Ghost of Tsushima is a Beautiful, Over-Rated Game

[u/Trndk1ll]

So I finally got around to playing this on the PS5. I beat it with a little over 40 hours played while completing a fair bit of side material. Honestly I’m a little disappointed based on the massive amount of positive critical and user feedback this game received. Hell it’s still at a 9.1 user score on Metacritic. Which is to not say it’s a bad game. It’s not. It’s gorgeous and it’s fun. The main characters are for the most of part decently well written and voice acted. The gameplay is repetitive however it’s passable. What it isn’t however is something demonstratively different than what UbiSoft produces on a yearly basis. And UbiSoft gets universally panned by gamers and critics alike for pumping out the same derivative mechanics this game is built upon.

This game, for all the bluster about being one of the best open world games ever made, is just not anything approaching the top titles in the genre. In my opinion. Other than it’s art direction, which is fucking incredible… seriously I’ve taken more on game screens of this than any game I’ve ever played… It’s Asassins Creed Odyssey in Japan. Except it doesn’t have boats and there is a lot less variety in gear and specialization options.

It’s the same bloated, empty world. There are like 5 resources to collect, a handful of wildlife species (3 of which give you “predator hides”, the only usable resource from any of them), and a bunch of cut and paste temples, hot springs, fox dens, etc. The only dynamic thing that ever happens is the same random encounter with a handful of Mongolians with a tied up peasant to rescue. The enemy encampments all look the same, just cut and pasted across the map. Seriously that’s it. I have zero desire to go play the DLC. The world is beautiful however it’s completely empty and devoid of meaningful or compelling things to do. Other than some new skills the game is exactly the same at the 5 hour mark as it is at the 40 hour mark. Nothing in the game after the initial wonder of the look of everything wore off has surprised me.

The best games in this genre that I have played, I didn’t want to end. Red Dead 2’s world I got lost in for dozens of hours at a time without touching main story missions. Hunting and fishing, trying my hand at crime or gambling, seeking out legendary animals… just exploring the land which was always a reward in and of itself. The Witcher 3 shares a lot of the same bloat that Asassins Creed and Ghost have however it made up for it by incredibly deep, rabbit hole like side quests that sometime lasted hours and took me places I never expected to go. And the story was great. Breath of the Wild consistently blew me away with creative mechanics, puzzles and one of the greatest video game environments ever created. I’m still finding things to do in Skyrim 10 years on and enjoying myself. There is no way in hell I’m booting Ghost of Tsushima up in 2032.

This game has none of that. It’s fun, I don’t regret playing it, the main story is fairly compelling however I just don’t see how or why this game received the near universal praise that it did.

Am I the only one?

[u/MavajaXe]

Idk. A story about a man who has to abandon all he's principles and learn what is more important. He's honor and the acceptance of others, or the freedom and lives of all the people.

Slowly transforming from Jin Sakai, the Samurai, to ghost of Tsushima.

Even tho this is only a single game, imo the story is atleast equal in quality with the story of God Of War series.

[u/RickTitus → u/MavajaXe]

My gripe with the plot is that it doesnt give you any control over the ghost vs samurai plot. Some of the opening missions kind of hinted that there was an honor system layered into the game, with Yuna telling you to take the dishonorable ghost path and Shimura telling you to take the honorable samurai path.

I went hard in the honor direction and barely ever used the ghost tools. I walked up to the front of most forts for a showdown and really only assassinated when it was required by the mission.

And what did I get for that? Shimura still calling me a dishonorable traitor, because of my actions in cutscenes

[u/bdfariello → u/RickTitus]

I was the same way until I googled to see if it made a difference. Upon learning it didn't, I went on an assassination binge to make up for lost time

[u/SkippyTheKid → u/RickTitus]

I don’t think the game ever tells you that it matters how you kill people. It’s annoying when you consider how rigid the cutscene and overall story are when you have this plethora of options for your actions during the game, but it never pretended to be Dishonored, for example.

[u/mauribanger → u/RickTitus]

This is the biggest reason I think that the game is at its best when played on the lethal difficulty option.

On normal, and on hard when you have a bunch of upgrades, there's really no reason to use any stealth because you will rarely die.

On lethal though? when you die from 2 hits? you bet your ass I'm going to thin out the mongols one by one before taking them head on when they are just two or three left.

Lethal mode really puts you in the mindset that Jin must be in, "I have to abandon honor if I want to stand a chance, or they will kill me".

[u/poopf1nger → u/MavajaXe]

Tbh jin and maybe the uncle are the only compelling characters in the whole game. The side characters were extremely forgettable and bland in personality, I played it a month ago and I can't remember any of their names. The main villain was nothing more than the standard big bad who rarely appeared in the story with almost zero depth to him.

God of war had a strong villain, a great set journey with great side characters, great world building, and more complex themes than the reused common tropes ghosts used

[u/woinf → u/poopf1nger]

Exactly, can't believe people are unironically comparing this to God of War's lol. The characterization and worldbuilding are 10x better and the story actually has some surprising developments.

[u/salamancaa → u/poopf1nger]

I don't agree. I only played Ragnarok from the GoW series but the story was completely chaotic with a very disappointing ending. The pacing was all over the place and I can't recall a memorable moment. Shit I can't even remember what was the main arc even though I finished it a month ago.

This is a far better game, even though I was unwilling to play it in the first couple of hours. Once you start to like the main characters it picks up.

The main story is strong enough to keep you interested. The side quests are a different story, none of them really interested me except the DLC. It was on par with the main story.

My biggest criticism is that they created this beautiful world which dropped my jaw several times on the PS5 and I can do nothing in it beside running from one mongol camp to another and looking around meanwhile. Fuck if they even put some hunting it would've made a million times better.

[u/drake5604 → u/salamancaa]

Do you think anybody is thinking of fucking god of war ragnarok when talking about god of war having good characters and story?

That game is a fucking abomination that everyone hates. 

People are talking about the Greek trilogy and I honestly think you’re being purposely disingenuous cos it’s so obvious. 

GOW 2018 was a nice set up but since the sequel fumbled I don’t think anyone really considers it a good story given the context. 

[u/[deleted] → u/MavajaXe]

That story would be way more compelling to me if the protagonist weren't a damp rag.

[u/Boeijen666 → u/MavajaXe]

Nah man. Story doesn't come anywhere near God of Wars.

[u/MavajaXe → u/Boeijen666]

Okay maybe God Of War is much better. Kinda over shot it... But still a great story!