GHOST OF TSUSHIMA
Historical open world game revealed at Paris Games Week
Think history’s for boffins? This lone samurai adventure will make you think again.
FOCUSES ON A LONE SAMURAI BATTLING THE MONGOLS.
02Sucker Punch, the developer behind inFamous and the Sly Cooper series, has re-emerged with a new IP for the first time in eight years. Its new game, the first since inFamous: Second Son, was announced during Sony’s thrilling presentation at Paris Games Week. The trailer doesn’t give away much but we have picked out some important details.
Ghost Of Tsushima takes place during the 13th century and focuses on a lone samurai seeking to strike back against the Mongol invasion of the titular island. The trailer features a monologuing Mongol explaining how he’d taught himself everything there is to know about the island, “Which villages to tame and which to burn,” subtly assuring anyone listening that they are outmatched. The trailer ends with him demanding the samurai surrender.
The trailer, reminiscent of a Christopher Nolan film, gave few indications as to how the game would play, but the PlayStation blog offered a few titbits. The devs revealed that Ghost Of Tsushima will be “a sprawling samurai openworld game” and that it has been a dream project for the team.
Set during the first Mongol invasion, there’s certainly a lot of history for the developer to draw inspiration from. By 1274, the Mongol empire had already taken over Korea and built a dynasty in China when its leaders set their sights on Japan. They sought to branch out to Tsushima first for a number of reasons. Not only is the island close to Korea as well as mainland Japan, it was well suited for both defence and trade. The Mongols began their assault on the island in October of that year. Within the announcement trailer, we can see not only the island on a map but also Hakata Bay, the stage of an vital battle for Japan’s independence during the second Mongol invasion. Whether this location features remains to be seen.
ALT-HISTORY?
While the game is set against a historical background, there’s no guarantee that it’ll stick faithfully to the facts. The official blurb from Sony suggests breaking away from
convention, saying “You must move beyond your samurai traditions to forge a new way of fighting — the way of the Ghost — as you wage an unconventional war for the freedom of Japan.” This sounds like we’ll be stealthily sabotaging the Mongol army and raising a resistance.
The first Mongol invasion was actually brought to a dramatic end by a typhoon that sank many of the invaders’ ships, and this was after Japanese victories at the Battle Of Akasaka and the Battle Of TorikaiGata. Interesting side note: the battles that took place during the Mongol invasions were one of only three occasions where samurai banded together to fight a common enemy rather than each other. Could this bode well for co-op? We’ll see. We’ll have more on this samurai epic in a future issue so keep your blades sharp.