Advancing Poetically

Feminina O'Ladybrain

Dec 22

Minor spoilers for some things in Ghostwire: Tokyo. Also note we will be on break from normal life for the next week, so Happy Holidays and we look forward to playing and talking some more in 2024!

Butch:

I got something, but not much. Moved the story ahead a click, but it was one of those clicks where your reward is "and here's the next thing to do" deals. Did some side quests. Followed a thing, protected another thing, got into a place. As one does.

Where'd y'all get to?

Feminina:

That's about what I did. Also I spent the magatama and skill points to get the 'summon a tengu' ability, which I think we can all agree seems very useful, but then I couldn't figure out how to make it work.

The internet helpfully says "anytime you want to get up high, look for buildings with a flat edge to them, aim using the L2, and press X to grapple up and be on your way," so I guess I just wasn't looking at the right kind of buildings. Or aiming correctly. But I'm going to be on top of ALL the roofs from now on!

At least the ones that have a flat edge to them.

Loothound:

It wasn't my night to play, so I didn't make any advancements in the story. I was thinking about all of the Japanese culture stuff we get exposed to in the game, and the way it gets handled. Like the food, for example. We get codex entries and explanations of every bit of food that we run into, and other than the spirit foods it's all ordinary modern Japanese food. Also, when you buy food in the store there are foods with exactly the same game effects that can be very different in price. Like I always buy the canned mackerel because it seems like the best value, but there are foods with the exact same stats that cost almost twice as much. Also, the cats at the stalls that sell just one kind of food. Those foods aren't that much better than what you can buy in the regular store, yet there's a whole location just for that one thing and it's on the map.

I'm not really sure what my theory is here yet, but I'm definitely circling around the game designers having a specific way they wanted to handle the "Japaneseness" of the game, for lack of a better term.

Butch:

Yeah, this game is a little vague as to what is climbable (vaultable? You know what I mean) and what isn't. I find myself saying "can I get up there? Maybe?" and being surprised both when I can and when I can't a lot. Flat edges? Don't they all have flat edges?

As for the food and whatnot, at first I thought it was supposed to be funny, or, at least, cheeky. "Hey! We're giving the same level of explanation to a spicy tuna ball as we are to the things trying to kill you! We so silly." Now, I think you're right, that there's some seriousness to it, an earnestness, I guess. You're right, there's no gameplay difference between the rice ball and the yakitori, yet there's the cat with the yakitori stall because you get yakitori at a stall and not at a store. Just incredible attention to detail?

Loothound:

They could have that attention to detail without having some items as stand-alone (as in the only item in the store) purchases. Getting food from the stall vendors is special for some reason. Fallout did something similar with the food you could buy in terms of descriptiveness, but I can't remember if the game mechanics were all more specific. In Fallout it was a great bit of world building—learning more about how they cooked and ate in a post apocalyptic wasteland, and I get a very similar feeling here. However, to a Japanese player that would be a bit redundant since it's such common food, so if they're doing it for world building then it's for the non-Japanese audience because these things would've unfamiliar to them. Yet, as I mentioned the other day, the magic powers, enemies, and a lot of other elements feel familiar to me through anime and manga.

So maybe that's what I'm thinking here. To the vast majority of the world, Japanese culture IS manga and anime, so those elements are familiar or at least what you'd expect of a Japanese game. Yet the environments, food, etc. are all pretty ordinary. They're trying to show their non-Japanese players that Japanese culture is more than what you see in anime and manga? Expand the idea of what it means to be Japanese . Don't know…

Feminina:

I do find the stalls that only sell one item kind of interesting in that they don't seem to serve a very meaningful purpose in terms of game mechanics (given what I can pick up or get from a convenience store, it's hard to imagine being almost dead in the middle of a fight but happening across a yakitori stall that saved the day, or something), but they're everywhere so they must mean something.

I haven't bought anything at any of them, because I generally don't want to buy a particular food item or whatever (I mostly only buy KK's research notes, dog food, and cucumbers), but they do add to the 'street shopping' realism.

"This is a stall where a vendor sells a thing. Buy it or don't."

I wonder if it might also be more useful to have food vendors scattered around everywhere if we were playing on harder difficulty levels. Maybe the ability to quickly stock up on yakitori WOULD become important.

Also, of course, the specific item (or specific type of item) stalls do give us the cats who want to buy things from us—they all specialize, and it's a moderately interesting mechanic to have items to collect that we don't always immediately know where to sell, so maybe having other types of specialized stalls is just part of the overall vibe.

Loothound:

Oh yeah, the difficulty thing. Games do feel a lot different if you're staggering around constantly on the verge of death. Saving money for KKs notes is definitely one of my prime directives where money is concerned. If I detect one of those lucky money cats on ghost radar, it's magpie city baby! I've gotten trapped in weird map geometry more times trying to get to those than anything else.

Feminina:

Those notes are so expensive, and so obviously necessary for me to own. Money cats are worth the detour for sure.

Loothound:

I'm also pretty sure that the game is built with a lot of social media friendliness in mind. I keep playing with the photo mode, and there are soooooo many stickers, frames, emotes, and little tchotchkes that you can be holding for selfies. I think they expect that a lot of players (perhaps of the Japanese persuasion) will be posting parts of the game to their social media or PlayStation Network friends. So maybe that plays a part in this whole food thing?

