![]() ![]() The optional stand-offs prior to larger battles are always tense, with the enemy feigning and yelling while the player waits for the giveaway movement of feet to release to their fatal blow. The developers have unashamedly taken elements that work from other games, such as Far Cry's enemy base encounters, The Witcher''s world-building, and the tight sword play from Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice which focuses on patience and timing rather than a flurry of button mashing.Īnd never before has a game looked quite so cinematic while blending in open-world action gameplay. Its roots in that war, which devastated China and Korea, are problematic to say the least.īut putting aside these failures, Ghost of Tsushima is one of the best open-world action games of this console generation. The false narrative about samurai chivalry and honour, or bushido, which was employed as propaganda to soldiers in World War 2 has persisted, evidently, to this day. This would be neither here nor there if it didn't carry such cultural baggage. The reality, better examined in films such as Takashi Miike's 13 Assassins, Hara Kiri: Death of a Samurai, and Kurosawa's later films such as Ran, was that samurai were a cruel and ruthless ruling class who'd sooner cut down a peasant or merchant for a minor - or even perceived - slight, than wander from village to village making sure they're safe and well. ![]() ![]() Even in Seven Samurai - perhaps the most defining rehabilitation of samurai in postwar Japan - the samurai are at least paid for their troubles. In Ghost of Tsushima, Jin is more than happy to get involved in peasants meagre affairs and tribulations which anyone with a cursory knowledge of Japanese history will tell you is ridiculous. That lack of engagement with the history, and even with Kurosawa who had regrets about his role in reinventing the myth of samurai, shows. The game has more in common with the sober and melodramatic 2003 film The Last Samurai than the often funny - dudes rock - vibe of Kurosawa's early samurai films which brimmed with a swagger that was immediately seized upon by western directors for remakes such as The Magnificent Seven. Aside from characters being in Japan, wielding swords, and the aforementioned "Kurosawa mode" there's little that's recognisable. Yet it appears they also seem to know little about the films of Kurosawa. The developers have openly admitted they know little about the history of Japan and were working purely from the inspiration they found in Kurosawa films. The setting only needs a brief introduction because the plot is merely a serviceable vehicle for the gameplay to unfold. Set in in 1274 during the first attempted invasion of Japan by the Mongolian Empire, Ghost of Tsushima follows Samurai Jin Sakai as he fights back the invading force, often resorting to "dishonourable" stealth methods. To be fair to studio Sucker Punch, this mode does look incredible and they have, in general, created a beautiful looking game. ![]() If you're in any doubt to how much the game owes to Kurosawa - the Japanese film maker behind Seven Samurai, Ran, Rashoman and many other masterpieces - it actually includes a "Kurosawa mode" which switches the colourscale to a grey palate complete with grainy crackles. ![]()
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