Hello Dons and Miladies. Andromeda is with you. Today I would like to tell you why Ghost of Tsushima is not just another grind from a small indie studio, but, subjectively, one of those games for which it is worth buying a PlayStation. Let’s go.
I would like to start with a small lyrical digression. I have loved Japanese culture since childhood. I started watching anime when I was 9 (and I still watch it). At some point I became interested in their mythology, which is no worse than ancient Greek or Scandinavian. In general, I found something for myself in this unique state. And in fact, thanks to the game, I realized what it was that hooked me so much. But let’s talk about everything in order.
Ghost of Tsushima is an open-world action-adventure game created by Sucker Punch. What can I say?? The first part of the game description is quite applicable to all recent Ubisoft games, which, frankly, is alarming. The second one tells us about a certain quality, because Sucker Punch has behind it the game that opens the line of PlayStation 4 exclusives – “Infamous: Second Son”.
Yes, it is simple and unpretentious, and in no way pretends to be the game of the decade, but still, not many can use this simplicity so competently. Sucker Punch does everything masterfully in this regard, and does not betray itself in its new game. Where should we start to finally describe the game, and not the introductory notes to it?? Hmm, I guess I’ll start with its appearance and sound.
You know, I never considered myself http://lordpingcasinoonline.co.uk/ one of those art lovers who constantly run around the Hermitage and other exhibitions with a monocle, looking at every stroke of the artist’s brush, but apparently this game revealed to me my little strangeness, because I couldn’t get away from the picture, and honestly, I still can’t. And it’s not about revolutionary graphics, polygons, and some kind of photorealism, of which, to be honest, there is not as much here as, for example, in Naughty Dog games. It’s all about the style, art design, and the overall visuals of the game. Here, look at this, what do you see??
Personally, I see here magic, mystery, intrigue, all-consuming darkness and particles of light showing the way. Yes, of course, if you approach bamboo, it may turn out that either it is not there, or its texture is solid soap, or fireflies are not insects, but nothing more than literal lights, but… That’s the beauty of it. Remember I talked about simplicity? Here it is shown in the clearest example. Yes, individual bushes and surfaces are not worked out in such detail here, but the elaboration of the general sensations from viewing these landscapes is literally amazing. The game immediately places emphasis and says, no, shouts to you about what it will surprise you with. All these falling leaves, air currents, flying birds, winter forest and sublime temples… all this creates such an indescribable flavor that lasts throughout the entire passage. And that’s great. You see, there are few places where I can describe a visual not on a visible level, but on a sensory one. That says a lot. But this atmosphere would not exist with a 99 percent probability without music. In this work, in principle, visual and audio are inextricably linked.
When I was watching the news about the game before the game was released, I immediately noticed the composer Ilan Eshkeri. He couldn’t impress with his track record. His most famous works are "Sims 4" and the movie "47 Ronin". No, it’s not that bad. But it didn’t inspire confidence. Well, now, after completing it completely, I can responsibly declare that all my worries on this score were in vain. In my opinion, he did an excellent job. I still sometimes listen to the title theme of the game and the theme of the main character. And the song about the ghost, eh… hitting the bull’s eye. Very beautiful, sincere and tragic with a touch of pathos that doesn’t irritate. And without this music the game would not look the same, not at all. With it, the plot action is transformed, thanks to the music, the tone is set for everything that happens on the screen. All this together leads to a high level of immersion, but with one caveat. You must like such sincerity and tragic pathos. Otherwise, for you, perhaps, the whole picture will turn into a complete “fie” from disbelief in what is happening, with all these mournful flute melodies and other attributes of Japanese romance. I consider this aspect of the game to be the strongest, but don’t think that I’m ready to say that this game is a must-have for a PlayStation just for the sake of the visuals, of course not, that in itself sounds extremely stupid. I just brought this aspect to the forefront of everything in order to immediately give you an understanding of who this game is for. If you like this, or are ready to learn something new, then for you I will move on to the gameplay, which is not so clear-cut here, which, however, did not stop me from enjoying the process.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, the game engine may be Sony Decima, known to fans. At least that’s what I think. I won’t swear to it, but I have some arguments. I’ve played both Horizon: Zero Dawn and Death Stranding before, and both games have the same distinct features and problems that lead me to this conclusion. Look, in all three games, from a visual point of view, everything is simply gorgeous, but there are some problems in terms of controls and animations. By this I mean more like the similarities with Horizon. Both games have elements of Lara Croft and Nathan Drake – that is, climbing, and in both games it is sometimes counter-intuitive. The hero misses, makes the wrong moves that you want, there is a certain similarity between these games. Yes, and with animations everything is not good, thank God. No, in the Phantom everything is better, of course, but sometimes some puppet emotions still slip through, which were found in abundance in Horizon. And during the battle, the animations also sometimes do not shine with their smoothness and are somewhat reminiscent of the new parts of Assassin’s creed. No, I still don’t claim that this is downright Decima, but still, I think that it’s not for nothing that the game carried over these disadvantages from other Sony exclusives. Why am I always thinking about the engine?? It’s simple. On the one hand, as I said, from a visual point of view the engine is very good, but from the point of view of things tied to the gameplay, everything is not so great. But at the same time, despite these shortcomings, I can say that I really liked the combat.
