Ghost of Tsushima Review (PS4)

It's been a long 6 years since Sucker Punch Production released its last project, Infamous Second Son and the stand-alone DLC First Light. At the time, it was an early first-party PS4 exclusive that showcased the particle heavy effects Sony's new console was capable of.

In many ways, Ghost of Tsushima, their latest project, is an evolution of the game design in Second Son while being something completely new for the studio. Taking place in late 13th century Japan, Ghost of Tsushima dives into the Mongol invasion on the island of Tsushima.

While the event itself did happen, Ghost of Tsushima applied a fictional brush to it to tell its story complete with an original cast as opposed to historical figures. This invasion is led by Khotun Khan who quickly runs into a conflict with Lord Shimura and his nephew/sergeant son, Jin Sakai, that's us.

Through the violence and destruction of war, Khan defeats the samurai and quickly takes the lead on the invasion, leaving Jin in the dust. Upon Jin's recovery, he quickly realizes he's not going to be able to take on the Mongols on his own. If he's going to save his uncle and his home, he's going to need the help of his people or better what's left of his people.

It's down this path we get introduced to Tsushima's studded cast of great supporting characters. There's Yuna, a badass archer who is just trying to reunite with her only family that's left. Masako is another ally, a female samurai turned mercenary who has no problem carrying her own weight.

Along with the rest of the supporting cast, Ghost of Tsushima shines in its storytelling but falls a bit flat with its lead character, Jin. Being a samurai, Jin was taught a code by his uncle, a code that follows honor and respect, especially to those slain by your sword.

However, with the Mongol invasion, Jin finds himself struggling to uphold his samurai values and teachings as he resorts to thief like approaches to take out enemies. He's trying to save him home and his only family left but at the cost of renouncing the teachings, his family taught him.

It's this internal struggle that Tsushima tries to get us to feel for Jin and while I understand the struggle, Jin doesn't particularly come off as charming or charismatic. I didn't find myself resonating with him as much as I or the story would have hoped to.

Instead, he feels somewhat like a blank slate character, via Link in the Legend of Zelda. The issue here of course is he's not a nameless, nonverbal main character. With that said, just about everyone else in this game delivers on their performance and help make not only the major story missions but a lot of the side quests that maybe only half the people playing will actually go play.

Ghost of Tsushima didn't succeed in making Jin one of my new favorite characters from a PlayStation IP, but what it did accomplish was engulfing me in a surreal setting that felt, unlike any other game that tackled this setting. Its supporting cast carried the narrative and the presentation and delivery of the open-world surely made it memorable across my 45 hours of playing.

Ghost of Tsushima continues the Sucker Punch's previous attempts at creating a captivating open world. While their last game tried to capture the city of Seattle, Tsushima tackles Japan. Coming in at about half the size of The Witcher 3's map, this fictional representation of Tsushima is no joke.

This backdrop is beautifully presented with vast landscapes, stunning vistas, and jaw-dropping sunsets. The setting in itself is practically a character and it's easy to get lost in critiquing this game spending the whole review talking about the island itself.

The way the minimalist UI fades away as I ride my horse through the meadows of Tsushima, it's mesmerizing. Seeing the sun rest on another day of working towards saving my home. It's absolutely stunning and easily one of the most memorable backdrops for a video game.

That's important because you'll be spending on average 40 to 50 hours on this island for a single playthrough of Ghost of Tsushima, that's assuming you're like me and trying to get through it in order to write a review. If you dabble in more of the side quests then your journey can be much longer.

That freedom of choice is the DNA of Ghost of Tsushima. From the start you're able to navigate all across the island, exploring the small villages and Mongol camps. It's your world to explore and the order of how you do things is completely up to you.

You of course have story missions that progress the narrative, but there's a handful of side quests too that help you by fleshing out characters, further developing Jin's character or just straight up give you progression toward combat upgrades. Ghost of Tsushima's combat isn't as challenging let's say something like Bloodborne or Sekiro, but it does have a learning curve to it that was fascinating to explore.

