Ghosts takes place in the late 1200s as the Mongolian army of the Yuan Dynasty led by Kublai Khan invades Japan. Having just conquered the pennisula of Korea, they move further south to the island of Tsushima, province of the Japanese empire. Lord Shimura is the jito (or ruler) of Tsushima, holding together the clans of the island.
You play as Sakai Jin, Shimura's nephew is the only surviving samurai of the battle of Komoda beach, where the clans of the island led by Shimura met the landing parties of the mongols, and lost. After being revived from your wounds, you awake to the open world of Tsushima, roaming the island to help those in need and gain support to overthrow Kublai Khan, currently occupying Kaneda castle, with your uncle Lord Shimura as captive.
This is where I'm at in the game so far, around 20 hours into Act 1. There are probably three acts, plus an extra area available the DLC expansion. So far, I think it's been a pretty benign experience, but I have been focusing solely on the open world elements of the game, rather than the story.
Being Samurai is at the heart and soul of Ghosts, and this seems like the direction the story is headed. Ghosts describe Samurai as fearless just warriors who stand up and fight against all odds even at the cost of their lives. However, as a single warrior, you are constantly fighting against these odds. While it is the most honorable route, it is also the most foolish when it is not feasible or possible to win using such direct single-minded tactics.
A woman named Yuna had rescued you from Komoda beach. She moves undetected through grass, and cuts down the mongol enemies when they are unready. Moves deemed cowardly and underhanded from the point of view of a samurai. Dishonorable.
Through gameplay, Ghosts offers you two approaches to every battle: face your enemies head on, or pick off enemies one by one without being detected. There are a few glimpses of Jin struggling with his strict samurai code of honor when relying on stealth techniques too much. Hopefully it'll become core to the story.
In most games, stealth is almost always the way to go. Fighting battles head on tend to overwhelm and you end up using more resources. So, it's best to pick off enemies one by one to even the odds before hopping in to finish the squirmish. Why fight five dudes at once, when you can end up fighting either one or two?
Ghosts has a nice gameplay solution for this as a Stand Off. Reveal yourself to the enemy and face them directly in a duel. Hold down the button and release right as they strike for an instant kill. This skill can be upgraded to take out three enemies at once, leaving only a few left to deal with after.
It ends up becoming a much faster way of dealing with groups of enemies then using stealth, too. The game gives you a lot of tools and methods of taking down enemies, but I really haven't had a need to learn any of them. Dudes attack, I parry, then slash slash slash. This results in almost all battles ending up into the same battle again and again.
In open world games, exploration is of absolute importance to me. Once free to explore, I immediately run off into the woods to find secrets, caves, dungeons, and items. Ghosts has plenty of that content. Pieces of map and points of interests reveal as you explore rather than having everything available as you start, which both encourages exploration and doesn't overwhelm with a thousand checkboxes on a to-do list. It allows you to play the game at your own pace.
There are a lot of dynamic environments that light up with the sunrise or sunset, like the golden forest of ginko trees and open fields full tall grass blowing in the moonlight. It's not too difficult to get some pretty shots with the amazing Photo Mode.
Unfortunately, most of the shots end up looking the same. There's a distant visual tone to Ghosts, but none of the environments end up feeling distinct themselves. It's just the same areas with different colored trees or with higher rocks. Many of the buildings are copies of the same models used in other villages. Even the villagers are just copied over and over again.
For an open world game, it ultimately feels somewhat closed and limited. I feel like I had already hit the boundaries of the world (both literally and creatively) after 5 hours, and these last 15 hours have just been cleanup, making my way through repetitious open world side stories and ticking collectibles off a list. It's all pretty standard boring open world elements. Go here, pick up this, go there, kill this person.
Comparing worlds, Red Dead Redemption 2, which had been released two years prior to Ghosts, was a game that continued to feel alive and fresh for hours and hours, both in story and in environment. Everything in that game felt hand crafted and lived in. People felt real, too. It felt like an actual world.
