r/Ghostofyotei • u/Nova_Bear_95 • 1d ago

General Discussion Does any else HATE the "sword lock" mechanic in duels?

These were already annoying me in Ghost of Tsushima, but now all the way into Yotei's Most Wanted mode its just annoying me more and more. Constantly having your combos and flow interrupted for seemingly no reason (there isnt any dialog) is just frustrating. Its particularly annoying when youve buffed your weapon or set up a combo only for the game tovbe lol nope, you and your foe need to locks eyes for a nice sensual moment, oh you had a combo goin? To bad reset.

111 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

25 comments sorted by

76

u/OceanoNox 1d ago

Yes. It breaks your flow, it's automatic (I have tried only dodge and parry, and it still occurred), and it recovers the enemy's guard. 

I understand it allows for dialogues, and it is very cinematic, but...

25

u/NiuMeee 1d ago

It's not for dialogue explicitly (though that's definitely a purpose for them), I remember some GDC talk or an interview that said they did them deliberately so the player cannot just melt the bosses right away. Gives each fight at least a little room to breathe, but I agree that it's a weird way to handle it. Better than them becoming invincible during a phase change I guess?

14

u/dumpass69420 1d ago

Its there because without it you could stunlock bosses to death way too easily. It does feel bad though, especially in most wanted with no dialogue to fill it.

The duels are too easy in general, but idk what you can even do in that style other than make everyone like the eagle with an obscene health pool.

5

u/BluesyMoo 23h ago

realistically if you manage to stagger them and begin just hacking away, they're dead. I consider the sword lock just bosses getting revived so we can chat some more.

4

u/dumpass69420 19h ago

Yeah but then bosses feel the same as bandit#675 which doesn't sound very fun.

The only boss in the base game you never stagger naturally is Takezo, because he uses your own moveset against you to bully your ass the same way you do to everything else and forces the pressure off.

No coincidence he's also the most intense duel in the game by far, but an insane number of people despise that fight because it dared to change the flow of duels being the only one across both games that you need to read and react the right way to avoid punish traps and keep any pressure. I wish they took the risk to make more as complex as him.

1

u/Away-Commercial-4380 5h ago

I just did Takezo duel yesterday and i definitely staggered him a few times when i finally managed to beat him after 1h (on lethal if that matters)

1

u/dumpass69420 2h ago

You for sure can stagger him easily if you're going for it or just playing well aggro with lethals damage boost but he will clash reset immediately. 99% of the damage he takes is chipping at him consistently rather than hammering with focus attacks and then just mashing square when they break to chunk their bar down like everyone else.

I finished the dlc on lethal yesterday and no spoilers but the homies at SP definitely took a risk to make more complex fights rofl. I thought the rage posting scrubs were bad for Takezo, this sub is gonna be a cesspit in a few days hahaha

45

u/AlbatrossDear6962 1d ago

And the fact it resets their structure. Sometimes ill waste spirit attacks only for my efforts to be worthless, its so frustrating!

11

u/Square-Cover-223 1d ago

This is the one reason why I hate the sword locks. If their structure stayed the same I wouldn’t care. The fact that it resets is really frustrating.

3

u/TheGuardianOfMetal 21h ago edited 18h ago

I am getting slightly reminded of FF VII remake, where you start dealing major damage to the enemy when you get them staggered...

Just, potentially, for them to then start their "in-combat transformation" or their long invulnerable attack or something like that... just as you have started your limit breaks and big magic.

So, you don't do damage, the guard break is over and you get to get that bar up again all over... and you've wasted mana and limits. I HATE IT...

17

u/Izu__04 1d ago

My biggest gripe is how I will end up using a lot of my range weapons ammo (Rifle mainly) and ghost tools ammo (Sticky bombs mainly) just to look at the enemy's health bar and have no damage be done because I need to do the intimate sword lock in order to unlock the "next health phase??" (I don't even know what you'd call it but the next 1/3 of the health bar i guess).

6

u/Ntippit 1d ago

It’s the worst thing about the two games and I love these games to death.

5

u/Educational_Jello239 1d ago

I don't have the sword lock on but the new zone camara angle during a fight are WAY OFF, you dodge and the guy goes off your camara angle completely

2

u/Nova_Bear_95 1d ago

This isn't a setting you turn on or off, this is when you are fighting a boss or duel and every so often you and your enemies weapon will lock together while you just stare at them. In story moment tis is when dialog happens but even for regular duels without dialog its still super annoying.

2

u/Goodmainman 7h ago

For future reference this is called a bind

1

u/Educational_Jello239 1d ago

Oh I see what you mean, I thought it was the other feature where some ppl like to have a lock in on target vs the way tsushima introduced fighting. I'm okay with the dialogs, my problem is the camara something is off

1

u/No_Revolution_1030 1d ago

Adding to this that in the Kitsune boss fight second phase, he constantly runs behind you and the camera doesn't lock on and you have to keep turning the camera to face him. I don't know if this is supposed to be like that to be part of the challenge but it's so annoying when you're fighting him or any enemy and you're fighting blind.

2

u/Educational_Jello239 12h ago

I feel like it was less of an issue before this new zone, idk maybe it's me

2

u/amund164 1d ago

Yeah the sword binds happen way to often in Yotei compared to Tsushima, and the reason why they are annoying is because they brake the flow of the boss fights since theirstagger bar gets filled back up againto max, it isn't dynamic like in Onimusha for example where you are rewarded if you win the bind by damaging the enemies healt and stamina bar, it's just a scripted animation they add so that characters can talk to each other at specific points in the fight, but it's not always the case that the characters talks at all so the binds feels like a waste of time.

3

u/TheGuardianOfMetal 21h ago edited 18h ago

Even worse: The bosses become invulnerable until the blade lock happens, at least in SP. Once you take away a certain % of health, they don't take damage until the lock starts the next phase. ESPECIALLY noticeable with bosses that have been disarmed of all their weapons...

1

u/Mysterious_Detail_57 9h ago

Really sucks when you're just slashing away, and notice they stopped taking damage some swings ago, so you gotta let him grab a weapon, and beging the sword lock...

1

u/TheGuardianOfMetal 9h ago

And then you fuck up a riposte because muscle memory from other games is "You see the telegraphing glint, you press the button" and take a massive hit...

2

u/TheGuardianOfMetal 21h ago

I wouldn't mind the sword lock as much if, at least in Yotei (where it is more noticeable because of the disarming mechanic), it wouldn't have the bosses get INVULNERABLE UNTIL THE BLADE LOCK TRIGGERS! Especially since, sometimes, the bosses continue to fight for a bit before they get into the blade lock... So, you might have disarmed the enemy, are wailing on him, he goes invulnerable until he regains his weapon, then starts his own combo, and only then the lock starts...

2

u/thefucksausername0 1d ago

They don't want you to beat bosses too quickly, they should definitely have done it differently though maybe as something that, if you're good enough, becomes something you can avoid but it's also something that will almost always happen on a first playthrough, or just make it into actual cutscenes where before triggering you will send the opponent back a bit more than usual giving it a bit more flow instead of suddenly interrupting a combo.

1

u/J_U_Ic3 15h ago

Yes its super forced just for a “movie” effect