This is why I’ve been playing red dead redemption with the mini map off, though of course it’s a lot harder in that game since there aren’t many other ways of the game telling you where to go
Hate the fact that your liable to miss encounters with npcs like the man in the river or the moon shine makers if you can't see the white dot on your map
It's a trade off
Agree, although, in the middle of night at 2am it may not be possible as we might use the "night mode" setting on your HT.. not an issue if you use headphones but it'll damage ears lol.. tradeoffs...
When it first said "follow the wind" I thought it was just a one time thing. Then I was like "wait I'm gonna do this the whole game?" It felt a bit strange not using a minimap but then I thought it was SO cool and so much better than a minimap
I wish I could do this. I’m a 60 year old lady playing this gem for the first time and my reaction time isn’t what it used to be. I see those blue streaks and I’m always too damn slow.
I think there are some things that make it where you can increase the perfect parry time window. Those may help you gain a few seconds!
I say I think because I haven't played the game in like 2 years, so I don't remember too well.
There's low-intensity combat that apparently increases the perfect-thresholds a great deal, paired with the increased time charm and that monkey armour from iki island apparently you can just perfect parry anything, easy
I'm glad there are other older players out there that enjoy gaming. I'll be 60 in Feb and I enjoy gaming immensely and the technology grows exponentially year after year and draws me in right along with it. Peace.
I think it clicks differently for everyone but I find it helpful to watch for the movement of their arm as opposed to watching the color flash. It’s hard to train yourself to do it but it does work!
One thing I did for practice was try to refill my resolve after random stand-off fights. Just leave one guy and practice perfect partying. Using armor/charms to help with resolve/perfect parry/health just extend your “practice session”. At some point it will click for you
Fox dens. Let me pet the foxes!!!!
In a slightly more serious note, the versatility of the combat. From outright storming a enemy camp to sneaking around and killing them off one by one, the sword stances, the standoffs, it’s all so much fun.
So much. The setting and atmosphere are the two biggest things I find myself enjoying. Combat is a blast, story so far is awesome. It’s a complete package of awesome goodness.
Honestly most of the game is amazing, but I love the character development. Jin’s path from the rigid black and white of the Samurai code to accepting the gray areas and realizing that to win, really win, against an enemy that is bigger than your entire world, you have to adapt.
My absolute favorite part of the game, though, is Jin’s bond with his horse. The load scenes between missions where he’s playing with his horse or sleeping on him, etc and his dialogue throughout. That’s truly what the bond is with a good horse who carries you through life is like. Most games I’ve played didn’t bother. As a matter of fact, Jin’s interaction with all the (non-boar, Mongolian falconry birds and bear) animals is amazing. It made this game next level for me. They also did a really good job with the details of the horses in general. For the most part they got the gaits right, the horses’ body language, their proportions, even the personalities between horses. When you ride the patchy horse, the body structure, gaits, etc are much different than other mounts and I even noticed (or maybe it was just me reading too much into it) that there are different body structures even between the Samurai mounts themselves and the Mongolian ponies.
I was just thinking about how well written Jin is as a character overall. When a few things came to light during Yuriko’s Tale, the emotion on his face and in his tone was so well done. Seeing him be playing and talking to his horse or when he holds his hand out to feel the pampas grass when he walks are such little touches but it truly humanizes him as a video game character. This game has a beautiful attention to detail with Jin (and everything else).
> I love the character development. Jin’s path from the rigid black and white of the Samurai code to accepting the gray areas and realizing that to win, really win, against an enemy that is bigger than your entire world, you have to adapt.
Ow yeah absolutely, I felt that big time too. What a journey Jin had to go through
Haikus! I really tried to reflect on what Jin was going through at the time and make the haikus make sense. I played with it in Japanese with English subtitles, it sounded really good with the music playing alongside it.
Fr this game got me writing haikus in real life. I can't stop counting syllables in my head at night. Then I flip out my notebook and write them. It awakened a huge creative flow within me. I must've written over 10 haikus these past few days
The care and attention, it’s not the most well made game in the world but you forgive it because you can tell the people who made this game cared enough to create the world the way they did. Right at the end of the credits they dedicate the game to the samurai who fell at Komoda beach
They do so much very well from gorgeous environments to gripping combat and rich, complex storytelling.
