Nostalgia incarnate and all the more beautiful and entertaining for it. I'm a big fan of Skates more realistic approach but there is something stupidly fun about pulling off 20 move combos impossible in the real world. I'm not sure what I'd consider completed on a game like this, usually I go off seeing a credit roll but that hasn't happened so far. I 100% both core games now I'm just doing the speed runs and ranked play before I start exploring some of the other elements. The soundtrack was also a major blast from the past and gave me some intense feels. I only really listened to the songs once or so then just switched to my own playlists.

If you have fond memories of the original series then this is a no brainer. I'm actually sort of curious what people think who have made this their entry point to the series.

My only big complaint is probably replayability since I'm more of a single player but I think the online elements might keep me occupied further once I start dipping in. We shall see.

CRPG's have made a major impact on me recently. I never got to play a lot of these in my formative gaming years because my PC was utter garbage, I could barely run Math Blaster. But now with a lot of games getting remakes or re releases on modern systems, or with great services like GOG, I'm able to go back and play the classics like this one. I personally think I prefer this to the first Baldur's Gate, which seems to be it's closest counterpart. I think the fast pacing of Icewind just caters a little better to my style. It's also nice that the games simply hold up by and large, even compared against modern interpretations like Divinity or Pillars of Eternity these games still play wonderfully and the only major downfall tends to just be in the menu departments. Small issues for me, if you happen to have a Switch I can't recommend the Enhanced Editions of this, Baldur's Gate 1+2 and Planescape Torment. If not then GOG puts all these games on sale for a couple bucks like once a month so keep an eye out, especially if you are an RPG nut like I am.

Been meaning to sit down and write a bit of my feelings toward this game on digital paper. Not sure where to start so let's just dive in.

I'm a big Sucker Punch fan, let's get that out of the way first. I count Infamous among my favorite series and the Sly Cooper franchise is a prime example of technical fun ass refinement. Most can probably guess that GoT leans more into the Infamous engine than the SC, and the more I played the more obvious those tricks became. Don't take that as a fault though, I loved Infamous precisely because it created such a fun sandbox to mess around in. GoT has similar open worlds, activities and quests, though with a bit more detail and perhaps a little less vigor.

I think the main fault that I can level at GoT is simply that the story is a plot I've seen A LOT before. Especially for someone like myself whose main love lies in the realm of films. I've seen every Kurosawa film, I'm a major martial arts/samurai cinema fan in general, and I just have a bit more knowledge of the time period thanks to my college pursuit of history. All these things made the game more like a motif of homages than a mold-breaking adventure, which isn't so much bad, but I feel like I dig it because it reminded me of other, better things, opposed to creating it's own feeling of individuality.

All that said I did find a lot of the side quests, especially ones centering on specific side characters, to be great by and large. Even if the story is somewhat predictable I was glad to have a cast of vagabonds running around.

The high point is easily the gameplay. Running around in Tsushima just playing missions, fighting bandits or exploring was a ton of fun. I could easily sink several hours just working to unfog the map and fucking around with whatever I found along the way. In this sense the gameplay runs like a combination of Infamous inspired skill-point systems and Far Cry 3-5 types of activities. Granted once you've found your 30th Fox Den things might be running a little repetitive but these things are hardly essential and if you want to focus more on combat/plot advancement that's totally a rewarding way to approach it.

The combat itself is refined to a T with an emphasis on parrying or dodging depending on a situation. The games stance system reminds me of the first Nioh though much more essential to success. By the time I was hitting the end game stuff though I was so overpowered it wasn't even a challenge on Hard anymore, I though about bumping to Lethal when they updated it but decided I was too lazy.

I'm excited for the upcoming multiplayer expansion which is the main reason I've held onto my physical copy opposed to selling it off but thats probably why I don't rate it higher, I basically did and saw everything you could on my initial runthrough so my yearn to return to the game in general just isn't there, but i'm hoping the Legends add on (I think thats the name?) will bring me back for some more Samurai action!

Personally I prefer something like Sekiro overall but the general influx of Samurai games recently (and in different genres to boot) has been a welcome style for me since I've been into the history and lore of Samurai for as long as I can remember.

I'm a pretty big Gwent and Witcher fan so Thronebreaker was a no brainer for me, especially when it came on sale for like 10 bucks. I got a lot of hours of play from it though it wasn't without certain frustrations. Perhaps the most egregious was the final battle difficulty spike that I basically had to rearrange the deck I'd been using for a dozen hours to create a cheap exploit in order to win. Up until that point battles had gotten to the point of being ridiculously easy so the game definitely needs to adjust it's settings here. I get that's difficult in a card based battle system but still, resorting to overpowering the final boss with ridiculous abilities is always an annoyance.

Despite that set back though the plot is one of the best I've ever seen for a CCVG, if you dig the Witcher universe, books, TV Show or just love the plot of the games then this one is worth diving into for the story alone.

This is one spin off that could very much use a sequel and I think certain improvements could make it absolutely amazing. Being able to play different decks/armies would be the main advantage, since using the same basic deck most of the game gets a little repetitive when you find a working strategy. Also simply the ability to create multiple decks to swap between would be nice, having to tear down and rebuild is a drag.

Other than that I don't have a ton left to say, Meve is a fascinating main character and I loved a lot of the side characters. Fingers crossed we get a second one of some kind.