![]() ![]() Instead, Jin is a bland protagonist with a few occasional bright spots, most of which surface during side quests where he interacts with an excellent supporting cast. Watching Jin grow increasingly conflicted as he’s forced to abandon his heritage and sacrifice everything dear to him purely so his homeland stands a chance at survival is heartbreaking, but we never catch a sufficient glimpse at his past or personality to really care about this thematic deconstruction. It’s a compelling concept and is explored throughout the core narrative, but is held back by a fairly one-dimensional main character. Upon performing his first dishonourable kill, he realises that the sacred path of a Samurai must be abandoned if he hopes to survive and save his people. It’s clear Sucker Punch Productions wants to introduce techniques such as stealth and ranged combat so they coincide with Jin’s growth as a character. The opening hours are a mediocre slog, forcing you through oodles of boring exposition and a few painfully slow missions before you’re outfitted with basic abilities like stealth, ranged combat and the ability to assassinate your adversaries. Opening with a stunning battle on Hanada Beach, things quickly take a turn for the worse as the opposing force occupy Tsushima Island and leave our hero for dead. Taking place in 1274, the story follows Jin Sakai as he fights off the First Mongol Invasion of Japan. Related: Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Preview It’s a shame that outside of such occasions, Jin’s pilgrimage oftentimes loses steam. Far too often I would find myself abandoning the story simply so I could explore, losing hours chasing my own little narratives as a flawed saviour of the people. Yellow birds will lead you to random discoveries, while multicoloured trees and plumes of smoke will indicate nearby shrines and enemy encampments. It works beautifully, and having to analyse the environment for subtle clues means you’re obligated to stop and stare, or in my case, spend hours in photo mode.Įnvironmental cues like this are all over the island of Tsushima. This means you’ll rarely need to check the map during missions. With a flick of the touchpad, a gust of wind will move towards the direction of your objective, whether it be the next mission or a custom marker you’ve set. Sucker Punch has surmounted this obstacle by making pathfinding a natural part of the world itself. Players would just blindly follow a marker to their next objective instead of actively exploring on their own terms, robbing the world of any real agency. Ghost of Tsushima does its best to abandon the conventional waypoint, an infamous hurdle of the open-world genre for almost a decade now. The blood of The Witcher and Breath of the Wild runs proudly through Tsushima’s veins, with many of its best mechanics drawing from contemporaries and expanding upon them in unexpected ways. It’s both a breath of fresh air for the open-world genre and an obvious imitator of this generation’s finest. I also feel such dedication to the era’s picturesque nature and the filmic inspirations of Akira Kurosawa prevent Ghost of Tsushima from ever standing on its own two feet, constantly in the shadow of homage instead of carving its own legacy.Ī few small qualms aside, I was smitten with Sucker Punch’s latest outing. It’s triumphant, even if the storytelling failed to truly engage me beyond a few excellent stories off the beaten path. Sucker Punch Productions couldn’t have ventured further from its previous works with Ghost of Tsushima, abandoning the world of tongue-in-cheek superheroes and platforming racoons for a historical epic of monolithic proportions. It’s a fairly one-dimensional and achingly western take on such a setting, but that doesn’t take away from how truly stunning it can be. Jin Sakai is a warrior meant to be feared, choosing to abandon the strict life of a Samurai in favour of a code that isn’t afraid to play dirty if it means protecting the people you love. ![]() Ghost of Tsushima excels at placing you at the centre of an unparalleled power fantasy. His fear is silenced with a downward thrust of my blade, and with that, my adventure continues. The Ghost, a fallen Samurai who has single-handedly brought down armies a legend turned reality. Seconds after meeting my gaze, he drops to the floor, scampering away like a coward as he realises exactly who he’s up against. ![]()
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