Feminina:

Ah! True. Maybe people take pictures of themselves at different stalls or something. I'm sure there's a trophy involved.

I find this aspect of the game slightly baffling and am not inclined to pursue it, but I do appreciate this method of encouraging sharing/online activities compared to things like having quests to avenge random other players pop up in AC Valhalla, and CERTAINLY over any kind of forced multiplayer component.

Kids these days! Go ahead and take your selfies! Share with all your friends! I'm sure that's a blast. I'm going to be here trying to get my aged fingers to manage a hand sign to dispel something.

Loothound:

Yeah, forcing multiplayer is the worst. The mechanic they had in Assassin's Creed: Unity (the Paris one) made me want to quit the franchise. I'd be on a mission trying to advance the story, and some bozo is just running around trying to snag Animus glitches causing me to fail the mission. THE WORST! Avenging other players isn't as bad, because it isn't mandatory.

There was a multiplayer mechanic in Diablo that was pretty interesting, even though I never tried it. There were specific areas of the map where you could go PvP if you wanted to, but you had to announce that you were game for the violence. The Division map also had specific PvP areas, but if you went in you were automatically a potential target for other players. I did try that because the loot you could get was SO GOOD, but it was devastating to my self confidence as a game player to see how easily those cold blooded killers could take me out. I would have needed to quit my job and go full-time to compete.

Feminina:

Kids these days! With their nimble hands and lightning-fast reflexes and lack of jobs or responsibilities keeping them from spending all day practicing games.

I mean, I think I wouldn't spend all my time learning to be good at shooters even if I didn't have anything else to do (and liked shooters), because I feel like if it turns into basically a job, is it even fun anymore? But to each their own.

I wonder if the Paris AC would be better now because it's old enough that there aren't as many randos running around? I don't know, I probably won't go back and play it regardless. I've moved on.

Butch:

Mandatory multi-player= game I will never play. I have no problem with multi player modes tacked onto single player games (see Mass Effect, TLOU), but if you MAKE me do it? Fuck no. Too many other games to play to mess around with that nonsense.

What's annoying about the emotes and shit in this game is that, if you want real rewards, you have to get them, which is annoying. Some of those cats it's "fill two orders, get an emote! Fill five, get the thing you really want!" Usually games have whole activities you can do to get cosmetics or something that can be cheerfully ignored if you don't want to do them (see the enigmas in AC Mirage which got you useless talismen). But whatever. I suppose the emotes can be cheerfully ignored (Like I am doing). I did get a trophy for using photo mode, but only because I turned it on by accident during a fight.

As for difficulty, this game is kinda easy, isn't it? I haven't had a single fight yet where I'm all "I. Can't. Fucking. DO THIS!" which is rare for me. I didn't even die once in that boss fight, which is unheard of for me. There seems to be more than enough health just lying around that I've never been so low that I'm all "MUST. FIND. STORE." And I am playing on normal.

It's not so easy it's a total cake walk. I do die and it's nice and tense, but there certainly seems to be a ways to go towards "more difficult," and maybe that's where the stalls and whatnot come in.

I think a lot of kids (looks at his own kids) get good at those games because those games are their social scene (or part of it). You can't hang out with your friends playing Destiny if you suck at Destiny. Or whatever other game there is. Rocket League. Nugget does a lot of Rocket League. If you want to have that social aspect that so many kids have, you gotta know how to play.

Feminina:

Yeah, good point. And hence also all the options for sharing.

"Look everyone, I took this picture with this sticker at this stall!"

"Hey, I was at that stall the other day!"

Kind of validating their communal existence in the game world, and making it a joint project even though it's not a multiplayer game.

I'm sure people are already writing sociology papers on this.

Butch:

I can see that.

Though I'm glad that this game doesn't do what AC does, which is foist other people's pictures onto our maps. How many times in those games are you all "What's that icon?" and it's some picture MonsterBong420 took. Like, OK, nice picture MonsterBong420, but why is it in my game?

Basically, I want people to stay the fuck out of my games.

Loothound:

Dooood, because MonsterBong420 takes KILLER pictures. Did you see that one where he was hanging from Zeus's butt? I literally fell over. <<strange gurgling noises ensue>>>

Feminina:

Literally. Fell. Over.

Butch:

It, in one screenshot, showed true, overarching pathos for all of humankind, as represented by an assassin hanging off of Zeus' ass.

NEW SENTENCE!!!

Loothound:

But, yeah, having other people in games is generally not a pleasing thing for me. That's the biggest reason I never tried Dark Souls (the other one being that it's legendarily hard and frustrating)—I would keep hearing stories about other players just showing up in games and being all up in your shit. Ditto with Fallout '76. I got super mad from just super mutants messing with your settlements. OTHER PLAYERS doing it I would not be able to handle at all.

Butch:

Oh god yes. What do the minecraft players call them? Griefers? Special place in hell for such people.

Dear sweet naked Zeus I am actually planning college trips. Booking them and everything. How the hell did this happen?

Looty, there's this thing I do when I travel. I get swept up in the romance and grandeur of the road and I write bad poetry.

You're gonna love it. It's gonna be great.

Loothound:

Yes, griefers, exactly. The passage of time is to blame for your needing to do college visits. We're getting old. Pathos of man, indeed.

There is no bad poetry if you do it haiku-style:

Lightning god buttocks

Sent hidden death descending

All is permitted

See…