I bought Ghost of Tsushima around December last year but only now did I finish it. This because I genuinely wasn't liking the combat that much, not because the combat is bad, but because at it's early stages is waaaay more difficult compared to after you unlock all the styles, and I wasn't liking the difficulty at the beginning. Now, when it comes to my thoughts about the game as a whole:
STORY:
The game's strongest point by a good mile. The characters are charismatic, easy to like and memorable. The plot is not very long nor very short, and runs at quite a quick pace, so it never gets boring while giving proper development to all the side characters via side missions, which i advise everyone to do (Tales of Tsushima), since all the character's conclusions are in there. I don't really want to spoil anything about it, but it's undoubtedly one of the best I've experienced in the games I've played recently.
GAMEPLAY:
Ghost of Tsushima has a lot taken from other recent open worlds, and that's something that applies to the overall side mission system as well. Even though I like what the game presents as a base, I do think it gets repetitive after a couple of hours. Basically all the Bosses/Duels deal with the same move sets, with some rare exceptions, and the game gets easier and easier as you progress since it gives you more and more tools to combat your enemies, while they are more stale and pretty much keep the same moves throughout. There were times I could predict all of the bosses moves just by looking at their gear, and even though I didn't consider it a deal breaker, it's one of the main reasons the game gets so repetitive.
SIDE MISSIONS:
For the ones who want to go after 100%/platinum, I think it's a good one to pick up since itr's not that difficult. But if you want to go after it, you have to get ready for, just like I mentioned before, repetitive side missions and also a ton of collectables that suffer a bit from unoriginality since both their rewards and how they work are pretty much borrowed from other open world's from nowadays.
In conclusion, Ghost of Tsushima is a pretty good experience. Even though I criticized a lot of it's aspects throughout the review, the game would be worth for the story alone, but as the gameplay is repetitive, it works pretty well and barely made me get mad at the game for malfunctioning or something. I just wish they had worked more on refreshing it so it wouldn't become so more of the same after a while.
Solid 8/10
STORY:
The game's strongest point by a good mile. The characters are charismatic, easy to like and memorable. The plot is not very long nor very short, and runs at quite a quick pace, so it never gets boring while giving proper development to all the side characters via side missions, which i advise everyone to do (Tales of Tsushima), since all the character's conclusions are in there. I don't really want to spoil anything about it, but it's undoubtedly one of the best I've experienced in the games I've played recently.
GAMEPLAY:
Ghost of Tsushima has a lot taken from other recent open worlds, and that's something that applies to the overall side mission system as well. Even though I like what the game presents as a base, I do think it gets repetitive after a couple of hours. Basically all the Bosses/Duels deal with the same move sets, with some rare exceptions, and the game gets easier and easier as you progress since it gives you more and more tools to combat your enemies, while they are more stale and pretty much keep the same moves throughout. There were times I could predict all of the bosses moves just by looking at their gear, and even though I didn't consider it a deal breaker, it's one of the main reasons the game gets so repetitive.
SIDE MISSIONS:
For the ones who want to go after 100%/platinum, I think it's a good one to pick up since itr's not that difficult. But if you want to go after it, you have to get ready for, just like I mentioned before, repetitive side missions and also a ton of collectables that suffer a bit from unoriginality since both their rewards and how they work are pretty much borrowed from other open world's from nowadays.
In conclusion, Ghost of Tsushima is a pretty good experience. Even though I criticized a lot of it's aspects throughout the review, the game would be worth for the story alone, but as the gameplay is repetitive, it works pretty well and barely made me get mad at the game for malfunctioning or something. I just wish they had worked more on refreshing it so it wouldn't become so more of the same after a while.
Solid 8/10