Ghost of Tsushima (2020)

Intricate and beautiful tale. Combat is stellar and stealth is fun. Sidequests are captivating, main story is some of the best single player work I've ever seen put to the screen. Voice acting was gorgeous, music soothing when calm and bombastic when chaos is needed. I can't stop thinking of all the love I feel for this one. This is one of those games that define eras.

Negatives were the monotony certain quests devolve into, often repeated go-here-do-that repetition that had me lose interest eventually, but they are not mandatory and I cannot hold too deep a gripe as a result. Open world could be littered with more, but there honestly is enough as is to spend your time on. Also the platforming isn't all that difficult or engaging, mostly just hold forward to win. I find Jin's acrobatics entertaining anyways and the sections don't last all that long. The most you'll spend platforming is for the optional shrines, and having it off to the side like that is just how it should be.

I haven't visited the island of Iki as of yet, but I have no doubts it will expand on the wonderful world Suckerpunch have developed.

Classic

No/very light spoilers.

This game came out of nowhere for me. I'd just wrapped up FF7 Remake, which had rekindled and interest in console gaming, but had a constricted map design that left me wanting an open world to stretch my legs in, and put my partner's PS5 to good use. For better or worse, I compare everything to RDR2, so sought out a game that would head in that direction in terms of its feel and the impact of its protagonist and their story. I saw a lot of folks answer this question by saying, if you love Red Dead, you should play Ghost of Tsushima, so I did.

And I LOVE this game!

It is very, very pretty. The historic island of Tsushima, which sits between Kyushu and the Korean peninsula is romantically depicted with generous attention to the landscape (not to scale and with several liberties taken with geography). Japan's autumn is depicted, with golden ginkgo trees towering over pagodas. Rolling fields terminate in sheer cliffs. The same fields, which are lush in the day, become grey blue at night, dotted with lamps and the subtle movements of distant enemies. Temples, caves, abandoned villages, derelict ships, ancient shrines and secrets hidden behind waterfalls are scattered all throughout. Every corner has something to see. My favorite locale is the bamboo stands. They are at their best after a storm, when the soft light beams through in places. You will want to take a lot of screenshots. The photo tool is excellent. If you check out the subreddit, folks post screenshots all the time, and some are exceptional.

The combat is outstanding, and is the best I have played. The game demands you master timing and rewards perfection. Pulling a perfect parry, then immediately delivering a killing blow is very satisfying. The standoff system is a blast, and I used it every chance I got. The art of iaido is reflected very well in the gameplay. The bow(s) is equally useful, and I found myself walking in to camps meeting no resistance many times, as I'd already picked everyone off at a distance with the long bow. The thump in the controller when you land a headshot, and the tension on the trigger are satisfying. The many duels in the game, included in main and side tales, are a highlight and some are very challenging, even on normal difficulty. Stealth warrants its own discussion. It is a necessary component and the role it plays increases as the story progresses. If stealth is a turn off for you, keep this in mind. It can be minimized, but you are asked to be sneaky quite a bit.

Each play style has its own highly customizable armor set, with many color ways to collect for each, including from the Iki Island DLC. Seek out the black dye merchant to look super slick in every situation.

Horse mechanics are simple and solid. No feeding or grooming (I wish), and plenty of saddles to collect.

This game is about war, and it is accordingly very dark. There is little respite from this within the story, so be ready for an emotionally taxing experience. Thankfully, there are many opportunities to unwind, take it the beautiful setting, and recenter the mind. Follow foxes to their shrines and reward them with a pat. Write haiku. Contemplate in an onsen. Collect dozens of swords. Clamber up Shinto shrines for powerful weapon buffs and lovely views. Remember to bow graciously to anything that looks important, because it probably is, and sometimes you'll be rewarded.

Side characters are all tragic, but also perseverant, capable and helpful. I felt compelled to help all of them weather the war and upheaval. I especially loved Masako, Norio, Taka and Kenji.

Jin Sakai may not be the most emotive man in Japan. He is after all a very serious samurai, who is contending with some significant trauma. But in quiet moments where he is allowed to contemplate his surroundings and muse on the past and - for the purpose of haiku - the immediate present, his thoughtful and gentle character shines through. His humor is subtle and cutting. He respects everyone he meets but selects his friends carefully, rarely becoming close to anyone. He is a warrior of unmatched skill and ferocity, but takes time to ponder a waterfall or pet a fox. I've seen some commentary that he is a boring lead, but I disagree. He's the picture of a samurai.

