Amazing game. combat is nothing too complicated so rlly easy to get into and jin is also an amazing character. gameplay is just way too repetetive and the open world can feel really really empty sometimes. but thats honestly not that much of an issue when the open world is just as beautiful, if not, more beautiful than the rdr2 world. Also had the issue of alot of cutscenes not having any emotions at all. like the characters will just look dead in some cutscenes. And alot of the side characters are rlly just unintresting and so is the villain. amazing ending tho

Ghost Of Tsushima is a Game full of incredible Highs and no Low Lows, however with a good chunk of mediocrity. It is as great as I remembered it being and I loved my entire time playing and Platinuming it as my First PS5 Platinum.

To start on a downer I must say that After playing so much of it's repetitive Collectables which are greatly implemented in its open world, doing these even in between the story bored me over time and thus a month long hiatus I took unrelated to the game was actually a blessing in disguise as It gave me a brand new wanting to play. I found the same complaints through coming back however it was still a fun enough experience with it's collectables.

Being A platinum you know I love this game in all aspects, so Here is my list as to my pro's to this masterpiece of a game.

Story - With no Spoilers, This is a story of heartbreak, revenge and growth/Change. Jin's Growth from Samurai subservient to his code and his struggle finding ways to defeat his enemy, The Mongols, to embracing the change and becoming The Ghost. This inner turmoil is the principle of the story with each other beat like regaining the island and helping his allies and civilians working alongside this, each quest and side quest has Jin learning some new mentality, from quoting Sun Tzu to creating his own Quotes, Jin is always growing. Tragedy too is huge, loss of friends and civilians you don't know but love as you feel you are Jin, so many areas of this story is a Tragedy, this helping you more and more hate the threat, leading to a final showdown with so much depth into it. In summary this story is a dark tragedy with a story of growth, a true mastery of video game storytelling which can hold up to the better story based games of the same ilk.

Style - From environment to audio this game Oozes Art in each o it's pores, on a first look it is gritty and realistic but taken a better look you see it doesn't try to look as good as red dead 2 or The Last of Us, but instead goes stylised and fits by looking beautiful in its masterful use of colour theory and world design, Further the level design, while in areas like towns can be annoying is generally impeccable with the world grabbing your attention all the time, is perfectly guided with scenic vistas and paths, and Using Nature evokes the themes of rebirth, growth and renewal with Jin's connection to each facet of it brings an emotional connection.

Travel - Not much to say except the Mechanic of the guiding wind is a game changer from the standardised and boring waypoint and/or compass, the standout feature of the game and helps the Horse mechanic feel much more fun whilst being rudimentary.

Combat - The swordplay is absolutely impeccable, especially on Lethal which is what I played, it makes each strike deadly to both you and enemies creating a hard but not soulsborne Combat, interesting and engaging with a robe=ust toolkit which is completely optional, The stance system is beautiful and if pulled of correct can lead to beautiful combos, The duels especially is where this system is in full force, Incredible side content wholly worth seeking out.

Stealth - The Stealth in this game is nothing new, and in fact I would compare it most to the system of a game from 5 Years prior to this games release - Batman Arkham Knight. This is seen in each core pillar of the strength; A vast array of tools, A fear system which causes enemies to get scared if they witness a move in stealth or combat, Multi takedown and basic Stealth Features like crouch, line walk, Jumping Takedowns etc. A fun but basic stealth system

Overall I give this game...

8.75/10 - an absolutely incredibel game with some premier mechanics and some basic mechanics, Repetitive content but fun gameplay and amazing storytelling and a masterpiece of world design and style.

A must buy at any Price.

Normally I'm not a fan of open world games because of how uninteresting I find them to be, but Ghost of Tsushima is one of the exceptions. What mainly kept me playing this game was the fantastic combat system; it feels so satisfying to use Jin's arsenal to it's fullest, from the fluid sword skills to the vast amount of other weapons you can use to defeat your enemies. This game is what Assassin's Creed wishes it can be. On top of that, the game has a really compelling story with tons of side plots, a good soundtrack, beautiful graphics, and world that is mostly fun to explore and interact with. Ghost of Tsushima was a great surprise to me and I really loved playing it overall.

