Ghost of Tsushima Review

I don’t know if things have actually gotten better, but it’s starting to feel like more people are rallying to the anti-racist protests and taking a stand against the authoritarian violence. Hopefully, things will continue to improve and people will continue to join the cause of justice. As much as it might seem like it, this week’s game, Ghost of Tsushima, wasn’t inspired by the political unrest in modern America, with a charismatic celebrity rallying the people against a brutal conqueror, but honestly I just wanted to play a cool samurai game. On top of that, it’s been a while since I’ve played a big budget release and I wanted to see how the big dogs were doing. I was a little surprised with what I found.

Ghost of Tsushima tells the story of Jin Sakai, a samurai lord on the island of Tsushima in Japan fighting against a Mongol invasion led by the warlord Khotun Khan. After a disastrous first encounter in which almost every samurai on the island is slain by the invaders, Jin must work with peasants, thieves, mercenaries and the few surviving nobles of Tsushima to repel the Mongol forces. Though it drapes itself in history, Ghost of Tsushima is nearly entirely fictional. While there was a Mongol invasion of Tsushima in 1274, that invasion was defeated after four days thanks to miraculous typhoons that scattered the Mongol forces. But Ghost of Tsushima isn’t interested in historical accuracy and instead focuses on replicating samurai movies, chiefly the works of Akira Kurosawa. This means Ghost of Tsushima takes a different direction than many other video games, and sometimes it even works out.

I think my favorite element of Ghost of Tsushima’s pursuit of cinematic aesthetics is something that a lot of people won’t think is that cool. In most open world games, either players have no way to set waypoints and plan travel routes or there is some method that typically involves the player keeping their eyes on the in-game mini map for directions and ignoring the scenery or features some big, glowing interface object like an arrow. Ghost of Tsushima, with its emphasis on mimicking cinematic scene composition, takes a more subtle approach: the Guiding Wind. Implied to be the spirit of Jin’s late father, a wind will persistently direct the player to their destination as a gentle breeze but can be made more pronounced by swiping up on the controller’s touch pad. This sometimes takes the form of stylized wind gusts, but is mostly represented by the apparently unlimited amount of leaves, sticks, and bugs hanging in the air of Tsushima. I love this because it keeps my eyes on the action, is extremely useful and easy to use while not being intrusive. The movie inspiration can be found in the combat as well, especially in the game’s Standoff sequences. In most, if not all, samurai movies, the protagonist will face down a foe, swapping glares with the opponent for several tense seconds before dispatching them with a single strike. In Ghost of Tsushima, whenever Jin approaches enemies, the player can engage a Standoff. Once in the Standoff, the player must hold down one button, staring down the enemy, until the exact moment they move to attack at which point Jin will kill the enemy in one strike. Not only does this look great, but it’s also a fantastic gameplay tool. I loved using this move to eliminate the toughest enemies in a group because it both looked and felt awesome to eviscerate enormous enemies in a duel. Nearly all of the combat captures a portion of this flavor to help the player feel like super cool movie heroes, but it’s in its most pure form in Standoffs.

Sadly, Ghost of Tsushima’s dedication to film doesn’t always work and the worst part of this, much like the best, is something that others might not notice. When Jin is traveling the island, a yellow songbird will sometimes fly alongside him, occasionally chirping as it attempts to lead Jin to one of the game’s many secret locations. I actually really hated this because, when it works, it robs the player of the joy of finding the secrets themselves, and when it doesn’t work, the bird will constantly fly into a wall or cliff, chirping over and over. Obviously being bugged is unenjoyable, but it’s worse when the bird functions correctly. In Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, I got so much fun out of wandering around and stumbling on something new and exciting, and part of that fun was knowing that I had found it myself without any help. This stupid little bird ruins that feeling, instead butting in whenever Jin gets in the vicinity of a cool discovery and then leads him by the hand. It’s the pain of working hard on something you’re proud of, only to have some jerk take over at the last minute and take all the credit. But my problems with Ghost of Tsushima don’t end with some discount Tweety. A big problem I had was that the island of Tsushima is big and packed full of things to do, but I never wanted to do most of them. There are 12 kinds of collectibles scattered across the island, which is way too many to begin with, and so many of them feel pointless. The worst of these are activities Jin must accomplish numerous times to see any benefit, such as visiting fox spirit shrines, which allow Jin to equip more special magic talismans. After visiting the first of these shrines, Jin must hunt down and visit multiple shrines to see any additional benefit. None of these are easy to find, so when I finally did track one down, it was deflating to be told that I needed to find four more before I got anything out of it. There are also special pillars, non-fox spirit shrines, hot springs, lighthouses, and special haiku zones all to visit. Additionally, Jin can search the island for new hats, war banners, items of Mongolian culture, various written works, and crickets. Most of these things do nothing beyond change how Jin looks a bit, and some don’t even do that. This task flotsam clogs up Ghost of Tsushima, and it doesn’t help that most of the game’s side missions are pretty repetitive.

Since I cover indie games most of the time, I will occasionally start to romanticize about big budget games, but Ghost of Tsushima does a pretty good job of reminding me big budgets and high public expectations can really sour a game. There is a better, smaller game hidden in Ghost of Tsushima but unfortunately it’s weighed down by unnecessary extras and run of the mill mission types. I think if you don’t have a Switch, or if you do and you’re all done with Breath of the Wild, you could check out Ghost of Tsushima, but get it for less than $60.

Buy this game on sale

It’s worth playing, just not at the price they’re asking