Ghost of Yotei cannot come quickly enough!

Note: I do not want to draw meaningful comparisons to RDR2, because in terms of gameplay mechanics, story and stuff to do, they are not complementary. RDR2 is more about living within the setting, while GoT is more directly narrative driven, with fewer pursuits outside the main story other than exploration and collecting. That said, the peaceful feeling of the setting and atmosphere that softly winds through the otherwise emotionally involved story is something both games leave me craving.

As the title says, I wanted to play this game for a long time. I'm almost exclusively a PC gamer. I have a Switch but the Joycons fail at an increasingly alarming rate and I think I'll just hold out for Switch 2 to replace the console. So I tend to play a lot of pixel or comparatively LoFi games. Graphics-heavy AAA games are a relative rarity in my library and I'm usually quite happy to let it stay that way. Since RDR2 came to PC fairly quickly after release, this title was one of the few that really made me wish I had a PS4 or XBox One.

In the end I enjoyed a lot of it but less than I was hoping to. The missions got very repetitive after a while. Almost 99% of them are just A) go to location marker, B) fight Mongols. RDR2, for example, seemed to have a much greater variety of types of missions, including ones where you didn't necessarily have to kill anyone (dinosaur bones, attending the theater, navigating Guarma come to mind). Still, GoT's combat was pretty cool with it's varieties of attacks and moves that could be made. And all of those rehashed fights came in between cut scenes that played out a well-told story that has an ending as moving as RDR2's ending. The final boss is an especially well-done scene that is slowly built up to for almost the entire game.

I played the Steam release PC version and I saw that there were lots of complaints of bugs. I didn't encounter any bugs worth remembering. The game worked quite well on my Deck and Steam Cloud worked perfectly so I could switch to my laptop when I preferred graphics over playing in bed.

While this won't make my all time favorite list, I'm really happy Playstation decided to port it to PC. Of course, I bought a refurbished PS4 last month.

Ghost of Tsushima was not a game that caught me by surprise. I had a feeling it would be good from day one. I played a bit of it when it first came out but stopped because I just wasn't good enough at the game—until last night when I finally beat it.

The gameplay is phenomenal. The combat is diverse and almost forces you to use different stances. You can use only one stance, but that would make the game significantly harder. I would say that the combat is the game's main driving force, with some other systems sprinkled on top. Some of my favorites are the ranged and stealth options. I loved using the smoke bomb when I was surrounded, as it allowed me to assassinate targets with ease.

The game looks beautiful. The foliage and the sky, along with all the particles flying around when moving, just add to the game's beauty. I don't typically use photo mode in games that have it as an option, but I ended up using it. Almost everywhere you look could make for a great screensaver.

While playing, I didn't encounter any bugs or crashes.

The story is actually nothing amazing, but it is good and made the combat more satisfying. The reputation system really made you want to go and do every little thing to try and terrify your enemies and spread your legend. There was nothing sweeter than having enemies run from you as you cut down their allies. I wish that we had more time with some characters in the story because I felt very unsatisfied with the ending, even if I understood it. I also wish that we had more cutscenes of the Khan throughout the story.

Overall, I give this game a 4.5.

Beautiful game Amazing combat Good story, made me want more than what we got Great side stories and special quests Loved every boss fight—it really made you feel like every fight was special Weather effects are fantastic

In general systems theory, "synergy" refers to the quality of the components of a system to interact in such a way that the result is more than the sum of its parts. For a system to be "synergistic" requires that its output is only obtainable via the added value of its internal interactions, and that this result would be impossible to obtain by its individual parts on their own, even if they are performing at their peak.

Ghost of Tsushima is a formidable synergistic monstrosity. I wish I had more fucking stars for the rating. This game requires eight freaking stars.

You can trace the gameplay mechanics of GoT (Ghost of Tsushima, the only "GoT" that matters) to a bunch of other games that have popularized those mechanics: The massive exploration and the beautifully-designed open world with minimum HUD (Shadow of the Colossus), the Stealth mechanics (anything from Metal Gear onwards, including my beloved Tenchu), the one-on-one third person melee fights (Mainly Onimusha comes to mind, obviously), the progressive discovery of the map via conquering enemy bases (a whole bunch of games do that, but it is a really popular feature of the Far Cry series and GTA San Andreas). Hell, its art and story inspired by Akira Kurosawa movies. All parts of these games thar are really popular and that I, personally, have been obsessed about at different points in my life.

