Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut Director's Cut

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.

I enjoyed "Ghost of Tsushima" even though it had the same issues as another open-world Play Station exclusive: "Horizon Zero Dawn". Fighting enemies and exploring the map is always fun, but I couldn't care less about the plot and characters. This time there is not even a mystery to unfold or different creatures to spice up the combat mechanics. Even though nobody expected a complex story full of multifaceted characters, a more cinematic direction would have made an enormous difference. It's like watching the watered-down version of a mediocre samurai flick, with static camerawork, redundant dialogue, and poor acting. The characters introduced by the side-quests were interesting, but their storylines develop too slowly and eventually lack closure. I wonder if the people who compared it with Kurosawa actually watched any of his movies.

The gameplay loop is the same as most open-world action games. It's the same dozen activities being repeated over and over again, but each of them only takes a few seconds to complete so that you won't get stuck in the same area for too long. The low level of challenge and instant loading times also help keep the experience fluid and strangely relaxing.

The combat system might feel tedious at first, but things get better after you start unlocking new stances and sub-weapons. The enemy AI is incredibly dumb, though, especially during stealth sections.

As with most open-world games, graphics and animations tend to be uneven. While the character design and facial animations felt like they could be better, most of the landscapes are mind-blowingly beautiful, to the point that they become the real reason you feel like exploring every corner of the island. It's the same buildings and assets rehashed all over the map, but it's understandable considering the realistic approach they took with the game.

Recommended only if you are into feudal Japan and open-world games.

About the DLC: Even if you enjoyed the gameplay loop of the main game, I would advise you to wait for a few months before starting this DLC as it's basically more of the same. It adds a whole new island to explore, a couple of new abilities, and a few new interactive activities like archer challenges, wooden sword tournaments, and flute playing. Unfortunately, the plot doesn't add anything new despite its premise of looking back at Jin's past and the ambiguities of his father. It felt like they tried a little harder with cinematics, though.