• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Ghost of Tsushima |OT| - Summer blade cuts through, the PlayStation shall go on, this is its swan song

Gamernyc78

Banned
Got the plat yesterday. I liked the naked Jin outfit at the end (barring loincloth obviously) was fun, especially with the sake quote. Really good and enjoyable. I only missed one sidequest that I had to look up which speaks to the quality of them in general and my desire to seek them out and complete. Tomoe and Noiro tales were the best for me personally (despite a slow start to noiro's).

Really good. I give this a gold star, thumbs up and a well done.

Tomoe was Def my favorite. There were several others I also enjoyed. The finding and dueling the other samurais was also fun. Oh I smiled when I went to help the foxes too 😊
 

Kamina

Golden Boy
Tomoe was Def my favorite. There were several others I also enjoyed. The finding and dueling the other samurais was also fun. Oh I smiled when I went to help the foxes too 😊
You only duel a single Samurai in the whole game.
The guys you mean are mostly Ronin.
 
Last edited:

Gamernyc78

Banned
You only duel a single Samurai in the whole game.
The guys you mean are mostly Ronin.

Yes. A Ronin is still a samurai just masterless hence my samurai remark. In the end Jin is Ronin if you look at it but everyone keeps calling him lord and Samurai even though the Shogunate and uncle .......
 
Last edited:
Quick question... Does the game have different endings depending on if I follow the way of the samurai or the way of the ghost? Sometimes when I assassinate an enemy Jin's uncle shows up and gives me his "look them in the eye" talk. I don't know if that's meaningful or not. Thanks in advance.
 

psorcerer

Banned
Quick question... Does the game have different endings depending on if I follow the way of the samurai or the way of the ghost? Sometimes when I assassinate an enemy Jin's uncle shows up and gives me his "look them in the eye" talk. I don't know if that's meaningful or not. Thanks in advance.

There's no difference. These are just events that highlight the moral dilemma in Jin's heart about "no honor" kills.
 
There's no difference. These are just events that highlight the moral dilemma in Jin's heart about "no honor" kills.

Awesome, thanks man! I don't like when games tie the ending directly to gameplay. I hated that in Dishonored, your reward for using the best and coolest powers was a bad ending. :messenger_unamused:

I am doing my best to follow the honorable way and fight enemies straight up, at least for now. Freaking uncle is getting to me by giving me his corny speeches.
 

CrysisFreak

Banned
Assassinations from above are so satisfying, especially when you manually jump off and press square mid air to impale them.
So much better than ACO with it's shitty little kitchen knife looking spear that's used to stab enemies in the ass lmao.
 

Kagero

Member
An interesting Article on Yuriko's story over at CulturedVulture. I adored her 2 part quest - I honestly think the level of subtlety in it's side quests are handled better than the main quests. There's an unspoken level of depth in so many of the characters that many will just miss.


Take on Yuriko's story

A definite stand out moment for me as well. So subtle and beautiful. I started to catch on to what was going to happen mid way through the story but it was masterfully exicuted and very bitter sweet.
 

Kamina

Golden Boy
Yes. A Ronin is still a samurai just masterless hence my samurai remark. In the end Jin is Ronin if you look at it but everyone keeps calling him lord and Samurai even though the Shogunate and uncle .......
A Samurai serves the Shongunate, as you correctly said. Non of the enemies you duel with have been Samurai, they are just Ronin and were never anything else than that.
You are very correct about Jin however. But this can be explained by the common people simply not knowing.
 
Last edited:

PanzerAzel

Member
A Samurai serves the Shongunate, as you correctly said. Non of the enemies you duel with have been Samurai, they are just Ronin and were never anything else than that.
You are very correct about Jin however. But this can be explained by the common people simply not knowing.
I don’t believe you can be defined as a Ronin unless you’ve been a Samurai. I cannot find a definition of Ronin not dependent on being a Samurai first.
 

Nankatsu

Gold Member
Pretty neat detail: if you let Jin idle sometimes a bird comes singing and rests in his hand.

