‘Ghost of Tsushima’ Isn’t Worth Your Time – A Review
Lush with beautiful visuals and incredible presentation, Ghost of Tsushima opens with a promising scene of visceral combat. Unfortunately, the engagement and urgency I felt in those few initial moments quickly dissipated as my playthrough continued. At all times, I am in the audience of a beautiful representation of Japan’s island of Tsushima, but it is in constant contrast with combat that rarely agreed with itself and the occasional glitches that developed a miserable union. There is so much going for Ghost of Tsushima, but spectacle alone doesn’t make it worth playing.
Something I will commend is how quickly Ghost of Tsushima’s gameplay mechanics are introduced. Between the standard swordplay combat, which represents the samurai gameplay, and the various stealth abilities which represent the ghost gameplay, neither felt difficult to understand. Even as I gained new abilities through the different upgrade trees, they never became overbearing. Samurai combat is where all of the sword stances reside and each stance has their own combo strings which are effective against the various enemy types. For example, the water stance is effective against enemies with shields and the rock stance is great for dealing with other, shieldless swordsmen. There are four different sword stances and at first, fighting hordes of enemies felt engaging as I quickly swapped stances in between attacks to be as efficient as possible. Unfortunately, that is as far as the samurai combat exerted itself in terms of complexity. After enough hours of combat, the exchanges became routine to the point of tedium.
Samurai combat is also what gets used when encountering boss battles. The game produces a cutscene where Jin grasps his katana and stares down at the opponent and doesn’t unsheath the katana until the moment the cutscene ends and I gain control. The camera shifts from the usual, distant third person into a more engaging close up for the one-on-one fight, allowing me to focus on the boss’ movements so I can dodge or guard their attacks. Unfortunately, that’s about all the boss fights are. Just larger enemies with more presentation and even more health. Instead of the fights rising in difficulty, they also became routine and disappointingly easier.
The other half of combat is represented by Jin’s ghost abilities which overlook all of the assassination skills and stealth tools. Some abilities consist of being able to string assassinations together if enemies are close enough to one another, allowing for the quick disposal of larger groups. Another is upgrading how fast Jin can move while using ‘Focused Hearing’, which is a mechanic that highlights distant/nearby enemies through walls or inside buildings. So much of the stealth gameplay is spent carefully planning the right way to approach the field, making sure that I won’t be seen when I move in for a kill and finding a convenient window to jump through for a quick escape.
Much like samurai combat, I couldn’t find much entertainment after repeating these sequences throughout the entire game even after acquiring new tools. Items like the smoke bombs and firecrackers were cool at first, but I found them to be more useful during samurai combat and even occasionally awkward when in stealth. For example, sometimes when I would toss a wind chime, which is supposed to distract one enemy so I could take out another, it would just alert the enemies the moment I toss it. It’s infuriating and a risk I shouldn’t have to worry about. Nitpicks aside, using the ghost abilities and carefully taking out enemies became mundane and at best I was indifferent when encountering groups of enemies.
These complaints compound during the harrowing moments Ghost of Tsushima presents where ghost and samurai combat types both come into play, testing the structural integrity of its own mechanics as well as my patience. There could be an argument against this particular complaint by claiming that the disconnect is intended, and aims to further drive the conflict Jin has within himself as he transitions from an honorable samurai to the vengeful “ghost” (I’ll get into this in more detail later). But sacrificing fluidity for narrative consonance does not feel justified in this case. I lost count of the number of times I’ve attempted to assassinate someone in front of me, only for Jin to go in for a swipe with the katana and force me into samurai combat until I manage to disappear or toss a smoke bomb. Not to mention, there are also a fair number of missions that automatically fail me for being seen.
As a whole, the combat lost its legs within the first five hours of playing and dragged for the remaining thirty hours. I infrequently felt even a modicum of joy during battles and those fleeting moments of fun were almost always due to the first time I unlocked a more notable ability like ghost stance or rare instances like firing a hwacha. I feel that I would have had more fun if Ghost of Tsushima wasn’t as long as it is or if the various abilities and tools had been enough to keep the combat refreshed. Instead, I spent more time waiting for the end rather than focus on the journey forward.
Thankfully, Ghost of Tsushima paints the island of Tsushima in a fantastic light and is one of the best looking games I’ve ever played. This wasn’t immediately clear to me, either. Riding my horse through a lush forest and blooming flowers early in the game was when it clicked. I looked onward to a tower overlooking the hills I was headed toward, giving me a chance to visualize my path. It was a beautiful scene and unlike my experience with the draining combat, these picturesque moments are numerous as I explored Tsushima.
