Review of the Director's Editing of Soul of the Horse: Experience a More Complete War Ghost Legend on Next Generation Hosts

Whether in terms of business or reputation, it is not an exaggeration to say that "Soul of the Horse" has achieved success. One year after the original release, Sucker Punch released a director's edited version of "Soul of the Horse". In addition to adapting to the next-generation features of the PS5, the director's edited version also added a new area that was not available in the original version - Yiqi Island. Players will face new enemies, experience new stories, and adventure together with Kenai Ren.

In the process of experiencing these new content additions, I cannot help but compare them with the original version of similar or similar content. In contrast, there are certainly new content that is better done than the original version, but in some aspects, it still lags behind the original version. Some are compromises made due to limited expansion, while others are aesthetic fatigue that naturally arises after experiencing the stunning essence. Now let me come along with you.

*This review is a media pre evaluation based on PS5 version (version number 2.004.000). Due to confidentiality agreement requirements, there is no discussion on the core plot. The director's edited version of "Soul of the Horse" is provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment, and the descriptions and opinions included in the review only represent the subjective opinions of the reviewers. The actual game experience varies from person to person.

**For the convenience of description, the director's edited version of "Soul of the Horse" in this article will be referred to as the "director's edited version", while "Soul of the Horse" will be referred to as the "original version"

***This article only evaluates the relevant content of the tutorial version. If you want to learn more about the gameplay system in the original version, you can read the review of "Soul of the Horse": Warriors are too difficult, let's still be war ghosts

A more complete battle ghost legend

As revealed in previous interviews, once players complete the main storyline of Chapter 1 and advance to the second area of the map of Tsushima Island, they can directly experience the new content of Yiqi Island. Whether you are a newbie who has just finished the first chapter or an old player who has already completed the game, when you open the log menu, you will see a prompt saying "The Story of Yiqi Island is Now Unlocked".

After learning of the news that a Mongolian tribe called the "Eagle Clan" attempted to march from Yiqi Island to Tsushima Island, the protagonist of the story, Jing Jingren, decided to go to Yiqi to investigate. In the game, Yiqi Island has always been resistant to the rule of the samurai class and has always been seen as a lawless land plagued by bandits. Ren's father, Jing Yizheng, was once ordered by Matsutou to suppress the bandits on Yiqi Island. Due to his iron blooded style, he formed a lot of resentment on Yiqi Island, which later led to Yi Zheng's death at the hands of Yiqi bandits, leaving Ren, who was still a young man at the time, with a knot in his heart.

Father died in front of Ren

Therefore, although Yiqi Island is a brand new area for players, it is a place full of memories for Ren. Ren's memory has appeared multiple times in the original main storyline, but each time it was just a fleeting moment without further exploration. Players may even have doubts about the role of this memory in the story. The emergence of Yiqi's new antagonist will force Ren to confront unbearable memories and allow players to further understand this past.

The leader of the "Eagle Clan" stationed on Yiqi Island is skilled in using hallucinogenic drugs to launch psychological attacks on the weaknesses of others. Under the influence of medicine, Ren reveals his childhood shadow to the enemy. In the story, the poisoned Ren often experiences related illusions, and with the addition of five memory locations on the map, players will learn about the past of the Jingjing family in a somewhat fragmented way, ultimately allowing Jingjing Ren to truly unravel this knot and make the character more complete.

Ren is infused with medicine by the "Eagle"

According to the creative director Nate Fox, the main antagonist in the story of One Ki Island, the "Eagle", her addition can make the entire story of "Soul of the Horse" more fulfilling. Overall, I think Fox has achieved what he said. There are not only opponents like Khitan Khan in the Mongol army, but also the psychological attacking "Eagle" is to some extent a more terrifying enemy.

However, if we look at the portrayal of "The Eagle" in the story of Yiqi Island in isolation, her character development is somewhat thin, as if she is just a tool person added to complete the story. This is probably due to space limitations. Excluding all exploration and running, the storyline of Yiqi Island takes about 4-5 hours, and it is not easy to shape a villain with this time.

