New Player: Question

[Omen UK]

I purchased Ghost Of Tsushima yesterday and have played roughly about 2-3 hours so far. I am playing on the easy level but still dying, three times so far and just got to the first person you need to recruit, is this normal for new comers?

I mean I am still enjoying this a lot, it looks so good, it is fun to play and I really like the story (Japanese with English subs), so am going to keep playing just was curious as to whether early struggles are normal.

[DonPolloEspañol]

Use parry, block the hits, cause u is unlimited.

[xipi]

ah yeah, on the beginning i was getting rekt but i started on hard difficulty, it takes some time to get how the animations attacks work, after you get used the regular mobs are fairly stupid

[forward_observer]

You are not alone. Because I had been gaming for years, I started my first campaign on normal and died so many times, I had to lower the difficulty to easy. I did better but was still getting my butt kicked more than my ego could stand.

I finally realized that my main issue was with the fact that this game was designed for a console and a console controller. Usually a mouse and key board are quite adequate for most ports such as an FPS because most weapons only have to be aimed and fired. However, one is going to be using a sword for a lot of the fighting in this game which needs more commands using such keys as left control or left Alt in combination with V key for special sword move. Personally, I can't get my left little finger to go any lower than the shift key.

Consequently, i started experimenting with remapping the key/mouse commands. I wanted my mouse to be my sword arm so I moved block/parry to the mouse four button. I also moved dodge to my mouse 3/wheel button. Of course this required assigning other buttons to what those mouse buttons formerly controlled but after some experimentation and practice to establish muscle memory, my sword fighting improved drastically.

If you don't have a mouse with extra buttons, I would suggest getting one. They are petty cheap nowadays.

Here is a thread on this forum where some new key layouts are discussed. I also found some on Reddit but ultimately I had to come up with my own. Everybody is different.

Link:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/2215430/discussions/0/7093810350790478597/


P.S.
Also, I would avoid recruiting Lady Masako first because she gets you involved in several gang fights on her first two missions. If you don't have throwing knives or semi-advanced sword techniques you are going to struggle. I would suggest recruiting the archery Sensei first which is easier and gets one a half bow to boot.
Most missions can be played in any order with out screwing things up.

Cheers

[Alexoferith]

Hi, there... Forward_observer has put up some great points. However, you have not mentioned about whether you use a controller or Keyboard n mouse. Not your fault. I mean all these games are primarily written for consoles then "transcribed" over to PC port. There is always foundamental issue with the mapping for the keyboard & mouse. It is always one of the last or rather if it works, leave it. No more time will be spent to work on a "smooth", comfortable mapping. I am a keyboard n mouse PC gamer since the 80s. Although it is slightly awkward using the L-Alt for dodging while using the WSAD for directional control, I got used to it and I can get by in Ghost of Tsushima.
The fact that you pointed out that you died many times at easy difficult, I think that it is most likely due to a reaction of what to press next when you are so immersed in the game. My first advice is to tap on the block button. Do Not Hold it. In this game, you cannot locked onto your target. So, after you make a dodge move, most of the time, you will end up NOT facing your opponent. And because of that, your block / parry command will be ignored. But this game has a strange game mechanics (to me anyway), which is that you can effectively parry an incoming attack even if you are not facing the attacker. But you still have to tap on the block (parry) button at the right time. But this is where it will become frustrating. The combat mechanics behave different when in a duel situation, i.e. one against one. If you are not facing your opponent, most of your defence move will be "ignored". You will have to get out of that situation fast.
I personally don't recommend playing in easy difficulty as it does not make you learn quickly. But then again, if you want to experience the story without too much pressure from combat, by all means, stay in easy mode. In any case, if you complete the game in easy mode, go straight to Hard or Lethal +. The game is totally different as you really have to plan your move in your approach to a fight. You cannot rely on luck or hope.
Not sure if you have played the game; Sekiro, never die twice. A lot of players think the two are similar. I have spent over 3,600 hrs in Sekiro, I can honestly say, as far as the combat mechanics, the two are totally different games!!! The key to success in Sekiro is perfect parry whereas in Ghost of Tsushima, you have armours, stances, charms with which you can build a powerful, efficient build. In Sekiro, you can't. You have to, as they say, "gitgud". I spent at least 4, nearly 6 months to get my success rate in executing perfect parry from 0 to 60%!!! But in Ghost, the timing is totally different but fixed. Once you learn it, you are there. In Sekiro, the Dev. used lots of tricks to vary the timing for executing perfect parry for different enemies. But then both games, going down the wire, it's the challenge they offer. The challenges are different but both are worth it.
A final advice, once you get all the armours, charms, go into New game plus playing at higher difficulty. And finally, play at lethal + from scratch. You may find yourself playing in a complete different game. Good luck and have fun :)

[Padds]

its definitely a lot harder at the start

[fanboy]

parry/dodge is a bit hard if you haven't been familiar with enemies' animation. Each type of enemy requires a different timing to parry/dodge, and it's even harder to get perfect parry/dodge (the timing window for perfect parry/dodge is about 2/10 of enemy' attack animation, in hard difficulty it becomes 1/10).
Btw you should enable "incoming arrows notification" to dodge before archers (whom you can't see) shoot you.

[Omen UK]

Thank you all for your feedback. I am using a controller to play because, and as a couple of people have mentioned, it was made for console.

Not had time to play much since posting but have recruited my first member (the master archer), and am kind of getting used to it, i think what I really need to do is slow down a little and actually learn to use the dodge/parry etc rather than treating it like I would other (less nuanced) games . I do like this a lot though as it makes you have to think whether to attack, take a step back draw them to you, or take a spot, and use your bow to pick them off.

[forward_observer]

Sorry, that I went on so long about the keyboard and mouse. I should have asked but I tend to forget that many gamers prefer a controller--even for PC ports.

[Omen UK]

Originally posted by forward_observer:

Sorry, that I went on so long about the keyboard and mouse. I should have asked but I tend to forget that many game rs prefer a controller--even for PC ports.

Oh no you're good, to be honest had it been a PC game ported to console I'd have tried playing it with keyboard/mouse first. Trying to rely less on using a controller as it's often a lot more satisfying to play it with the keyboard/mouse.

[Alexoferith]

Originally posted by Omen UK:

Originally posted by forward_observer:

Sorry, that I went on so long about the keyboard and mouse. I should have asked but I tend to forget that many game rs prefer a controller--even for PC ports.

Oh no you're good, to be honest had it been a PC game ported to console I'd have tried playing it with keyboard/mouse first. Trying to rely less on using a controller as it's often a lot more satisfying to play it with the keyboard/mouse.

Trust me in saying the following. No PC dev has ever written a sword fighting game with decent, efficient keyboard mapping, well, ever... since the beginning of PC games. Sekiro came close to it due to its deliberate combat system where there is minimal complex keyboard mouse combination move (look at Sifu). And the game wasn't even designed for the PC. It was ported over from Playstation. It is unfortunate that no Dev. wants to sit down and work something out for keyboard n mouse players. But enough for the mourning, the game is great as it is. So, enjoy :)