Ghost of Tsushima is an open world action adventure where you play as a samurai in 13th century Japan. Taking place on the island of Tsushima, the Mongols have invaded Japan and are indiscriminately killing the innocents. You play as Jin Sakai, a samurai, who, along with his uncle Lord Shimura, battles the Mongols. Unfortunately, the battle ends with their loss and Shimura is captured. Having been devastated, Jin must go around the island of Tsushima, helping others in order to recruit them so that he can save his uncle.
Right from the very beginning, the game nails down the theme, and most importantly, this includes the combat. The usage of the wind as an objective marker is a clever move, as is the minimalistic HUD. The sounds and music that plays evoke Japanese culture. The combat is slower than your typical action-adventure game, with a light and heavy attack, blocks, and various side weapons. The beginning of the game is tough in that you don’t have many options. Tt takes a few story quests in order to gain enough attacks, and different stances to suit different types of enemies, before the combat becomes much more engaging.
Jin will learn several abilities, including healing, dealing special unblockable attacks, and ranged attacks. He also has a whole repertoire of stealth skills, from sneaking around to silent assassinations and even a view that will highlight the enemies to track them. Jin can parkour like some of the best protagonists. He can climb, shimmy and jump, and will eventually gain access to a grappling hook to swing around specific points. That said, it can look somewhat weird and out of place when Jin can do all this wearing full samurai gear, it doesn’t quite fit the theme.
At its core, this is an open world game so it is structured like one. There are quests scattered around the island that you go to to complete them. In this aspect, it can feel like it doesn’t do anything new. The quest design is usually generic and will eventually become tedious after going through a big chunk of the game as it boils down to several actions: combat, stealth, platforming and travelling. A lot of the times, you are forced to walk at a slow pace to listen to dialogue. The platforming is too basic as it is mostly automatic, you just need to point the analogue stick to the direction Jin needs to go and the game does the rest. The only thing that keeps the quests interesting is the story. It gives you a good reason to care and wanting to see it through to its end.
As expected, there are way too many collectibles and optional places to discover on the map. These are easily tracked on the map and thankfully, they’re not all completely pointless. Most of them usually give Jin some sort of upgrade so it’s in your interest to find them. The best part is that each of these form fast travel points, and the impressive thing is how quickly it loads when you fast travel. You get to the place within seconds rather than waiting up to a minute like other open world games.
The island is deceptively huge. When you’ve finished the first act, you come to realise that what you had access so far was… only a third of what is actually available. Once the full island is unlocked, it is impressive at how big it is and the amount of things to do. a problem with a lot of open world games is how empty the world is but that isn’t the case here. The collectibles and side missions are spaced out in a way that you’re not constantly bombarded with things, but also won’t be going on long stretches of emptiness, it’s a good balance. The graphics are naturally phenomenal, and pretty much every location is picturesque and beautiful. Unfortunately when you have Japanese voiceovers for that extra authentic feeling, the lip syncing is only to the English dialogue so it becomes distracting instead.
The game has a lot of story content. If you’re just aiming for the main story then it’s not too long but if you go for the side missions, then it’ll easily double or triple the time spent. the side missions are split into various tiers. The ones involving the supporting characters have high quality writing, so they’re as good as the main story missions. Then there are the shorter one-off side missions given by NPCs which can be easily ignored with no repercussions, as they’re mostly pointless and boring.
Jin’s journey through Tsushima is an interesting one because he starts off as a typical samurai, bound by its code that’s dominated by honor, pride and a rigid set of rules, which makes them predictable. He is forced to not completely abandon the samurai code, but at the very least, bend it. Instead of fighting head on, sometimes he has to go for stealth, hence the “ghost” moniker that he eventually gains. He travels throughout the island to gather allies to his cause, building up his reputation and followers. It’s not a straightforward story as there are some twists and turns along the way, which may come as surprises.
If you’re doing the side missions then the game can feel like it is dragging its feet with the story progression, but play just the story missions and it goes by too quickly. Regardless of the way you approach things, the last third of the game has excellent writing. It spent the time to build up strong relationships with the supporting characters via the side missions and when they’re so intertwined with the main story, it can be powerful. It takes around 30 hours to complete both the main story and the side missions, and the ending was emotionally impactful. It had the action climax of Jin fighting against the Mongols and then the emotional climax of Jin coming to terms with the methods that he has had to use in this war, in comparison with the samurai code. The final scene was legitimately tough to watch because you didn’t want it to end that way.
Overall, Ghost of Tsushima is a great game, despite its shortcomings. It has several things going for it, from the Japanese samurai theme that’s rarely done in an open world game format, to the beautiful vistas and music. There are some rougher patches, such as the generic open world mission design and pacing issues that stem from that, but the positives far outweigh the negatives. In particular, the music and atmosphere must be praised as it nails down its theme. The story, along with the side missions, are also strong contenders. All this combines into a unique experience that’s worth playing.
--------------------------------------------------
(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)