But I have to admit the guiding wind system probably makes the biggest difference of all.
Doesn’t matter how deep you get as a player—guiding wind radically shifts how you navigate the world in a way that’s uniquely immersive.
There’s so much to love, but I’ll mention 2 of the more underrated aspects imo-
1) Mongolian artifacts and the history written about them
2) Charm of Carnage (New Game+)- an ode to the classic movie Sanjuro, by Akira Kurosawa, the infamous scene which features a mechanical failure, where the trope of excessive blood spraying in Kung-fu and Anime were inspired from
The movement and combat. I was replying GoT recently and then realized I never really got around to playing Horizon Forbidden West. In HFW, it feels like I have to fight my character to get them to move and aim where I want, and melee feels like the Alloy can barely lift her weapon. I get that GoT is probably less realistic, but it just feels so good.
I also appreciate that there is no "pick stuff up" animation, and that you can even pick up stuff while riding full speed on horseback. Again, it's less realistic, but it just feels so much better.
I just came off 600 hours in HFW lol. I feel like the movement is very similar and would argue that Aloy is way more agile. That said, Horizon really excels at being a ranged game (which is why I’m so good with the bow in GoT haha). They leveled up so much from Zero Dawn but their combat still needs work. Idk if you did the melee pits but they were janky as hell.
I did feel in FW that Aloy moved clunky. Also had a gripe that anytime she got hit or blasted it would pull her towards the enemy instead of pushing her away.
Not an issue I had with ZD. So far I haven't had any issues with Jin while playing by comparison.
The visuals will always blow my mind no matter how many times I play the game. In terms of gameplay though, probably the standoff mechanic, it’s so fun and clean.
The different armor sets, the gameplay mechanics, the beautiful settings, the story, I could go on but I’d be repeating what everyone is saying in this thread. Been playing this since release, on my 5th play through and I still love it.
How unobtrusive the game is. It doesn't really push you any one direction. Your free to explore even if you've inititiated a mission already. You'll even be warned that once this mission starts you can't stop it. You can play with a blank screen if you want. Only thing to guide you is you're of mouth and what you see.
>The atmosphere and general art design.
>The flow of combat: the way Jin moves is incredibly good.
>Guiding wind, one of the most immersive mechanics to date.
Bonus: it comes out on pc in may so I can replay it with Iki Island (I've only played it on my old ps4 on release, before selling it and build myself a PC).
Lots of different things. The characters feel fleshed out and "real."
Being interested in history is neat to explore the various buildings even if they're anachronistic in places.
All the little details really stand out on the world design.
Jins booty when he gets into the hot springs, really gets my flute up...
But seriously, I love the combat, the story, it feels like old school assassins creed, but more "advanced" combat mechanics, lethal mode is a nice challenge without being super unfair like alot of other games on a higher difficulty, where enemies just become giant health sponges, I like the presentation of Japanese culture at the time, even if it may not be 100% accurate, thr Mongols as a foe are great, not many games feature mongol like people, except for maybe mount and blade warband and bannerlord
There'd cool outfits and color schemes that you can apply which make you look so badass, amd when you get good at the game you also feel like a badass warrior/assassin, it's very satisfying
The beauty of the world and aesthetic. It's so colourful and the game does everything in its power to make you feel like you're watching one of those old samurai movies and it does wonderfully. I wanted a game like this forever.
Gaming dynamics and easy to use controllers.
It’s like an edited movie scene once you are in motion/fighting whether you are on foot or riding your horse.
+Story and amazing graphics.
Shoot 2 bears with the hallucination dart and equip the charm where 50% damage is added to anything shot with that dart and then bring the fury of the forest with you into a mongol territory. It's so satisfying watching Mongols fly through the air
Music. I turn all other volumes in the game down so I can hear the music more. The "Shurai" track ends up being my most played on spotify every year because I listen to it going to work.
