Ghost of Tsushima is celebrating its five-year anniversary at present, July 17, 2025. Beneath, we revisit the juxtaposition between its revenge-soaked narrative and the calm, reflective moments of meditation.
Drenched in thick, burgundy-colored blood after tearing via dozens of enemy Mongol camps, I rode slowly via the Tsushima countryside looking for my subsequent goal. There was just one factor that may defer my thirst for revenge: a short dip in a sizzling spring.
Ghost of Tsushima tells a sophisticated and deeply troubling narrative about revenge, doable avunculicide, and a warrior pushed to commit atrocities with a view to shield the folks he loves. The exploration of these themes will get harder with every passing mission because the Mongol invasion of Tsushima takes extra and more–in phrases of household, mates, and even his personal home–from protagonist Jin Sakai.
The gameplay in Tsushima will be equally brutal, consisting of hour after hour of swords chopping via flesh, explosions ripping via properties, and harmless Japanese civilians laying lifeless on the bottom. However Ghost of Tsushima provides pockets of respite within the type of temporary segments, specifically hot-spring soaks that enhance Jin’s well being capability and supply brief bits of dialogue concerning the sport’s story. These moments not solely gradual the tempo of the sport down, however actively encourage the participant to ponder the themes of the story.
Many different motion video games comply with an analogous construction with their violent narratives–including different PlayStation titles The Final of Us and Uncharted–where the killing is relentless. However there are few video games that provide equally brutal themes of their story whereas making an attempt to present gamers the house to course of it.
Jin Sakai lives a tragic life all through the narrative of Ghost of Tsushima. Members of the family and mates die proper in entrance of him and his residing household activates him after he makes use of brutal warfare ways towards the Mongols. One main story beat that resonated with me was how Lord Shimura–Jin’s maternal uncle–could not settle for his nephew’s actions within the conflict. The rift between them can result in a deadly conflict of swords between the relations if the participant chooses that route.
Open-world video games structured like Ghost of Tsushima are typically hailed as “podcast video games,” the place gamers can discover the open world and full copy-and-pasted facet missions whereas a part of their consideration is concentrated elsewhere. That is true for Sucker Punch’s title, however that exploration does embody a handful of moments that require little to no enter from the participant in any respect. In a world full of multi-tasking and an intense give attention to productivity–even in our leisure time–trying to gradual the participant down for just a few moments is a design alternative not seen typically.
Once I got here throughout sizzling springs on my journey to discover all corners of Tsushima, I actively listened to what Jin contemplated throughout his soak. I typically questioned about what occurred within the story and I by no means fairly might resolve whether or not I used to be fully on Jin or Lord Shimura’s facet when it got here to matching the Mongols with their very own brutal habits. I do not assume I’d have considered it if the sport did not let me cease for just a few moments.
Whereas these hot-spring moments are a singular ingredient in a blockbuster like Tsushima, many different components of the world are full of generic fodder. Facet missions contain the identical steps of discovering somebody in peril, listening to their story, travelling to a brand new location, after which killing each enemy in sight. The opposite collectables–cosmetics, bamboo strikes, and platforming sections–were additionally steeped in monotony.
“One problem that comes with making an open-world sport is the repetitive nature of doing the identical factor over once more,” stated Sucker Punch artwork director Jason Connell in an interview about Ghost of Yotei with The New York Times. “We needed to stability towards that and discover distinctive experiences.”
Scorching springs are precisely the kind of distinctive expertise that is supreme for a sport with a story as troubling because the one in Ghost of Tsushima. One factor I used to be desirous to be taught extra about when Ghost of Yotei was introduced was how Sucker Punch would broaden on its open-world construction and if it could embody the recent springs and equally meditative options.
The Bellevue-based studio is bringing a lot from Tsushima into its new sport, whereas selling the thought of the “podcast sport” by introducing the “Watanabe mode.” The mode will play chill beats impressed by Shinichirō Watanabe within the background, giving gamers a built-in soundtrack that may make it that a lot simpler to zone out and mesh with Yotei’s gameplay whereas roaming round.
“That is essentially the most open sport we have ever made. One of many biggest joys is simply getting misplaced. You let your curiosity information you thru the panorama,” Fox stated in an interview with Variety. “We view that as this holy second that we need to uplift for gamers in order that they’ll really feel very current within Hokkaido, or Ezo, because it was referred to as again when our sport occurred.”
Fortunately, sizzling springs can even be returning, in response to footage proven within the State of Play Demo Deep Dive. It will give gamers extra probabilities to take a seat and course of their ideas with one other troubling story about revenge.
Creating partaking facet quests and distinctive moments like this in a large open world is tough. Creating an enticing open world is a large endeavor. New quests that intention to attach the participant with Japanese tradition, equivalent to vegetable foraging, will hopefully set Yotei aside from Tsushima and supply different methods for the participant to decelerate.
Ghost of Tsushima offers future video games the perfect blueprint for presenting controversial or violent tales inside their narrative. It is necessary to present gamers a possibility to grapple with what they skilled, even when it is just one small a part of a large sport. Typically, much less is extra.