It sounds like a lot, it tries to do everything. It should not work, but It does, it works perfectly, is a whole lot more that the sum of those parts.

I can write and write and write about all the cool stuff in this game, but you know me: I am story driven. Give me a good story and I will stay with your game for hours. Well, I have played GoT for 110 hours now AND I CAN'T WAIT TO START THE NEW GAME+ TO EXPERIENCE IT AGAIN. It is a marvelous story. The tragic historical fiction movie Kurosawa never got to make. Its characters are well defined and sympathetic, the story progresses smoothly and certain parts are just... so fucking good. No spoilers, but the last 2 hours of the main game had me at the literal edge of my seat. It was absolutely wonderful.

I read online that apparently Sucker Punch are bringing GoT to PC, and for all of you lovely PC gamers I tell you: BUY IT, PLAY IT, I WILL PLAY LEGENDS WITH YOU IF YOU WANT, STOP WASTING YOUR HOPES ON BLOODBORNE THIS GAME IN PC IS REAL AND WAY BETTER.

(This was obviously a joke, I haven't played Bloodborne. But for real, play this.)

Ghost of Tsushima is the best game I have played in a long, long time, probably a personal all-time Top 3, defintely Top 5.

Of course every game can't have a happy ending.

This somewhat hit home for me, in terms of family members just not being able to see things your way. I only felt angry for Jin Sakai, which for me is a 10/10. When games can deliver not only world building but also storytelling, this lets a regular audience know, games are not just games. It's art, composed by human emotion, with real life situations.

I'm going to talk about the choice we were given in the final boss fight and why I did it. I chose to spare his life. Not because I have sympathy for Jin's uncle/Father Figure, but because he would've been HAPPY if we gave him an honorable death. That's unfortunately not how it's going to work. He didn't even bother trying to understand the sacrifices Jin Sakai took to take down the Mongolians. An ENTIRE ARMY by himself! How do you expect one man to continue the path of a Samurai without bending the rules? We started small... from freeing villages, to taking down fortresses and then finally the big leader himself. Sure we made some friends along the way but ultimately, we did it by ourselves. I give my all for my country and this is how I am repaid. I'm a traitor, I'm a sociopathic killer, yet the only people I killed were those hurting our inhabitants. Your stupid government wouldn't be alive without me, the world wants Jin Sakai dead but that doesn't matter, the one person who should have been on his side ultimately was Lord Shimura. How are you going to raise me as your son and not accept me for who I've become? To not even TRY to see the struggles and sacrifices I made to save us. They've ordered you to kill me and if you don't come back with my head, you're in deep sh**. If I can't get what I want, you won't either, you can live the rest of your life facing the consequences in my place.

I honestly can't believe the graphical evolution of games, from this:

To this: This game is probably the pretties one I have ever seen. The art direction is simply stunning. It's a mind blowing accomplishment, both in the quality of the graphics and the overall aesthetic. At the same time, a lot of games usually have too much detail, which detracts from the gameplay. In Ghost of Tushima, however, everything is crystal clear. The HUD is minimal, and I absolutely love that you follow the wind to your objectives. Most of the time I just stare at the minimap in games, as I have really bad orientation in games, for some reason. Also, the gameplay elements are beautifully and clearly communicated. It's clear which attacks you can block and which you can't. The melee combat feels very good. It's responsive and visceral and hits feel good. If it doesn't initially feel good for you, wait to unlock stances. You do very little damage to an enemy if you attack him with the wrong stance. I believe it would've made more sense to have the stances unlocked from the start, as they kinda feel like a necessary part of the game and not something extra. The stealth also feels good. Again, the game does a good job at telling you which enemies can see you and how. Stealth feels overpowered and the AI is not very smart at detecting you. Apparently, it's intentional because the developers wanted to the player to resonate with Jin's moral dilemma of choosing the harder, riskier honorable path or the more efficient one, that violates the honorable samurai code. I like games which interweave story and gameplay elements. In FTL, for example, you have to play as a ruthless bastard because otherwise you don't stand a chance against the flagship. Here, however, there is no consequence either way. For me it felt like a disconnect between the story and the gameplay, there is absolutely no consequence for playing one way or the other. Of course, there's nothing wrong with the writers wanting to go a certain route, but it still felt like a disconnect. After a very strong initial impression, however, about 40 hours in, everything started to feel like busywork. I am personally really, really tired with the open world busyworld format. I was staring at the map and I was actually dreading having to do everything. This happens a lot to me in some games, but I am usually motivated by the story to continue. Here, however, the story felt a little generic for me. Serviceable, definitely, but generic. I liked some of the side characters such as Ishikawa and Yuna. I didn't care much for the main plot, however. Again, by no means is it bad, but I wasn't curious to see what's next either. The missions also started to feel very repetetitive. For me, there was this one memorable side quest where you have to investigate a haunted forest. It was actually one of the first, so I was really excited, thinking maybe all the side quests are as intricate as the ones from The Witcher 3. To my disappointment however, too often the missions followed the same structure: Talk to character, walk with character and then kill some Mongols or bandits. I tried powering through and I raised the difficulty, because I liked the combat. I really think it shines on the higher difficulty levels. Disappointingly, however, I couldn't cope with the repetition and busywork and I eventually gave up.

