Ghost of Tsushima, a glorious ending to PlayStation 4 exclusive era by Sony and Sucker Punch.

SUMMARY AND PREMISE
Ghost of Tsushima is an action-adventure game developed by Sucker Punch Productions and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The game is released in 2020 and serves as Sony final exclusive game for PlayStation 4 console.
The premise tells the fictional story of Jin Sakai, a young samurai warrior from Tsushima Island set in 1274 in his war against the Mongol Empire invasion against Japan. After a failed assault to fend off the first wave of the Mongol Army that resulted with the samurai forces being obliterated, his uncle, the Jito Lord Shimura being captured, and Jin himself almost getting killed, his finds his unwavering view of the samurai code is compromised as he further witnesses the brutality of the Mongols against his people as he journeys across the island.
In his travel across Tsushima, gathering allies and liberating the island from Mongol forces, he begins to gain control and retaking the island one region at a time. His exploits among the Mongols and Japanese alike are starting to create a legend and rumors, that he is a samurai revenant that comes back from the dead to battle and kill the Mongol with no mercy and no limit, known as The Ghost.
The premise seems exciting isn't it? A samurai game where you can free roam in an open world environment, exploring the vast map of Tsushima Island, and battling Mongol army in an action packed quests and story. Back in 2021 when I first bought my PlayStation 4, this game was literally the first one that I played, it took more than a month to complete 100% of the game. And it was genuinely one of the best single-player gaming experience that I have ever had. But what makes Ghost of Tsushima being such a great game to complete the PS4 era with flying colors and even get nomination for 2020 Game of the Year Award? Here is the review.
1. Gameplay
Surely we cannot start a proper game review, without talking about the gameplay first right? The gameplay of GoT revolves around the protagonist, Jin Sakai as he travels the Tsushima Island to fight Mongols invasion. At the early stages of the story, Jin's way of fighting is very straightforward and strict, he merely uses his katana blade. But as the story progresses and we as the player experience Jin's transformation from the honorable samurai lord to the ruthless Ghost, the combat mechanic also change significantly. He is able to use bows with various arrow head for ranged combat, he can use short blade or tanto to assassinate enemies, or poison, bombs, kunai, and other unconventional weapons to fight the enemies. These two way of fighting, referenced in game as "the way of the samurai" and "the way of the ghost" is entirely optional for the player.
Both fighting mode is actually really fun and feels fluid, whether you duel the enemies head on as a samurai warrior, or act like the Ghost and strike from the shadows, these two combat mechanics are very exciting and challenging to a point where while playing you have to think of what better way to finish the mission and defeat the enemy. In simpler words, the combat is not merely hack and slash where you just spam buttons and get kills left and right.
For example, in sword duels. If the enemy strikes with certain technique and they either miss their mark, or you get to block, dodge, or parry their attack, it would leave their defenses open and you can hit a critical strike to severely injure, or kill them at once. For me, I personally prefers this kind of combat mechanic where you have to play smart in order to win, instead of just button spamming. The sword fight also features several stances to pick for to go up against various enemies, all have their own ups and downs in combat, but extremely effective if used correctly, enabling us, the player to win fights in a brief period of time.
https://youtu.be/kSAvzeopPC8 - Example of combat gameplay using proper technique
2. The story and characters
As the premise goes, this game tells the story of samurai named Jin Sakai, fighting to liberate his island from the invaders. And what simply starts as what we might think as a regular action-adventure game, it develops itself in a way that is very interesting and deeper. The conflict portrayed is not only between the Japanese samurai and the Mongol army, but also within the protagonist himself, Jin Sakai. Jin is a samurai, trained and indoctrinated according to the bushido by his uncle, Lord Shimura. His uncle has taught him his whole life that a samurai must fight with honor, and not by hiding in the shadows. This shapes Jin as a warrior that he is, until he witnessed how fighting as a samurai only is not enough to defeat the invaders, he must adapt and be more unconventional, be unpredictable to a certain degree that even the Mongols feared him because there is no telling of what he will do next.
Pic 3 - Jin Sakai in his "Ghost" armor after killing a Mongol soldier. The armor is depicted to make Jin appears terrifying and inhuman to the enemy, complete with demonic samurai mask and dark color.
And sure, this new method of more "pragmatic" fighting quickly enabling Jin to seize control back from the Mongols and liberate regions of his island, but what he may not yet realized is that his new path actually the ones that his uncle condemns, a path of the shadows, striking from behind and terrorizing the enemy into believing that he is not a mere human, but a revenant. This spurs into an internal conflict that Jin must face in person, alongside the already existing conflict against the invaders. Deep down, he knows that his uncle is only trying to protect him, but on the other side, his duty to help people fight the invaders with any way possible has become a path that he chose, and he cannot just abandon that responsibility.
Pic 4 - Jin Sakai and his uncle Lord Shimura. Their relationship and dynamics regarding principles and honor becomes the main point of this game story progression and character developments.
