Ingel Riday]

Oh, just for fun here... I have yet to get a Samurai Charm on my samurai. I'm now rank 34. Just hasn't happened. I have a 105 utility charm, sitting in my charm slot, as I grind over and over for the one I actually want.

When I get it, I'll have to reforge it to 110. That'll be a lot of honor farming. If I'm lucky, it'll have one perk I want and blessed strikes... but I know it won't. I'll have to reforge it, over and over and over, until it does have blessed strikes and one good perk.

Then I'll have to re-roll the second perk, over and over, until it is the one I want for my build.

Then I'll have to do 5 mastery challenges to boost it to 120, at which point I can roll the dice on my second slot. Did I get super-armor? No? Better grind until the RNG loot gives me another cursed charm to purify, then do the tedious purification task, and then roll the dice again. Super-armor? No? GREAT. Time to do it again.

I don't know how the hardcore fans of this mode endure all this. It's just awful. They're nice people, too. I just don't understand their pain thresholds.

[W.R. Winter]

never started Legends and I felt sick after reading this, thank you

[Dosto]

Hated legend on PS because its garbage grind system, didn't even bother with it on PC.

[ᑕYᗷEᖇᑕᗩT]

Thank god I’ll be keeping to the single player mode for this game

[GAMING_Alligator]

Thanks OP. My curiosity about Legends mode is now cured.

I'll be avoiding this like the plague!

[Ingel Riday]

Originally posted by GAMING_Alligator:

Thanks OP. My curiosity about Legends mode is now cured.

I'll be avoiding this like the plague!

Aw, I didn't mean to scare people away! I just wanted to grumble somewhere after bashing my head against too many RNGs. :-P

Honestly, if you just focus on the 9 story missions, it's not so bad. The bronze starting difficulty is designed around the idea that you are in starting gear (which you will be when you start), and each mission is actually pretty fun. They're all completely doable solo, so if you just want to take your time and run them at your own pace, you can.

Also, they all have a fun central gimmick. In effect, the narrator / storyteller is telling tall tales using the Ghost's actual exploits as foundations. For example, your defense of Hiyoshi Springs with the old bow-master Ishikawa against Tomoe's mongols is now you helping the cursed spirit of Uchitsune to thwart oni forces led by the demon Iyo. And since it's a tall tale, you get all sorts of supernatural elements and bizarre imagery.

It works pretty well and, if you just run through them once and treat them like a new campaign, I think you'll have an awesome time. Just try to avoid getting pulled into the gear treadmill afterwards, because it gets increasingly punishing and tedious for no real benefit to either the player or the overall experience.

Edit addition: also, I like that the narrator is a tad unreliable. He occasionally makes silly admissions or self-deprecating jokes that come across as playfully charming.

[Seductive Goblin]

You can play it solo? When I tried it told me I needed another person? I want to do an achievement run so if I can do online solo that'll be neat.

[Ingel Riday]

Originally posted by Seductive Goblin:

You can play it solo? When I tried it told me I needed another person? I want to do an achievement run so if I can do online solo that'll be neat.

I think you have to do Rivals against other people, and the raid is designed around having a few extra souls... but story mode and survival missions can be done solo. You just turn matchmaking to "off." Then it doesn't try to pair you with anyone and loads you in by yourself.

I beat the 9 story missions solo and have done most of my gear grinding solo as well, mainly because I don't want to trouble anyone else with it. :-P