4.5/5 ★ – bokonon764's review of Ghost of Tsushima.

Ah, the critically acclaimed Ghost of Tsushima. I was hesitant to play this because I’m kinda sick of this kind of game. I did get tired of this game at times, but it’s pretty fuckin rad. It’s not doing anything crazy or new or out of the box; just your typical open world game done reeeeallly fucking well. Ghost of Tsushima is the story of a samurai noble named Jin Sakai. His story unfolds in the middle of the real life historical Mongol invasion of Japan, though the tale is a fictional one. I gotta say, I was well invested in this one. It hit some cliche plot points here and there, some predictable beats, but who cares, good stories do that sometimes. It’s funny how multiple developers who made the mascot platformers of my childhood and adolescence eventually went on to create dramatic story games. Naughty Dog, Insomniac, and now Sucker Punch. GoT still feels like a Sucker Punch game, in more ways than one. I played several Sucker Punch titles, all the Sly Cooper games and all the Infamous games, and you can really tell that this is still the same developer. The platforming mechanics of Ghost of Tsushima are bar none amongst its semi-open world peers; I felt the same way about Infamous and Sly Cooper before it. I never groaned when I saw another climbing sequence or some trees to jump on, it was a delight. Ghost of Tsushima also avoided something that really tanked Horizon: Forbidden West for me: it never had you platforming in confined spaces. I swear to god, every other point of interest in the Horizon sequels map had me in a cave or a ruin. This game is so fucking elegant. It’s an open world game in the vein of certain Ubisoft titles, as well as The Witcher 3, the aforementioned Horizon, Red Dead, etc., but the screen is never littered with waypoints, mini maps, or health bars. In fact, waypoints only appear when you get close to an objective, the health bar and “resolve” meter (reminiscent of Sekiro) only appears during combat, and a small icon appears to show players what they’ve just picked up. Other than that, nothing. Just the island of Tsushima’s beautiful terrain, the wind guiding you where to go, and Mongol invaders soon to fall to your blade. Speaking of the wind guiding you, there’s a system called “guiding wind” in this game, it’s a really cool navigation system, just to give that a quick shoutout. You can use the guiding wind to point in the direction of collectibles, missions, points of interest, a custom area on the map…return to the game, and a strong wind blowing flower petals, embers and leaves blows past you in the direction you want to go. The game also aids finding secrets through yellow birds that fly around near points of interest. There’s also an early-obtained armor set that has the controller rumble and a firefly light up when close to secrets. Elegant as fuck. The elegance extends into combat. There’s no lock-on icon, or visual cues that an enemy is going to attack. Red x’s do appear for strong attacks, but that’s about it. The devs employed a sort of Arkham style combat system, letting you juggle multiple different styles of opponents. Early on, it was a little difficult to attack specific opponents; I played on hard mode or whatever it’s called, and after a forgiving learning curve, combat was a challenging, yet pleasant breeze. I almost felt a little too over powered a little too early on, which is a bummer, but nothing wrong with an easier game every once in awhile. Keep in mind, I came off of an Elden Ring playthrough into this game, so gauge whether this would be a tough game for you on that note. Unfortunately, this game does fall into a sort of monotonous grind, as you go from one point on the map to another. Each combat encounter begins pretty similarly, same with liberating villages. I like playing grindier parts of games like this while listening to music or whatever, and then make sure to focus my attention on the story parts. Even with that, it can get pretty boring; that’s just how I feel about games like this in general. Although, it’s saving grace in that respect is it’s more minimalist approach; fewer types of upgrade resources, no inundation of fetch quests…so monotonous, yes, overbearing, yes, but side quests are just that. On the side and completely optional. I really wanted to fully complete this game, so I did them all, but I didn’t really enjoy some of them. Although the side quests, or “Tales” as they’re called, are a little monotonous, there are some that truly sing. There are a few character specific series of quests that span portions of the game, the entire game in some instances. The characters and stories featured in these quests are incredible, that kind of storytelling magic that only exists in videogames. There hasn’t been a will-they-or-won’t-they quite like Jin and Yuna that I’ve ever been invested in. Masako is a fucking queen, I love her, and Jin’s loyalty and dedication to her cause is so steadfast, it even survives a physical altercation. I could listen to Jin and Ishikawa argue philosophy for days. Though Ghost of Tsushima is a tale of brutal violence and revenge, it maintains this aforementioned elegance even in its story; a huge part of this is attributed to its protagonist Jin. There’s nothing to crazy or new goin on with Jin. Just a well designed, well drawn character. He’s austere a man totally devoted to the protection of his home and its people. The game gives you choices with what Jin thinks about while soaking in the hot springs, let’s you decide his responses in the classic horse riding conversations, which haiku lines he writes…yes, Jin slaughters his enemies and writes haiku. Jin feels refreshing, but also like a stereotype I’m all too used to at the same time…a perfect videogame protagonist. I’m not sure if cinematography is the right term, but whatever game equivalent there is of cinematography, it’s brilliant in Ghost of Tsushima. Voice acting is solid; there’s an option between English and Japanese, I went with the Japanese. There’s even a “Kurosawa” mode, where the game is in black and white. And the score! Ilan Eshkiri and Shigeru Umebayashi, the games composers, really outdid themselves, Hollywood blockbuster level shit. On the gamier side, certain jingles, flute trills, swells, play when you get close to certain secrets and points of interest. The beautiful score with the wind blowing through the grass while Jin threatens and punks the next horde of Mongols…truly great. At the end of the day, I might have my little nitpicks, but Ghost of Tsushima fucking delivers. Such a beautiful and brutal experience. If you like some of the games I mentioned, Red Dead, Horizon, Sekiro, God of War, The Witcher…the intersectionality of the open world game is on full display in this installment of the sub-genre. You like any of those games, you’ll like this one.