Ghosts feels more like a high quality copy of Assassin's Creed so far with a lot of paint on the outside to distract you from what's underneath.
With the release of Shogun last year, I've been thinking about and contextualizing Japanese history more than I had before. Shogun's story focused on a fictional version of Tokugawa and his actions leading to the Battle of Sekigahara. With his win, he assumes control of Japan as shogun ushering in the Edo Period in 1603.
Shogun was the title given to the military leader of Japan, who actually executed laws and governship through the words of the Emperor. This term originated in the Kamakura Period of Japan, which is when Ghosts takes place.
The Kamakura shogunate overthrew the Emperor in 1185 and established themselves as the rulers of Japan. This was the first point in history where the Emperor did not "control" the country. As each territory and kingdom pledged their loyalty, high ranking soldiers within clans of those territories became deputized as samurai, a new kind of soldier.
Samurai had more power than standard soldiers as they could execute the will and actions of their lords as they see fit, rather than waiting for orders. At this time, the samurai designation was mostly reserved for members of the ruling class. But over time, more and more soldiers and members of clans became worthy of the title.
Again, Ghosts takes place around 1274 during the mongolian invasion, at the height of the Kamakura shogunate. Focusing only on military strength and expansion became their downfall as the government never actually produced anything to pay their subjects. The Emperor regained their power in 1333, starting the Muromachi Period.
Understanding the need to be suspicious of others and the benefits of working under darkness, breaking the code of samurai, Ninja spies were officially trained and designated around the mid-1400s as the Emperor was overthrown again, fracturing Japan, and starting the Warring States Period of Japanese history.
Tactics of Ninja and Shinobi existed before the Warring States Period, but those terms were never used until then, and those actions were always viewed negatively until then.
It's interesting how these beliefs have been woven into the story of Ghosts. It's a bit unfortunate how the game doesn't contextualize any of this history. But, on the other hand, Ghosts seems to accurately adhere to it, which is commendable compared to other fairytale stories of samurai made by poorly researched westerners.
The developer, Sucker Punch, has a clear reverence of the material and culture. This was even clear from the start when leading up to the announcement of the game at E3 2018. They had Cornelius Boots, one of the world's leading masters of the shakuhachi, a traditional Japanese wooden flute, put on a performance. Although, because of the military rule of Kamakura, these performances had diminished greatly at this time.
Shogun was one of the main reasons I had become interested in playing through Ghosts of Tsushima. But another reason was because of the sequel announced last year. Sucker Punch unveiled Ghosts of Yotei in September 2024 and announced its release for 2025. I wanted to finish the first game before the new one came out.
They announced that Yotei is not a direct sequel to Ghosts of Tsushima, taking place in 1603. This was the time that Tokugawa had just taken control of Japan and began instituting rules upon rules to strictly govern the country and prevent any uprising or opposition to his rule or weakening Japan to foreign entities.
It was also announced that Yotei takes place in Hokkaido. Prior to 1603, the Japanese (or Wajin) have only occupied the southern area of Hokkaido, while the rest of the island was home to its natives, known as Ainu. Japan wanted to strengthen its hold on Hokkaido (known as Ezo at the time) to prevent any possibly invasion from Russia.
Over the next hundred years, conflict and bloody battles erupted between the natives and Japanese before the entire island eventually came under Japanese rule. You play as Atsu, a female warrior, probably of the Ainu, through the origin of these conflicts.
No idea what time of year it'll take place, but the overall vibe should be a lot of mountain climbing and snow, compared to the sub-tropical island of Tsushima.
Anyways, I'm a bit down on Ghosts at the moment, but this is mostly tempering my expectations. I'm really surprised how the environments and interactions feel so old, when the game was released in 2020. This was the height of the Playstation 4, moments before the release of the PS5. Games had already been out by then with significantly more character in their story and engagement in their environments.
I'm right at the edge of the next significant story progression, so I hope things turn around.
I've taken a bunch of in-game photos, too. You can view them below.