Exploring the island has the perk of finding beautiful scenery. Similarly, pinpointing destinations didn’t affect the scenery in overly intrusive ways like other open-world games practice. Instead Ghost of Tsushima has a very minimal user interface, only occasionally presenting the quest title after pursuing it or the name of a new area when arriving at its location. Even when trying to keep up with where my destination is, Ghost of Tsushima uses the wind to keep me in the right direction rather than putting a literal pin in the world as I continue on. Having the wind as my direct guide is a very interesting idea and at most times it works really well. Sometimes I got lost after winding through trees or cliff sides as I ride my horse, but other times I wind up throwing my poor horse off a drop that is way too high simply because the wind stays true to the direction.
Much like other open-world games, Ghost of Tsushima has various hidden locations throughout the island that offer bonuses like health upgrades and new sets of armor. Almost all of these locations are hinted at by golden birds that fly around and chirp which can be followed to a collectable or bonus. Areas like hot springs and bamboo challenges that not only add to Jin’s stats, but also serve a use as fast travel points in order to help make traveling in between locations more less lengthy. Paired with the wind as the main guide creates this wonderful relationship with the overworld, rarely obstructing its beauty. Sometimes there would be problems with following the birds that I came across where the bird would just fly right into a wall just disappear. It never ceased to confuse me and given how often it would occur almost deterred me from following them altogether. However, the promise of a reward was usually enough of a reason for me to keep trying to follow.
Customization in Ghost of Tsushima is also well done. As the game went on, I found myself with a wide assortment of armor, hats, and masks. The changes also aren’t completely cosmetic, which adds some depth to building a particular loadout for various missions that might need more bonuses for stealth or defense. The body armors in particular are where the bonuses are located, and each armor set can be upgraded for both a visual and stat boost. For example, Gosaku’s armor set starts off with solid health and offensive buffs, but as it gets upgraded, the armor quickly becomes the best offensive piece to equip – adding an ability that heals Jin as I kill enemies. This sort of payoff for exploring the island feels good and having these choices let me feel like I had more control of Jin’s path.
Jin’s path and the story of Ghost of Tsushima is mostly a samurai’s revenge story and how that path to revenge muddies dignity and honor, trading those attributes for brutality and underhanded scheming. Every pivotal moment where I have to stray from the way of the samurai, Ghosts provides flashbacks to where Jin’s uncle, Lord Shimura, is teaching the ways of the honorable samurai to Jin and how he should never stray from that path. Of course, a lot of this game is about Jin straying his path and walking down a much bloodier road in order to get rid of Khotun Khan and the Mongol invaders he leads. By any means necessary. This sudden shift is what causes Jin to question himself and brings about many of the interactions he has with the other characters.
The constant friction Jin has within himself, and occasionally other characters in Ghost of Tsushima, works towards their narrative development. Many of my favorite interactions come from how others view the changes Jin undergoes through his journey. Norio, who is probably my favorite character, introduces himself as a parallel to Jin having been directly affected by the first battle of the invasion. Captured and imprisoned with his fellow warrior monks, Norio had to live with shame and regret as each other monk tortured and killed until Jin arrived and liberated the fort. Each side quest involving Norio explores how he deals with his survivor’s guilt and how Norio is mirroring Jin and his own path for revenge.
The cutscenes aren’t exactly fluid, but the voice acting is very well done and outside of the awkward vocal desyncs with characters’ mouths (I played with Japanese voices, not the English dub), I don’t have too many complaints. The rest of the cast each felt genuine, having their own paths that just happen to cross with Jin’s. They have their own ambitions, their own worries, all rather headstrong and not allowing me to influence their path. Almost every time I encounter them it’s in the middle of their own actions or just after their own battle. This is where I think Ghost of Tsushima shines brightest. I cared more about how these characters and how their stories would play out than I did Jin’s.
All of my struggles with the awkward gameplay, hours of losing sight of the wind as I erode my controller’s touchpad, and being distracted by glitchy birds finally gets paid off with a final siege against Khotun Khan at a fort held in the north. Overlooking a frozen lake, the final battle sends hordes of enemies in Jin’s direction. Unfortunately, this felt like another rinse and repeat of all the previous encounters and even as I chased Khotun Khan to his ship as he fled, nothing changed. The final fight had two phases that were only separated by waves of enemies he called in order to gain some sort of reprieve. It wasn’t fresh, it wasn’t rewarding, it was just a prolonged chore that finally had an end.
Ghost of Tsushima ends in this awkward concoction of a solid narrative, padded out combat, and constant bugs.. After the credits finished and I gained control of the game for the last time, I was met with another beautiful backdrop that could almost make it all feel worth it. But that’s just not why I’m here. I play a game to have fun and to get lost in its world and the only thing Ghosts of Tsushima accomplished was getting me lost in the worst way possible.
