Ghost of Tsushima Review - A strong Game That Falls Victim to Old Tropes
Platform - PC
HOURS SPENT IN GAME - 22
Before I can get to the more obscure titles in my backlog—and no, I'm referring to Claire Obscure: Expedition 33—there are several must-play titles I need to check off that list first. The biggest name on that list for a long while was Ghost of Tsushima. Well, in anticipation of Ghost of Yotei, I decided that now was as good a time as any to finally jump into the bloody, heartbreaking, and ultra-cinematic adventures of Jin Sakai. Now, the title of this review might suggest that I didn't like Ghost of Tsushima, or that I think it's a bad game. However, this is not the case. After spending roughly 20 hours in the game, I came away feeling that it was a very good game, with a few bad qualities that I found hard to ignore. Ghost of Tsushima wears its Samurai cinema influences on its sleeves and translates those influences beautifully into a game that never gave me a reason to look away. It boasts a combat system that yields genuine challenge, but never loses sight of keeping the fun-factor in its formula. However, what ultimately holds this game back is a story structure that often lacks cause and effect, and an open-world structure that is a victim of the trends of its time.
Combat - Like A Flowing River
If you're a fan of PlayStation, particularly their first-party games, then you're familiar with their very particular style of combat. Whether it be from God of War, The Last of Us, or anything in between, these games all feature slow-moving combat focused on realism. Where the combat experience in these games succeeds in creating a "realistic" feel, it lacks the frenetic style of gameplay that lends itself to faster combat styles. Ghost of Tsushima's combat is somehow a brilliant combination of the two, as with each swing you take, you can feel the weight of Jin's sword crashing down on the armor of an enemy. But as you switch stances to accommodate the variety of foes attempting to overpower you, or as you quickly switch between light and heavy attacks to chain combos together, you begin to feel the combat take on a quicker, more reactive pacing. It certainly doesn't boast the blinding speeds of Sekiro's combat, but it's fast-paced nonetheless.
What's more, as you master cycling between stances and attack types all at once, combat begins to feel like a river of flowing water. Slicing through an enemy using the stone stance, and quickly switching to the wind stance to break the posture of a spear enemy just as he attempts to land a strike on you, nearly creates a flow state experience -- something uncommon in games of this ilk. However, while the stance system is something that is very much visible, the precision baked into the combat experience is something that cannot be seen; rather, it's something that is felt as you land a strike on a foe with pinpoint accuracy. Sure, the game's combat can be forgiving with hit boxes, but you can just blindly swing your sword wherever you please and hope the game will magically direct your blade to the enemy. When you approach combat with patience and make genuine attempts to be precise with each strike, the game rewards you for it, resulting in a combat experience that stands above most other games that try to emulate it.
A Hallmark Cinematic Experience
There's a sequence early in the game where Jin is experiencing a flashback to his youth. In this memory, his Uncle Shimura is demonstrating the basics of swordplay. This sequence takes place within a combat ring covered in bright red maple leaves that have fallen from a huge maple tree that sits above it. Farther in the distance, you can see a vast river flowing into a mountain range that disappears into the bright sun. In any other video game, this backdrop may have looked really good, but in Ghost of Tsushima, it presents as art in motion. This scene is painted with vibrant colors that pop confidently off the screen, paired with leaves, wind, and a river gently flowing in harmony with each other to create an absolutely awe-inspiring visual feast. Moments like these are present in nearly every moment of the game. Whether you're in a combat standoff taken straight from Samurai cinema, or riding your horse aimlessly through the brighter-than-heaven Golden Forest, Ghost of Tsushima not only never gives you a reason to look away, it demands every moment of your attention. It's loaded with cinematic moments that leave you speechless, and an art direction that will leave you awe-inspired, and even hard-pressed to look at another video game.
A Story That Deserved More
I love a good anti-hero, and Jin Sakai’s tale of doing whatever it takes to liberate the island of Tsushima lands as one of the most well-written and dynamically themed tales of anti-heroism I’ve had the privilege of experiencing. So much so that I found myself more invested in Jin’s struggle with honor and code than I did the main Mongol invasion plot. At the beginning of the journey, Jin is steadfast in the samurai code implanted in him by his Uncle Shimura. Early encounters see him facing overwhelming opposition out in the open to deliver death to his foes with honor. However, as Jin progresses in his journey to liberate his homeland, he begins to understand that if he wants to defeat monsters, he has to become one.
What begins as silent assassinations that deny his opponents a warrior's death later turns into pure acts of terror, a complete about-face from his ideological foundation. Jin’s growing internal conflict with his beliefs as a Samurai is brilliantly illustrated by flashbacks that force him to reflect on the parts of his code that he has decided to turn his back on. As he continues to turn away from it, he earns the moniker of “ghost”, a killer working from the shadows, doing whatever is necessary to win. This creates a rift between him and his only remaining family, his Uncle Shimura — a conflict that would go on to supersede his struggle with the Mongols. In creating this rift, Ghost of Tsushima creates a heart-wrenching conflict between the ideologies of lawful good and anti-heroism. The result is a gripping tale that left me on the edge of my seat through all of its flowing twists and turns. However, while the game’s main story beats delivered unforgettable moments, I felt less enthusiastic about the smaller story moments in between them.
