Ghost of Tsushima
PlayStation 4
Nostalgia Factor:
This game isn’t even a year old, and I had never played it before, so I don’t have much to write here as far as nostalgia goes. I didn’t even know anything about this game at all until I heard some people talking about it at work, and I decided to look it up. I had never seen a preview of this game, hadn’t read any hype about it, nothing. But it looked good to me, and my coworkers had nothing but good things to say about it, so I decided to check it out.
Story:
You control a samurai named Jin Sakai, whose home island of Tsushima is invaded by the Mongols in the year 1274. Jin joins his fellow samurai as they attempt to drive the invading Mongol forces away from the island, but they are hopelessly outnumbered and are quickly slaughtered by the Mongols. Jin is wounded and left for dead.
He awakens several days later after being nursed back to health by a woman named Yuna, only to find that the island is now under Mongol control. The whole game turns into one giant struggle to liberate each section of Tsushima from the Mongols using any means necessary, including “unethical” means like poisoning enemy forces and sneaking around and killing them from the shadows, which goes against the samurai code. As Jin explores the island, liberating it village by village, he draws more people to his cause. His legend begins to grow, and he earns the moniker “the ghost of Tsushima” for his silent and deadly killing ways.
His success comes at great cost, however, as he has to cope with defying the samurai code. His tactics draw the ire of his honorable uncle, forcing Jin into a conflict not only with the Mongols but his own flesh and blood.
This is just the tip of the iceberg as far as this game’s story goes. As you play, you’ll encounter unique individuals that you assist on various quests, such as searching for missing family members or seeking to take vengeance on traitors who have jumped ship to the Mongol side of the war. There’s lots of character development to be found here. Lots of colorful and interesting personalities you come across. I wouldn’t say the story is too horribly deep or fantastic (there is so much murder and death and betrayal in this game that you become immune to it after a while), but it has its moments. I may have cried at one point.
Gameplay:
If you’ve played any open world games in the last few years, you should know how this works. Horizon Zero Dawn, Red Dead Redemption, Assassin’s Creed, Spider-Man, the Arkham games, Grand Theft Auto, etc. – they all follow the same basic formula. There is nothing too new or groundbreaking to see here. You have a map of the island. Everywhere you haven’t been yet is covered by clouds on the map. As you explore, the map opens up. You can find villages to liberate, people to talk to, quests to take on, Mongol patrols to eradicate, so on and so forth. The map is huge and bustling with activity everywhere.
Instead of collectible items that you must discover, the game often uses secret locations instead. For example, another game may mark a secret item that expands your health with a ? on the map that you have to find. In Ghost of Tsushima, the ? leads you to a hot spring where can rest and reflect on your journey. After a brief butt-nekked cutscene, your health meter expands. There are other hidden (but repetitive) secrets to find as well, including Fox Shrines where you follow a red fox to a shrine that you must honor (make sure you pet the fox afterward!). Other common secret locations are bamboo stands where you learn new sword strikes and meditation sites where you compose haikus. I would have liked to see a little bit more diversity with some of these secret locations, but that is one of my few complaints about this game. It seemed like every other ? on the map was another darn fox shrine.
Use your horse to traverse long distances as you explore the island. And don’t let the word “island” fool you. This is a HUGE game map, bigger than many open world games out there. But getting around isn’t too much of a hassle since every time you make it to a new location, you can then fast travel to it.
The game map is filled with items that you can use to trade with merchants or to upgrade your outfit and your weapons. You also level up as you gain experience, and as you level up you accrue points that you can use to unlock new abilities on your character tree.
All pretty standard open world stuff here, right?
Let’s talk about what makes Ghost of Tsushima different: its combat.