As opposed to defeating enemies and leveling up via XP earned, Tsushima instead gives you a basic foundation that doesn't change based on levels. You'll never come across an archer that one-shot kills you because they're twice the level as you. Instead, more unique enemies will appear with different tools that ultimately provide the challenge in combat.

To rebuttal these, Jin focuses on stances and equipment to adapt and learn how to fight all the different enemies. As you take down more Mongol leaders, you'll learn stances that are more effective toward different enemies. Along with that, you'll earn or purchase new equipment to aid you in raids like new sets of armor and blades.

With your combat arsenal at hand, it's up to you how you tackle enemies, whether it's run and gun or the stealth approach. I personally went for a mix of both though it's apparent that stealth isn't as polished as it should be. I'd frequently run into scenarios where I'd light an explosion and get the enemies alerted on my location.

However, simply crouching behind something or in a field of grass was enough to get them off my trail, it broke the illusion completely. In that sense the ai aren't always the smartest bunch. Luckily it wasn't enough to tarnish the combat which is some of the most fun sword play I've had in a game.

Approaching a group of Mongols, you're able to start a standoff, a cinematic scene where if you swing at the right moment, you can take out the first enemy in the camp. As Jin unlocks new techniques, it becomes a vital tool that can be chained to take out a whole group of Mongols in one go.

That sense of progression but without XP and numbers felt rewarding. It truly made me feel like I was learning to be a better warrior as opposed to just raising my stats higher. I've said it so many times already but I'll say it again, the island of Tsushima is astounding.

Walking through the valleys of Tsushima, I always felt completely captivated by what was on screen. The luscious field of grass blowing along to the wind. The beautifully saturated color gradient skies looming over me at all times. And of course, the immense amount of particles in the form leaves and flower petals following a gust of wind.

Playing on my PS4 Pro with the screen resolution toggle activated, I was hypnotized by everything on display. At times I couldn't believe this was a current-generation game, it looked that good. Any time I'd ride my horse through a valley, I found myself easily getting lost in the blades of grass flowing along to the breeze.

When it comes to performance, Ghost of Tsushima runs at 1800p on PS4 Pro and 1080p on base PS4. Sucker Punch Productions offers a toggle to enter a resolution or frame rate mode on the PS4 Pro though the changes are quite dramatic. The frame rate mode doesn't boost an unlocked or 60 fps target but instead is more of a stability mode that targets a locked 30FPS.

This comes at the cost of dropping the resolution from 1800p down to 1080p, matching the base PS4 though with more of a locked 30 fps. Base PS4 has a similar frame rate performance of 30fps with the occasional dip to the mid-20s when things get a bit heated.

Just as impressive as the visuals are, so is the audio design which only further compliments Tsushima's level of presentation. It's most notable in the ambient sound design that feels like a nature orchestra. Walking through the grass, I was tickled by the sound of the breeze passing through the forest.

The sounds of wild animals from afar, minding their own business. While the music of course plays an important role in capturing moods and often times starting combat sequences, it's the ambient sounds that feel the most remarkable to me. It's for all these reasons and more I recommend playing with a surround sound set up or a great pair of headphones if you can afford either-or.

Along with the sound design is the great delivery done by the cast. Now I played primarily in English as for some reason, Sucker Punch only chose to lip-sync the English dialogue. Admittedly it's a bit jarring to play a game set in Japan with Japanese cast and have the Japanese dialogue not match their lips.

For that particular reason, I opted to play in English. However, for fans of samurai films and the immersion, you can toggle a Kurosawa film that makes everything mimic his film style along with complete Japanese dialogue and subtitles. It wasn't my favorite way to play but it sure was a cool feature.

Ghost of Tsushima is a remarkable game that successfully transported me back to 13th century Japan like no other game with the setting was able to. The world was captivating, the combat was addicting and its presentation was phenomenal. While I think Jin falls flat as a compelling character, there's no doubt that the rest of the cast and the story itself are able to carry the narrative.