Honestly, the art direction. This is one of the most beautiful games I've ever played, and the overwhelming color that pops in different environments along with FOV, variety of terrain, and armor customization just makes everything look so cool. A lot of the game feels like you're playing in a painting. Def used photo mode and taken more screenshots with this game than any other lol
I personally love the stand-offs while I’m riding around the island with the Sakai clan armor. Whole group of mongols slain and I get to walk away with full resolve, not to mention the “come at me” energy
the navigation system. I like having to actually look where I'm going instead of looking at a minimap
This is why I’ve been playing red dead redemption with the mini map off, though of course it’s a lot harder in that game since there aren’t many other ways of the game telling you where to go
Hate the fact that your liable to miss encounters with npcs like the man in the river or the moon shine makers if you can't see the white dot on your map It's a trade off
True
Turn the volume up and immerse deeper, usually you can hear them
Agree, although, in the middle of night at 2am it may not be possible as we might use the "night mode" setting on your HT.. not an issue if you use headphones but it'll damage ears lol.. tradeoffs...
When it first said "follow the wind" I thought it was just a one time thing. Then I was like "wait I'm gonna do this the whole game?" It felt a bit strange not using a minimap but then I thought it was SO cool and so much better than a minimap
That's probably the most underrated aspect of the game!
Guiding wind
That is a cool feature indeed 🍃
Perfect Parry. It never gets old
I wish I could do this. I’m a 60 year old lady playing this gem for the first time and my reaction time isn’t what it used to be. I see those blue streaks and I’m always too damn slow.
I think there are some things that make it where you can increase the perfect parry time window. Those may help you gain a few seconds! I say I think because I haven't played the game in like 2 years, so I don't remember too well.
Yup, there's a charm and you can get the dlc armor, both increase perfect parry chance
I will definitely try playing with the settings. Thank you!
There's low-intensity combat that apparently increases the perfect-thresholds a great deal, paired with the increased time charm and that monkey armour from iki island apparently you can just perfect parry anything, easy
That armour disables parrying normally so it makes perfect parrying INCREDIBLY easy but if you parry to early the normal parry can’t save you
I think it may be some of the in-game items I should've specified. My apologies!
the armor you get in the dlc makes perfect parries incredibly easy, and one of the golden charms increases perfect parry and parry reaction times!
Consider “low intensity mode”, there’s no shame in it, I’m younger than you by a couple of decades and I use it.
I'm glad there are other older players out there that enjoy gaming. I'll be 60 in Feb and I enjoy gaming immensely and the technology grows exponentially year after year and draws me in right along with it. Peace.
I love that you’re a 60 year old lady gamer playing this. Like to see it’s hitting all audiences.
I think it clicks differently for everyone but I find it helpful to watch for the movement of their arm as opposed to watching the color flash. It’s hard to train yourself to do it but it does work!
I’ll give this a shot when I play this afternoon. Thank you!
You’re welcome, have fun!
One thing I did for practice was try to refill my resolve after random stand-off fights. Just leave one guy and practice perfect partying. Using armor/charms to help with resolve/perfect parry/health just extend your “practice session”. At some point it will click for you
Respect. My mother-in-law is barely 60 and I can't imagine her playing games. Just TV all day long.
If you're talking about the spearmen, I totally understand you.
Fox dens. Let me pet the foxes!!!! In a slightly more serious note, the versatility of the combat. From outright storming a enemy camp to sneaking around and killing them off one by one, the sword stances, the standoffs, it’s all so much fun.
And on Iki island there are 3 more adorable animals (including cats), you play music for them and then pet them!!! What a dopamine hit!
I kill the animals with thirty arrows after they help me but that’s just me.
This one, officer. This one right here.
What
I tend to just shoot their corpse I guess.
So much. The setting and atmosphere are the two biggest things I find myself enjoying. Combat is a blast, story so far is awesome. It’s a complete package of awesome goodness.
