While Jin is forced to take a more stealthy approach for both tutorial and narrative reasons early on, there’s also nothing stopping you from proudly walking into an enemy encampment and challenging dozens of Mongols to a straight-up fight. You don’t get locked out of any skill trees or storylines depending on how you decide to fight. There’s no penalty for approaching battles in Ghost of Tsushima stealthily, which Jin considers a violation of samurai code. Thankfully, that’s not the case, even if the game’s narrative tunnel-visions on the concept. Before playing the game, I imagined this stereotypical concept would tie into some weird, Mass Effect-esque morality system by which the main character would vacillate between “honor” and “shame” depending on how he approached every situation. Samurai have been extensively mythologized in modern times, reimagining what was essentially the paramilitary arm of a system of feudal land ownership as noble, superhuman dispensers of justice. This aspect of Ghost of Tsushima gave me pause when developer Sucker Punch Productions showed off early previews. But it soon becomes abundantly clear that Jin must adopt new tactics, even those he views as “dishonorable,” to liberate Tsushima, adding a thin layer of internal strife to the more overt conflict against the Mongols. As an idealized image of the samurai warrior caste that existed in Japan at the time, he spends a lot of time worrying about the dichotomy of honor and shame. Jin is a blank slate in the early hours of Ghost of Tsushima, with only brief flashbacks to his time learning from his uncle as any indication of who he is under his gruff exterior. As was the case in the late 13th century, the samurai find themselves unprepared to deal with the invaders’ overwhelming military tactics and get almost completely annihilated. While the Mongols attacked Japan on multiple occasions, Ghost of Tsushima liberally combines various historical and cultural artifacts for an entirely new narrative. A small group of samurai have gathered on a Tsushima beachhead to repel an invading Mongol force led by Khotun Khan, a fictional descendant of Genghis and Kublai Khan. The story opens with Japan on the brink of war. But there’s a big difference between scouring a map to completion and actually having a good time, no matter how obsessive a person you may be. The wind, a major contributor to the game’s overall aesthetic, literally guides you to objectives. Helpful diversions like hot springs and fox dens have obvious environmental tells. The map is peppered with question marks, many of which surround towns and temples in which you meet allies and upgrade equipment. Like most open-world adventures, everything is designed to get you to explore what’s over the next hill or across that nearby river. Ghost of Tsushima is a game of compulsion.
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