Ghost of Tsushima is beautiful. It captures the Japanese landscape and culture in a way that works very well for me (as a non-Japanese person who's only visited Japan once). The combat holds itself up for the duration, which is a challenge in this sort of games.
I think the main story being told has its ups and downs. I like the theme it explores, as cliché as it might be at this point. The side stories had their moments, but were very hit-or-miss. The biggest problem here is that several side-storylines are set up, and in all of them without exception, eventful moments happen in the beginning and in the end, making the in-between a series of redundant steps (oh no, we missed him/her again, must be in another castle).
This is one example of the biggest problem in this game: repetitiveness.
I still haven't played the Iki Island DLC, and I'm postponing that for a long while because I can NOT stand any more of the random encounters, the repetitive little noises, the tiny little details that after 60 hours of gameplay started to grate immensely.
It does have an incredible conclusion though.

This was a good time. It felt kind of like an Assassin's Creed game but that's OK. It had a better sense of progression than Valhalla did. It looked great with a good balance of realism and artistic choices. The colors really felt like a hyper-stylized film. The combat was decent... maybe a little easy but very manageable after you figure out the stances. I really liked how it directed you to the next point of interest. It had a few methods including random yellow birds or foxes you should follow or just going in the direction the wind is blowing. Felt more organic than some big arrow or whatever. I hope they make more like this.

Getting very good vibes from this.
Everything just feels so smooth and immediate, it's hard to describe. The controls feel super responsive. Fast traveling on a PS5 is a joke. There is no loading screen, it's instantaneous. It's super pretty, although the particle effects and leaves everywhere are exaggerated af.

Overall, I feel like its a super good open-world rpg-light game.
It just happens to feel a little generic after having played a couple of open-world games.

A really fantastic open world adventure. Visually this game is absolutely stunning. Every location and point on the map is gorgeous and the world balances the imagery of scenic beauty and the harsh effects of war very well.

The games story is pretty straightforward and simple, invading forces quickly take over and the player fights back and builds a resistance to take back their home. It's not bad but it's not really for the first 2/3 of the game. But the end of Act II and all of Act III really ramps it up with lots of twists and dramatic turns that really made the whole thing worth it. It's also where one of the main themes of the game (Honor, change, and what it takes to save your home) that was simmering for the first chunk of the game finally comes to the surface, culminating in a shocking final boss fight and a final difficult choice to determine the ending where both options feel right and satisfying. And that's just the main story! The side stories are also fantastic! The ones involving the other main characters have entire arcs with their own twists and turns, they feel like entire stories within the main story which is amazing. Even smaller side missions help build the world and add to the main themes of the game. After beating the main story I ran into a small open world event that tied into some of the ramifications of the story which I found fascinating. The world truly feels alive, connected, and affected by the story which is something a lot of open world games fail to do.

Of course its not just the story and visuals that make this game fun, it's the gameplay. Combat is extremely smooth and satisfying. You get multiple sty,es to switch between depending on what type of enemy you're fighting which keeps fights from being completely monotonous and as you progress you unlock so many tools, moves and abilities that you can tackle fights in tons of different ways. Exploring the world is also fun, as stated before it's visually stunning and using the wind and birds as way points is brilliant and doesn't clog up the screen with markers. The one negative about this game though is that it falls into the typical open world problem where there's a bit too much side content and collectibles. While getting all of them is by no means required, it still becomes monotonous when you've done what feels like 20 fox shrines and you find yet another. It all just feels a bit like padding/filler that stretched out the playtime.

Still overall this game is absolutely fantastic and there's so many little things on top of what I've already mentioned. Highly highly recommend experiencing this one for yourself.

MISC FINAL THOUGHT: Honestly not sure if they should make a sequel to this. While it would be cool to see Jin go on another adventure with new gameplay additions and places to explore, the story and journey in this are so well done and self contained I kinda feel like it should remain a one and done story. But I guess we"ll just have to wait and see if that's something Sucker Punch decides to do.

