★★★★★ | Out now on Windows PC
Open world games are challenging. After all, how do you populate an entire world, regardless of size, with enough exciting things to do throughout dozens of hours without getting repetitive? Few in memory have managed that feat. Despite filling their maps with enough landmarks, fetch quests, and mini-games to blot out the landscape. To make matters even more difficult, Ghost of Tsushima arrives on Steam years after its console debut as a part of Sony’s admirable — if still lackluster — efforts to bring their first-party titles to PC.
In hindsight, Ghost of Tsushima falls into the same pitfalls of every other open-world adventure game, yet its achievements are more subtle in refining the art form.
Depictions of other cultures have never been the strong suit of gaming companies, at least Western ones. Be it from malice or accidental ignorance, too often, aspects of these depictions fall prey to the ugly sides of orientalism and stereotype. Ghost of Tsushima, for the most part, is notable for how reverent and even-handed its depiction is. While its excitement to include everything it loves about the culture does lead to clunky moments, the overall product deserves praise for what it gets right.
Utilizing a Japanese cast and cultural experts as consultants, Ghost of Tsushima is one of the first and most prominent western games that understands the contextual importance of the things it loves. While the experience is awash in pop-culture and cinema, the story’s backbone is tied to Japanese history and culture. The result is a mature blockbuster that never trades in ignorance for easy sensationalism.
Set in 13th century Japan, Tsushima’s island finds itself overrun with Genghis Khan’s hordes on their conquest of world domination. Thousands of samurai lie dead in the aftermath of the first skirmishes, leaving young Jin Kasai and his uncle Lord Shimura as the only survivors. With Shimura captured, Jin is left to rally the remnants of once proud clans together, if he hopes to save both his home and Japan itself. But his new enemies are unlike anything the samurai have faced before. To defeat them, he must ask himself what he is willing to sacrifice for victory.
Built with an immense amount of love for the films of Akira Kurosawa and both Jidai-geki and it’s subgenre chanbara cinema, Ghost of Tsushima is a towering achievement in merging cinema and gaming. The Kurosawa Mode, named after the iconic auteur, mimics the filmmaker’s 1940s and 50s output impeccably, with mostly stupendous results.
The black and white image has all the hallmarks of older generation cameras, complete with blurring on the edges or light bleed in high contrast areas. Audio cues and effects sound have the tinny reverb of ancient recording devices. The image even crackles with dust and grime, as if shot on celluloid that has begun to deteriorate.
Even more impressively, the designers understand Kurosawa’s use of movement. Wind and particle effects aren’t there just for the sake it. Instead, they’re visual storytelling clues to understand your place in the world. Whatever detail you might lose in the black and white image is made up of layered imagery of falling leaves and burning embers. Compare the results to classics like The Seven Samurai, and you’ll notice the same use of nature as a set decorator. For film fans, it’s a joyous spectacle; for others, it’s a beautiful deep dive into the beautiful imagery of a cinematic maestro.
These elements extend to playing in the normal colored mode, where every aspect of the game creates the most emotional and cinematic experience possible. Tsushima exists in the realm of pure fantasy, where seasons change at the drop of the hat minutes apart. One moment you might be riding in bright white fields with the sun in your face, but turn the corner on a forest path, and the sky will turn crimson, and the air filled with cherry blossoms as a small village bathes in eternal sunset. What the game sacrifices in naturalism it makes up for in spectacle.
Equally deserving of praise is the immersive and beautiful soundtrack by Ilan Eshkeri and Shigeru Umebayashi. Combining Eshkeri’s Hollywood past elements with Kurosawa influences, the score is noteworthy by just how faithful it is to its inspirations. Localization is perfect as well, thanks to a great cast in both English and Japanese.
After the initial awe of the presentation begins to fade, Ghost of Tsushima admittedly takes a good few hours to get going. Tsushima’s island is split into three main areas, each vast and filled with things to do. The expansion, Iki Island, included in the Director’s Cut, is equally massive, spanning an extra 10 to 15 hours of gameplay.
Once the somewhat tedious introduction is over, and the game begins to open up, Tsushima soars. The island becomes a rich playground for various playstyles, each with its own rewards and challenges. With a minimal HUD and no waypoint markers to distract the player, exploration feels grand and elegiac as you literally let the wind guide you from one point to the next.
When violence breaks out, as it often does, the inspiration from films like Sanjuro comes heavily into play. Jin can challenge combatants to duels, leading to tense showdowns employing different aspects of Kenjutsu. The further the adventure continues, the more skilled both the player and Jin become in dispatching enemies in many approaches. Emptying Mongol outposts, either charging them directly or sneaking through them in the night, is a thrill every time. These levels are also some of the best designed in the entire game and arguably something that would stand out better in a more compact experience.