"Eagle"

Overall, the story of Kenai Ren defeating the "Goshawk" on Yiqi Island is slightly inferior to the original War Ghost Legend, but as a supplementary content, it has a good completion effect on the main storyline.

Swordsmanship cannot save Tsushima Island, nor can it save Yiqi Island

Although the creative director of this game, Nate Fox, once told me that the enemies of Yiqi Island are "dynamic difficulty" and will automatically adjust according to the player's save progress. But from my experience, this adjustment is not very significant.

After starting the new content of Yiqi Island, players will soon encounter new types of enemies added in this guided version. There are priests who can strengthen surrounding Mongolian soldiers through chanting, as well as long halberds like the domineering moves of Hutong Khan in this article. In addition, there are some mixed variants of common enemies in this article that can switch between two different weapons during battles, forcing players to switch postures to deal with them.

The priest is probably like this, but when you get close, he will beat you with a guitar

I specifically used early saves to compare, and the so-called "dynamic difficulty" in the guided version is essentially an automatic adaptation of enemy configuration: the enemy armor and moves seen by the newcomers entering are relatively weak; The enemies that players enter after completing the level are the highest level enemies with full armor, and various red light moves will continuously greet the players.

Although the enemies faced by Mengxin may be relatively weak, the basic strength of certain specific enemies is still there. For Mengxin, who has not yet fully learned the war ghost weapons, it is still difficult to deal with these enemies solely through hardship and swordsmanship. Players who have just completed the first chapter will feel that the difficulty curve suddenly increases when facing enemies on Yiqi Island, especially those who have not specifically explored and collected resources to upgrade equipment and skills.

Therefore, it is recommended that players who do not want to lower the difficulty of the game should first advance to the main storyline on Tsushima Island, explore more to improve their character's abilities, and then go to Yiqi Island.

In fact, there are also reminders in the game , which will be received by both novice and level players

However, for Jinjing Ren, who has already passed the level and is fully equipped with various skills and equipment, the new enemies on Yiqi Island have not actually brought particularly significant challenges. I have already mentioned in the original review that the War Ghost weapon is too strong, and the issue still persists in the guided version.

Indeed, priests can make it harder for surrounding Mongolian soldiers to be killed, and when players try to prioritize killing priests, priests will turn their wands horizontally, becoming as skilled at blocking as long halberds. But these difficult points are actually only effective for players who insist on using swordsmanship to win. As long as you are willing to completely abandon the dignity of a warrior, take turns calling out suffering and explosives, it doesn't matter whether the enemy understands blocking. The same goes for dealing with domineering long halberds and enemies who know how to switch weapons.

Everyone is equal in the face of the explosion

The true requirement for player swordsmanship is still the inability to use ghost weapons in "duels". The newly added duels on Yiqi Island are worth praising, as the dueling targets have much more diverse moves than the duels in this article.

The duel opponents in the main body are mostly ronins, and their moves will be quite similar. On the other hand, there are many bandits in the duel on Yiqi Island, probably with a rough path. Players will encounter some moves that they have never seen before in the main body, and there will be few repetitions, making the fighting much more fresh than the main body.

The stunning drop after stunning

My favorite part of the original version is "Legendary Missions", which allows me to experience a delightful journey while also reaping substantial benefits such as skills or equipment. This is also one of the biggest driving forces for me to explore in the open world of this game.

Yiqi Island has added two legendary missions, and the story is not as legendary as the original version. It is not as mysterious as the original version, and the scenery along the way is not as beautiful as the original version. At first sight, I felt a bit disappointed. But in retrospect, it's probably because the original legendary mission was too stunning, as the saying goes, it's difficult to go from luxury to frugality.

's experience of searching for treasure in the pile of rotten boats is still inferior to that of searching for treasure in the bushes

For small animal enthusiasts, masturbating cats may be the proper way to explore the open world. There are no foxes on Yiqi Island, but instead cats, deer, and monkeys, which correspond to three small animal sanctuaries, just like the Inawa Shrine on Tsushima Island. After arriving at the sanctuary, players need to play a flute playing game by tilting the controller to keep the green dots on the screen at a specified height before they can start playing.