Then when you move the controller he lets the bird go.

giphy.gif
 
Last edited:
Clocked in a good 10 hours of playtime and the game does a really great job diversifying the things you do from pillars to shrines to haikus to mythic tales. Speaking of mythic tales, I loved how Sucker Punch carried over the comicbook cutscene style from the inFamous games and adapted it to the Japanese artstyle. That was a really nice touch and callback. The combat is deep, but not convoluted and it's fun fighting both "honorably" and "dishonorably".

My main gripes are obviously, the camera. I wish that if there's something in the way between the camera and Jin, the game shows an outline of him so you know where he is. It's a bit surprising that Sucker Punch didn't do that considering that actually implemented this feature in inFamous. My other gripe is more of a personal one, but I wish there was a gyro aiming option. The Dualshock 4 has very good gyro tracking and it's a huge shame that such a feature is left unused when aiming with the bow.
 

Gamernyc78

Banned
Clocked in a good 10 hours of playtime and the game does a really great job diversifying the things you do from pillars to shrines to haikus to mythic tales. Speaking of mythic tales, I loved how Sucker Punch carried over the comicbook cutscene style from the inFamous games and adapted it to the Japanese artstyle. That was a really nice touch and callback. The combat is deep, but not convoluted and it's fun fighting both "honorably" and "dishonorably".

My main gripes are obviously, the camera. I wish that if there's something in the way between the camera and Jin, the game shows an outline of him so you know where he is. It's a bit surprising that Sucker Punch didn't do that considering that actually implemented this feature in inFamous. My other gripe is more of a personal one, but I wish there was a gyro aiming option. The Dualshock 4 has very good gyro tracking and it's a huge shame that such a feature is left unused when aiming with the bow.

Also different weather and vistas. When I got to third chapter I said yessss this was in regards to a specific weather condition I was waiting for. The game is just so good, seriously it reached or exceeded my expectations. Next sucker punch game in ps5 is going to be crazy. Those ultra fast load times lol who needs PS5's ssd ❤️🔥
 

GreyHorace

Member
Only just now realized that we have 7 heroes in the story just like in Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai.

In the original film we have:

p06pvdgg.jpg


1) Kambei - the leader
2) Gorobei - the second in command
3) Shichiroji - the loyal sidekick to the leader
4) Heiachi - the joker
5) Kyuzo - the swordmaster
6) Katsushiro - the young one eager to prove himself
7) Kikuchiyo - the comic relief

In Ghost of Tsushima we have:

HhZRMRxu_400x400.jpg


1) Jin - The titular Ghost, leader and undoubtedly the swordmaster

450


2) Yuna - The thief and second in command

Ghost-Tsushima-Ishikawa.jpg


3) Sensei Ishikawa - The archery master with a chip on his shoulder.

450


4) Masako - The warrior matriarch with nothing to lose

450


5) Norio - The warrior monk and big guy

latest


6) Taka - The blacksmith who makes useful stuff for the heroes

latest


7) Kenji - The sake merchant and slimy conman who tries to help the group with his schemes
 
Last edited:

Eliciel

Member
It's really hard to finish this game as there is a lot going on with work right now, but I am progressing slowly.
Chapter II on hard mode and completionist mindset.. I think I am at 14-15hours clocked in....but I might be very wrong about that lol :D, didn't check the time at all to be honest.
 

idrago01

Banned
Only just now realized that we have 7 heroes in the story just like in Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai.

In the original film we have:

p06pvdgg.jpg


1) Kambei - the leader
2) Gorobei - the second in command
3) Shichiroji - the loyal sidekick to the leader
4) Heiachi - the joker
5) Kyuzo - the swordmaster
6) Katsushiro - the young one eager to prove himself
7) Kikuchiyo - the comic relief

In Ghost of Tsushima we have:

HhZRMRxu_400x400.jpg


1) Jin - The titular Ghost, leader and undoubtedly the swordmaster

450


2) Yuna - The thief and second in command

Ghost-Tsushima-Ishikawa.jpg


3) Sensei Ishikawa - The archery master with a chip on his shoulder.

