Ghost of Tsushima (2020)

Just started this and I find all of Sucker Punch’s dialogue and voice acting choices deeply off putting. The game gives you a choice of Japanese or English dialogue. I chose Japanese and quickly learned that Sucker Punch did nothing to match the voice acted dialogue to the facial animations. It turns out only English matches up. This seems like a significant oversight, one that relegates Japanese spoken dialogue to a secondary, less important position in the game.

Nonetheless, I switched to English and then quickly learned that Sucker Punch’s direction to its Japanese voice cast mirrors that of a lot of western representations of Japanese speech. The choice feels less driven by a desire for Japanese representation than it is rooted in western orientalism. It’s an unsettling and unfortunate first impression that colours my feelings about the game, and my desire to want to continue playing.

It’s also telling that when setting the game up at the start, the English language mode is called “Standard” and Japanese is “Japanese Cinema”, rather than the far more simple English and Japanese. The game positions its questionable English voice direction as the standard way to play the game.

It feels as though, for a studio who made a game that supposedly reveres Japanese culture, they did little to actually reflect that reverence when it comes to the dialogue and voice over direction.

Haven't posted here in ages, mostly because work has keeping me far too busy to even be able to play games, and I was much more in a book/film mood for most of the year. That said, I picked up some of the bigger releases of the year to see what all the hype was about. Having a bit more time now for the holiday season, I started going through them, and the following was the rage-post that resulted. (Originally posted in a discord and slightly edited)

After playing ~7 hours of Ghost of Tsushima, I kinda hate it. It's such an unambitious bog-standard AAA game, with all the hallmarks of Sony gameplay design it sometimes feels like developers have a checklist of things they need to put in to get the Sony bucks. The start of the game is thoroughly slowed down through multiple tutorials. The game features such old friends, as unsikippable cut-scene and walky talky exposition dumps. The fact that they call the black and white filter "Kurosawa mode" would be funny if it wasn't so insulting. If anything, it shows the rampant misunderstanding of cinematic language by game developers.

Film has been a (if not the) major influence on big budget games for the past two video game generations. But this game is probably emblematic in showing the faults that lie therein. The devs named their filter "Kurosawa mode" in honor of legendary director Akira Kurosawa. They call his work a frame of reference (although from reading what they've said I have a sneaking suspicion they really only watched Seven Samurai and Sanjuro). This should somehow be reflected in the game, but honestly, it's not there. Even the mode itself apparently reduces his visual language to: black and white, higher contrast, film grain, muffled sound. So why not call it Kobayashi mode? I guess that name is too unfamiliar for the Western audience who might just recognise Kurosawa's name, but nothing beyond that (just like them erroneously using the term haiku, just because that at least is a word westerners will know, god forbid they learn something new). Nooo, the real reason they call it Kurosawa mode is of course because the filter actually does something else! It increases the wind.

Yep, Kurosawa is now reduced to black & white samurai movies with strong wind. It's not more occurrence of weather in general, because he's obviously not known to layer his frame by employing other weather conditions like rain or snow. No, wind. (also the fact that he did far more than just Samurai movies, or the fact that his color work is impressive as hell as well doesn't matter either). I guess it sounds nit-picky to harp on this when the devs probably just added the name to pay respects to the film director most known in the west for doing samurai (chanbara) movies. But I think it actually shows a far deeper problem. Like I said earlier, a lot of game directors just seem to know jackshit about cinematic language. Kurosawa's your influence for this game? Throw out framing, who gives a damn about editing, what even is blocking, choreography is just something in dance right? And I can understand that it's not very playable to have that in gameplay (although at least early Resi pulled some of it off) but it's not even there in the cutscenes. They're incredibly dull long shots, shot reverse-shots, characters have absolutely no on-screen presence, they just stand there yapping to each other.

Please, please just stop.

Even game directors that know a bit more about cinematic language fail to implement it well. Like, at least God of War had some interesting camera movement in its cutscenes, but it needed to shoulder pat itself for having a camera that never (seemed to) cut. Well con-gratulations, that's not anywhere near as much of an achievement as it is in film, and it served no thematic purpose whatsoever. (also doesn't actually have that much impact when you need to navigate tons of menus that break that continuity anyway).

And I wouldn't even mind this as much, if at least the actual gameplay was cool. But it's not. There's no experimentation, there's no deviation from the formula, it's color by numbers 3rd person action adventure. Unlock all your cool skills by investing points in the eleventythree skill trees! Wow, we have such an immersive experience by not having a mini-map on-screen! Have fun turning on your map every few minutes, or setting a waypoint so you still don't have to think about where you walk while you check off all these little icons worth of side-quests! I also felt like I struggled more with the camera than in the average From Software game. I feel like I still have quite a way to go, and usually that would at least give me some hope the game might add some complexity to its mechanics. But hey, it has skill trees, so I can already pretty much see the extent, and it's not really great.

I don't know if I even want to go on.

