[h1]Ghost of Tsushima Review[/h1]
[i]This review contains spoilers.[/i]
There are games that eventually become modern classics. Whether you personally enjoy them or not, they're experiences that I believe everyone should try at least once. Games like Red Dead Redemption 2, Undertale, Hollow Knight, Hades, Disco Elysium, and The Witcher 3 come to mind. You might end up loving them or hating them, but you'll almost always come away appreciating something about them. In my opinion, Ghost of Tsushima belongs in that category.
I'm generally not a huge fan of Japanese settings, samurai stories, or feudal era aesthetics. Yet despite that, I couldn't help but appreciate everything this game made me feel and experience.
Normally, I finish a game within a few weeks, maybe a month at most. Ghost of Tsushima took me almost six months to complete and earn every achievement. Not because it was difficult, but because I couldn't bring myself to play it continuously. The story and gameplay never hooked me enough to binge through it. I even tried rushing it at one point, but that only made the experience worse. Eventually, I realized this wasn't the kind of game that wanted to be rushed, so I slowed down and played it the way I felt it deserved to be played exploring every region, completing every side activity, collecting everything I could find, and simply taking in the world.
I also went into the game completely blind after a friend recommended it to me. We usually have very similar tastes, so I trusted their suggestion. For some reason, I genuinely expected Ghost of Tsushima to have demons, monsters, or some kind of supernatural enemies. Instead, I found myself fighting human beings in a grounded historical setting, which made me laugh at just how wrong my expectations were. Since it was originally a PS4 title, I also went in with fairly moderate expectations. I couldn't have been more wrong.
The environmental design completely blew me away. I genuinely lost count of how many times I stopped what I was doing just to enter Photo Mode and admire the scenery. Every region feels handcrafted, and despite spending months exploring the island, I never got tired of looking at it.
Usually, when I play a game, I imagine myself as the main character. Their choices become my choices. Ghost of Tsushima was different. I never felt like I was Jin Sakai. Instead, I felt like I was witnessing his journey unfold. The voice acting, facial expressions, motion capture, and cinematic presentation are phenomenal. Every loss, sacrifice, moment of guilt, and the burden he carried for the people of Tsushima felt believable. I don't think another game has made me empathize with a protagonist in quite the same way.
One aspect that surprised me the most was how naturally the game challenged both Jin's beliefs and my own. Jin was raised as a samurai. Honour, discipline, and tradition are woven into every part of his identity. Coincidentally, I'm also the kind of player who dislikes stealth, assassinations, or deceptive tactics whenever I have the option, so our philosophies aligned almost perfectly. For almost the entire first half of the game, I wore the Traveler's Attire because I didn't want to miss any collectibles, but every encounter was approached the samurai way. No assassinations. No dirty tricks. Just honourable combat. Act I went exactly how I wanted it to.
Then Act II slowly started changing both Jin and me. There came a point where I realized honour alone simply wasn't enough anymore. The samurai code couldn't solve every problem, and I think that's exactly what the developers wanted the player to feel. Every assassination became a little easier to justify, and every dirty trick became another necessary evil.
Then Act III began, and my horse died.
Strangely enough, that moment genuinely hurt. It felt like I had lost a companion rather than just another game mechanic. From that point onward, my admiration for the samurai way slowly faded. The more I listened to their dialogue, understood their ideals, and watched the decisions they made, the more they felt like nobles obsessed with preserving honour and reputation even if innocent people had to suffer for it.
It made me question everything.
[i]Is this really justice? Is this really what the samurai stood for?[/i]
With the samurai code becoming an actual disadvantage against the Mongol invasion, Jin was forced to abandon many of the ideals he had grown up believing in. Poison. Assassinations. Ambushes. Deception. Rallying ordinary people to fight beside him. He used whatever means were necessary simply to give Tsushima a chance to survive.
What I appreciate most is that the game never portrays Jin as perfect. He makes mistakes. His decisions have consequences. He regrets some of them and tries to make things right. He's simply human. Ironically, I think it's that humanity not his title as a samurai that ultimately allows him to become the Ghost.
The Mongols are portrayed exceptionally well. They're brutal enough to make you despise them, especially when you witness what they do to ordinary villagers. Yet at the same time, you can't help but admire how intelligent and adaptable they are. They studied the samurai, understood their code, discovered its weaknesses, and weaponized those weaknesses against them. One of my favourite examples is how they eventually begin using Jin's own poison against the people of Tsushima. That single decision perfectly demonstrates one of the game's central themes: every action has consequences, even when your intentions are good.
Nothing remains black and white anymore.
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[h2]Iki Island[/h2]
Iki Island was a really interesting post game experience. It explores Jin's childhood, the trauma surrounding his father's death, and the guilt he carried from being unable to save him. What I initially expected to be a simple expansion ended up adding a surprising amount of depth to Jin as a character.
The DLC also shows that the samurai weren't always as honourable as they claimed to be. They destroyed villages, tore families apart, and justified it all in the name of bringing a lawless island under samurai rule. It gives you a much deeper understanding of Jin's internal conflict and why he struggles so much with honour throughout the main story.
It also features some incredible set pieces. Charging into battle alongside an army genuinely had my adrenaline pumping, and those moments ended up being some of my favourites in the entire game.
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[h2]Legends Mode[/h2]
Ironically, Legends Mode was much closer to what I originally imagined Ghost of Tsushima would be. It's brutal, supernatural, and brings unique abilities. It takes the combat from the base game and expands upon it with different classes and MMO-style loot progression that steadily improves your character over time. The mode itself is genuinely well made and a lot of fun.
Unfortunately, it also became my least favourite part of earning every achievement. The player population is fairly small now, which means many modes are difficult to find matches for. I often found myself replaying the same maps because matchmaking for higher difficulties took a very long time.
Unlocking the raid, finding a team through Discord, and grinding for all the multiplayer achievements eventually started feeling more like a chore than something I wanted to do. Honestly, I think the achievement design is one of the game's weakest aspects. I completely understand requiring achievements for the base game and Iki Island, but locking 100% completion behind a separate multiplayer mode that many players will never touch feels unnecessary. The combination of slow matchmaking and heavy grinding almost made me give up on 100%-ing the game.
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Overall, Ghost of Tsushima is an experience I'd recommend everyone try at least once. It wasn't a game made for someone like me, yet six months later, I walked away appreciating it.
