Objectives and mission structure is frustrating

[Darren Evans]

I'm level 33 and have a level 35 mission showing for Naoe saying to "Find clues about the Kakushiba ikki". Great I think, something to do other than tracking down all these freaking gang members that infest the Objectives screen. I get there only to find an enemy called the "The Clifftop Yamabushi" who has a skull for a level (lvl 40) and one-shots me if I take a hit. What kind of BS is this?

It's bad enough that in addition to tracking down all the members of the Shinbakufu gang (I have two left), there's also all these other gang members to track down. This is repetitive and monotonous copy & paste mission design at its lazy worst.

I also have a non-gang related objective in The League circle of objectives to visit Junjiro, but that too is level 35. Why the hell are the more interesting story missions out-levelling me and forcing me to do all this repetitive gang member targeting side-quest stuff in order to level up? Objectives variety is really bad in this game and is a mark of minimum-viable-effort game content creation. I would not be surprised if it was all generative-AI slop that's created the quest design structure in this game.

[Weltall8000]

I am in the upper 40s now, and I have to say, the experience levels in this game feel stupid and pointless. They could just abolish them and level ups are purely just a spurce of Mastery/perk point acquisition.

[ZemX]

The Yamabushi imposters are an unrelated quest that unfortunately gets in the way of other quests sometimes. I got jumped by a level 40 Yamabushi in Omi when I was like 25 just meditating with Naoe. Totally random.

Whoever distributed the Yamabushi guys on the map did so without telling anyone else or looking to see what players would be doing in that area on other quests.

The specific one you're talking about isn't involved in any way with the Naoe quest regarding the assassins, but they just stupidly dropped him right there at the end of the trail for no apparent reason.

MOST of the game does adhere to the general level range of each province. There are just a few exceptions like this that they didn't catch, it seems.

[katzenkrimis]

Never had an unbalanced levelling issue in this game.

At the start there was a wandering target that I couldn't kill. After that, never had a problem again.

My character is now in the fifties with two provinces left to explore.

If anything, it felt like I was levelling too fast for the enemies. Nothing has been able to compete with the Kusarigama. That weapon owns the game.

You want to fight four Guardians and a boatload of other troops at the same time?

No problem.

[longjohn119]

Originally posted by Darren Evans:

I'm level 33 and have a level 35 mission showing for Naoe saying to "Find clues about the Kakushiba ikki". Great I think, something to do other than tracking down all these freaking gang members that infest the Objectives screen. I get there only to find an enemy called the "The Clifftop Yamabushi" who has a skull for a level (lvl 40) and one-shots me if I take a hit. What kind of BS is this?

It's bad enough that in addition to tracking down all the members of the Shinbakufu gang (I have two left), there's also all these other gang members to track down. This is repetitive and monotonous copy & paste mission design at its lazy worst.

I also have a non-gang related objective in The League circle of objectives to visit Junjiro, but that too is level 35. Why the hell are the more interesting story missions out-levelling me and forcing me to do all this repetitive gang member targeting side-quest stuff in order to level up? Objectives variety is really bad in this game and is a mark of minimum-viable-effort game content creation. I would not be surprised if it was all generative-AI slop that's created the quest design structure in this game.

Part of the problem is you haven't been paying close enough attention to the information the game gives you. The Kakushiba Ikki are the Assassins and it's asking you to look for one of their hideouts. There are no enemies to worry about so it doesn't really matter if you are a couple of points lower than recommended. Also those are part of the main story for Naoe not one of the side quests

[ZemX]

Originally posted by longjohn119:

Part of the problem is you haven't been paying close enough attention to the information the game gives you. The Kakushiba Ikki are the Assassins and it's asking you to look for one of their hideouts. There are no enemies to worry about so it doesn't really matter if you are a couple of points lower than recommended.

Not quite right. As noted, there is a over-level Yamabushi imposter placed right at the end of one of the Assassin trails you are told to traverse for Naoe's quest. He is literally sitting in the Assassin camp you need to examine and will attack you on sight. He's not part of Naoe's quest but he IS in the way. I don't think it's possible to examine the camp without aggroing him.

[Darren Evans]

Originally posted by ZemX:

The Yamabushi imposters are an unrelated quest that unfortunately gets in the way of other quests sometimes. I got jumped by a level 40 Yamabushi in Omi when I was like 25 just meditating with Naoe. Totally random.

Whoever distributed the Yamabushi guys on the map did so without telling anyone else or looking to see what players would be doing in that area on other quests.

The specific one you're talking about isn't involved in any way with the Naoe quest regarding the assassins, but they just stupidly dropped him right there at the end of the trail for no apparent reason.

MOST of the game does adhere to the general level range of each province. There are just a few exceptions like this that they didn't catch, it seems.

I got around this by simply sneaking around the guy and clicking on the quest items near him and then legging it. I'll go back later to finish him off when I'm at an appropriate level.

[Darren Evans]

Originally posted by longjohn119:

Originally posted by Darren Evans:

I'm level 33 and have a level 35 mission showing for Naoe saying to "Find clues about the Kakushiba ikki". Great I think, something to do other than tracking down all these freaking gang members that infest the Objectives screen. I get there only to find an enemy called the "The Clifftop Yamabushi" who has a skull for a level (lvl 40) and one-shots me if I take a hit. What kind of BS is this?

It's bad enough that in addition to tracking down all the members of the Shinbakufu gang (I have two left), there's also all these other gang members to track down. This is repetitive and monotonous copy & paste mission design at its lazy worst.

I also have a non-gang related objective in The League circle of objectives to visit Junjiro, but that too is level 35. Why the hell are the more interesting story missions out-levelling me and forcing me to do all this repetitive gang member targeting side-quest stuff in order to level up? Objectives variety is really bad in this game and is a mark of minimum-viable-effort game content creation. I would not be surprised if it was all generative-AI slop that's created the quest design structure in this game.

Part of the problem is you haven't been paying close enough attention to the information the game gives you. The Kakushiba Ikki are the Assassins and it's asking you to look for one of their hideouts. There are no enemies to worry about so it doesn't really matter if you are a couple of points lower than recommended. Also those are part of the main story for Naoe not one of the side quests

I'm at the actual spot for the Kakushiba ikki quest and the problem is so is so is that Yamabushi guy. He's standing right next to the Kakushiba Ikki quest chest and also the Assassins Creed sign I can interact with. A level 40 target from a completely different questline should not be in the exact same spot as a level 35 quest location.

[ZemX]

Originally posted by Darren Evans:

I got around this by simply sneaking around the guy and clicking on the quest items near him and then legging it. I'll go back later to finish him off when I'm at an appropriate level.

Yeah, I figured it was possible but it's bad placement since he's at the end of a trail parkour run thing meaning it's very likely anyone who doesn't already know he's there will run straight into him and might not even check his level before he one-shots them. This is what happened to me with Pond Yamabushi in Omi. "Oh cool... I'm being surprise attacked while meditating! That's different! Okay, I'll just square up on him and... oh... I'm dead. Wtf? Oh, he's fifteen levels higher than me... in Omi? Again, wtf?"

Just bad design. You don't even encounter the guy who gives this quest until you're in Yamato near the end of the game and they put one of the targets involved in a level 18 zone to ambush you while meditating? Who thought this was a good idea?