Ghost of Tsushima
(ggapp.io Review)[https://ggapp.io/usagichann/reviews/ghost-of-tsushima/b2UIRAHz]
Ghost of Tsushima is a game that I’ve heard a lot about, but actually knew very little. My brother raved about the game, so I figured it must have some merits to it. After checking it out of the library, I installed it and then tried it and discovered that I was rapidly engrosssed in one of the prettiest PS4 games I’ve ever played.
Seriously, the team at SuckerPunch must have spent most of their budget on making the game look pretty. The entire Island of Tsushima is gorgeously rendered and you kind of get the best of Japan Sceneries within the game, from falling sakura petals, to the fall colors of the golden trees, to the impresive temples and Torii gates to the vastness of the Pacific Ocean from the Cliff overlooks, its really hard to overstate how absolutely pretty the game is.
Next up, the option for Japanese dialouge with English subtitles. They got the tone and era of the game perfectly right by hiring not just good voice actors, but good script writers who got the dialouge and the era just right. You feel like you’re watching a Japanese period film, which is emphasized by there being a Kurosawa mode that lets you play the game in grainy black and white. Even though that would just detract from the prettiness of the game, its awesome that they made this an available option.
The feel of the game is entirely that you are playing in a Japanese period film, as if you were a character in one of Kurosawa’s Samurai films. The combat, the dialouge, the sceneries all brings you to the films as if you were IN the film. This is no mean feat and is very commendable.
The game play loop however, is fairly limited. You have exploration to get more health, more charms (power ups that you can swap out), and more lore collectibles, but the actual combat is fairly simplistic and easy, even in Hard or Lethal mode. There is a very good “stand-off” mode where you try to predict when the enemy attacks and you can one-shot them (or up to 5 later in the game), and that’s actually a fairly good mini-game, but the lead-up to it can take more time than just simply killing them.
You have way too many weapons at your disposal to get rid of enemies, and when you use them all, you can find yourself clearing an entire encampment of enemies in less time than it’d take you to kill them any other way.
The combat actually starts off reasonably difficult, and your character is fairly squishy, but by the end of the first third of the game, you get enough power ups that most of the combat becomes a bit of a pushover . By the middle of the second third of the game, you get enough ghost powers and weapons that almost all combat becomes just an annoyance instead of a challenge. Enemy settlements becomes just a meh.
That also brings up the problem of Side Quests. The good news about the side quests is that its quick, almost no side quests takes more than 5 to 10 minutes to finish. The problem is the side quests are almost all universally the same. Go somewhere, kill something. Investigate, maybe, go somewhere, kill something, go talk to people. Its a little reductive to put it this way, but part of the problem is that there just are not many rewards to 99% of the side quests. Its always some crafting material, a charm, or a cosmetic item.
The story is another issue I had with the game. It dragged on for a bit too long and was just not very believable. I find it hard to believe that anyone would hold onto their Honor when it means the possible destruction of everything they hold dear from the invading hordes. It is a servicable story, but if you are hoping that the story makes up for the rest of the gameplay loop being lacking beyond the first third of the game, you’ll be sorely amiss.
All in all, I still recommend the game, its a solid 3.5* for me and a very easy plat (less than 30 hours). Just do not go into it looking for something beyond a very pretty game.