450


4) Masako - The warrior matriarch with nothing to lose

450


5) Norio - The warrior monk and big guy

latest


6) Taka - The blacksmith who makes useful stuff for the heroes

latest


7) Kenji - The sake merchant and slimy conman who tries to help the group with his schemes

gorobei was my favorite character, I primarily use the tayadori armor with an archer build due to him

also i would argue kikuchiyo was the brute, arguably the best fighter outside of kyuzo or kambei and definitely the best brawler
 

GreyHorace

Member
gorobei was my favorite character, I primarily use the tayadori armor with an archer build due to him

Archery was handled pretty well in the game, but I only ever really used it to pick off lookouts in enemy bases or to blow up a group of Mongols with explosive arrows.

also i would argue kikuchiyo was the brute, arguably the best fighter outside of kyuzo or kambei and definitely the best brawler

He's also a bumbling idiot who makes some costly mistakes in an effort to impress the other samurai. Because he isn't a samurai, but a farmer's son and this ironically makes him the perfect bridge between the farmers and their protectors. He's the most memorable character in the movie given he's played by the legendary Toshiro Mifune.
 

idrago01

Banned
Archery was handled pretty well in the game, but I only ever really used it to pick off lookouts in enemy bases or to blow up a group of Mongols with explosive arrows.



He's also a bumbling idiot who makes some costly mistakes in an effort to impress the other samurai. Because he isn't a samurai, but a farmer's son and this ironically makes him the perfect bridge between the farmers and their protectors. He's the most memorable character in the movie given he's played by the legendary Toshiro Mifune.
It's mostly fun with the tayadori armor, each headshot, adds a few seconds to your slowdown mechanic, and you can easily pick off 5-6 characters in a row routinely if you're good with the bow

But most brutes are bumbling idiots that f'ck it up for the rest of the group from time to time. I loved this movie and recently rewatched it, it's so damn good
 
Last edited:

SkylineRKR

Member
Related to the ending:

Did anyone actually kill Lord Shimura? Does it change anything? I didn't, because as stated above, it just wouldn't be in character for Jin.

I did

Simply because he asked for a warrior's death. By killing him you actually fulfill his wish.

Jin reminiscs about him during the post game, which is pretty cool. During springs I didn't do yet he convinces himself he made the right choice as its what Shimura wanted.
Its a theme that constantly haunts him and he talks in past sense about him which is pretty cool.

I didn't like Shimura. I felt bad for him as he was clearly devastated he has to off his would be son. But he was too obsessed with honor. He would've lead his people to certain death if he had his way. There was no way they would win with his outdated tactics and he simply didn't seem to learn despite witnessing it. He essentially want to send them into a meat grinder. On the other hand, Jin created the poison that was to be used on the mainlands as well. But his way ensured victory with minimal casualties.
 
Last edited:

tassletine

Member
A definite stand out moment for me as well. So subtle and beautiful. I started to catch on to what was going to happen mid way through the story but it was masterfully exicuted and very bitter sweet.
Personally I thought the Tomoe quest was a better ‘revenge is pointless, there are two sides to every story’ tale than LOU2.
Lots of simularities in the way it was handled as well.
The writing in this game is great. Simple, somewhat predictable but very solid — like the tale has already slipped into legend.
 

Gamernyc78

Banned
Personally I thought the Tomoe quest was a better ‘revenge is pointless, there are two sides to every story’ tale than LOU2.
Lots of simularities in the way it was handled as well.
The writing in this game is great. Simple, somewhat predictable but very solid — like the tale has already slipped into legend.
I enjoyed many sidequest seriously and tht rarely happens with me.
 

Gamernyc78

Banned
Related to the ending:

Did anyone actually kill Lord Shimura? Does it change anything? I didn't, because as stated above, it just wouldn't be in character for Jin.

I did and I thought the opposite, I thought it was definitely in character for Jin especially since his uncle was always talking about honorable/dishonorable shit.
 

DeaconOfTheDank

Gold Member
I'm reposting this from the other forum, but figured that some of y'all might enjoy this.

The duel with Kojiro -- holy shit! It was by far my favorite duel in the game. It obviously took multiple attempts to beat him, but my last, successful attempt was cinematic as fuck.

I walked into the duel and immediately got destroyed. Kojiro took me down within 15 seconds of starting. I considered the fight a loss at that point, but figured I could use the opportunity to practice against him; I decided to continue and used some resolve to revive myself. The bastard was waiting for me. He dashed forward to try and end me with a quick draw of his blade. I saw it at the last second and executed a perfect dodge. Not only was I extremely lucky, it looked damn cool to watch.