I’ve always dreamed of being in the shoes of a man with a katana. But at the same time, GTA mods didn’t give me the full palette of emotions from cutting up everything and everyone with these bladed weapons, and to my shame, I still haven’t played other games like Catana Zero. Therefore, the combat in Ghost of Tsushima was quite able to impress me, and from the middle of the game, surprise me. Dualshock 4 vibration made battles feel even more spectacular. You directly felt how the katana passes through the enemy’s flesh and then quickly makes a small swing and cuts the opponent again. It’s just a pity that the dismemberments here are so, well, incomplete. They seem to exist, but in order to completely separate someone’s head from their body, no, that’s not possible here. But honestly, it’s not a big deal. There are also, so to speak, gadgets that you can use to save your life if something happens, but I can’t say anything outstanding about this mechanic, as well as about archery, or about the entire combat system as a whole. Yes, this is done well here, without its own tricks, but I would like to emphasize that I am not criticizing this aspect, but only stating it, because personally I don’t see anything terrible in it. It’s like a new generation controller from Microsoft. It is very similar to the version of 13, and doesn’t even really have new functions, but so what? On the other hand, he is definitely a worker, and a worker 100 percent. Same here. But still, the gameplay in this game, thank the gods, consists of more than just a combat system. Probably, another component of it touched me much more, because it is directly related to the visual. And I mean visual again precisely in terms of sensations, feelings and some abstractions.
This is what usually happens when you get kicked out of open world games? Well, usually they give you a marker with a story quest, you go to it, and… that’s it. Here
it’s not like that. All these birds flying nearby, foxes passing by, small hills and hot springs – all this is not just decoration. The player may well interact with this, and the game only pushes him to such a decision. And now you’ve already followed the fox once, having found a small altar, now you’ve already taken a dip in the pleasant water and walked after the flying bird, and now you’re already forgetting about the plot and just exploring the world that literally comes to life. It seems to me that this is the next stage of immersion in the game, which connects what you see, do and feel together. Do you believe it. You see a stream of wind, follow it and dozens of fallen leaves, and eventually come to something. It doesn’t matter what, but you come, it’s like you communicate with this world, learn to understand it, it’s amazing! I understand that such gameplay mechanics were partly copied from Zelda, but I have no questions about its implementation here. And using the wind together with the usual mini map is a completely ingenious solution that allows you not to be distracted from the beauty of the world while exploring it. And of course we can’t forget to talk about outposts.
They are here and there are a lot of them, but they don’t tire you at all. I’m surprised by this myself. And I can’t even really explain why this is so.
Maybe I liked the combat, the possibility of a little stealth or the wonderful stand off mechanics, which allows you to kill up to 5 enemies in the most cinematic way. I don’t know, but the outposts in this game weren’t annoying. I think that we can wrap up with gameplay and move on to the heart of every game (from Sony at least) – the plot. It is surprisingly simple and straightforward, but at the same time the conflict addressed in this game is very… secondary.
The latest Sony games have a clearly expressed problematic of some kind of interpersonal relationships. Here’s the story of Joel and Ellie, Kratos and Atreus, Deacon and Sarah, Sam and Amelia, Nathan and Elena, and so on. No, it’s not that I’m against it. It’s just that it’s gradually becoming boring, and you can suddenly, after playing through all the latest PlayStation exclusives, catch yourself thinking that you’re playing the same thing in different covers. But this is only a fleeting thought, but if you analyze it in more detail, then, of course, it crumbles to smithereens. Each of the games from Sony has some kind of bright expressiveness or something. Well, that is, I can never confuse the story of God of war with any other. Joel, thanks to his character and actions, I will never confuse him with anyone else either. Same here. The story of the fallen samurai Jin Sakai at first seems simple and not very interesting, with a typical motivation in the form of revenge, as again in the same latest Assassin’s creed games. But then the idea of the work moves slightly away from revenge, and a new, well, or well-known old conflict between fathers and sons appears. And God, how touchingly he is included here. Yes, it’s touching, I can’t find any other words. Again, people who don’t like Japanese culture may not like this excessive drama, as if a tragedy is happening out of nowhere, but as I already said, this art is not for everyone. Thanks to the fact that Tsushima does not try to be an overly American story, at the end you look in bewilderment at the window of choice in committing your last act, and I personally had tears in my eyes at that moment. I remembered how much both Jin and I had seen in my becoming a Ghost. How much death, pain, struggle and misunderstanding I experienced with him. Some people talk about a certain spinelessness and lack of depth in the main character, but I don’t agree with this. He often remembers his family, often, while relaxing in the springs, he remembers his past and openly thinks about what is happening, he goes against his loved ones no matter what, makes sacrifices for the sake of others, in additional tasks he also shows his character, commits actions, draws his own conclusions… does this speak of the superficiality of the character? Yes, this is a typical anti-hero, but the philosophy of the game itself does not allow him to be revealed differently, therefore, the revelation that he received in the game certainly did not disappoint me. Maybe these people did not dive into the character’s story itself and, in principle, mediocrely perceived the entire story of the game, but thus the story of Geralt and Joel may also seem somehow different. In general, what can I say, I remembered almost all the names, yes, yes, Japanese names! Sansei Ishikawa, Tomei, Norio, My first horse Sora… eh, that’s all, but look, I know something, it’s already a success… well, somehow I should have said better that the characters and side quests here are not just functions, but, oh well.
In general, we need to draw some conclusions.
I understand that I didn’t talk a lot about leveling up, some mechanics, I didn’t talk in depth about combat, but I think there’s no point in talking about this. Well, firstly, there are a lot of reviews on this game, and secondly, nevertheless, I didn’t create this video entirely for this reason. In this video I wanted to explain to you why this game is worthy of your attention, and may even sell you a PlayStation. Of course, you can say that this is an ordinary grinder in a beautiful sauce, but it seems to me that over such a long time I was able to give a lot of arguments that speak about the soul of the game, which makes this project not just a grinder, not just a combination of assassin’s creed and Zelda, but an original work of art, 53 hours in which I spent 53 hours with only one thought… this is art.