so, I platinumed the base game at the start of this year and I enjoyed it a lot! It's another stand-out Sony exclusive, despite its frankenstein-esque construction of various open world game tropes.

The Director's Cut on PS5 is absolutely beautiful, but the main draw here for me was the Iki Island expansion and I have mixed feelings.

Pros:

• it's more Ghost of Tsushima

Cons:

• it's more Ghost of Tsushima

They just didn't shake up much for this dlc:

• the new Shaman enemy types are annoying (they buff allies, nothing ingenious)
• the flute activities are fun at first and I like that they are linked to Jin's mother but the novelty wears thin after the ninth one
• This dlc is clearly post-game (it warns you at the start) but for some reason Jin still seems quite loyal to the Samurai cause, blindly defending their actions on Iki
• THEY MAKE YOU WATCH THAT SCENE OF JINS DAD DYING LIKE 3.6 BILLION TIMES
• The hallucination sequences have been done a million times before (cf. review's title) , here they practically function as cutscenes with no interesting gameplay elements in them
• The Eagle is a fun villain, I like her more psychological form of warfare but then the final fight is just another duel with one hallucination cutscene shoved in the middle
• Idk if it's a me issue, but the combat felt worse? Maybe it's just because of the more difficult enemies, or me being rusty, but parries and dodges felt less responsive
• The main missions aren't terribly long but they they do offer up some fun set pieces
• The horse charge move is ridiculous, and I love it!
• The ambient events (read: Unwritten Tales) were really nice and I preferred them to the traditional side quest structure
• You have to attack at least three harbours with docked ships and I just really wish they had gone more all out with the environment and offered something cooler (temples, ruins, literally anything but another docked boat PLEASE)

All in all, yes I 100%ed Iki Island, but I would say it's a slightly lesser experience than the main game. If you're buying the director's cut outright then you get a great piece of additional content, if you're upgrading from a PS4 copy specifically for this content then I do recommend it but don't expect anything revolutionary.

Japanese history was something I never really got into. I was already uncool in high school without also being a “fucking weeb”. Since then, I’ve dipped my toe in the history of Japan & samurai and I gave this game a chance due to the good reception and my faith in Sucker Punch as a developer.

There are definitely little hints of Sly Cooper & InFamous in Ghost of Tsushima’s DNA. The guards have patrol patterns I remember seeing in Sly & the climbing mechanics have some InFamous in them. There’s also inspiration from other popular action-adventure games. Like Horizon Zero Dawn, Tsushima is a hodge-podge of all the standard adventure gameplay staples. It doesn’t do anything too revolutionary, but it nails those staples well. Honestly, this game is how I wished Assassin’s Creed went when they went the action RPG route. The combat still has a rhythmic feel, but it’s enhanced by having different stances to best counteract different enemies; ex. shield-bearers, spearmen, brutes, etc. There’s still a feeling of skill based combat over the more number based combat of Valhalla or Odyssey. The enemies never get too sword spongy and I never felt a need to grind. The boss fights are all stylish samurai duels that break up the regular combat sections. Stealth is standard fare, but assassinations automatically kill all enemies. The gameplay may not reinvent the wheel, but I enjoyed it all much more than the new AC games. Your horse seems to be allergic to water, which is a little annoying having to either dismount and swim across a river or ride along it until you find a bridge or shallow spot.

From the very get-go I could tell Ghost of Tsushima was not trying to be a historically accurate tale of feudal Japan but instead a love letter to old samurai films. There’s even a Kurosawa mode that makes the game black’n’white and the characters speak Japanese with English subtitles. This game is the closest you’ll get to playing a vintage samurai movie. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the side quests were retellings of old samurai film plots. Everything is framed very stylishly with a cinematic bent. I love this stylization as those old samurai movies would inspire classic Westerns; like Seven Samurai becoming the Magnificent Seven. The samurai duels feel like high noon showdowns. My favorite shot is when your character thumbs his sword out of his sheath, like a cowboy quick draw.

