GHOST OF TSUSHIMA PS4 REVIEW

OVERVIEW:

Ghost of Tsushima, is an action-adventure open-world game, developed by Sucker Punch Productions and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment exclusively for PlayStation 4.

The game was officially released on July 17, 2020. It was supposed to originally come out on June 26, but due to Covid-19 Pandemic, the release got delayed.

After completing Infamous: First Light, the team of Sucker Punch Productions wanted to create another open-world game, which would allow the players to make their own choices throughout the game. As a result of this, there are no specific waypoints in the Ghost of Tsushima, and let the players explore the game.

The game is set on Tsushima island, and is based on the Mongol invasion of Japan in 13th century. The game is very diverse and features different areas and landscapes, such as, fields, forests, villages, shrines, temples, grasslands, mountains, etc.

All in all, the amazing graphics, stunning visuals and the background score created by  Ilan Eshkeri and Shigeru Umebayashi, are more than enough to create an immersive experience.

PLOT AND CHARACTERS:

In 1274, a Mongolian Fleet led by Khotun Khan (Patrick Gallagher/Tsutomu Isobe), invades the island of Tsushima.

The samurais of the island led by Lord Shimura (Eric Steinberg/Akio Ōtsuka), fight bravely against the Mongolians, but due to lack of manpower, the samurai army looses the battle and gets killed.

After the devastating defeat, Lord Shimura is captured by the Mongolians at Castle Kaneda, while his nephew Jin Sakai (Daisuke Tsuji/Kazuya Nakai), who is the protagonist of the story, suffers greivious injuries and is left to die.

However, Jin is rescued and healed by a thief named, Yuna (Sumalee Montano/Yu Mizuno), who expects him to save her brother in return of the favor. But Jin after getting informed about the fall of Tsushima to the Mongolians and capturing of Lord Shimura, decides to attack Castle Kaneda. Jin faces Khotun Khan in a combat, gets beaten and is thrown of a bridge.

Jin realizes that he can defeat the Mongolians all by himself or with his traditional samurai techniques. Therefore, he decides to scout the island and look for allies who would help him to rescue Lord Shimura and defeat the Mongolians.

He manages to recruit Yuna, and her brother Taka (Eddie Shin/Kappei Yamaguchi), devious merchant Kenji (James Hiroyuki Liao/Setsuji Sato), master archer Ishikawa (François Chau/Shigeru Chiba), female samurai Masako Adachi (Lauren Tom/Mabuki Ando), and his old friend and mercenary Ryuzo (Leonard Wu/Youhei Tadano) with his Straw Hat rōnin.

While doing so, he adapts to a new stealth technique where, he would silent kill his enemies. In the beginning he was slightly apprehensive in practicing such a technique as it was against the samurai honor, but due the predicament he was in he had to do it.

Using this new technique Jin manages to break down and disrupt various Mongolian camps and liberate villages, because of which locals start referring to him as “GHOST“.

Later, along with his allies, Jin manages to reclaim Castle Kaneda and rescue Lord Shimura. But due to destitute and starvation, Ryozo and his Straw Hat rōnin betray Jin and join hands with Khan to claim the bounty on the head of Jin Sakai and also help Khan to capture Castle Shimura.

In order to retake, Castle Shimura, Jin recruits Norio (Earl T. Kim/Mitsuaji Lanuka), a Buddhist warrior monk and his men along with Yarikawa clan. On the other hand, Lord Shimura sends a local pirate Goro to deliver a message to the Shogun to send reinforcements.

Jin learns a skill to craft poison by Yuriko (Karen Huie/Yuri Tabata), clan elderly’s caretaker, and heads during the night to confront Ryuzo but is captured by the Mongolians along with Taka. Khan kills Taka as a punishment after Jin refuses to surrender. However, Jin is able to escape with Yuna’s help.

After the arrival of reinforcements, Lord Shimura makes a full blown attack on Castle Shimura. But Khotun Khan uses some unconventional tactics due which the Japanese suffer a lot of casualities. Realizing that more lives could suffer, Jin resorts to his Ghost techniques and poisons the Mongolians, kills Ryuzo in a combat and retakes Castle Shimura.

Lord Shimura gets furious with his nephew’s conduct, arrests him for being the Ghost, and decides to surrender him to the Shogun for execution as punishment. But after knowing Khan’s whereabouts, Jin escapes the prison, gathers his allies again for an assault at Port Izumi and eventually kills Khotun Khan.

In the end, Jin and his uncle Lord Shimura reminiscing about what they both have lost, battle each other, with Jin being victorious, and having a choice of either sparing his uncle or giving him a warrior’s death just like Lord Shimura always wanted.

Regardless of the decision, Jin Sakai has to live the rest of his life on the run as a wanted man, as the Ghost of Tshushima.

GAMEPLAY:

Ghost of Tsushima is an action-adventure open-world game, played with a third-person perspective. Despite being an open world game, there are no specific waypoints that allows players to explore the map of Tsushima.

Player can travel across the island on horse and even challenge single or multiple enemies for fights. The players have the option to use different weapons such as Katana (Japanese sword), Kunai, grappling hook, bombs, poison, bow and flammable arrows, etc.

The combat of the game is simply amazing with tons of upgrades. There are four different kinds of battle stances which get unlocked as you progress in the game. Players would have to switch between stances and use different combinations of moves and weapons to win a fight.

However, the stealth of the game is something where Sucker Punch should have worked on more. The sneaky attacks are not only extremely easy but often times become too repetitive as well, especially if you have come out of playing games like The last of Us Part II. The artificial intelligence really needs to improve in that department.

Apart from that, the side quests are also not too impressive. Liberating villages, destroying Mongol camps, rescuing locals and getting into duals with multiple camp leaders, make things too monotonous.

Though the boss fights and duals are the highlights of the game, Ghost of Tsushima overall, is not so difficult even at lethal level, where the only way to make the game challenging by the developers was to give multiple enemies with different moves.

FINAL VERDICT:

Ghost of Tsushima has stunning graphics, immersive visuals and an amazing story line, which definitely makes the game quiet intriguing.

At times during the campaign, you might feel that its a combination of titles such as, Uncharted, God of War, The Witcher and most importantly Assassin’s Creed.

The sword fights are fantastic and would surely take you to the ancient samurai world, especially the boss fights. However, Sucker Punch could have avoided some of the bots and glitches, that you are very likely to find quiet often in the game.

All in all, Ghost of Tsushima could have been a masterpiece, if there were more cut scenes and better artificial intelligence as far as the stealth gameplay is concerned, as it would have justified the title of the game even more.