This game has a very intricate combat system. You are armed with a blade and a bow, but you pick things up like poison darts and throwable projectiles as you get deeper into the game. You start with one basic fighting stance. You have your standard weak and strong attacks and a block button. Time your blocks right to parry enemy attacks and gain the upper hand on them. You are going to NEED to master this technique if you want to do well with this game. As you play, you unlock different fighting stances. At first I didn’t understand how it worked, but I quickly realized that different enemies are weaker against different stances. If the Water Stance is proving ineffective against enemies with shields or giant brutes, try switching to another stance. This is another skill you will NEED to master if you want to beat this game. It can get quite difficult sometimes.
When you aren’t engaged in one-on-one combat, you can sneak around and use stealth to pick off your enemies one by one. I became a master of the bow, silently killing all enemies around the perimeter of each Mongol outpost, sneaking my way towards the center while I hid in the tall grass and snuck around, quietly slitting enemy throats. You can throw things like firecrackers and wind chimes to cause distractions and pull the guards away from where you want to be.
I can’t stress how fun this all is. Ghost of Tsushima really nailed the combat system. Whether it is one-on-one fighting or sneaking through the shadows, I never got tired of this game. I even realized how repetitive everything was as I played, but I still didn’t care because it was such a blast to handle.
Graphics:
My god. This may be the best looking game I have ever played. From the game’s opening cutscene I was in complete awe of how amazing it looked. I’m a big fan of the “look” of feudal Japan as it is, but seeing it brought to life in this manner was just so amazing. The colors, the beautiful scenery, the trees, the buildings, the ruins, the shrines, the ocean, the sky, the flowers, the wind, the way each blade of the grass sways in the wind. It is just so incredible looking. And I mean SO incredible looking.
The characters look really good, their animations are smooth. Some of the cutscenes are incredibly cinematic and match the production level of big time Hollywood movies.
In case you can’t tell, I thought this game looked terrific.
Sound:
The game’s sound is great too. The voice acting is top of the line. Throughout my time with Jin Sakai I came to grow attached to him and his voice. The music, while not offering any catchy tunes that will become iconic over the years, is very well-done. It always seems to match perfectly with what is happening on screen at all times. When it is night time and you’re at a serene, beautiful lake with the moon reflecting in its waves, the music matches the game’s ambience. When you are fighting in an intense battle, the music ratchets up.
I think what may be the most impressive about this game’s sound are all the little things. The sound of the wind, the sound the tall grass makes as you walk through it, the drip of water in an empty cavern. It’s all just so good. Both visually and with the game’s audio you are completely transported directly into the world of the game.
Overall:
In case you can’t tell, I really liked this game, and I liked it a lot. I mean, a LOT LOT.
As I played I was just constantly awestruck by the scope of the game. The story, the setting, the music, the graphics, the combat, the exploration. It’s all so incredibly well done, and I loved every second of it. This is a near-flawless title. I couldn’t help but compare it to other, similar games and how much better it is than them. As good as Red Dead 2 is, it has MAJOR pacing issues and could have learned a lot from this game. As good as Horizon Zero Dawn is, its combat could have learned something from this game, as well as its inventory management system. As good as the Arkham games were, etc etc. All of these games could have learned something from Ghost of Tsushima. This game doesn’t do anything new or groundbreaking, no, but it perfects the formula introduced in previous open world titles.
The only things that bothered me about this game were minor, like how many of the ? icons were Fox Shrines, or how formulaic it felt liberating the villages one by one, or how repetitive the combat became. But none of these things were enough to seriously put a damper on my enjoyment of this title. Once I dove into Ghost of Tsushima, I couldn’t put it down. Every free second I had (which isn’t much considering I have a 10 month old baby), I spent playing this game.
I can see why people were upset that this game lost out on 2020 Game of the Year to The Last of Us Part Two. As much as I liked that game, I thought Ghost of Tsushima was MUCH better.
There were moments where I thought to myself: “Is this it? Is this my new favorite game of all time? Can Final Fantasy VII finally move over?” While I am not sure about that, this game has come closer than any other game in recent memory. If you know me and my love of video games, that should be all you need to know. You need to play Ghost of Tsushima if you haven’t already.
NOW.
Overall:
A+
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