Losing my heart to Ghost of Tsushima [review]
I don’t have the words to describe how breathtakingly beautiful The Ghost of Tsushima is. Not only is the graphics the best I’ve ever seen in a game, but the game itself even, it gets me in my feels too.
It’s based Mongol invasions of Japan which took place in 1274 and 1281 and show an alternate version of what happened when the Mongol army landed in Tsushima on 5 October 1274.
It’s my new all-time favourite, it’s better than Skyrim, the entire Assassin’s Creed series and Fallout 4 combined. I said what I said…
Beautifully designed
Ghost of Tsushima wowed me from its opening moments. I can’t stress enough: this is one of the most incredible-looking games I’ve ever seen, and not just from a technical standpoint. Ghost is somehow moody, yet idyllic. Bloody and dangerous, yet calm and serene.
The game hits you right in the feels from the first moment, when you wake up on the battlefield of Komoda Beach on the island of Tsushima after the Mongols massacred the Samurai and everyone else.
Jin Sakai survives and sets out on a mission to not only free his uncle, Lord Shimura, but also defeat the invading Mongol army and liberate all of Tsushima. In doing so, he goes against his Samurai code and becomes The Ghost.
The full extent and impact of the game doesn’t really hit you until later, when you realise The Ghost of Tsushima is about so much more than surface-level conflict. Y
Different player modes
You can either play with Japanese audio or in English. In addition, the developers also added a black-and-white Kurosawa Mode to pay homage to the late Akira Kurosawa, a Japanese film director and screenwriter.
Kurosawa career spanned nearly six decades and he is considered as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. In fact, Sucker Punch pays homage to classic Japanese cinema throughout the entire game.
It’s a nice touch, and add already out-of-this-world beauty of the game: from elements such as individual leaves, embers or blossoms cascading across the screen, to incorporating cinematic elements in the storyline.
There are useful function as well, such as quick access to Photo Mode and “calling your Samurai horse” button which makes roaming the vast open-word (and taking photos as you go) so much easier.
Not to mention the Guiding Wind, which is without a doubt one of my favourite features in the game. It makes travelling and getting around so effortless.
Best guiding system ever created
What I love about the Guiding Wind is that you don’t have to worry about it, it’s just… there. It doesn’t take up any resources but always points you to where you need to be (if selected on the map, of course).
Skyrim players will be familiar with the Clairvoyant feature. The Guiding Wind is similar but Sucker Punch went right out and reinvented it.
Simply swipe up on the track up to activate the guiding wind, and it makes it so easy to go back to objective markers you might have missed. You can read my beginners guide here; it explains the guides (Wind, Fox and Bird).
Combat in style
The combat features are pretty neat too. As you progress through the game, you learn new stances and techniques, in exchange for technique points which you accumulate as your Ghost Legend grows.
You can also upgrade your katana, tanko, bow, longbow and various sets of armour. It may seem overwhelming, but during the first half of the game, you can pretty much just stick to the parrying system and you should be fine.
Of course, there are other features as well: stealth optios, deflecting, dodging and brute-force techniques to stagger and defeat your enemies. You can honest play in any way you want.
I embraced the Ghost and delved right into the stealth and bow-work. Later on, I switched it up, ditched the stealth and would just barge into Mongol camps, yelling “Fight me” and “Are you cowards?”
A vast, open world to explore
The world of Ghost of Tsushima is so incredibly beautiful, I don’t have the words to explain it. Outside of fighting, you’ll also find open-world locations that grant bonuses that require you to compose a haiku first.
Or reflect on certain story beats while bathing in hot springs. It’s all very unique and helps break the chains of most open-world checklist garbage. Sucker Punch embraces this philosophy inside and out, as the HUD follows a minimalist design by default.
Ghost of Tsushima kept me interested throughout the course of its entire campaign, but there are plenty of story-based side missions and extras to uncover. The map isn’t obnoxiously big — though there are a lot of collectables — and the genuinely speedy fast-travel system helps move things along.
The dual audio and multiple difficulty settings also nicely tee up extra replays.
With Ghost of Tsushima under its belt, Sucker Punch deserves to be in the same conversation as Insomniac, Naughty Dog, and Sony Santa Monica. If this generation is to wrap up soon, it’s fitting that it’ll end with Tsushima: one of its most beautiful games thus far.
