If there is one thing this game excels at, it is its atmosphere. At every turn, at every new discovery, it feels as if you stepped into a Kurasawa film awashed with color. It is cinematic - in a way that wears its influences proudly on its sleeve. I remember going north into this snowy field, with crimson trees shedding leaves in stark contrast to the pure white snow. Every area is this pretty. It is absolutely beautiful.
The combat is extremely fun, and also still harkens back to samurai film. It is impressive how well they made the combat feel like a movie - the duel system, ghost form, and resolve moves are all evocative of iconic battle scenes and, for lack of a better descripter, how 'cool' everything is. It flows very well, the required stealth sections are forgiving and thus not as frustrating as other games with them, movement is fluid and fun, and you feel rewarded for pulling off 'cool' moves like parries with gaining resolve from them. The game just makes you feel like a badass.
Ghost of Tsushima's open world is fun. You will be riding to some destination and come across a group of villagers, sharing hushed murmers about spirits in a forest, or demons seeking vengeance for decades old wars. It makes you want to check these things out simply because they are interesting, tucked away, seemingly hidden (but of course, theyre not actually hidden. The devs wanted you to find the little bits of pieces of lore and be drawn in like an insect to the web of masterful storyweavers) but they feel hidden. And that makes them feel good to find.
My biggest complaints of Ghost of Tsushima are its characterization of certain NPCs, and the pacing of the main narrative. The Mongols feel less human and more 'unfeeling monster'. There is no sympathy or motivations given to them besides "they want island". They are portrayed as wholly evil outsiders, and I think that's a poor choice that hurts some of the messages the rest of the game offers. Some characters' choices make little sense given the situation they're forced in. I don't want spoilers so I'll avoid giving examples, but at least one of these character's decisions led to the game being much, much longer - it is so long, which slows the pacing down quite a bit. The map is huge. For the story the game wanted to tell, I felt it was too long, and too much. There's 4 ally sidequests that span 9 tales each that all try to hit emotional beats and feel important and necessary despite the much larger threat looming over the main narrative. A two act structure could've fit it better, in my opinion, but I imagine the constant pressure of getting good "game hours per dollar" mentality that pervades the artform is at fault here. That being said, the way the story reveals things about Jin specifically is done so well. Flashbacks that you play out instead of just being told about, inner thoughts found in reflections of onsens and haikus. It is just the overarching narrative that I feel has this pacing issue, and even then it is such a personal preference - as I'm writing this I wonder if it was more a stylistic choice than I'm giving it credit for. Kurasawa's films are known to be quite long, afterall.
There's lots of themes tackled in mostly nuanced and interesting ways present in the game - almost every character has a struggle with family, whether found or blood. It is not so simply portrayed as "family is important/what matters more, family or morality/etc", - it is much more deeply nuanced. The idea of tradition is challenged often, usually in a way that highlights the restrictions tradition puts on the individual to be able to do "good"(?). There's questions about morality vs. Survival (how do your morals and actions change when confronted with invaders and impending death? Is what we do in those moments who we truly are, or is it just a way to survive - and if so, is survival even more important than your personal ethics and beliefs?). A lot of these themes, as is usually the case for great pieces of art, are left mostly unanswered. Just an offer to the player to have an exploratory look into themselves and make their own decisions. However, for me, the greatest question this game asks is one that it proudly answers - "What do you do after everything changes?". I think this question resonates a lot with people, like me, who suffer through depression and guilt from their past, whos ways of life changed drastically in an instant whether by losing a loved one or being diagnosed with some disease or making some critical mistake that veered you off course of your plans or some other, earth shattering event (such as a violent mongol invasion) that makes you ask "How can things ever be okay again? What comes after?" The game, both directly in passing dialogue and by the overarching story, answer this clearly: Things wont be the same as they were. You can mourn how they were. But you also need to just keep going. A new normal will be found. You will find new motivations. You're stronger than you think. Life continues even after everything breaks.
