The game looks fantastic but I have a big concern.

So the series going from Tsushima (an island) to Yotei (a volcano in Hokkaido) makes sense because the least the concentration of civilization the more freedom to tell stories about characters like the Ghost or the Onryo BUT because of these same conditions these zones can look very similar even if there is a skip of more than 300 years in the shared timeline of both games. They acknowledged that one of the main "complains" with Tsushima was how empty the map feels when you aren't admiring how beautiful it is and while factors like the age and the location influence in how the map is presented, the main factor still is the core concept of the game being presented as an old Samurai movie, sadly I don't think that will be enough for the masses (or the media lol). I think there is a lot to be seen specially when it comes to Yotei itself but I really hope for Sucker's work to don't be ignored just because the chance of the map not showing any significant change is big.

Iterative sequels taking forever to develop makes me appreciate FF7 Rebirth even more. The scale, quality, and content of Rebirth are unbelievable for something that took just over 3 years to make. Still bummed out that it didn't sell better :(

I skipped Ghost of Tsushima, but I might get this depending on reviews, thoughts on combat and exploration in particular.

Yeah, I've loved SP ever since InFamous as well. I've never played their Sly games, but will probably get around to it some time. I do wish their games were all available on PS4/ PS5 onwards. One day I guess.

Yeah, looks fantastic. Can't wait! And I think I might need to track down that dualsense...

I dunno, I'm not sure this will be too much of an issue. I actually think the idea of using the camp system to bring people to you to buy stuff will work towards mitigating emptiness. Now the map is literally just to just enjoy travel, as opposed a means to finding stuff to do.

I do think, however, we still need to see what dynamic nature the world becomes. If it's just like Tsushim athat might be dissappointing: hopefully there's a lot of very randomised stuff that appears. 

Nonetheless, Tsushima and Days Gone were 2 open worlds I enjoyed, and partly because the maps feel vast (in addition to other things).

Glad I called the weapons replacing stances. I think this is logical follow-up to Tsushima since I doubt the devs would've had time to come up with multiple stances per weapon in such a short time-frame. I can see this evolve with a 3rd game where the stance and weapon systems are properly combined.

The fact you can lose your weapon has me concerned. I'm not a fan of systems like this, but with so many weapons that can be equipped, it's probably a non-issue.

The history visiting parts at her home seem like a nice way to get to know Atsu more. But I wonder what effect hey fundamentally have outside of just extra info for players.

One thing that is clear is how Yotei is expanding upon the Iki Island DLC, notably with the expanded activities, the clue system, and enemies changing weapons/ stances mid-combat.
These are all great updates and I look forward to seeing how they are implemented in the actual game.

Bounty hunts are a nice addition, and I am curious just how difficult it will be to come by money. It seems like the bounty mode is designed to help the player in that aspect. Atsu also having her bounty increase is cool, but they don't really expand on what that means in the game: will NPC dialogue reflect these changes? Are we able to be randomly challenged/ skirmished by others hunting you?

Camps and being able to purchase stuff from them is such a fantastic idea. Just a really great way to not waste the players time having to find someone to buy stuff from. I think it might even reduce fast travelling. But that said, I wish night time sequences were as dark as the cinematics. maybe there are degrees of darkness. I'm not wanting Dragons Dogma style, but something a little blacker that can make some nights feel more dangerous.

Character custimization looks really cool. Love it.

The added modes are nice to have from day 1. They're basically what Tsushima had (with a couple more) but still nice. A ltitle weird to focus on them though. The Watanabe lofi mode sounds fun, but not sure it really works. The mode needs other differences besides the music.


OTHER:

No mention of MP. Clearly not happening at launch as expected.
Even though they talk about Stealth, it doesn't seem like it's been touched. I hope AI is at least improved in this sense.

Otherwise, I think everything is looking good. I most likely will not get it this year though.

Yotei looks great as expected. Eager to try out all the new features. I wonder which ones I'll favor. Still really hoping for a Blue Eye Samurai outfit.

I'm fairly sure Yotei will be similar to Tsushima in most ways, so my imputs from Tsushima may apply here.

- Combat was really fun, the game had an stance system where each would work best against a particular enemy style/weapon, you could change stances mid combo and chain a lot of stuff together if many different kinds of enemies were engaging you at the same time.

Yotei changed the stances for different weapons, they apparently serve the very same purpose that stances did on Tsushima, as showed in the SoP, so now instead of switching between stances you will be changind weapons mid combo, so I imagine each weapon is now a more flashed out style than stances where before, specially because one of the weapons is mid ranged (sickle and chain) and they showed it helps both stealth and on combat by disarming enemies before you reach you.

- Exploration was also really fun, we did had a decently empty world, and it seems to be the same here, in the sense that you'll be walking/running on horse/climbing, a decent bunch of the time, even as there is a lot to be done in the game, but the emptiness between points of interest serve the purpose of art expression and exploration itself, for example, the game has a system of small animais, like birds, and the wind, that will guide you toward something hidden or important, it's subtle, and you can choose when to "ask for the wind" to be more present, I don't know how you will feel about it, but I felt the world was alive because of that and the empitness was there to serve this purpose, pretty much like Shadow of the Colossus. On the rewards for exploring, it was amazing. Items, vistas, stories, point of rest/reflection, training and really cool special fights.

Ghost of Tsushima was not the best game on the PS4, but it was the game I liked playing the most during last gen, it feels like it was directly aimed at meeting my interests all the time.

Absolutely loving everything about GoY!

More weapons and move sets, a card system mechanic building further on exploration, a wolf companion with the wolf pack menu system, camps and bounties, with top of the line visual and audio presentation, stealth and enemy AI is really my only concern. I can even see myself switching to the Watanabe Mode fairly often lol.

I think how much freedom we have in tackling the main story is what is going to push or keep this below a 90+ critically. 

I wonder how the online mode is going to be handled for Yotei.

I'm honestly kind of leaning into Legends being more of a standalone product this time around. But I feel like GoY launching with a Legends Mode will likely lead to higher review scores, and increases the first week/month of sales potential.

As someone who never quite dug into the first I'm a bit underwhelmed that it looks so similar without very little generational leap, but I'm sure established fans will be more appreciative of the evolution and having the franchise back

If they're gonna sustain it in the long run, sure makes sense to do.

But if it's just going to be similar in scope to the original, then hopefully they just release it as an add on.

I wonder if we'll see Sony synergy and have a Demon Slayer colab.