Ghost of Tsushima is a game that’s based on a significant point in Japan history. From the studios that brought us Infamous, Sucker Punch Productions and San Mateo Studio, they have gone through lengths to Japan to learn about the culture, the samurai history and even learnt about the way of the sword – and felt it physically. But apart from that, the studios are looking to bring us an in-depth samurai game based on Japan history with beautiful graphics and inherit fluid controls from the Infamous games.
Ghost of Tsushima
As mentioned, Ghost of Tsushima is a game that’s based on the period when the Mongols were invading Japan. This is the era during the year 1274 where the Mongols were invading Japan starting from Tsushima island. Thus, we’re reliving the era through the embodiment of Ghost of Tsushima, Jin Sakai, as we saw in the trailer. Playing as the samurai that manifests into the Ghost of Tsushima in the game, Sucker Punch Productions aims to bring players through the history of Japan from their perspective.
Gameplay
As players play as the samurai, Jin Sakai, defending against the Mongol invasion on the Tsushima island, Sucker Punch Productions had included weather effects that fit the description of the Tsushima island. If you’ve dug info about the island of Tsushima, the island is always prone to strong winds, typhoons or just really bad weather. Sucker Punch Productions had taken that detail into account and had added those into their environments. While that’s great, the game is heavily in-depth on its story-telling which Sucker Punch Productions’ aim of focus for the game.
The realism in the game is also focused as Sucker Punch Productions is aiming to bring a realistic experience as we see mud splashes when the character runs, when steel meets steel sparks would break out and the wind would sway the trees along with the reflections we see in the water. There’s a whole lot of graphic work put onto the game which is one of the focus of Sucker Punch Productions to bring as much realism experience through the game.
Aside from that, the combat system as mentioned, is based on the samurai arts that were passed down which they visited to learn for the game. They have even learnt on the culture and mannerisms to replicate the fluid movements of a samurai and other characters in the game. We see that strongly represented when Jin was fighting his friend Masako in the trailer and on the Mongols as well.
The combat maneuvers are alike other fighting RPGs where there’s a heavy attack, light attack, parry and a dodge. With a combination of combos using heavy and light attacks, players will be able to perform their attacks based on their playstyle. As of now, there’s only 1 weapon which is the Katana that can be used but there might be other types of weapons that can be used in the future as we also have seen how Jin has a sling rope that was used as a grappling rope.
Ghost of Tsushima is coming to the PlayStation 4 but we’re unsure if it will be exclusive for the console only. There’s currently no window for the game’s release, yet. As the game is still in its development stages, it is possible that the game will only be ready and released in the first quarter of 2019. There’s a lot more to tell about Ghost of Tsushima but the details were refrained from us by Sucker Punch Productions Creative & Art Director, Jason Connell and San Mateo Studio Producer, Ryuhei Katami.
We’d really love to see more of the game during TGS 2018 but for now, this is all. For more info, you can check out their official site!