Ghost of Tsushima is an amazing open-world game from the creators of Sly Cooper and Infamous over at Sucker Punch.
This is a game that has been in development for a long time and even longer teased at E3 over the years and was finally released on July 17, 2020.
You take control of Jin Sakai after the island of Tsushima is overtaken by Mongols and it’s your job to clear the island to restore order.
Let’s dive right into some of the best samurai ninja action the Playstation 4 has to offer.
One thing I wanted to point out is that I do die several times in the opening but then get my bearings.
While not a hard game I do get my butt kicked but with load times as fast as this it barely matters.
Breaking Down the Ghost of Tsushima Gameplay (Time Stamps and Analytics)
Take a look at the statistics below for a quick breakdown of what I encountered in my lets play.
- Die 4 times at the start
- Fail to get on my horse (Sora, the only acceptable name choice)
- Liberate 4 Mongol Territories
- Pray to 2 Fox Dens
- Kill more bad guys then I’m willing to count
Time Stamps
- Samurai Showdown by the Ocean (0:00)
- Liberating Hissing Creek Crossing (4:35)
- Fox Den #1 (11:10)
- Liberating Okada Farmstead (12:18)
- White Dye Merchant Location (20:08)
- Liberating Kishibe Village (20:44)
- Fox Den #2 (33:34)
- Collecting the Gift from the Gift Alter (33:58)
- Liberating Ohama Fishing Village (34:40)
- Final Thoughts on Ghost of Tsushima (40:27)
Ghost of Tsushima is an amazing game with a lot to offer, let’s slash our way right into the write-up for a super fun episode!
Samurai Showdown by the Ocean
Right at the start, we come into some trouble as I attempt to do one of the many side quests within the game.
Showdowns are throughout the island of Tsushima and while easy to find they are a true test of the skills you’ve acquired from playing the game.
You get an intense staredown with your opponent as you both unsheathe your swords and then before you can blink your in for the fight for your life.
Patience is the name of the game and something I tend to overlook as I die, again, and again, it turns out to be a little tougher than I originally thought.
It takes 4 attempts to take this samurai down but after bashing my head against a wall several times I manage to stumble my way to victory.
Even if it does take a full night in-game to make it happen. (A victories a victory in my book no matter how many times you fall)
Taking a breather to fail to get on my horse Sora, we move on to liberating Hissing Creek Crossing.
Liberating Hissing Creek Crossing
We take a quick horseback ride through the island on our way to a destination that allows us to take in the scenery.
Everything in the game is designed and placed in a way to tell you how things work as well as how they combine into gameplay.
It’s like a slightly toned-down take on Zelda Breath of the Wild open world where it holds your hand a lot more. Not that it’s a bad thing as it utilizes its mechanics so well.
The white flowers allow you to hide the enemy, the smokestacks show enemy locations, the wind tells you where your next objective is, everything is placed for a reason.
Now it’s time to get stealthy and take down the enemies to bring life back to this small village that’s been overtaken.
If you take out the camp leader then that’s a big help in taking down the entire encampment. But I’m looking to take down the people around him.
I botch the stealth approach and quickly go into a full battle with the enemy wielding flaming swords and archers barreling down arrows from above.
Utilizing the different stances, dodges, and just good old timing I’m able to take everyone down in no time. Even if I did accidentally use an exploding arrow rather than a heavy arrow. That’s just a user error.
I feel like I should explain why Sora is the best name for the horse and why I chose it over the other two options.
Kingdom Hearts is my favorite game series of all time, hands down no contest. I’ve plated A LOT of video games and nothing has ever come close to knocking Kingdom Hearts from the number one spot other than BioShock.
I did 2 videos on the game way back, check them out to see the 1000 Heartless Battle from Kingdom Hearts 2. It’s my favorite part of the entire game and I’m here to show you why it should be yours too.
Fox Den #1
We come across a fox den, the end goal is to follow the fox to the shrine and pray to it to get more Charm slots.
