By far one of my favorite games of 2020 for sure and winner of several “best of” awards throughout the gaming industry. The style and authentic feeling story was a joy to behold and the tight sword play stay entertaining throughout. The story follows Jin Sakai through what amounts to a classic tale of revenge and family drama. It is an open world master piece that is made by a lesser known studio called Sucker Punch. What they did with the subject material and the visual aesthetic is simply brilliant.
Long story short, I devoured this game. I have always connected deeply with the ancient far east culture. I took a traditional form of martial arts as a kid and I got a lot out of it. I have taken the teachings of my karate training and fascination with the Japanese culture with me throughout my life. Not that this has any to do with the game but I connected deeply with the feel and vision of the game. This game let me live out my fantasies of being a samurai warrior. I don’t know why this time and setting is usually skipped in modern gaming unless it’s strategy games or the Dynasty Warriors series. There was Tenchu Stealth Assassins back in the day.. and Bushido Blade.. we’re talking old school PlayStation 1 here. like 1995. There may be some other great samurai subject games out there but those are some of the ones that come to mind and they aren’t even necessarily “Samurai” games like Ghost of Tsushima stake out to be. This game is literally a Japanese Samurai / Samurai movie simulator.
The main character is Jin Sakai. He is an honorable samurai from a noble clan who is forced to do less than honorable things to keep his homeland and his people safe. The games art style is where it really shines. This game is absolutely beautiful and it really shines in the aesthetic department. Sucker Punch used super rich contrast and color pallets so all of the scenes look like they could be a painting or out of a graphics demo. I am playing on the OG PS4 which at this point is like a 7 year old system but i was surprised how the massive world and depth of colors played well together. The game ran smoothly and loading screens were fairly short from what you would expect from a game of this sheer size.
Everything about the game was superbly Samurai. While I don’t know how historically accurate or true some of the conflict is, I did enjoy the various romps through the world and the side characters you meet tell interesting mini stories within the main narrative. I spent easily over a hundred hours in the game and I completed pretty much everything I am fairly close to a Platinum trophy.
The game has some repetitive elements toward the end stretch. If you are seeking trophies or achievements you will be doing the same things over and over. Luckily this game is absolutely beautiful so going to random locations and the far ends of the map are fairly entertaining in their own right. This is pretty standard in many large and long open world type games. There is always the first part where you feel overwhelmed and then you get side tracked from the main story and over level yourself then once you are bored of all of that you are like, “oh yeah there is still a whole main story arch to finish” That’s more or less what happened with me and this game. Some of the larger games of recent memory (coughs AC Odyssey coughs) have definitely dragged on. Like they could have been 20 less hours and still been phenomenal games.
Ghost of Tsushima drags a little bit for sure but it’s not as bad as some of the other games out there. It’s definitely worth seeing to it’s conclusion though. there are some memorable parts at least for me there were.
Once you beat the game, sucker punch released a free update that let’s you team up with other human players and fight gauntlets of demons. The art style is a bit different and the expansion kinda delves into the myths and demons of Japanese culture. At least it seemed like it to me. The art definitely looked darker. I haven’t played the expansion except for a couple of matches but I plan to once I get back into the game to get that Platinum trophy.
Overall this game is excellent and worthy of your money and time if yo like the open world style of game. It doesn’t do anything super new in terms of innovation on the formula but what they do with the world and the colors and the stories is absolutely superb. Not to mention a full multiplayer mode added on after the fact, Ghost of Tsushima is a no brainer and a must play if you enjoy anything Samurai or ancient Japan.