• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Ghost of Tsushima DLC Iki island expansion conformed size 1/3 of the main game - creative director interview

Bartski

Gold Member


Push Square: Straight into it, how big is the Iki Island expansion?

Nate Fox, Creative Director:
If you're familiar with Ghost of Tsushima, Iki Island is the size of, really, the first act of the main game, Izuhara. It's a big, dense story with a lot of landscape and secrets to discover.

Can we expect Iki Island to have the same kind of open world map density as Izuhara from the main game?

NF:
So, it's very similar to Ghost of Tsushima, where we strove to get this just-right feeling of, you know, exploration and discovery, of moments of quiet and moments of violent tension from swordplay. So when we got that dialled in for Ghost of Tsushima, we used that same overall feeling of peaks and valleys for Iki Island.

Does Iki Island utilise the same gameplay mechanics as the main game? Following the wind — all that kind of stuff? Is it building on Ghost of Tsushima?

NF:
Iki Island is absolutely building on top of Ghost of Tsushima, but does add in a raft of new things as well. You know, new skills for the player to discover, new armour — of course new stories — and that's what drives a lot of the feeling of growth and newness when you play through the Iki Island experience.

How difficult is the expansion? You can travel to Iki Island from as early as Act 2 in the main game, right?

NF:
Right, that is a terrific question. So, the Iki Island expansion is available once the player gets into Act 2. However, we really wanted to also embrace our players who had faithfully played through all of Ghost of Tsushima and wanted to have this experience.

So the Iki Island expansion will kind of jump up in difficulty for those players who have really explored breadth and width of Tsushima Island.

Does that mean we can expect more complex enemy encounters?

NF:
It's a more difficult combat experience that will require you to use all of your weapons and skills, really at their highest level.

Are there any new mythic tales on Iki Island that you can tell us about, or is all of that a secret?

NF:
Yes, there are. And it is a secret.

But that's part of the fun of discovery!

Are there any new weapon types or additional gameplay mechanics in the expansion? Or is it, again, just kind of building on what's already there in the main game?

NF:
We're absolutely building on what's already there. There are no new weapons or stances in this upgrade, but there are a good number of new armours, and in particular, skills that you can find that really change the way that you play the game.

We wanted to lean in on this idea that player expression, particularly through combat, is one of the things that makes the game very much your own. So whether you're a ranged player, a sneaky player, or just a straight-up 'let's fight sword-to-sword' player, we wanted to give you more to dig into.

So can we expect new enemy types as well?

NF:
Yes, absolutely.

more in the link
 

Kupfer

Member
The best part of the game are the 1 vs 1 duels. The fight against Kojiro took me hours and countless tries, but it never felt unfair. I would like to see optional, REALLY hard duels.
However, the game had the same problem as horizon, even on the hardest difficulty level you were just OP in the end. I hope Iki Island still a challenge.
 
Last edited:

Kokoloko85

Member
Pretty good. Id rather they put resources and time, so we can get it quicker and better. But Ill be getting the upgrade for sure,
Im still sad about my horse… :( I want revenge in the sequel
 

Javthusiast

Banned
christian bale GIF by Maudit
 
I know the original island wasn't the biggest map in terms of landmass compared to other games but I often found myself surprised by how little of the map I'd actually covered as I was playing the game. This sounds just about perfect to me, it should easily be worth the asking price if it's as good as the main game.
 

JoeBudden

Member
The best part of the game are the 1 vs 1 duels. The fight against Kojiro took me hours and countless tries, but it never felt unfair. I would like to see optional, REALLY hard duels.
However, the game had the same problem as horizon, even on the hardest difficulty level you were just OP in the end. I hope Iki Island still a challenge.

You do get OP in Ghost, but I think that's mainly due to mastering the mechanics by the end of the game.

In Horizon, however, Rockbreakers and Thunderjaws will still be challenging regardless of being maxed out. The corrupted Rockbreakers up north in the map are very difficult to fight. If you play on Ultra Hard, every battle becomes challenging and resource exhausting (really recommend this mode since its really fun). I really disagree in Ghost being comparable to Horizon in terms of difficulty.
 
Last edited:

Freeman76

Member
This game had an amazing setting, amazing artwork, amazing style, but 45 mins into every session I was like hmmmm I gotta do the same thing again? Dunno if I can bothe....zzzzzzzzzzzzz
 
Not having a new stance or weapon is a little lame. Almost every answer to the questions basically just said that it's more of the same. Nioh 2 managed to put in 3 weapons of extra DLC with a ton of unique skills, and Nioh had a lot of weapon variety from the start. This seems far inferior to Nioh's DLC.

I'd like to be proven wrong and see that the new skills really impact gameplay that much, but I'm skeptical at this time. I intend to get it eventually after a discount, and enjoyed the main game. I don't expect people are going to be completely blown away by this DLC though. We'll see; I'd be happy to be wrong.
 
Last edited:

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman


Ghost of Tsushima is one of those rare games that rely on execution over innovation, but don’t suffer from that decision at all, due to its handful of thoughtful twists to the formula that make it feel much more like a step forward than it otherwise would have.

The outstanding gameplay, deep combat, and magnetizing story make it’s few rough edges virtually invisible, so while an open-world samurai story might not quite be for everyone, clearly, Ghost of Tsushima is still one hell of a game.
 

TheAssist

Member
Crazy how we've come full circle again. Releasing big expansion packs to games do actually work :O

The publisher wins, the devs win and the fans win. Its a non predatory way of making more money and adding value to the original game at once. I wish more games would do this again. But in a time of GAAS this is probably not very likely for 3. party pubs.
 
I'm about to karate chop yo ass
Hahaha hey if you wanna walk around fighting the same 6 enemies yelling the same things over and over again with the 1 fight style that is disguised as 4 fight styles that are really all the same with all the same combos but you have to arbitrarily switch based on the enemy's weapon...enjoy yourself...
 

Markio128

Member
Hahaha hey if you wanna walk around fighting the same 6 enemies yelling the same things over and over again with the 1 fight style that is disguised as 4 fight styles that are really all the same with all the same combos but you have to arbitrarily switch based on the enemy's weapon...enjoy yourself...
You can belittle any game like that. Throw me a game and try me.
 

Shmunter

Member
How does an owner of PS4 game update to PS5 without being charged for dlc also? Oh they can’t? You want to charge them for dlc even if they don’t want it right now? Go F yourself with a broomstick!
 

Hobbygaming

has been asked to post in 'Grounded' mode.
Hahaha hey if you wanna walk around fighting the same 6 enemies yelling the same things over and over again with the 1 fight style that is disguised as 4 fight styles that are really all the same with all the same combos but you have to arbitrarily switch based on the enemy's weapon...enjoy yourself...
This isn't true, the different styles have different combos
 
Top Bottom