However, the cats, deer, and monkeys on Yiqi Island do not jump and lead players to the sanctuary like foxes. I think the experience is not as vivid as that of Inawa Shrine. But it has to be said that cats are really cute.

In addition, there are archery challenges, new side quests, new Shinto shrines, and a new puzzle gameplay called "Wind Shrine" waiting for everyone to explore on Yiqi Island, where you can get high-performance amulets. In the area of Yiqi Island, which is slightly smaller than a single area of Ma Island, the content density is also relatively good.

I haven't figured out the puzzle of the Wind Shrine yet, so I have to take a photo to prove my visit here

Embrace the next generation comprehensively

In previous interviews, when Fox talked about PS5 features, it was particularly exciting and left a deep impression on me. The PS5 version of the navigation version fully utilizes the features and functions of the next era, and one thing that all players can clearly feel is the loading speed.

In fact, the loading speed of the original version on PS4 is already very fast. Initially, the development team intentionally extended the duration of the loading interface in order to make players see the tips clearly. I had a question in my previous interview that I didn't have time to ask: "PS5 loads so fast, how do you handle the loading interface of the guided version now?" Now I know the answer - there is no loading interface.

Yiqi Island is located to the southeast of Tsushima Island. I tested it and it only takes 4 seconds to teleport from the shrine at the southeast end of Yiqi Island to the northernmost shrine on Tsushima Island. If it is a transmission in the same area, the screen will basically go black.

The area in the lower right corner of Matsushima Island is Yiqi Island

I don't think the next-generation features on the DualSense controller are particularly outstanding in this game. For example, tactile feedback. During the interview, Fox excitedly told me, "You can clearly feel the vibration of the knife being blocked by an enemy shield," but in my actual experience, this is not very obvious.

Due to the fact that the tactile feedback in this game does not only reflect the vibration of the weapon, but also includes the tactile feedback of the character's footsteps on different roads and the howling wind in the environment, which is transmitted from the controller to my hands through tactile feedback, the tactile feedback I feel is mixed. In the fierce battle, I had no time to distinguish what kind of vibration came from weapons and what kind of vibration came from the environment. To say "as if holding a samurai sword in real hands" may still be a bit too much.

It seems difficult to do this tactile feedback well, and what is easier to do may be the effect of the adaptive trigger. The effect of pulling the bow in the guide shear version is quite good. The change in trigger damping fully reflects the entire process from the beginning of pulling the bow to fully pulling it open. However, the newly added claw action on Yiqi Island is not very effective in this regard. The rope goes from loose to tight and then to loose, and the trigger damping does not change significantly, from hard to firm.

Yiqi Island's newly added claw action

There is still room for improvement, but compared to the PS4 version without any next-generation features, the experience of the PS5 version is clearly much better. Of course, you need to buy the PS5 first.

summary

Looking back at the updates since the release of Soul of the Horse, it can be seen that the development team has been listening to players' opinions and adding what they want to the game.

We can gradually obtain actual equipment through updates, including armor sets requested by players who enjoy outfitting, "deadly" difficulty required by players who pursue higher difficulty, and hidden bow and arrow bag functions required by appearance enthusiasts. At first, we complained about the unreasonable button settings, but now we have an optional control plan; Many people complain that the battle has not been locked down, and now with the release of the guided version, it is directly updated for all players.

, my right thumb finally no longer needs to operate light and heavy attacks, dodges, and shots simultaneously

And the new content added in this guided version is what the development team really wants to do. Fox previously stated in an interview that many ideas were generated when creating the original plot, but it is unrealistic to create everything with limited development costs and time. Therefore, the director's edited version truly provides the team with the opportunity to make the story of Kenai Ren more complete and closer to what they think in their hearts, which should be the meaning of the so-called "director's edited version".