Ghost of Tsushima

So, I really like samurai games. Like a lot. And when I got a ps5 i was excited to try this out. I platinum or try to platinum every game I own and this was no different. But once i reached the second region, the spectacle was really lost and the combat began to feel repetitive, the exploration wow was lost and it really wasn't fun to run around and obtain all new tales and side things like the haikus and fox dens. Really overall, I had a decent time following after the 15th hour mark but it didn't hold the same attention grabbing gameplay or exploration or anything really that made would make me put this game in my top 5 or even 7 for that matter.

Ghost of Tsushima is basically a sprinkled up Assassins Creed clone (before the series went action RPG), but it offers such a better execution of that formula that it ended up being an enjoyable experience. That is wild praise coming from someone that is bored to death of that open world ubisoft formula, and there is way too much of that that it comes close to ruining the experience.

The story is pretty standard and predictable, but well written and has a solid cast of main and supporting characters. I can understand the criticisms of being predictable, as this sort of one man conquering an island is very similar to the premise of most Far Cry games. But really its how it uses that setting to explore its themes of honor, loyalty, family, sacrifice and more that it does enough to rise above the crowd. The characters feel humane and not charicatures that you want to see their journey to the end.

A journey that is pretty long, and is unfortunatly filled to the brim with very repetitive side content. Was there really any reason to place 30 fox shrines in the map when you could have done with five, since it all boils down to the same task. The nature of side content has very little variety and yet there is way too much of it, and it quickly makes the open world fatigue start to come around. Side quests for the most part are also pretty unmemorable, being comprised of basically going to a plce and killing the enemies there, with some very hand held detective moments. Think Witcher 3, but with way less interesting things to say. Main quest is much better as it has a much diverse set of objetives, and there are many more fights with a full army, displaying a spectable worthy of a Kurosawa movie.

Speaking of Kurosawa, this game has some of the most impressive visuals I have seen. They went for a compromise between realism and waterbrush style, and the result is a world that is breathtaking to see. The world is never static, as the wind and other forces interact with the flora and flauna, delivering perhaps the best beaty wilderness (surpassing Red Dead Redemption 2 in my opinion. It makes horse riding that much more enjoyable, even if the side content that you are doing ends up being banal. There is a surprisingly amount of diversity of settings, and its all incredible to look at.

The combat is the last pillar of the game, and I feel that it manages to just do enough without being amazing. It features a lockon style similar to batman arkham games, which creates some issues with the camera in narrow corridors. It feels responsive and its mostly satisfying, though definitly a shallow game mechanically. Through the game you unlock a big array of techniques, but the enemies remain just about the same, so you end up being overkitted and the challenge only diminuishes. For an open world game it competent enough, what makes it worse is how long the game is, and the combat just cant quite carry it all the way through.

Legends mode is tailored towards coop experiences, and I didnt have much fun in that mode.

The Iki island expansion basically adds more of the same in the form of a new small explorable island. It adds a bit more depth to Jin's past and adds a few combat mechanics that dont feel essencial in the least.

Ghost of Tsushima is definitly a great game, but looking back its easier to point out its flaws. Its visual style is second to none, it has decent combat and delivers a solid story.

went back and forth between thinking this was actually pretty good and it just being fine. don't really have too much to say about this beyond it looking pretty but falling into all of the same trappings as every single other open world game post assassin's creed 2.

for all intents and purposes, this is assassin's creed in Japan. sure it might be a bit reductionist to compare it to that when mechanically it's very different, as well as in how it feels to play, but it is literally just AC with a fresh lick of paint. the open world may as well be a map with crosses all over it that you need to travel to in order to get a tick on a checklist of 200+ items. all of the tasks on the map are as mindnumbing as anything in assassin's creed, far cry and any other ubisoft game. fox dens, shrines and collectibles all just feel like a waste of time. and another thing, none of the rewards for any of these tasks are worth it (beyond maybe the cosmetic ones, but even these lose their potency after collecting about 5). the best rewards for traversing the open world are unique things like finding interesting landmarks or specific dye merchants, of which there are about 3.