It's just a beautiful game built upon decades of beautiful cinema. And it oozes 'cool'. This game excels at conjuring the feeling you get when you see something and go "woah". It has literary gravitas if you choose to look for it, and if you don't, well it's still really damn good. I couldn't put it down and I'm planning to master it eventually.
The combat is extremely fun, and also still harkens back to samurai film. It is impressive how well they made the combat feel like a movie - the duel system, ghost form, and resolve moves are all evocative of iconic battle scenes and, for lack of a better descripter, how 'cool' everything is. It flows very well, the required stealth sections are forgiving and thus not as frustrating as other games with them, movement is fluid and fun, and you feel rewarded for pulling off 'cool' moves like parries with gaining resolve from them. The game just makes you feel like a badass.
Ghost of Tsushima's open world is fun. You will be riding to some destination and come across a group of villagers, sharing hushed murmers about spirits in a forest, or demons seeking vengeance for decades old wars. It makes you want to check these things out simply because they are interesting, tucked away, seemingly hidden (but of course, theyre not actually hidden. The devs wanted you to find the little bits of pieces of lore and be drawn in like an insect to the web of masterful storyweavers) but they feel hidden. And that makes them feel good to find.
My biggest complaints of Ghost of Tsushima are its characterization of certain NPCs, and the pacing of the main narrative. The Mongols feel less human and more 'unfeeling monster'. There is no sympathy or motivations given to them besides "they want island". They are portrayed as wholly evil outsiders, and I think that's a poor choice that hurts some of the messages the rest of the game offers. Some characters' choices make little sense given the situation they're forced in. I don't want spoilers so I'll avoid giving examples, but at least one of these character's decisions led to the game being much, much longer - it is so long, which slows the pacing down quite a bit. The map is huge. For the story the game wanted to tell, I felt it was too long, and too much. There's 4 ally sidequests that span 9 tales each that all try to hit emotional beats and feel important and necessary despite the much larger threat looming over the main narrative. A two act structure could've fit it better, in my opinion, but I imagine the constant pressure of getting good "game hours per dollar" mentality that pervades the artform is at fault here. That being said, the way the story reveals things about Jin specifically is done so well. Flashbacks that you play out instead of just being told about, inner thoughts found in reflections of onsens and haikus. It is just the overarching narrative that I feel has this pacing issue, and even then it is such a personal preference - as I'm writing this I wonder if it was more a stylistic choice than I'm giving it credit for. Kurasawa's films are known to be quite long, afterall.
There's lots of themes tackled in mostly nuanced and interesting ways present in the game - almost every character has a struggle with family, whether found or blood. It is not so simply portrayed as "family is important/what matters more, family or morality/etc", - it is much more deeply nuanced. The idea of tradition is challenged often, usually in a way that highlights the restrictions tradition puts on the individual to be able to do "good"(?). There's questions about morality vs. Survival (how do your morals and actions change when confronted with invaders and impending death? Is what we do in those moments who we truly are, or is it just a way to survive - and if so, is survival even more important than your personal ethics and beliefs?). A lot of these themes, as is usually the case for great pieces of art, are left mostly unanswered. Just an offer to the player to have an exploratory look into themselves and make their own decisions. However, for me, the greatest question this game asks is one that it proudly answers - "What do you do after everything changes?". I think this question resonates a lot with people, like me, who suffer through depression and guilt from their past, whos ways of life changed drastically in an instant whether by losing a loved one or being diagnosed with some disease or making some critical mistake that veered you off course of your plans or some other, earth shattering event (such as a violent mongol invasion) that makes you ask "How can things ever be okay again? What comes after?" The game, both directly in passing dialogue and by the overarching story, answer this clearly: Things wont be the same as they were. You can mourn how they were. But you also need to just keep going. A new normal will be found. You will find new motivations. You're stronger than you think. Life continues even after everything breaks.
It's just a beautiful game built upon decades of beautiful cinema. And it oozes 'cool'. This game excels at conjuring the feeling you get when you see something and go "woah". It has literary gravitas if you choose to look for it, and if you don't, well it's still really damn good. I couldn't put it down and I'm planning to master it eventually.