Ghost of Tsushima Review
Publisher - Sony Interactive Entertainment
Developer - Sucker Punch Productions
Platforms - PS4, PS5
Hours Played - 40 hours
Platform Reviewed on - PS5
Release Date - 17 July 2020
I like many part of Japanese culture and also do like watching samurai movies, I have wanted to play this game for a while as the developers Sucker Punch have taken much inspiration from the samurai movies, so much so they even included a black and white mode which emulates how older samurai movies looked (I have not played it in this mode yet). When this game was given to me as a Christmas present I was elated and have put 40 hours into since December.
The best way to describe the look of this game is like a game version of a Japanese painting. You can literally see this when you take on the ‘Mythic Tale’ quests. In these quests you start by listening to a musician or storyteller tell you a mythical tale in which describe a mythical item or skill you can gain to help you in quest to free Tsushima from the Mongols. You then use the clue in the tale to go to an area of the map where you generally find a clue in the form of a Japanese scroll painting. You then search the island for this place using the ‘wind’ and the painting. This then leads on to you having some form of duel or fight to gain the item or skill you heard about in the tale told by the storyteller. The cool part about it is that the world literally looks like the painting (and obviously gaining a high level skill or item)
The world is vast but pretty dense, while travelling on horse back to areas on the map covered by fog you can run across everything from fights with Mongols to finding shrines / fox dens to small villages overtaken by Mongols. There are many things to do in this world. I do have to mention that after about playing for 20 hours some of the areas / buildings / camps etc do feel a little repetitive, however it does not take away much from the game as there is still a lot of variety there. I would recommend if you start to feel this repetition while roaming around is to then go do a main quest as this then puts you back into the story and you quickly forget about the little bit of repetition that you do see. Travelling across the islands is pretty quick on horse back however if you are travelling through areas you have already uncovered then it is quick and easy to go to points on the map you have discovered through fast travel. Unfortunately if you are not interested in discovered the small points on the map like Shinto Shrines (where you can gain the best charms for your charms slots - charms help you enhance your abilities) or like fox dens (where you can unlock charms slots) then you do limit your fast travel points but as mentioned it does not take very long at all to travel the world on horseback.
The fighting in the game is really fun, it feels well paced and has a “realistic” feel to it, it is not actually realistic but it feel like a you are actually in the kind of fights you see in the movies. Duals emphasise this feeling even more, duals are when you face a “boss” or a more difficult foe one on one. There is a lot of progression in skills however I felt that once I had learn the four main stances that I had enough to fight all enemies head on, The game does give you the option to take on the enemies in the best way you see fit. I did lean into the stealth side of the combat a lot but I was usually quite bad at it and got discovered quickly and ended fighting head on more often than not.
The story so far is deep rooting in learning and growing as person but I feel its very singular in the way the characters think which does not feel immersive or interesting. Honestly, I do not really feel a connection with the characters in the main story and the characters in the side stories even less, they don’t capture me in the way I expected them to and to be fair, I have not finished the story, I am about half way through but nothing has yet to grip me.
Overall this is a pretty great game, personally the story did not quite jive me the way I thought it would but that does not take anything away from the gameplay and the world which I both loved. The world is so beautiful, the foliage in in the world especially the tall grass and coloured flowers just make for a stunning world to ride around on horseback.
Review Score: 8/10
This is my mini review of this game, there is a lot going in the game, much of which I have not covered but if want to travel a beautiful world on horseback wielding a samurai sword and killing dangerous enemies in a variety of ways then this is the game for you. Are you interested in playing this game? Have you played it already? What attracted you most to this game? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below or on Instagram, Twitter or Tiktok. Also if you like this article or want to see more mini reviews then follow me on Instagram, Twitter or Tiktok to see more and also to know when new articles are published.