An amalgamation of all the things people who hate Playstation exclusives say every Playstation game is like, only lacking the polish you’d usually expect from them, feeling more like a Ubisoft game than a Sony game. Even the story feels phoned in for a Sony game; conceptually strong plot, ruined by poor presentation (Mass Effect ass facial animations), generic writing, topped off with lame voice acting in both English and Japanese, leaving me feeling like the game needed another year in the oven, but it had 6 YEARS of development.

Like it's FINE, I finished it, and I can see what it was trying to do, but yeesh it feels so half-baked.

(also unskippable cutscenes because it’s still 2002 I guess).

One the best open world action games ever made. The art direction is world class - the grass blowing in the direction of your objective is so innovative.

The story is mature and dark, a sort of Assassins Creed meets Farcry story about killing the baddies that invaded your homeland.

It's one of my favorite games of all time.

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.

Ghost of Tsushima can feel a bit generic if you'vve played an open world game in the past ten years or so but it's pretty good. I'll admit I didn't like it as much replaying it recently than I did when I played it a few years ago. Sucker Punch are very technically proficient that makes it worth playing through.

Set in 1274 during the Mongol Invasions of Japan; I'll always appreciate a historical settings in video games. You'll find yourself fighting a lot of Mongols throughout the game so it's a good thing the combat is so good. Just swinging the sword feels great and using the ghost weapons like kukuri or sticky bombs during combat works well. The bow also feels great to use. On the other hand, the stealth is not very good and I would much rather play it as a stealth game. There's a few stealth options but the level design is not there to support it. Most of the areas just give you some wires to walk along or tall grass to hide in. The interiors to infiltrate are even worse as there is only a handful of different building designs. The island of Tsushima itself is beautiful and they do a decent job of giving some environmental variety throughout. That said, I just didn't enjoy exploring it that much. It's a very checklist game and I do enjoy games like that but it did make me ignore the world around me and just run from icon to icon. I appreciate the attempt to not use a minimap with GPS markers allowing you to follow wind or animals but I mostly just kept spamming wind until I knew what direction to go.

This is not to say that you're not rewarded well for following the various icons. The progression system in the game is fantastic. PLaying on the highest difficulty, I valued every single upgrade I could get. There are a lot of cosmetics to unlock but everything else gave you more health, more resolves, more technique points, more reputation, new abilities, new charms, new armour and a host of resources to upgrade gear and weapons. It's a very satisfying loop. Even after having a set of armour and charms I was sticking with, I still wanted any other upgrade I could get. The activities to get these upgrades are fairly standard for the genre. There's camps to clear, climbing challenges and just following icons. I did quite enjoy the bamboo slicing which is a button memorisation minigame. You'll probably get sick of most of them after a while but they're mostly fine. There's a series of side quests that are written to be interesting but they all follow a pretty rigid structure.

The story is decent although you'll never want to hear the word "Mongols" ever again. The writing is perhaps overly dreary. It's not like I expect an upbeat tale of people suffering an invasion but it really got overbearing at times when we have a tale dealing with Alzheimer's. Jin falling away from his noble Samurai code and embracing his Ghost persona didn't entirely work for me which makes up the thrust of his character arc. The Iki Island DLC included in this Director's Cut does offer a bit more insight to Jin's relationship with his parents and has to reckon with his father's past deeds. I probably enjoyed the writing more there. The DLC also continues the best part of the game, i.e. the progression with new armours and techniques to unlock. You even get a charm that extends your chain attack with a kurai throw which I loved. Everything carries back into the main game which is always my favourite type of DLC.

It's a good game if lacking in a number of areas. It doesn't do anything particularly interesting in the well worn open world mold. A fun progression system and great combat does go a long way though. As much as I said I didn't enjoy it as much on my replay, I am still interested in a sequel. Hopefully Sucker Punch will improve the stealth which could really elevate it to greatness in my eyes.