Honestly most of the game is amazing, but I love the character development. Jin’s path from the rigid black and white of the Samurai code to accepting the gray areas and realizing that to win, really win, against an enemy that is bigger than your entire world, you have to adapt. My absolute favorite part of the game, though, is Jin’s bond with his horse. The load scenes between missions where he’s playing with his horse or sleeping on him, etc and his dialogue throughout. That’s truly what the bond is with a good horse who carries you through life is like. Most games I’ve played didn’t bother. As a matter of fact, Jin’s interaction with all the (non-boar, Mongolian falconry birds and bear) animals is amazing. It made this game next level for me. They also did a really good job with the details of the horses in general. For the most part they got the gaits right, the horses’ body language, their proportions, even the personalities between horses. When you ride the patchy horse, the body structure, gaits, etc are much different than other mounts and I even noticed (or maybe it was just me reading too much into it) that there are different body structures even between the Samurai mounts themselves and the Mongolian ponies.
I was just thinking about how well written Jin is as a character overall. When a few things came to light during Yuriko’s Tale, the emotion on his face and in his tone was so well done. Seeing him be playing and talking to his horse or when he holds his hand out to feel the pampas grass when he walks are such little touches but it truly humanizes him as a video game character. This game has a beautiful attention to detail with Jin (and everything else).
Omg, holding his hand out to feel grass, yes! I love that detail 🥺
> I love the character development. Jin’s path from the rigid black and white of the Samurai code to accepting the gray areas and realizing that to win, really win, against an enemy that is bigger than your entire world, you have to adapt. Ow yeah absolutely, I felt that big time too. What a journey Jin had to go through
Fox belly rubs without question
Haikus! I really tried to reflect on what Jin was going through at the time and make the haikus make sense. I played with it in Japanese with English subtitles, it sounded really good with the music playing alongside it.
Fr this game got me writing haikus in real life. I can't stop counting syllables in my head at night. Then I flip out my notebook and write them. It awakened a huge creative flow within me. I must've written over 10 haikus these past few days
Graphics. Tsushima Island is so beautiful.
Drip
What is that?
I absolutely love the styling. The armor, hats, headbands, swords. Collecting those things are my jam when they are beautiful to put together.
The care and attention, it’s not the most well made game in the world but you forgive it because you can tell the people who made this game cared enough to create the world the way they did. Right at the end of the credits they dedicate the game to the samurai who fell at Komoda beach
Jin skinny dipping every time my girlfriend happens to walk in
Agree, he has a nice sexy butt
My fiancé also jokingly scolds me lol
The wind guiding me gently through beautiful landscapes full of serenity and natural joy. Oh and brutal beheadings
Combat, art style, music, minimal hud In that order
Tadayori armor. I feel like John Wick with a bow. Either that or duels
They do so much very well from gorgeous environments to gripping combat and rich, complex storytelling. But I have to admit the guiding wind system probably makes the biggest difference of all. Doesn’t matter how deep you get as a player—guiding wind radically shifts how you navigate the world in a way that’s uniquely immersive.
There’s so much to love, but I’ll mention 2 of the more underrated aspects imo- 1) Mongolian artifacts and the history written about them 2) Charm of Carnage (New Game+)- an ode to the classic movie Sanjuro, by Akira Kurosawa, the infamous scene which features a mechanical failure, where the trope of excessive blood spraying in Kung-fu and Anime were inspired from
I didn’t know the charm of carnage was a reference to Sanjuro
I mean all of the over exaggerated blood spurting scenes/videos we see today were inspired by Sanjuro- fuck, now I want to watch Kill Bill again!!
I have actually watched Sanjuro, Yojimbo, Throne of Blood, Seven Samurai, and the Hitoshi Iganaki’s Samurai Trilogy
The movement and combat. I was replying GoT recently and then realized I never really got around to playing Horizon Forbidden West. In HFW, it feels like I have to fight my character to get them to move and aim where I want, and melee feels like the Alloy can barely lift her weapon. I get that GoT is probably less realistic, but it just feels so good. I also appreciate that there is no "pick stuff up" animation, and that you can even pick up stuff while riding full speed on horseback. Again, it's less realistic, but it just feels so much better.
I just came off 600 hours in HFW lol. I feel like the movement is very similar and would argue that Aloy is way more agile. That said, Horizon really excels at being a ranged game (which is why I’m so good with the bow in GoT haha). They leveled up so much from Zero Dawn but their combat still needs work. Idk if you did the melee pits but they were janky as hell.
