Playstation Review: " Ghost of Tsushima " ( PS4 ) ( 100% )

[Captainrazer]

Review:
Ghost of Tsushima ( PS4 ) ( 100% )
( BADASS Samurai )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqysmS4lxwQ

Developer: Sucker Punch Productions
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment

Released: July 17th, 2020
Time Played: 50 Hours
Difficulty: Hard
Completion: 100% Platinum Trophy ​

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Ghost of Tsushima is an action-adventure game developed by Sucker Punch Productions and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for PlayStation 4 Exclusive. Featuring an open world for players to explore, it revolves around Jin Sakai, one of the last samurai on Tsushima Island during the first Mongol invasion of Japan.

I LOVE SAMURAI setting. I love it as close as to Cowboy settings ( talking about you RDR 2 ) and Ghost of Tsushima brings me that love into a video-games format and I love it. Ghost of Tsushima is AWESOME and its basically a movie you can watch ( when someone else is playing ) while eating popcorn.

Oh yeah! I am praising Ghost of Tsushima cause this game deserves it and IT IS AN AWESOME GAME and let me explain WHY? Here is my Review for “ Ghost of Tsushima “:

Pros:​

+ Graphics / Optimization:
The first thing you are gonna notice as soon as you start the game is as of how BEAUTIFUL and ASTONISHING this game looks ( especially as it is a console exclusive game ). I simply can’t believe how Sucker Punch Studio has made this game look and run this amazing on an ancient technology device ( AKA the Playstation 4 ). The loading screens are INCREDIBLY fast and they were initially so fast that the developers had to make them longer so the player can read the hints/tips during it.

TLDR; the Best looking game you can get on PS4 ( alongside The Last of us 2 of course ) and well well developed and optimized with super fast loading times that blows my mind away.

+ Best cinematography I have ever seen:
“ Cinematography “:
the art of photography and camerawork in film or game-making.

And that is exactly what Ghost of Tsushima is. It is one of the best-looking cinematography I have ever seen in a videogame. The way the game angles were put, the way the characters stand to the way the color gradients were chosen, and the way the leaves and trees blow behind the scene are just gorgeous. If you have ever watched the old samurai movies than you will get that same exact feeling herein this game. The developers were even cool enough to give the players the choice of choosing Japanese ( Like samurai movies are and how this game is based on it ) or English WITH a black & white mode ( Called Kurosawa mode ) where you can experience the same way the old samurai movies were.

I occasionally just put my controller down and looked at how beautiful this game was made. Bravo to everyone who worked hard day and night on making this game so beautiful. Ghosts of Tsushima Isn't just Samurai Cinema—It's a Popcorn Flick

+ Storyline:
Ghost of Tsushima story is set in Tsushima Island in the late 13th Century. You follow a samurai by the name of Jin Sakia where a Mongolian invasion happens on the island whos leader is led by Khotun Khan and You join the rest of the island’s local samurai to fight it off and free your uncle ( Lord Shimura ) who is captured by the Mongolians

I think that is enough of me spoiling this story cause what happens next and how it ends is just great and beautiful and just wholesome. The story of “ Ghost of Tsushima “ is just great and the way it leads to the ending is surprising as well as the plot twist that happens are great. Some of the cutscenes in this game gave me goosebumps. The story is awesome and I hope “ Sucker Punch Studio “ makes Ghost of Tsushima 2 with how that ending happened

+ Characters:
The main character and protagonist “ Jin Sakia “ been written / voice-acted really well; there are others too which were really fun to learn and play alongside them in this game. Starting from Jin’s uncle, Lord Shimura. From how he tells the story of how Jin became a samurai to how some *stuff* happened to him and how they never break their samurai code. Khotum Khan was also a very interesting character to learn about, how he wants to break the samurai and take over the island, what is his motivations and such.

With the main characters, the side characters were also very interesting too which I would not spoil for you as you should experience it for yourself.

+ Combat:
The combat in Ghost of Tsushima is not something new or innovating and it has it’s a fair amount of issues with it but overall it was solid, satisfying, and greatly mechanically done. It basically is somewhat of a mix of AC, Sekiro, and a little bit of Batman. You need to attack enemies, dodging their attacks, and doing a counter-attack. It is always tough to explain how combat works in a written review so I highly recommend you watch a video of the combat and decided for yourself.

More on the combat:
Ghost of Tsushima combat could feel a lot similar to the combat mechanic we have in nowadays Assassin creed games but as you are a samurai in this game, you have a different stance to chose from; You start with “ Stone Stance, which is good against Swordsmen and as you defeat more enemies you get more stances. Next is Water Stance, which uses flowing strikes to get around shield-bearers. Next is Wind Stance, used against spearmen. This fun stance comes with a powerful back kick and then the last one you get is the Moon Stance, which is used against brutes. These quick kicks and slashes will take down even the biggest of opponents. Once you mastered all that then you are a true samurai.

Each stance can be upgraded in the Skill menu which unlocks new moves. There are also Ghost Weapons, which can be used if you are going by the path of a thief and an assassin. There is a tanto blade which is used to silently take down enemies and aside from Tanto, there are more Ghost weapons which are mostly throwables: Kunai, smoke bombs, sticky bombs, black powder bombs, and even distraction-worthy wind chimes and firecrackers. There are bows as well. Charms are a great overall way to fine-tune whatever load-out you have. Even after you’ve mastered the combat combos, feel confident switching between Stances, and can flow from offense to defense, Samurai to Ghost, with ease, these Charms will add all kinds of stat bonuses to your gear. Some are great for combat, while others are better for stealth, archery, or even exploring. Sucker Punch has provided a ton of flexibility and unique options to your build here.