In the final exchange, Kojiro sprinted forward to finish me with a diagonal slash. I evade it perfectly, countered, and then attempted a piercing stab from Stone Stance. Kojiro anticipated this with a parry and followed with a piercing stab of his own. I parried it perfectly and sliced across his chest with a counter. In a moment of pure badassery, I spun around and sliced through him with Heavenly Strike, finishing the duel.

I saved a video of the fight and just got around to uploading it (skip to 2:30 for the end):
 

GreyHorace

Member
Personally I thought the Tomoe quest was a better ‘revenge is pointless, there are two sides to every story’ tale than LOU2.
Lots of simularities in the way it was handled as well.
The writing in this game is great. Simple, somewhat predictable but very solid — like the tale has already slipped into legend.

There's actually a lot of similarities between Jin and Tomoe, which I think is the main reason why Jin chooses to spare her in the end of the Ishikawa questline.

- Jin and Tomoe are both orphans taken in by a mentor figure (Lord Shimura for Jin, Sensei Ishikawa for Tomoe) who teaches them their art of combat and plans to adopt them.
- They both turn their backs on their mentor's teaching to take a darker path for different reasons. Jin becomes the Ghost to save his uncle and drive out the Mongols, Tomoe joins the Mongols to survive.
- Both their mentors disown them in response. Where Jin is imprisoned by Shimura for his supposed crimes, Ishikawa tries to kill Tomoe outright for her betrayal.

The end where they let Tomoe go stands in contrast Jin's final confrontation with Shimura. Ishikawa at the end is able to acknowledge his fault in driving a wedge between him and Tomoe which led to her to join the Mongols. He even admits to Jin later on that being a samurai is no different than any other killer with a weapon. It's why he's more accepting of Jin's actions as the Ghost, and why he forgives Tomoe in the end.

Shimura on the other hand, is rigid and unbending to his honor code, leading to many tragedies within the story. It's why his charge on Komoda beach at the beginning of the game leads to the death of all the samurai under his command. And later on in the battle to retake his castle it almost ends the same way, which leads Jin to poison the Mongol army but horrifies his uncle at such 'dishonourable' tactics. Shimura is not willing to change his ways in order to fight an overwhelming force like the Mongols, nor is he able to forgive Jin for his actions as the Ghost, despite the fact that Jin is able to successfully defeat the Mongol invasion and kill Khotun Khan. In a way, Shimura is like a secondary antagonist in the story because his methods are counter to those of the heroes.
 

cormack12

Gold Member
I'm reposting this from the other forum, but figured that some of y'all might enjoy this.

The duel with Kojiro -- holy shit! It was by far my favorite duel in the game. It obviously took multiple attempts to beat him, but my last, successful attempt was cinematic as fuck.

I walked into the duel and immediately got destroyed. Kojiro took me down within 15 seconds of starting. I considered the fight a loss at that point, but figured I could use the opportunity to practice against him; I decided to continue and used some resolve to revive myself. The bastard was waiting for me. He dashed forward to try and end me with a quick draw of his blade. I saw it at the last second and executed a perfect dodge. Not only was I extremely lucky, it looked damn cool to watch.

In the final exchange, Kojiro sprinted forward to finish me with a diagonal slash. I evade it perfectly, countered, and then attempted a piercing stab from Stone Stance. Kojiro anticipated this with a parry and followed with a piercing stab of his own. I parried it perfectly and sliced across his chest with a counter. In a moment of pure badassery, I spun around and sliced through him with Heavenly Strike, finishing the duel.

I saved a video of the fight and just got around to uploading it (skip to 2:30 for the end):


Yeah I think he was my hardest duel to be honest. Along with the way of the flame but thats just because fire is OP
 
Last edited:
Ah what a beautiful game, such an emotional ending. I was also surprised to hear the platinum trophy unlock as the credits started to roll. My thoughts:

+ve
-Technical Benchmark in fast loading and restart from last checkpoints
-Let the wind guide the player through the world along with minimalist UI makes for an innovative immersive experience like never before.
-mythic tales were so damn good
-Audio Visual mastery
-Impeccable character models
-Jaw dropping vistas, thoroughly rewarding exploration around the island of tsushima
-Super satisfying combat and parry.
-Compelling side quests and emergent stories.
-A+ voice acting for the English voice overs.