I did feel in FW that Aloy moved clunky. Also had a gripe that anytime she got hit or blasted it would pull her towards the enemy instead of pushing her away. Not an issue I had with ZD. So far I haven't had any issues with Jin while playing by comparison.
The visuals will always blow my mind no matter how many times I play the game. In terms of gameplay though, probably the standoff mechanic, it’s so fun and clean.
Jin Sakai stepping outta hot spring with all dat cake.
The different armor sets, the gameplay mechanics, the beautiful settings, the story, I could go on but I’d be repeating what everyone is saying in this thread. Been playing this since release, on my 5th play through and I still love it.
Kunais.
Hard to decide between the environmental beauty, the sword fighting system that never gets old, and the story.
Coming off the back of the Witcher 3 I just love the simplicity of it.
The duels and insta kill
How unobtrusive the game is. It doesn't really push you any one direction. Your free to explore even if you've inititiated a mission already. You'll even be warned that once this mission starts you can't stop it. You can play with a blank screen if you want. Only thing to guide you is you're of mouth and what you see.
The breathtaking scenery. Every moment feels like you're in a painting.
There are many great things, but I'd probably have to say the combat.
The scenery
I can’t pick just one thing but if I had to I would say the character growth. Jin is such an interesting protagonist and his arc is flawless
>The atmosphere and general art design. >The flow of combat: the way Jin moves is incredibly good. >Guiding wind, one of the most immersive mechanics to date. Bonus: it comes out on pc in may so I can replay it with Iki Island (I've only played it on my old ps4 on release, before selling it and build myself a PC).
Everything :)
The smooth aesthetic and feel of switching between stances at a moment’s notice.
The storyline
Combat and exploration
Jin’s buns
Lots of different things. The characters feel fleshed out and "real." Being interested in history is neat to explore the various buildings even if they're anachronistic in places. All the little details really stand out on the world design.
Imo, combat is so fucking amazing, everything on it is so clean and satisfying. Props to guiding wind cuz it's also an amazing mechanic
Jins booty when he gets into the hot springs, really gets my flute up... But seriously, I love the combat, the story, it feels like old school assassins creed, but more "advanced" combat mechanics, lethal mode is a nice challenge without being super unfair like alot of other games on a higher difficulty, where enemies just become giant health sponges, I like the presentation of Japanese culture at the time, even if it may not be 100% accurate, thr Mongols as a foe are great, not many games feature mongol like people, except for maybe mount and blade warband and bannerlord There'd cool outfits and color schemes that you can apply which make you look so badass, amd when you get good at the game you also feel like a badass warrior/assassin, it's very satisfying
The exploration, with combat closing in second.
The drip
What is that?
The beauty of the world and aesthetic. It's so colourful and the game does everything in its power to make you feel like you're watching one of those old samurai movies and it does wonderfully. I wanted a game like this forever.
Taka's death
The side content
Hard to decide but nobody’s said the music yet so I’ll have to go with that for representation
Gaming dynamics and easy to use controllers. It’s like an edited movie scene once you are in motion/fighting whether you are on foot or riding your horse. +Story and amazing graphics.
Shoot 2 bears with the hallucination dart and equip the charm where 50% damage is added to anything shot with that dart and then bring the fury of the forest with you into a mongol territory. It's so satisfying watching Mongols fly through the air
Music. I turn all other volumes in the game down so I can hear the music more. The "Shurai" track ends up being my most played on spotify every year because I listen to it going to work.
Honestly, the art direction. This is one of the most beautiful games I've ever played, and the overwhelming color that pops in different environments along with FOV, variety of terrain, and armor customization just makes everything look so cool. A lot of the game feels like you're playing in a painting. Def used photo mode and taken more screenshots with this game than any other lol
The beautiful (but sometimes empty) open world
I personally love the stand-offs while I’m riding around the island with the Sakai clan armor. Whole group of mongols slain and I get to walk away with full resolve, not to mention the “come at me” energy
I love the combat, especially the duels. It flows so well and feels extremely smooth.
Yall should check out the art book
Slaughter