GHOST OF TSUSHIMA
Loud stabby versus quiet stabby: which is the most honourable?
Breathtaking’ is a word often overused with videogames. As we crest a hill and see acres of bright red equinox flowers flooding out ahead of us, white mountains framing the horizon, and a crisp blue sky brightening the screen, this is one game that genuinely leaves us in awe. While Sony’s latest blockbuster has some minor flaws, art direction is not one of them.
Based on real events and inspired by movies such as Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, Ghost Of Tsushima goes light on historical fact and heavy on visual sophistication to ensure its fiction lands its emotional punches.
The Mongol invasion of the island of Tsushima is one step away from a full invasion of Japan, and only Jin Sakai can stop Khotun Khan. After the samurai are wiped out in the opening battle, Jin is saved by thief Jun, and comes to recognise the samurai’s traditional honour-based practices are little use against the Mongol army.
Over the course of the game you go further down a ninja-y fox hole, terrorising the enemy from the shadows and thumbing your nose at surrogate father and traditionalist samurai Lord Shimura. Sucker Punch delivers some shocking twists in its tale but signals clearly where Ghost Of Tsushima’s true conflict really lies.
SAKE ON THIS
While the story, and particularly the optional multi-chapter character ‘tales’, can often shock and surprise, the game’s structure is all-too familiar. This is open world 101 with little innovation; as you explore or free settlements from Mongol control the map’s fog vanishes revealing potential secrets to uncover. Missions vary in direction and length, and blend stealth, large-scale battles, and some fetch questing to good effect, but rarely break new ground.
Where the game does find its own voice is in the broad strokes sense of exploration. There are no hard waypoints or blinking objectives guiding you over the horizon, instead gusts of wind usher you towards your goal. It means you need to enjoy the world, explore with your eyes, and feel your way from Tsushima’s dappled cedar forests to its sunny beachfront towns.
Scattered around the island are hot springs to rest in to increase our hero’s base health, bamboo strike sword tests to raise Jin’s resolve (used to access special attacks and heal), and a variety of shrine types to discover, where you can collect vanity gear and charms to buff your katana.
The larger shrines are puzzle-platform events that enable Sucker Punch to scratch its Sly Raccoon itch, demanding you climb, wire-walk, and grapple about the game’s mountains and cliffs to reach an elegantly framed prize. All are skills you’ll need as Jin embraces his Ghost-self, and the game side-steps into PS2-era Tenchu.
If it’s all getting too much you can even seek out a scenic spot to compose a bespoke haiku and earn a collectible headband, sequences that showcase the game’s colourful cinematic splendour wonderfully.
It’s in these moments that the game pivots from the dour drama of the main quest. If the beheadings, mass murder, and familicide threaten to drag the game down, a canter into the countryside will remind you the world is a beautiful place.
What happens outside of the Golden Path to take back Tsushima is where the game really finds itself. The many quests discovered randomly from rescuing innocents on the road are rewarding, varied, and a little daft. We love dashing between campfires to scale a frozen mountain, our vision reducing with the cold to make the climb harder. Seeking revenge on behalf of a fox family ( actual foxes) left us with warm fuzzies. Witnessing how these events feed into the world and later missions ensures the island feels alive and connected. After saving enslaved women from a corrupt dye workshop they cheer Jin as he rides past in a later mission.
JIN & JUICE
Combat is swift and gratifying, but this isn’t an open-world Sekiro. That’s not to say the skirmishes don’t require skill and timing, but it’s more flexible and open to abuse than FromSoftware’s swordsman.
Each of the four main enemy types can be opposed with one of Jin’s sword stances – Moon, Wind, Stone, or Water. Any enemy can be defeated with any stance, but correctly matching stances and tapping w breaks an enemy’s guard, leaving your opponent open to swift hits with r. Timing can see you parry or dodge attacks, again leaving your foe staggered.
Mix in Ghost attacks with flurries of kunai throwing blades, smoke bombs to enable stealth kills mid-fight, or the
“THE QUESTS DISCOVERED RANDOMLY ON THE ROAD ARE VARIED AND A LITTLE DAFT.”
one-hit-kill Ghost Stance to control the crowd, and fights can become elegant duels.
The camera can drag you back to reality, though, as it will often drift behind a tree to throw off a perfect counter. It’s at these times you’ll be grateful Sucker Punch chose to not embrace the zeitgeist and dodged the soulsborne trend.
Discovering new armour sets is the real draw. Far from cosmetic unlocks, they have direct effects on combat and how you travel around the island. The Ghost armour reduces enemy awareness and increases the chance of terrifying opponents (they’ll flee or fall to the floor in terror if you perfectly counter an attack); a mythical armour increases your bow and arrow skills, a late-game Mongolian set ensures you can blend in with the enemy, and a traveller’s outfit rumbles the DualShock when collectibles are close. All need to be used at different times (and can be upgraded), and there’s genuine satisfaction from Mr Benning your way across Tsushima.
KATANA BE GOOD
Framed against Red Dead Redemption 2’s hyper-realism and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s RPG expansiveness, Ghost Of Tsushima offers little new beyond an eye for a beautiful landscape. Sucker Punch’s game is great at what it does do, though. It’s incredibly polished. By avoiding the trappings of soulsbornes to deliver pliable combat and dodging the march of realism, Sucker Punch has delivered a samurai fantasy with few restrictions, even though it rarely innovates.
VERDICT
A very enjoyable mix of activities set in one of the most elegant open worlds on PS4. Ghost Of Tsushima does nothing particularly new but it does it all to a high standard. Ian Dean