Gamer’s Guide - Ghost of Tsushima

The Ghost of Tsushima is a playstation game loosely based on the Mongol empire’s invasion of Japan. Sakai Jin (surname reversed) is a samurai who along with the other warriors on the island of Tsushima have gathered to repel the mongol invasion of their home. Naturally, things go a bit pear-shaped, and Jin must claw his way from utter defeat to victory with the help of a few key allies.

*Please be aware that the following review contains gameplay spoilers*

Ghost of Tsushima

Before we begin my review, I have one PSA. From now on I’ll refer to this game as Ghost for brevity’s sake. I thought about shortening it to the Ghost of T, but that brought to mind both a trans ghost and a chemical vial floating midair. To avoid alchemical confusion, I will stick with Ghost.

Likes:

Women Characters – I love the proliferation of female characters in this story, and their wide range of skills and personalities. From peasants to samurai, from priestesses to boyers and amorsmiths, women occupy a wide range of occupations. Also, in a game based on war and invasion, I appreciate that rape is not an average, everyday facet of the game. Such incidents do happen. Such as a group of women being offered up by the rest of the village to save themselves. But there is no audio/visual representation that I as the player had to sit through.

Two of my favorite female characters are Lady Masako and Yuna, two women who are close allies of Jin.

Jin encounters Yuna shortly after the samurai defeat at the beach where the Mongols first invade Tsushima. Pretty much everyone dies but Jin and his uncle who is captured. Jin is left for dead but dragged off and rescued by Yuna. At this point most games would make her a healer and a love interest. In actuality, Yuna has her own agenda, rescuing Jin so that he can help save her little brother who has been captured.

She helps Jin avoid detection by the Mongols that have come into the village to raid by teaching him to shadow-walk across the rooftops. Thereby revealing she is, in fact, a thief. I absolutely adore how Yuna is set up as Jin’s foil. He is a samurai and must live by a rigid code. Yuna is a survivor and does what she must to live another day, though not at the cost of her humanity. It is through their interactions that Jin begins his own shift into someone who is no longer just a samurai. He is now a survivor who chooses to use every advantage in order to protect his homeland and free his people. Choices he both stands by and occasionally comes to regret.

I love how direct Yuna is from the beginning. She doesn’t apologize for what she is or does to survive. She speaks directly to Jin who, though he is a good person, has been raised in a higher station and with a specific point of view, believing that his values are more important than anyone else’s. It is through their interactions and fights across the island that Jin becomes something much more flexible – the Ghost of Tsushima.

I also love the fact that Yuna’s core is that of an older sibling. She and her brother have gone through a heart-breaking childhood, but though harsh and overprotective, you can see how the love of her brother drives her every decision.

Jin also shows her an incredible amount of respect. Every time someone does the whole ‘how did you survive the beach massacre’ bit, he straightforwardly gives Yuna all the credit for saving him. Any time people question her reason for fighting or being fighting alongside him he gives her his full support and respect of a comrade-at-arms. There’s even a scene late in the game where before a large battle they share a bottle of sake and just hang out, talking to each other and telling childhood stories. This is EXACTLY where any other game would have them kiss and fuck. But that doesn’t happen here. And though I personally ship them, I really liked the perspective it gave their friendship.

My second most favorist female is Lady Masako. Unlike Yuna, Masako is from a samurai family and is the matriarch of her clan. I love her story because, once again, in any other game her role of her whole family dying and being the only survivor who vows revenge would be given to a man. Not only is Lady Masako cast in this role, but she is also over 50 years old.

Even the way she speaks about the tragedy changes from the stereotype. Her grief is raw and poignant, you can see her break when she speaks about each family member’s death. It’s not just ‘my wife’ or ‘my child’. It’s a grandchild who was a few months old. It was her daughter who she sent fleeing down the road with the other children while the rest of the family’s women stayed and fraught, succumbing one by one. It’s the way she searches for her sons on the beach of the Mongol invasion to give them proper burials, and the way she has her son’s armor repaired and given to Jin.

She is also allowed to make questionably moral and ethical decisions while in the grip of grief, using other people as bait and fighting Jin all in the name of her revenge. She was known for her wisdom and kindness “she once disarmed a bandit with a kind word” but now she swings her sword first and asks questions later.

Stealth – If you’ve followed me for any length of time, you know I am an absolute sucker for a good stealth game. Ghost is one in which you can choose whether to focus on a stealth-oriented play or a challenge-and-fight approach. I, myself, prefer to spend 12 minutes sneaking around just so I don’t have to fight anyone face-to-face.

My only exception to this rule is the ability to Challenge several enemy characters at once. It’s basically like a game of chicken but with very pointy swords, spears, or axes. If you level up this skill, you can face three enemies in a row (and more with a specific type of armor) and kill them all, potentially without setting off any alarms. So while it’s technically face-to-face fighting, I use it to still achieve my stealth goals.This skill was a godsend to put my points toward early in the game while I was still struggling to figure out how to properly fight. (Who am I kidding? I still struggle just more efficiently.)