The biggest problem is that the foxes will sometimes disappear after you pray at the shrine and vanish.
This means you can’t pet them after they lead you to the shrine, this is a real let down and something that is quite defeating.
This doesn’t happen all the time but when it does it can feel like a real gut punch.
Liberating Okada Farmstead
We move onto the Okada Farmstead where the enemy has made camp and it’s time to get real stealthy.
This is a good chance to showcase the game’s stealth side by taking out enemies quietly and even taking them out through doorways.
This is where you can see the Infamous and Sly Cooper influences with climbing on top of buildings and stealthy taking people out.
As we take our enemies down we move on to rescuing our first hostage and stealth kill many more baddies.
The stealth is forgiving and lets you play the way you want. Whether that be full-blown fight everyone or take them out from the shadows.
After a few more takedowns and even an enemy glitching out, we save all the hostages.
Successfully liberating Okada Farmstead is a great feeling and the little cutscene showing life brought back to the village is a great reward.
White Dye Merchant Location
The white dye merchant can be found in the first part of Tsushima at the top of the map right to the left of the Wanders Pass. You are going to need flowers to purchase the merchant’s wares.
But the white dyes make some of the coolest and most unique colors in the game.
Liberating Kishibe Village
This game feels like everything on the island was placed for a reason. Whether it’s to harbor a sidequest you may open up down the road or just wandering into some traveling bad guys.
It feels like a ninja movie playground, everything is placed to make you feel cool and have a good time doing it.
After swimming, we take out some unsuspecting guards and ignite a nice big thing of explosives.
This brings everyone to where I am and it’s time to fight for my survival.
Pulling out the secret technique Dance of Wrath I easily take them down.
Failing at stealth and firing an explosive arrow at a predator I jump right into another big fight that holds a little challenge.
Throwing sticky bombs, dodging fire swords, and firing arrows poorly allows us to move onto the next section.
The stealth is very generous in Ghosts as you can do fights pretty close to other enemies and still have the element of surprise.
It’s all in the name of fun which is something games don’t do too much anymore. Ghost of Tsushima embraces the idea and it works in its favor.
So now that nearly everyone’s gone it’s time to run around the area and find the final bits I need to clear the objective.
The game uses controller vibrations to help you figure out where the remaining objectives are.
Successfully liberating Kishibe Village we can move onward.
Fox Den #2
Moving on we get to a do a successful fox den where the fox is still around after praying at the shrine.
Feels good to get to pet the fox and it’s the little things that get the best feelings.
Collecting the Gift from the Gift Alter
Taking a little break before the grand finale we move on by going to the Gift Alter. This allows us to grab some supplies that the people of Tsushima reward you with for doing the side quests.
This is the perfect time to show off just how insanely fast this game loads. Now I’ve got a Hybrid Hard Drive in my Playstation 4 and after doing a quick cut it loads the area in 8:26 seconds.
This is just ridiculous for a game of this scale. The next load takes 6:17 seconds to get the final area we’ll be exploring in this video.
Liberating Ohama Fishing Village
Time to rescue some hostages and use the grappling hook for the first time in the video. For something that has a lot of build-ups, it’s underutilized.
We take out a straggler and get a good vantage point to take out the remaining 3 baddies. Although I screw up the button presses and only take out 2 of the 3. (Epic Fail)
We save our first hostage and then move to stealth the next group of baddies. Which quickly turns into oh god save the hostage from being killed.
Moving to the final group we rescue the final hostage, liberate Ohama Fishing Village and wind down.
Is Ghost of Tsushima Amazing?
Ghost of Tsushima is amazing, it’s a game that doesn’t do anything remarkable but it doesn’t need to.
It does what it sets out to do in spades, being a solid open-world samurai and ninja power fantasy.
The more you play the more inhumanly powerful you get and enemies cower before you.
I can’t recommend Ghost of Tsushima enough; it’s an amazing open-world game with a lot to do, a solid story, and enough content to keep you occupied for hours.
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Season 1
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