The dynamics between Sakai and Shimura is very interesting, a young man faced with such great adversity, forced to dismantle his mindset and everything he knows to survive in a war that is impossible to win if he did not adapt, and an old man, stands firm and absolute in his principle of honor, yet blind to the possibility of another path to save his own people. This conflict further creates rift between the two men and culminating in them splitting apart and disowning each other as family. At the end of the game, Jin fully embrace his identity as the Ghost and leaving behind his uncle that was the only family he had left, all because of the consequences of the war. This game truly shows the impact of war, not only to the land itself, but to the people despite of their status within the society.
Pic 5 - Khotun Khan, the primary antagonist and Mongol commander. Depicted as a man with equal brutality and intelligence, capable of terrible violence, yet also skilled in politics and cultural studies.
Then there is the antagonist, Khotun Khan, a Mongol Khan with ambitions to conquer Japan and build a legacy on his own name. A man with large physical stature and terrifying combat prowess. Yet Sucker Punch doesn't just made his character a dumb brute stereotype with violent and psychopathic behavior. He is also an intelligent warlord, claiming to have learned Japanese culture and lead an invasion with such equal atrocities and precision, that he decimated the entire island of Tsushima in a brief period of time, leaving our protagonist in his quest to liberate his homeland. The way Khan is portrayed as the main villain is not one-dimensional, this gives him certain depth as a character that as the player, we begin to understand his motivation and his cunning trait along with the stories progression.
The story is evolving and more interesting as the game progresses, it builds up momentum by introducing even more characters around our protagonist and antagonist in a way that actually complements the plot, not just merely existing as side characters.
3. Environment and world-building
The environment in Ghost of Tsushima is nothing short of natural beauty. As the developer said themselves that they did the best they could in giving the sense of Japanese island complete with it's diverse scenery like the forest, plain grasslands, hills & mountains, rivers & lakes, villages, and all sorts of thing that you might expect to be designed properly as they should be in an open world game, Ghost of Tsushima nailed them all. This allows the player to capture some of the best views of the game with the in-game photo mode too.
Pic 6 - Jin rides with his horse, Kaze through grass fields in the sunset. The game's world design is able to produce such amazing view that is just too good to be missed.
The ambient sound of the environments, like the wind blowing through grass fields and forest leaves, the river, lake, and waterfall seems to be designed to complement the music / soundtrack. The soundtracks in this game is honestly a perfect fit, to the story, the environments, the combat, and everything. It complements the stuff that is happening in game and it just works so well.
The cultural elements are also preserved and portrayed as accurate as it could be to the medieval Japanese period of that time. The depiction of the Shinto (Japanese native religion) and the symbolism happening in the world when some sort of spiritual element is introduced to the plot is very immaculate. For example, if Jin paid respect to a shinto shrine on a stormy weather, the sky will turns clear, sort of indicating a blessing from the Kami (gods). These kinds of small details is what makes Ghost of Tsushima a very well-designed game and the community appreciated it.
4. Summaries of the good and the bad.
What I personally admire from Ghost of Tsushima is that this is a game made by foreigners, by Americans about Japanese history and culture, and they somehow managed to pull it off very well, and I highly respect that about Sucker Punch, they did their homework, they did their research and it paid off. They successfully made a game with great qualities that serves as the final PS4 exclusive in 2020 and seal the legacy of PS4 as one of the finest era of console generation.
The way Ghost of Tsushima presents the plot and the conflict and the choices players have to make without exactly affecting the grand scheme of the story itself is pretty amazing to me. Because if the players decision start affecting the story, it just becomes another RPG (role playing game) and I feel it will not fits so well with this game. I'm glad it becomes the way it is, a single-player action adventure that is enjoyable with beautiful views, exciting gameplay, and great stories.
Yet as good as it is, I have to be quite objective here. What I dislike about Ghost of Tsushima is the lack of mission replay or quest replay. So after you finished the game or the mission, that's it. You don't get to play it again. It's a one way journey, even after the game is entirely completed. Because to be honest, some of the missions are actually very great and after the game is done, you're just kind of doing nothing, just roaming around, fighting some remnants of the Mongol army or bandit, and taking photos. Spider-Man - Miles Morales, also released in 2020, actually tackles this issue by allowing mission replay after the game is finished. And the enemy AI interaction sometimes feel less realistic, especially the minor NPC enemies, this makes certain random combat encounters feel awkward.
And there are also certain historical inaccuracies going on with the story, for example the Mongol forces is not defeated in island of Tsushima by the samurai, they literally managed to devastate the island in a brief period of time after starting the invasion, ransack and pillage it, and then move on the Japanese mainland, only to have their fleet completely destroyed by a storm as they sail to the mainland. But these inaccuracies are somewhat forgivable, because the devs only take the historical period and event as the base set for their game, and you have to give credit to them for actually making it as fine looking as it is, despite the inaccuracies, which I just consider the creative liberties of the developers.
5. Closure
So, to sum it all up. That would be my complete review about Ghost of Tsushima. I hope it provides some insight to the modern PS gaming world. It really is a great opportunities being able to play Ghost of Tsushima, or even owning and playing PS4 games in general for that matter. Looking forward to some of the finest PS4 titles to play and get my hands on.
Oh, and don't forget to check out additional reviews on the game by some well-known gaming media, like IGN and Polygon here to give further insight on the game. Click the link below.
Thanks for coming here, have a good day, people!
#GhostOfTsushima
#PlayStation4
#SuckerPunch
Comments
Post a Comment