I think I was too harsh with Ghost in my review here, because the disappointing, cliche-filled and unoriginal story, clearly didn't leave to my expectations. Yet, my disappointment might have influenced me -at the end as a Japanese history aficionado and big fan of Japanese cinema this was my most awaited game of 2020- and might have overshadowed what I think is great about it, although not entirely historically accurate, it is definitely the best representation of Feudal Japan in Western Media we've had so far. And how beautiful the world is, sometimes I want to re-download it again to be able to trek through the ukiyo-e like beauty, of that mythical Japan. The free DLC, has also inspired or re-established hope for the title.

I am bound to go through it again, and try to make a more serious and focused approach to it.

(Once I am done with MGS2 -my first time playing it! Loving it so far!- and have played a bit of Cyberpunk, of course)

I’ve completed Act 1 here at around 7-8 hours and I think I’m kinda done with it, which is unfortunate since I thought I’d like this a lot more. I can’t overstate how stunning the game is, a mostly realistic natural setting that’s embellished with the extra beauty of a painting almost everywhere you look, but it needs something more than what it has to keep my attention. I won’t write a review since that’s not fair with 2/3 of game left, but some general thoughts and gripes:

The missions just feel so “bleh”... Trail someone for a while, sneak into somewhere through a painfully obvious path, or “investigate” some clues (aka, go hit R2 on some prompts), clear an area of dumb AIs via stealth, then fight... It’s very standard design for this kind of game, but it feels so dull because, to me, the game isn’t excellent in some other way that makes it worth it.

Combat has become a slog through crowds of similar enemies—a few extra abilities being added on both sides doesn’t really make it any more exciting, it just makes it annoying. I find myself just wanting to get these segments over with, and what is there after they’re over? Either another one, a “boss fight” type of thing that’s basically just the same thing I was already doing, or progression of the story which also is not really that interesting. I enjoy the dynamic of two bows, and using the bow up close in the heat of combat is kinda fun, so I’ll give it that.

The story has its moments where it works for me, when it’s laying out its characters’ motivations through some great flashbacks, or just their internal struggles, or when the characters are making up some creative plan, but its broad strokes are just not really all that interesting. Kinda the classic “early in The Witcher 3” problem where people fall off big games while they’re slowly setting up their world and characters, but unlike that one it seems from reviews like it’s not really going to get much better here.

This game feels better in many ways than the latest I’ve played from the Assassins Creeds and similar series of the world, but next to the spectacular open world narrative action games of the last few years like Horizon Zero Dawn or Red Dead Redemption 2 or God of War, this one is just not hooking me in the same ways. I’ll just chalk it up as “not for me” and appreciate all the things it does right, which I really think are quite cool and helping set the standard for what games look like in 2020, even on last-gen hardware.

Been working my way through Act 1 and I’m very impressed by this game’s presentation. The lighting and representation of nature in general is next-level, especially amazing at sunrise/sunset, or when the leaves are blowing around. The minimalist HUD is brilliantly done with subtle wind motions showing the way, and the golden birds and the foxes leading you to secrets instead of just following a waypoint. Loved the way my random stealth assassination of an enemy was intercut with a flashback reminding me that I was breaking the samurai code; the way enemies finish you off when you die and the screen cuts as soon as their sword enters you; the way the mythic quest I just did was set up with these cool black-and-white ink drawings. It’s all really impressive.

Gameplay is enjoyable, especially when I can complete an entire mission in stealth. The story is pretty good, taking on a serious tone that can really draw me in at times. I am finding playing the game for a long session to be really tiring but I’ll keep picking away at it and see where it goes from here.

What an absolute pleasurable experience. This game had so much love put into it it was staggering to play. I said before it was so damn 'human' and I stick by this. The world felt so detailed, the characters so rich, the setting so compelling... there's a lot to love to this game.

It did get a little repetitive by the end but I was seeking out a lot of the question marks and going for side quests (or Tales if you will) and I was happy to finish it but I really just enjoyed the whole world.

Put a lot more time into this one. I'm currently nearing the end of Act 2 with most side content done. The story isn't really all that great, relying on several tropes but it's just so damn human in its portrayal of the relationships between characters. Many moments have touched me and once again, the level of care that's been placed in this game is astonishing.

This could very well be the best game I've played all year.

There is just something so soothing about this game. I originally believed it was generic looking from initial gameplay trailers - looking like a dash of Shadow of Mordor and Assassin's Creed - but I didn't entirely write it off, deciding to make up my own mind from some gameplay.

The level of detail and care put into this game reminds me of Spider-Man. Yes it is still generic in many regards, but care has been placed in world-building and adding unique challenges to existing open-world traditions. Question marks aren't always bandit dens or camps, they can be a quiet moment to reflect upon something heavy on Jin's heart or a hot spring to take a moment and relax. After putting the better part of my day into this game I'm so impressed with the detail put into this game that I just want to devour it all as quickly as possible to soak in the reverie that will come with having experienced a well-crafted and lovingly made game.