side quests are a complete waste of time as they all consist of sitting through 2 minute long cutscenes with incredibly dry dialogue, uninteresting characters and stories i don't care about, before following a barely visible trail of footprints and bumping into a group of enemies to kill. the best tales are the mythic tales, which are accompanied by an interesting and visually distinct cutscene to set the scene, as well as unique missions you won't find elsewhere in the game. the rewards for these are always cool too as they provide you with new tools to use during combat, or new gear which also provides some gameplay variety. I also must admit that the main story is pretty gripping from beginning to end, even though it can be a bit predictable and hollywood in its presentation a lot of the time. because the quests follow the main story they have a lot more weight to them and turn the more repetitive 'follow footsteps, fight group of enemies' loop into something more exciting. the most fun i had with this game was when playing the main quest. I wouldn't really recommend exploring the open world outside of mythic quests. it's never rewarding past the first couple hours.

i also must admit, while the game is pretty enough, there is very little in the way of a distinctive aesthetic or breathtaking views. it's no more impressive than just looking at a static photograph of a rural Japanese landscape.

the other best part of this game is the combat, which is satisfyingly fluid, responsive and flashy. although it's a bit surface level for most of the game, it introduces plenty of new mechanics and tools to keep you engaged through its duration. the changing of stances felt a bit clunky to me but i enjoyed the variation and it puts a spin on what would otherwise be a button mashy system. archery is fun too. stealth on the other hand is barely fit for purpose and there's little incentive to actually apply it. braindead AI and very few tools allowing for variety in approaching stealthy situations, it's just not enjoyable. how you ship a game about samurai without a sufficiently satisfying stealth system is beyond me.

the more i played ghost of tsushima the more i felt as though i had to gaslight myself into thinking i liked it. it doesn't really feel like it justifies its existence. if you want a samurai game with crunchy, difficult progression and combat, play Sekiro. GoT is a competent open world game with a surprisingly solid story and decent combat, but similar to most contemporary open world games, the actual open world elements feel unnecessary and like they're just there for the sake of it. this game is paper thin, but if you like a pretty A2 bit of paper that's kinda fun to write on then you'll probably like it.

Fun game, beautiful graphics but the missions get so boring after the first act. How many times do you trail people in a open world setting where you are restricted to play the way you want too. That aside, the gameplay is fine for a action RPG but once again this experience can get dull once the bag of tricks are empty and the same cycle of laziness repeats over and over again. (7.5/10)

Beautiful game, and I don't generally care for open world games, let alone enough to actually finish them. The combat is smooth and fun and highly intuitive, defeating a mob of enemies while cycling through stance types to match their weaknesses just feels really great. The 2D fighter-inspired duel system is fun, though it would benefit from a bit more variety, and goes from being extremely difficult to quite easy as soon as you figure out the enemy movesets and accept that it does not have the hitboxes, timing, and canceling of an actual fighter. The lack of traditional UI overlay and reliance on environmental context clues to lead you to locations (wind movement in place of GPS, birds and foxes leading you to hidden environmental locations) is quite nice. For such a vibrant and colorful game I don't understand why there is an optional visual mode that makes everything grainy and black and white. Pointless.

A few minor technical issues bog it down. Climbing down ladders and dropping off ledges is needlessly difficult to get right, and the camera in the standoff mechanic will often get stuck behind a piece of scenery if you're chaining a bunch together. It is also confusing that, while you can buy and sell materials, you do so with the Trapper NPCs and not the Merchant NPCs, who only sell vanity items and color schemes.

All in all, probably the most fun I've ever had with this style of game.

Ghost of Tsushima falls into every tired trapping of open-world game design that we've seen in the last decade. A game where no one aspect truly excels, aside from the presentation. It's fun while it's on, but it'll leave you wanting a lot more from it.