There are other skills that help with stealth fighting as well. Kunai that you can throw to dispatch an opponent quickly and quietly when you’ve accidentally been spotted. A grapple weapon that let’s you maneuver for just the right position. Smoke bombs to disrupt enemy sight, and, of course, the ability that lets you sense enemies through walls.

Sakai Jin – Sakai Jin (surname first) is the playable character in Ghost. I love Jin not only because he’s a good man, but because his story arch is believable. He starts out completely hemmed in by society convention of how his social class acts and fights. Because of this, even though he had a near-escape on the beach where the game begins, he once again suicidally charges into the Mongol-occupied fortress on a rescue mission. Though he goes far he is not, in the end, successful.

This is the crux point of Act I of the story.

Jin isn’t stupid. He sees that he can’t win alone or with the tactics he’s been taught. Tactics the Mongol commander has deliberately learned in order to counter. So Jin changes himself. He learns to be both stealthy and open-minded. To look for allies both from the peasant class as well as the surviving samurai class. But this isn’t just a simple, overnight decision. We as the player see Jin struggle deeply with his decision. Flashbacks with his uncle, whom he treats as a father and commander, make his struggle all the more poignant.

The more his legend as the Ghost of Tsushima grows, the more Jin comes into conflict with his fellow samurai class. This comes to a head in Act II when he uses poison to retake Castle Shimura, avoiding the high casualty rate his uncle’s samurai tactics would have tallied. Jin is imprisoned for his actions until he eventually escapes. Now he hunted by samurai from the emperor and his uncle as well as the Mongol invaders. His choice to use poison has unexpected consequences when the Mongol commander adopts its use and begins attacking the nearby civilians with it.

The pain of losing the samurai life Jin had the chance to regain, the pain of not knowing if he did the right/best thing in retaking Castle Shimura all begin to wear on him. His pain is incredibly understandable and realistic. This isn’t a simple war game. It shows the conflicts both within the existing power structure and civilians of Tsushima that Jin must navigate all for a chance at freeing his homeland.

Storylines – I adored the depth of each storyline. From unexpected encounters in the forest to the actual side quests, Ghost’s game developers did not skimp on the humanity of each and every encounter. It was also exciting because you never knew exactly who was telling the truth or what the extenuating circumstances might be until you thoroughly investigated the story. There are good, kind people doing their best to survive and even help others. There are those who just do anything to survive. And, of course, those who try and profit from the suffering of everyone around them.

Bestest Horse – I cannot state how much I love my horse in this game. Part of the attachment comes from the very deliberate decisions the developers force the gamer to make. After being saved by Yuna, Jin is given the choice of three samurai mounts. You are cautioned by the system that ‘This is a final choice’ so, of course, you feel immediate buy-in for your decision. Once you choose your mount, you must choose a name. Another final decision.

Your horse is critical to the speed driving out the Mongol invasion and exploration of Tsushima’s island. The developers even built in bonding scenarios with your horse as he appears in many of the ‘end credits’ after Jin has retaken villages and Mongol camps. (Some of the credits are very cute, fiends.) Jin also talks to your horse quite a lot, telling him what a good steed he is and even promising to have a long, quiet ride together when the invasion has been dealt with.

Of course, all of this bonding builds up to one of the most devastating deaths in the game. Your loyal steed and companion is killed taking you to safety. I bawled, fiends. Bawled.

Rest in peace, Nobu. You were the best horse a samurai could have.

Blood Toggle – I adore games that allow you to adjust the blood spatter. There was just…so much of it in Ghost.

Culture – One of the most enjoyable aspects of this game is the sheer amount of exploration built in. Ghost does an excellent job of immersing you into the day-to-day life of people during the time period the game was based around. You get to see the inside of houses, infiltrate camps and ships, and just ride through gorgeous pampas grass fields. There are side hunts for shrines with adorable foxes, skill tests with bamboo strikes, haiku crafting, and hot spring visits. Add in the fun gifts you can find from the Mongol empire (and their various raids of the surrounding countries) and you learn a lot of fascinating history. As a self-professed history nerd, I adored every second of it.

Queer Rep – If I’m honest, this one waffles between the like and dislike category. Since I’ve placed it here, I’ll start with what I liked about it: Japan does not currently allow any sort of same-sex unions, so I appreciate how Ghost shows that queer people have been a part of its history from the beginning.

What I didn’t like about the queer rep: there were no happy endings. To be fair, this is a game of war and invasion so there are very few happy endings to be found anywhere.

The first queer rep I encountered was a man who was suspected to be working with the Mongol invaders, not an uncommon occurence in the game. When Jin confronted him about it, the man showed him that, in fact, he was paying a nightly visit to a nearby grave to mourn the death of his lover. Why do so in secret? Because they were both men, and his lover had been married. The family of whom currently lived in the nearby refugee camp. Jin sends the man on his way, urging him to find a new place to stay to avoid any further suspicion coming down on him.

