Those eager to start an open-world game may inadvertently ruin their experience in a few ways. They may lock themselves out of content or make things harder for themselves if they don’t find a specific quest that unlocks a key mechanic. There are a myriad of ways to ruin a video game experience, so let’s look at the latest open-world phenomenon, Ghost of Yotei, as an example.
These are some approaches that will make Ghost of Yotei a worse experience. These ideas may enhance the game for some, but they’re not worth pursuing on a first playthrough. If players want to make the game harder for themselves, they can follow these paths. Otherwise, some tips to avoid these scenarios will be provided.
Playing On Lethal
Lethally Killing Your Buzz
There are five preset difficulty modes in Ghost of Yotei: Casual, Easy, Medium, Hard, and Lethal. Also, there is a Custom option if players want to fiddle with the finer points of the game’s ifficulty. Hardcore players who enjoy tougher games, such as Elden Ring and other Soulslikes, may want to start with Lethal. Not only is it the hardest difficulty in the game, but Atsu will die in one hit. That is an extreme difficulty jump to start a game with.
Now, there are advantages to this mode as well, such as authenticity. A samurai would probably die from a single deep slash across the chest, after all. This mode will also allow players to get more accustomed to the counter system. However, Lethal difficulty also negates many of the deeper gameplay aspects of Ghost of Yotei, like using Hot Springs to boost health and various armor sets to grant skills. All of those things are worthless in Lethal mode, and players may risk burnout if they push themselves too hard. That’s why, for a more balanced playthrough, players could start on Medium.
Playing With The Katana Only
There’s So Much More Out There
There are many reasons to replay a game after finishing it once, even without an available New Game+ mode. In Ghost of Yotei, players may think about shaking things up by playing with just their katana on a second playthrough, which would be interesting. A second playthrough is also a good time to experiment with harder difficulties like Lethal. However, in their first playthrough, using only the katana would be a mistake.
One of the biggest upgrades over Ghost of Tsushima is that there are more weapons to equip in Ghost of Yotei. By following the story, players can unlock a spear called a Yari, the ability to use two katanas, a bigger katana called an Odachi, and a sickle and chain combo called a kusarigama. Beyond that, there are also various ranged weapons and tools like bows, kunai, bombs, and more. Players may wish to go through the game as a steadfast samurai loyal only to their katana, but that would ruin the gameplay variety and make combat extremely difficult. This may also prevent players from engaging with the stealth mechanics at Atsu’s disposal.
Exploring For Altars Of Reflection Before Progressing The Story
Leveling Up Too Fast
Players may not realize that there are different weapons in Ghost of Yotei, which is bad for two reasons. Besides not engaging with the new weapons sooner by following the story, they may also inadvertently use too many skill points on things they don’t even want to upgrade. There are places found throughout the world called Altars of Reflection. By finding one, players can get a skill point to use in a variety of skill trees.
They cannot bank skill points, unlike other games, meaning if players are too gung-ho about finding Altars of Reflection in Ghost of Yotei, then they may use up their skill points before the other weapon trees unlock. Taking the time to explore for these hidden locations should be done after acquiring all melee weapons, as there will simply be more skills to choose from.
Riding Your Horse For Everything
Ignoring Fast Travel
Another way players can make Ghost of Yotei more authentic is by sticking with horse travel to get around the map. The player’s horse, which can be chosen during a side quest, will come to their aid whenever whistled for. The horse is fast, especially if players go through the white flower rows seen in certain fields.
Ghost of Yotei is one of the best-looking PS5 games to date, so it’s understandable why someone would want to look at it as much as possible. Ignoring fast travel is a good way to discover things in an open-world game, especially if the Golden Bird option is turned on. However, ignoring fast travel may also lead to burnout, as it will take an incredible amount of patience to travel in-between locations hundreds of times over.
Not Camping
There Are Good Reasons For Down Time
Even on Lethal difficulty, there is no way for Atsu to get hungry or grow tired from not sleeping. There is a new mechanic in the game that lets players camp. They can make camp in most areas of the game, and hitting the option will start a quick mini-game to let players make a fire. This can be skipped, but afterward, players are left with a few choices. They can craft ammo, sleep, grill fish, play their shamisen, and sometimes, an NPC will join them to have a conversation.
While Atsu won’t grow dim without camping, players should still engage with it. Crafting ammo is easy and will help save money, which is called Mon in Ghost of Yotei. Grilling food will give Atsu temporary stat boosts. Sleeping until certain times of day can be good, as exploring in the daylight will make things easier, while moonlight can help frame enemy movement in camps. Completely ignoring the optional camping mechanic would be a mistake on several levels for these reasons and more.