+ Open World:
The Open World in Ghost of Tsushima is actually not an Open World BUT a Semi-Open World as there are 3 regions with 2 been locked at the start and as you progress through the story than you unlock them. The Open World in GoT is nothing of a new which ain’t a bad thingy, It has, of course, the main-mission to follow with others been divided into Tales and as you play through them; you have some great side knowledge which helps you in the main story as well and progress the story. There are collectibles of course which I would recommend you get them as some give you skills to us, other gives you charms, other like bathing in a hot tube gives you increase health ( YES! Bathing and seeing Jin’s Booty is in this game ), to capturing outposts and of course to seeing what that strange “?” is on the map ( Basically same like in Witcher 3 ) to much much more stuff to do as well.

Ghost of Tsushima never leaves you free, it always tries to keep you busy while reminding you that there is the main story to do. BUT this semi-open world has an issue which gets into players really really quickly*

+ Soundtrack:
As soon as that beautiful Title drop and Intro happened with that chilling music running behind it. I knew at that exact moment that the soundtrack of this game would be great and it SURE WAS. Ghost of Tsushima has a great soundtrack to remind you of the times of the samurai and some old samurai movies vibes too. It is chilling, can make you cry, and could be a contender for “ Best soundtrack of 2020 “ for many people.

Cons:​

- Combat Camera:
The biggest issue I had in this game is the camera angle issues during combat. Now how can a game have angle issues when you are fighting the bad guys is when there is no lock-on-target.

Yes! This game has no lock-on-target which was a specific decision made by the developers but I still believe that they should have had a lock-on-target option in setting and let US ( the players ) choose to have it or not. Combat feels a bit like the combat we have in Sekiro: Shadow dies twice so I believe that this option would have been good.

Now enough of how I want a lock-on-target mechanic and let me instead explain to you why the camera angle has issues. Well when you are fighting someone in GoT and you get into a wall or something than the camera angle moves up which makes you not see what is happening on the battlefield but you see the sky and you just hope to spam that X button to get out of that awkward situation. I know it is hard to explain it and this whole con would make you confused a lot but if you have played the game or saw someone play it than you would get at what I am saying.

- Repetitiveness in its Semi-Open World*:
Now In the pros section i mentioned that Ghost of Tsushima Semi Open World never lets you be free with it been filled of many activities to do ( Main Story, Side Missions, Tales, Collectibles and more ) BUT it comes with the issue which basically every single Open World game have and that is for those side stuff gets repetitive to do over and over again and that is exactly the same felling that hit me after playing it for 30 hours.

Till this date, there have not been one single game that have made the open world games not been repetitive. Witcher 3 had great side missions but its "?" exploration got repetitive, GTA V also suffers with the same issue with side missions getting repetitive in a while, Far Cry side stuff is to collect some materials and climbing a radio tower to open the map and so does Ghost of Tsushima. At the start capturing the outposts, chasing a fox / bird for a skill point and finding bathtubs for increase health is fun to do but imagine doing that for 30 to 50 times more. Yeah! At start everything is exciting but soon after it simply gets boring and repetitive to do.

In TLDR; Ghost of Tsushima Semi Open World does not do anything new to evolve the open world mechanics so it feels exactly the same as you might have done it with Far Cry, GTA and such games. The only reason that pushed me to doing a 100% Platinum Trophy run for this game was the Graphics and the Satisfying Combat or else i would have not done it.

- Lip-Syncing issue:
The Lip-Syncing of this game is a bit rough, to be honest. English language lip-syncing sometimes matches what they say to others just not BUT the biggest lip-syncing issue is to those who play this game in the Japanese language. The Japanese-language performances don't line up with character mouth movements, creating a jarring disconnect while playing.

- FPS drops in original PS4:
I have heard a lot of bad stuff related to FPS drops in the original PS4 ( Not Pro version ) and mostly the game runs fine when you are wandering around in the world but fps drops below 20 when you are in combat and especially when there are a lot of enemies in one small area. This just shows that the PS4 time is coming to the end as that is OLD OLD hardware and i hope we see those beautiful 60FPS in the next generation of consoles ( PS5 and Xbox Series X )

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Final Verdict:
9/10
( Amazing )​

Ghost of Tsushima’s Cinematography is one of the best cinematography that I have seen in any video game till now. Sucker Punch just nailed on that as well as on the setting of samurai. Ghost of Tsushima has a really interesting story to carry you with as well as a satisfying combat mechanics. Characters are very interesting to learn about as well as the soundtrack is just . Ghost of Tsushima is a very great game to buy and play through as well as Sucker Punch showed us that they can make an AAA game aside of Infamous games and I would highly recommend you play it cause this game could be many people’s GOTY of this game and I can absolutely under that… Would it be mine you ask? Well, time will tell.

Ghost of Tsushima is available exclusively on PlayStation Store for $59.99.

See you all on Desperados 3, FF7 Remake and Wasteland 3 review <3.