Ghost of Tsushima was honored this past week at PlayStation’s CES press conference for hitting 8 million copies sold, a great milestone for any first-party console exclusive and a first time IP.
I fell in love with this game immediately when I played it and lost myself in its world over and over again until I completed it to its fullest. It quickly became one of my favorite games of all time, enough to where I bought art pieces inspired by the game’s settings.
So I am going to celebrate it as well.
Ghost of Tsushima is a game filled with great action, compelling storylines, memorable moments for characters and a vast world to explore that completely transports you to its setting.
For all the people that begged for an Assassin’s Creed game set in feudal Japan, this game is completely for you, but instead of some convoluted bullshit storyline of reconstructing the past or whatever Assassin’s Creed is about, it focuses on a man wrestling with betraying the honor of his noble family, protecting the people he was sworn to and defending his home.
It is the closest thing to a samurai film that a game has ever gotten to, even including a mode to change to black and white to reflect this. It hits that feeling and mark so well.
There are character moments all throughout this game that will hit home and have you rooting for everyone involved. The writing is just so well done and fits the world perfectly. Jin Sakai is that guy.
Speaking of the world, the island of Tsushima is realized perfectly with so much care taken to make an accurate portrayal. Sucker Punch, the studio that made the game, even went to the island for months to extensively study the environment and culture.
You can see a lot of the photos I’ve taken in the slideshow I made for this article:
There are so many places to discover and secrets to find that the typical rpg feeling of crossing locations and places off the list doesn’t ever feel like a chore. It was just another great opportunity to find something new to wonder at.
The scenery is beautiful and I would often stop to take pictures with the photo mode implemented in game. Be it the nature in game, a massive pagoda or statue, or the ocean, I was constantly enamored with all the variety and color of the world.
The gameplay of Ghost of Tsushima is also an interesting hodgepodge of stealth and straight-up hack and slash mechanics. The stealth feels well-realized and jam-packed with different tools and ways to succeed while the battling has different stances and techniques to complete objectives.
The stealth sections help you feel really like the ghost while the fighting sections make you feel like a samurai. It is incredibly fun and the lore and reasoning behind all of the things you gain as you level up feel real.
Another inspiration from old samurai movies, this game has duels against other samurai and these legend quests to go find special ancient armor or swords. It is incredibly cool.
With plenty of different armors, helmets or hats, and weapons to find, there is a ton of customizability with Jin so you can make him look and play however you want. It adds another layer to the way you can level-up and build your Jin.
This is even more compounded in Ghost of Tsushima’s multiplayer mode that had its own storyline that focused more on the legend of Jin and was full of great collaborative gameplay.
Ghost of Tsushima also has a great DLC addition to the game and recently just released a director’s cut edition that will boost sales even further. With upgrades for the PS5, this game looks even more incredible.
The DLC island of Iki shows off the new found power offered by the PS5 while also offering an heart-wrenching and trippy storyline to solidify even more of Jin’s past.
If you did not believe me before, I am sure you can tell now by all my gushing that I absolutely adore Ghost of Tsushima. I cannot wait to see what is in store next for the series.
Please play it if you haven’t.