-ve
-Game should've focused more around Act 1 and Act 2 parts of the islands and locked away Act 3 island from being accessible. Act 3 part of island could've been used as a potential DLC(free DLC) update.
-Act 1 and Act 2 could've used more combat driven stories and quests
-needed some more combat animations between enemies and player
 

Ar¢tos

Member
Related to the ending:

Did anyone actually kill Lord Shimura? Does it change anything? I didn't, because as stated above, it just wouldn't be in character for Jin.
Am I the only one that did it because the old man was annoying and I wanted the white armor?
 
I got the platinum a couple days ago. I don't know why I felt compelled to do it. I never chase trophies. I guess I just love the world. I think this is the only game other than Bloodborne, Souls games, and maybe BF3 or BF4 for which I've ever gotten all of the trophies.

Great game. I'll probably never play it again as long as the cutscenes remain unskippable, though.
 

tassletine

Member
There's actually a lot of similarities between Jin and Tomoe, which I think is the main reason why Jin chooses to spare her in the end of the Ishikawa questline.

- Jin and Tomoe are both orphans taken in by a mentor figure (Lord Shimura for Jin, Sensei Ishikawa for Tomoe) who teaches them their art of combat and plans to adopt them.
- They both turn their backs on their mentor's teaching to take a darker path for different reasons. Jin becomes the Ghost to save his uncle and drive out the Mongols, Tomoe joins the Mongols to survive.
- Both their mentors disown them in response. Where Jin is imprisoned by Shimura for his supposed crimes, Ishikawa tries to kill Tomoe outright for her betrayal.

The end where they let Tomoe go stands in contrast Jin's final confrontation with Shimura. Ishikawa at the end is able to acknowledge his fault in driving a wedge between him and Tomoe which led to her to join the Mongols. He even admits to Jin later on that being a samurai is no different than any other killer with a weapon. It's why he's more accepting of Jin's actions as the Ghost, and why he forgives Tomoe in the end.

Shimura on the other hand, is rigid and unbending to his honor code, leading to many tragedies within the story. It's why his charge on Komoda beach at the beginning of the game leads to the death of all the samurai under his command. And later on in the battle to retake his castle it almost ends the same way, which leads Jin to poison the Mongol army but horrifies his uncle at such 'dishonourable' tactics. Shimura is not willing to change his ways in order to fight an overwhelming force like the Mongols, nor is he able to forgive Jin for his actions as the Ghost, despite the fact that Jin is able to successfully defeat the Mongol invasion and kill Khotun Khan. In a way, Shimura is like a secondary antagonist in the story because his methods are counter to those of the heroes.
Thanks very much for that summation. It was only about halfway through that I started paying proper attention to the stories -- mainly because one reviewer (Eurogamer) said they weren't good. What a lie.

Having a clear code of honour makes the stories much more interesting than they would be normally, as it allows the player to constantly think about what they would do? Would they cross that line or not? And why? It's a staple for Samurai movies, and isn't exactly original but it works very, very well as a tool for engaging the player.
Having all the history surrounding it as well, bolstering that, makes it far more engrossing than the usual 'are you evil or good' choices -- More so than games where you actually have an effect on the world.
Even though I knew that there literally was no effect, except for the weather, I still found myself role playing much more than usual. I hope the DLC comes soon.
 

Gamernyc78

Banned
I was the same. I thought the whole thing was superb frankly and that's despite the lack of interaction with the world and some glitchy gameplay.
It proves that interaction and realism isn't the be all and end all of open world gameplay -- as much as I love that sort of thing in Red Dead etc.

I thought it was dope how I went back after I got my platinum and went to many towns and ppl would bow to me and tell me how much killing the Khan and stopping the Mongols meant to them. Made me feel like the world was alive. Even got to the springs and talked to one of the towns ppl who told me the boy I helped was doing well. Very detailed and thought out. Kudos to the devs.

This game has an addiction factor. I've literally done everything but now I'm just walking every part of the world to make sure I didn't miss a vista, a person or something I might have not seen. Still in awe of its graphical beauty.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom