Nate Fox & Jason Connell
2020
Grade: A-
I have been away from gaming proper, with the exception of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, for some time. I missed the entire lifecycle of the PS4 and have spent what few gaming hours I had curating the library of the archive rather than actually playing through it. However, for Christmas this year my students provided me with Amazon gift cards in a number and amount that made a purchase of the PS5 too tempting to resist. Though I’m sure the founders of this feast would prefer my footsteps would to Fortnite turn, instead it led to a flurry of research on the current state of gaming and an embarrassing backlog of artistic works that are in need of some manner of attention. And that is how I stumbled luckily upon Ghost of Tsushima.
With no lily gilded this is a truly wonderful experience, start to finish. The art is stunning and immersive in a way that I can only compare to the first time I played Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. It seemed as though every few minutes I was treated to some new breathtaking vista that would make me want to simply pause and admire.
Everything from the trees to the grasses moved with life and the loving touch of an artist's hand. Strangely enough, some of the scenes were so beautiful that I caught myself taking screenshots like an awestruck tourist.
Similarly, the voice acting and overall plot are of the highest quality. I found myself fully invested in the stories of Masako, Yuna and Taka, Ishikawa, Norio, and even Kenji. All of the characters are intricately drawn with diverse and complex backgrounds and motivations. Beyond that, these stories are subtly and expertly written so that the player can feel the flow of the narrative without the game having to resort to blunt exposition as is the wont of so many games. The game gives subtle hints that there is more to the fallout with Tomoe than Ishikawa is willing to admit, and this is only one of many such examples. Special mention must be made for the performances of Daisuke Tsuji(Jin) and Eric Steinberg(Lord Shimura). As the centerpiece of the narrative, watching their relationship strengthen and fracture to culminate in a truly heart wrenching finale is sobering, poignant, and wonderful. I can honestly say that I sat for several minutes pondering the game’s climactic final choice and swam in its implications for the entirety of the credits and their powerful score.
The game play is well crafted and surprisingly complex with a variety of attacks and skills that develop as the player explores the world. In the tradition of highest quality games, it’s not simply the character that evolves, but as the game progresses the player becomes more and more talented with his or her timing further enhancing the immersiveness of the experience and giving the player a true sense of responsibility for the outcomes of encounters. Comparing my encounter with Khotun Khan in act I, where I flailed helplessly trying to accurately parry and dodge his attacks, to the final confrontation in act III where I was able to flow naturally was an incredibly rewarding experience.
The weaknesses in the work are both few and minor but should be mentioned for the sake of being thorough. As with all open world games, there is a sense of repetitiveness in the side quests. This will be more or less noticeable depending on how completion oriented the player is, but I definitely found myself becoming frustrated at the sight of a mongol band and their peasant hostage near the end of game, and there’s only so many footsteps you can follow in the mud before the novelty wears off. While it’s perhaps an unfair comparison, having recently come from Tears of the Kingdom it was hard not to feel defeated by the restrictive climbing surfaces, and more than once I found myself growling in frustration at the occasional inexact jumping. These were the only moments in the game where I felt that a failure wasn’t solely attributable to my own poor play. Also, with two exceptions, the dialogue options that occasionally present themselves do not feel meaningful or diverse enough to feel like you are making a tangible contribution to Jin’s character. This is understandable considering the more linear nature of the overall story, so I wonder if these choices were added more out of obligation to the genre than anything else.
There really is no lack of great things to say about this experience. It was emotional, exciting, challenging, and fun. It has all the qualities of a good novel and great game. I look forward to playing it again with the Japanese voice acting, and the fact that the completionist impulses in me are pulling at me demonstrates just how difficult it can be to leave Tsushima island once you have spent a little time there. Certainly not for children, but I cannot recommend it more highly to all others else.
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