4.5/5 ★ – DanTheBruv's review of Ghost of Tsushima.

Difficulty: Normal Platform: PS4 Fuck this game was insanely beautiful. I'll admit, The Last of Us Part II has it beat purely on realistic graphics but visually, I gotta say, I prefer Ghost in that regard. It's not the most realistic looking game in the world but it's got its own kind of visual style that just POPS. I mean it's the most colourful game I've played in a while honestly, the open world is gorgeous and I think I prefer the terrain to other open world games like Red Dead 2, which I also loved. It's insanely fun to explore the island of Tsushima and each location is fucking stunning honestly. Speaking of fun, the combat is so fucking fluid and enjoyable to learn and pull off. It's not the most difficult game in the world, I'll admit but pulling off a string of badass samurai moves on a crowd of Mongols is so godamned satisfying and also feels and looks so natural and fluid, the combat animations are insanely good, honestly. The progression system is really great here too, you slowly get better and better as you go along and get more skill points and it never feels too slow or too fast when progressing and getting more powerful. The game is very rewarding for your exploration and choice to engage in side quests. I personally chose to put aside the main missions every now and again to go unlock some new gear or moves in some side missions and I genuinely had a lot of fun. The world building is great in a lot of these side quests and it makes the history and culture of this island and its people feel so much more alive and real. I do have one complaint however, in comparison to other games of this era and even some older games, Ghost of Tsushima's AI is kind of bad, in allies, citizens and enemies. After playing games like Red Dead 2 and The Last of Us 2, the AI's intelligence is honestly really questionable here. I genuinely did enjoy pulling off a lot of stealth in the game but it's extremely easy to fool the enemies sometimes and after playing TLOU2, they feel all the more stupid. In comparison to RDR2 as well, the interactions with people around the world feel more empty. Red Dead's communication with them wasn't insanely intuitive but it was at least something, y'know? Ghost on the other hand just has nothing like that, everyone around the world just kind of stands there and there's nobody wandering around the world aside from the occasional Mongol with a hostage, which all feel the same anyway. If the game decided to have NPC's roaming the map, it would've made Tsushima feel even more alive. Also having allies wanting me to meet them in different locations to start a mission when they're right in front of me, it pulls me right out of the immersion honestly. Other than the dumb AI and bland NPCs though, Ghost's world definitely is beautiful and I thoroughly enjoyed exploring and going through it, especially taking advantage of its insanely good photo mode with its animated environments which allow for so much more creativity than in other games - I really appreciate that kind of thing and I honestly used Ghost's photo mode more than any other game's. Something I wasn't initially sure on but ended up really liking was the way you find your way around the map. At first, looking at trailers, j thought I was gonna get lost in Tsushima all the time which I imagined was gonna be frustrating. But the use of guiding winds and creatures to follow to find artifacts and places of interest just made the game so much more immersive than a mini-map would have and I think more games should try this kind of thing in future. I also really liked the customisation options in this game, the different armours, masks and helmets were all pretty creative and I had a great time mixing and matching different stuff depending on my mood or goals in the game, the different perks different armours give you offers something unique depending on your in game fashion or general play style. The charm mixing and matching also came in handy, giving me options to switch them out depending on what I was doing. I found it extremely handy to be able to switch out different charms for offence and defence ones when I came to facing the Khan, which is actually the one time the game was kinda challenging, I enjoyed that section more than any other and it made me wish there was more challenging boss fights in the main story, although some side quest duels were a little challenging too, I guess. and helmets were all pretty creative and I had a great time mixing and matching different stuff depending on my mood or goals in the game, the different perks different armours give you offers something unique depending on your in game fashion or general play style. The charm mixing and matching also came in handy, giving me options to switch them out depending on what I was doing. I found it extremely handy to be able to switch out different charms for offence and defence ones when I came to facing the Khan, which is actually the one time the game was kinda challenging, I enjoyed that section more than any other and it made me wish there was more challenging boss fights in the main story, although some side quest duels were a little challenging too, I guess. Now, the story, it isn't the best I've ever encountered, not by a long shot and if I'm honest the facial animations could use some work to get the emotions across more. But from the basic and kind of mediocre beginning to the narrative, it actually ended up morphing into something pretty great in the end. At first, I thought Jin was a kind of bland and boring protagonist but as I got to spend more time with him and experience the story as he does, he becomes so much more in depth and his conflict between his honourable upbringing and breaking his code to save Tsushima is honestly really godamn compelling. The side characters are all really well developed, especially if you do all of their side missions as they pop up like I did. And their interactions with and influence on Jin really make his personal journey and transformation into the Ghost all the more emotionally impactful and challenging. The end of the story especially hit me hard and Ghost of Tsushima actually gets the honour of being a game that made me cry, because godamn the ending is fucking impactful. It's the perfect conclusion to Jin's journey and I personally chose the option to kill Shimura instead of spare since I felt it made the most narrative sense. The performance Jin's actor gives in that scene is fucking outstanding if I'm honest and while I thought his delivery in the beginning was kind of flat, his expressions in his voice get all the better as the game progresses and his cries in the end were fucking powerful as shit, I think that's the point though. Jin's delivery gets more and more emotional as the story goes on. I also appreciate the three act structure that's also split up into three distinct sections on the map. It helped organise the story more and gave it more flow and better structure, something I think is done better here than in RDR2 or The Last of Us 2, which I felt both had kind of messy pacing at times, TLOU2 especially. Ghost is well organised in pacing and structure, giving a well done and emotionally impactful story with great performances and well developed characters. Although, I do think the Khan could've been a better villain, but it's honestly probably historically accurate to real Mongol warlords so it's whatever I guess. It's a story of sacrifice and devotion to a cause, no matter what the cost and it genuinely becomes heartbreaking in the end. I loved Ghost's story, combat and exploration that much that I chose to do every single thing the game had to offer, I've 100%ed it and gotten the platinum because I enjoyed it that much and I feel so godamn fulfilled, which is why it's my GOTY over The Last of Us Part II, just because I didn't feel complete after that game, or completely satisfied with what they did, although I did still like it. Ghost of Tsushima left me feeling fully satisfied with pretty much everything, the story especially. I honestly will probably play it again later down the line for a New Game +, and I'll probably choose the other option at the end of the story just to see what happens. The only thing I might've liked more is maybe an honour system like in RDR2, where your actions choose whether you become the Ghost to save Tsushima or not, and that would've impacted the ending. Maybe giving a player choice to either sacrifice everything to save the island or stick to your code and having that change the ending would've given actions more weight but perhaps the sacrifice is the point of the story so I respect the way they did it too. Anyway, I absolutely loved pretty much every aspect of this game, I think it's gorgeous as shit with a genuinely good story and characters as well as fun as fuck combat with great exploration and skill progression as well as a wide variety of customisation options. My only complaint is the AI, but it's not a deal-breaker and everything else makes up for it. I loved Ghost's style and I really enjoyed it as a samurai game too, it was fucking awesome and is without a doubt my GOTY, I'll be playing it again eventually, perhaps in B&W and I'll pick the other ending. Fucking awesome and beautiful game, I loved it even more than I thought I would. Absolutely worth every penny and every second of my time. 4.5/5⭐ 9.5/10 Overall - 9.33/10 [Reviewed on Playthrough #01]