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.
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.