The story features three main acts, each with its own major goals to achieve. To reach those goals, you play through a series of smaller missions that serve as the building blocks to the next big story beat. Unfortunately, I came away from these story missions feeling less than enthusiastic about them owing to their laborious structure. The smaller story missions typically see Jin and his allies, or sometimes just Jin himself, liberating towns occupied by Mongol forces to either free prisoners or to set up a strategic stronghold. Doing these missions over and over made the small story beats surrounding them feel repetitive and somewhat laborious to work through. The saving grace is the extremely fun combat sequences that play out in each of these moments, but from a story perspective, they always left me wanting to skip to the next major story beat.
I don't want to give the impression that I didn't enjoy Ghost's story. Even though it didn't resonate with me as deeply as I had hoped, I still enjoyed its many twists and turns. What's more, it was Jin's stoic heroism that made it easy to get behind him as a character. The game's side story structure is also really enjoyable and adds a welcome layer of depth to the main plot. One tale I enjoyed in particular was the journey to acquire the heavenly strike. This story sees Jin hunt down a former combat student who stole the heavenly strike technique from his teacher so that he may use it to wreak havoc on innocent people. The tale ends with an epic cinematic showdown between you and the student, where you obtain the technique for yourself should you be victorious in the battle. The game is filled with side tales and side quests that are lovingly crafted with both the historical Japanese culture and cinematic influence. However, it didn't take long for me to become somewhat soured on these side stories -- and it wasn't because of the stories themselves.
The Checklist Impact
I want to start this section off by expressing the following: Ghost of Tsushima's open-world design is one of the best I have ever experienced. For context, this game came out in 2020, during a time when the "open-world checklist" formula was heavily in vogue. However, where many AAA titles of that time took a "more is better" approach, Ghost of Tsushima takes the "less is more" route instead. While riding through the open world, no map markers are polluting the breathtaking vista on the horizon. There's no overly crowded UI constantly tugging and pulling at you to go towards any given point of interest. And most importantly of all, Jin never mutters something to the effect of "hmmm, that seems important, I should go check that out" to himself. In fact, when riding through the open world, there's nothing on the screen but you, your horse, and the sheer beauty of the world in front of you. However, should you want to know where you need to go, or if you just want to gain a sense of place, you can gently slide up on the PS5 controller's touchpad, and a gentle gust of wind will begin to blow in the direction you need to go. Similarly with side activities, you'll encounter foxes that'll guide you to shrines, or birds that'll gently direct you towards an optional point of interest in ways that feel natural and unobtrusive. However, it's when you open the game's menu to view those points of interest that the immersion breaks, and the game falls victim to the trends that have plagued the early 2020s open-world video game.
In the beginning, while I was stumbling upon side quests and optional points of interest naturally by just exploring the world, I was happy to stop and experience everything, owing to how natural it all felt. However, there's something about seeing all of those same points of interest and side quests laid out on the map in a dizzying collage of map markers that makes them significantly less desirable to seek out. Similarly with the game's side tales involving important secondary characters, seeing their quests laid out in a listical format squashed my interest in pursuing them. I did, however, experience a handful of them and can attest to the fact that these stories are great. I particularly enjoyed Ishikawa's side tale, where he and Jin seek out a former student who turned tail to join the Mongol forces, as it featured engaging dialogue, interesting story exposition, and important world-building. So, perhaps it's unfair for me to judge these parts of the game on the fact that their structure falls victim to the listical open-world formula. Even so, it's likely more attributable to my fatigue with the formula as a whole, as my disdain for open-world games has yet to fade all these years later.
Why I Am Cautiously Optimistic About Ghost Of Yotei
Based on my overall experience with Ghost of Tsushima, I'm confident that I will enjoy my time with Yotei. From what we've seen of the game so far, Yotei will see a similar approach to cinematic storytelling and addictive combat that made Tsushima such a solid experience. However, Tsushima's story structure and open-world checklist design give me enough trepidation for the follow-up to feel weary upon its arrival. How will Yotei evolve these formulas? Will it iterate upon them, or replace them entirely for something new and improved? I have faith in developer Sucker Punch to shake up the building blocks, but until I can play the game for myself, I'm feeling excited at best, and cautiously optimistic at worst.
The Verdict
I walked away from Ghost of Tsushima feeling conflicted. I went into the experience with sky-high expectations, some of which were exceeded, while others fell flat. I'll remember Ghost of Tsushima for its awe-inspiring cinematics, deeply emotional story moments, breath taking visuals and art direction, and its refreshingly fun combat system. Disappointingly however, I'll remember it equally as much for the underwhelming story structure that robs this otherwise deeply riveting and emotional tale of the greatness it deserves (in its video game format), and its open-world design that diverted me away from the its rich tapestry of side activities. I'll happily admit that, in a way, I've been unfair to Ghost of Tsushima, because if I could just push through those tropes, I'd have a remarkable experience waiting for me on the other side. However, I also have to admit when a trope has simply worn me out, and has caused me to miss out on greatness buried beneath a presentation that I'm no longer willing to explore. In any case, I'm glad that I can finally say I've played Ghost of Tsushima, and I cannot wait to see what Ghost of Yotei has in store!