The same goes for the errands that populate the island. Throughout his quest, Jinn can find shrines, hot springs, quiet locations of reflection, and numerous other items that will aid in his quest — or simply make him look a lot cooler during it. Not many of these are necessary to collect as Jinn can update his skills by playing the main storyline. But even so, the inclusion is a welcome one.
There is most likely something to collect or a bird or fox to follow across every hill, brook, or forest. Picking inspiration from Japanese mythology, the foxes guide the players to prayer shrines, which award them with charms that boost skills. Hot springs increase health, while training with bamboo increases stamina. The best of the lot are the moments of quiet reflection, where the player can compose Haiku from preset lines set in the world around them. While not truly unique, these moments made the game feel more personal and private, allowing for introspection to become part of the journey. I wish more game elements would dare to break out from the typical fetch quests and into a more esoteric realm like this.
Tsushima is not a lesser experience for being an open-world game, but it does suffer from the same bloat this genre has always struggled with. If you focus squarely on the main story, the whole thing takes about 15-20 hours to complete, depending on difficulty and playstyle. But exploring every aspect of the island, finding every token and secret, and completing all side-quests will easily double that time. Yet it would be a lie to claim this is a buffet of variety. In the end, most of the missions end up repeats of perhaps a handful of unique errands.
Much of the game at any point is spent on horseback, either riding alone or with friends. These moments hang heavy with exposition, yet they’ve always felt like a lazy way of padding out content to me. Travel independently, and you risk wandering off the path as you spot one of the dozen or so mini-quests on the island — each of which is fun the first time around, and increasingly less so as you repeat them over and over towards the end.
The main story and its sub-quests split into two types of tales: Gold to signify the main quest, silver for optional, but rewarding storylines involving your compatriots. Tales range from a few minutes to even a few hours long, depending on the importance. While many side missions end up being repetitive (usually involving saving innocents or fighting off patrols), the story itself is consistently engaging.
Dealing with the warring years of Shogun rule, Ghost of Tsushima effectively tells the story of tradition versus necessity, as Jin has to confront the harsh reality that his way of life must change to protect it for others around him. The writing is nuanced and mature, allowing the player to come to terms with their morality and judgment regarding the right course of action. Unlike other recent titles, Ghost of Tsushima doesn’t create a scenario where it encourages gameplay and then admonishes the player for it. Instead, the compelling narrative unfolds naturally like a sweeping adventure story turning into a tragedy. While it never reaches for the highs of cinema, the inspirations it takes from Kurosawa’s melancholy tales are clear and lovingly preserved.
A significant component of this is the terrific characters, each archetype of the genre and vividly realized by the writing. From shell-shocked monks forced to facing violence they had sworn off to bittered masters whose students have turned on them, Ghost of Tsushima intertwines these affecting destinies vying for salvation at every turn. You want to find out what happens to these people, and in turn, their quests become a part of the full experience as opposed to boxes you tick for completion’s sake.
The two best stories deal with our deuteragonists, Yuna and Lady Masako. The former is a thief who grew up poor in Tsushima’s wilderness, and harbors resentment for the samurai’s ruling class. Attempting to flee the island with her brother, Yuna becomes entangled with Jin’s quest to save the island she cannot love anymore. Yuna is a wonderfully complicated and nuanced character who is even better for never being defined by the men in her life. Her quest is her own, and the choices she makes feel natural and compelling.
Lady Masako, the last surviving matriarch of her clan, is left alive after the Mongols attack her home and slaughter her family. Her path of vengeance echoes the classic films in the genre. But instead of settling for pastiche, Ghost of Tsushima aims for a grand tragedy as Masako hunts those that betrayed her clan across the vast island landscape. Her odyssey mirrors Jin’s as both have to compromise on their values to keep themselves going, and her story is profoundly affecting the further it escalates.
As the long road begins to lead to the inevitable end, Ghost of Tsushima asks the players not to consider their actions but the broader implications of what war does to people. Using genre tropes to its advantage, the game considers the decades and centuries-long effects of occupation and generational trauma left behind by actions deemed necessary by both sides. While it does stumble in its depictions of the Mongols (who in this case remain mostly faceless monsters), the bigger picture is a surprisingly nuanced portrait that is better for what it leaves unsaid.
While a part of me wishes that Ghost of Tsushima was more akin to a more compact and linear experience like the PS2 classic Way of the Samurai, there is no denying its grandeur and successes. As an action-adventure game, it utilizes everything Sucker Punch has learned in the last decade, effortlessly improving the solid foundation they set with Infamous: Second Sun back at the start of the PS4 console generation.
Thanks to a smart script, genuine reverence for a foreign culture, and one of the most beautiful audiovisual presentations in years, Ghost of Tsushima is a remarkable feat that showcases just how big a difference a good story makes.
Toisto 