The second rep I encountered was actually from Lady Masako herself. As Jin helps her continue to track down her family’s killer, they encounter Lady Masako’s former lover: a woman. Masako explains that though she loved her husband, this woman was closer to her. However, when her husband found out about the arrangement he threatened to kill her so she sent the woman away to keep her safe. Jin, being the bean he is, doesn’t question or judge her. Simply continues to help Masako on her question.

It’s difficult to look at the situation from my modern seat and judge someone else’s choices. (Okay, that’s a lie. It IS easy, but I try not to do it.) Arguments can be made that there is no better way in this circumstance. That Lady Masako herself was in an arranged marriage and to refuse would make her an outcast in her family. Not much background was given for the peasant man’s situation but one could presume the same issue was at stake. Such arrangements were rarely supported and did not seem to be in either of these cases given the secrecy involved. However…modern CJ doesn’t like the implicit cheating involved. I’m not saying there was a GOOD option available to either of these indidivuals. I just…don’t feel comfortable with rooting for it either.

Dislikes:

Treasure Hunts – I actually enjoy looking for relics in the game, but the vibrating controller shouting, ‘A TREASURE IS NEARBY YOU MUST FIND IT RIGHT NOW’ was very distracting. I’m trying to murder a bunch of people thank you very much. I don’t need the controller distracting me from that goal. It also took me far longer than it should to realize that the firefly which appeared during that time was there to help me get an indication of artifact direction. There were plenty of perfectly ordinary fireflies in the background of the game already, okay?!

Bow – Ghost’s bow is probably a lot more realistic than most normal game bows since you needed to calcluate drop rate and Jin’s longbow didn’t magically let you see further away. It just let you throw your pointed stick farther. Also, there were times when Jin would notch an arrow but not pull back to fire. I’m sure it’s something I should have been able to figure out, but I never managed it. Sometimes he’d pull back to fire and sometimes he didn’t. I simply had to learn to pay attention to whether the string was pulled back when I hit the controller button. If it didn’t, I simply hit the button again. An easy fix, but as someone who plays for stealth and relies on the bow and arrow for it in most games…it was a bit of a let down.

Sacred Deer – In other games I’ve played, if you can hunt all visible animals are up for grabs unless you’re in a settlement. That being the case, I immediately turned my bow onto the wild deer that populate Tsushima. After finally bringing one down with my beginner, underpowered bow, I ran up to it…but didn’t receive a collection indicator on my screen. I circled around it for awhile, baffled and annoyed. Did the deer glitch? But every following deer I took down wouldn’t let me collect materials either which I had easily been able to do with the wild boars I’d hunted.

Fast forward to many, many hours of gameplay later. A play hint scrolls across my screen during a game load. ‘Deer are sacred to your people. Hunting them is frowned upon :(’ So...my bad, deer. Totally my bad. This DID answer my question as to why so many people were in danger of starvation during this invasion when there were so many deer bounding around the forest though…

Challenge – I actually talked up this skill in the Like area under the Stealth subsection. I liked being able to use this to accomplish my stealth mission and/or defeat enemies without dying too easily. However, the Challenge option appears on your screen and then stays. For the entire time you can challenge, fiends. It was very distracting.

*I think it has become clear to all of us, particularly myself, that anything which can be classified as a visual/audio interruption bothers me...a lot. Probably because I’m more sensitive than most to visual/audio stimuli.

Climbing – This is mostly me nitpicking. There were no bugs nor was climbing abysmally slow like it is in some games. I just feel like the developer’s could have done better integrating it into gameplay. Why is a samurai able to easily climb like a monkey? And the climbable bits were a little too obvious to the naked eye. To be fair, I’m mostly comparing this to Assassin’s Creed and Horizon games which are built on free/climb anything you see play. Still, I think the system has room for improvement if there is a Ghost 2.

Duels – As I have previously mentioned, I am a stealth gamer both by choice and by necessity. If there are more than three fight combos, it immediately goes out of my head. Unfortunately, Duels are A. Thing. in the culture of Tsushima. You need to defeat singular opponents in order to pass major plot points, gain important bonus equipment, and finish side quests. Oh, and you can’t use any of your ghost weaponry during duels. It’s just you, your armor, whatever fighting skills you’ve leveled up, and, ahem, skill with your sword. It took many a repeated fight, armor toggling, and enemy tactic appraisal before I was able to attain victory for anything duel related. Sorry Jin.

Final Comments:

Overall, I would give Ghost of Tsushima a high game rating and recommendation. The storyline, characters, and side quests were well thought out. The environment was carefully researched and crafted even if the graphics aren’t platinum level. There were no real bugs I could see, and gameplay was generally enjoyable. I absolutely look forward to replaying this game in the future.

Let me know if you decide to play it, too! Until next time, fiends.