Tsushima, as I’ve learned is a little island off of mainland Japan. It’s a drop dead gorgeous island. There’s pops of colors and the wind rustles up leaves or creates waves over the sea of pampas grass. You get to experience the typical Japanese locations; cherry blossom groves, samurai castles, snowy mountains, sea battered coasts. And there is no real HUD in-game, so you are always taking in the island’s beauty. The dynamic weather adds to the atmosphere. Fighting through an enemy castle is much cooler in a raging thunderstorm. Though, I do wish there was a lantern or torch option, because this game gets ludicrously dark at night. I was wandering blind in a few instances, especially when I had to track footprints. Since the game is more Hollywood than history, & you never leave Tsushima island, you don’t get to visit any real life locations, like Mount Fuji, Aokigahara, or the capital city, which I don’t know if that would be Edo at this time?

The music in this game plays a big part in Ghost of Tsushima. It’s exactly the type of music you’d expect from this kinda game. The shamisen plays Spaghetti Western style tune during the samurai standoffs and the big story moments have great cinematic orchestral scores.

Spoilers ahead. The main plot of Ghost of Tsushima does have some historic basis, as it pits you as Jin Sakai, a samurai who is facing the Mongol horde. The main baddie is Khotun Khan, fictional cousin to Kublai Khan. The samurai’s first contact with the Mongols does not go well, at all. Khotun’s forces wreck a whole samurai army with Jin being one of the only survivors. Khotun is a great villain. He’s studied the samurai’s style of fighting & their strict honor code and uses that against them. He’s brutal, but also cunning. He’s not just a brutish barbarian bent on bloody conquest. Sure, he wants conquest, but he’s willing to give his enemies a chance to bend the knee before he just cuts it off. Still, his character does have a couple dumb villain moments, like keeping Lord Shimura, the island’s governor and your uncle, alive for longer than he should’ve and knowing things at times that he really shouldn’t’ve known yet. Jin realizes rather quickly that the straight forward fighting of the samurai stand no chance against the Mongol horde. So, he collects a ragtag group of retired samurai and a thief to help launch a guerrilla war against the Mongols. Outside of the main cast, most of the characters are forgettable. As Jin slips more into becoming the “Ghost” he struggles with his duty of protecting his people no matter what vs his code of honor. He doesn’t like sneaking around to fight first, but realizes it’s the only way he stands a chance against the Mongols. These sort of “Die a hero, or live long enough to be a villain” type stories always keep my interest. Jin doesn’t become a villain to the people, but the other nobles and samurai don’t appreciate you using fear as a weapon of war. The tipping point is when you sneak into a Mongol stronghold and poison their milk. Jin feels justified in his actions, but your uncle is obviously horrified by this and marks you as an enemy of the state. It’s an engaging story and there are moments where you feel Jin’s anger and inner turmoil. And while this is a dramatized samurai story, I feel historically they wouldn’t be too upset at Jin’s actions. He’s basically a ninja, and I feel I remember hearing somewhere that samurai could also be ninja, they weren’t exclusive. Another plus over the AC games, is this story lasts just long enough to not wear out it’s welcome.

The ending sees you approached by your uncle with a decree from the Shogun that your clan is disbanded & are to be put to death as the legend of the Ghost is becoming too popular with the peasants. And while you are now technically no longer samurai, your uncle allows you to die in honorable combat as he still loves you as a son. It’s a great emotional fight that ends with you choosing to either kill or spare his life. I spared him, because I’m not a monster… except to the Mongols.

There are some side quests given by your fellow renegades that are little mini stories that span the whole game. There’s one where you are hunting down a sensi’s former student who defected to the Mongols. The first 4-5 missions are pretty similar wheel spinning missions that don’t feel necessary. I would prefer most of these missions be much shorter.

All in all, I really loved Ghost of Tsushima. Samurai movies are the one thing of Japanese culture I’m most interested in and this game is also interested in them as well. The combat is fun and the story has great moments. I may be inclined to take a deeper dive into samurai and Japanese history.

Also, while the game has archer enemies, you never fight Mongolian horse archers, the one thing they’re known for. Maybe it was too hard to balance gameplaywise, or maybe the horse archers didn’t get to go on sailing trips?