Ghost of Tsushima | PS4 Game (PlayStation 4)

Holy moly !! What an amazing game !! The first game for which I even cared about the platinum trophy. From the prologue, which also serves as a tutorial of sorts for the combat and also shows how weak the protagonist initially is, till the end, it's an emotional roller coaster. Extremely well fleshed out characters and amazing dialogue combined with side tales and an amazingly beautiful world just yells to keep playing and keep exploring everything the game has to offer.The combat is hard on hard and even though one completes the game there is still so much to master in the combat that it needs another play through. The story, well its an experience to say the least. It grips you emotionally and forces you to attach to the characters and care for their fate. One can really feel the bonding between the protagonist and the NPCs to the point that it made me extremely sad to see some of them take their last breath. There are no hidden elements in the story. Its left upto the player to decide if some of the decisions made by the protagonist are right or wrong and the choice at the ending left me thinking for a really long time to the point that I had to recollect everything from the story and debate with myself on what should be the right decision.The world is beautiful. From hills overlooking the sea to marshes to the harsh cold regions of the northernmost island, I just had to stop myself from playing time and again to just enjoy the breathtaking visuals. Some of the temples and monasteries are beautifully crafted. Overall visuals and face animations on the PS4 pro are pretty good but nothing ground breaking. I would say that HZD, even though it came out almost 4 years earlier had better face animation and visuals.Gameplay wise, there are plenty of side missions (or tales) and a large number of camps to clear which also helps in opening the map up around the camps to indicate any points of interest. There is not a lot of variety in the tales apart from some interesting side stories. The mythic tales however are pretty different and end up with some difficult duels but the end result are some cool moves and some cool gear as well. There aren't a lot of variety of enemies (a total of 4 types) too, but the variety lies in how you take them down. Sometimes you would have to clear out a sprawling fort and there are multiple ways to do it, eg: completely stealth or a mix of stealth and combat or outright combat. There are certain missions where all-out stealth is mandatory since on detection, hostages would be killed resulting in failure of the mission. Variety in gameplay comes as a result of how you can complete a mission rather than the different kinds of missions and enemies you encounter. What's interesting here is that the combat is so diverse that experimenting with different styles of fighting keeps you engaged in the game no matter what you are doing at the moment.This game is a must buy and a fitting final exclusive for the PS4.

From the early days of my gaming , I've always longed to live and experience the Samurai way of life and combat. With the advent of open world games and more advanced game mechanics, developers and publishers started taking risks which led to this very moment. In an absolute disaster of a year that is 2020- Ghost of Tsushima is like a breath of fresh air. While many are comparing this game to an Assassin's Creed set in Japan, nothing could be farther from it. Right off the bat, I could only see on how many levels GoT has out-performed the AC franchise- be it visuals, storyline, side mission variety and of course the star of the show- COMBAT!! While the story is nothing groundbreaking o r the side missions as brilliant as Witcher 3, it holds it's own and does what it sets out to do. The combat, however, is in it's league of its own- something Assassin's Creed could only dream of! Fighting a stronger enemy doesn't mean he/she has a bigger health bar or a crazy looking weapon(like AC), here they fight better and will surprise you with their own special moves. The stance system(which has its own skill tree) keeps things interesting by making you constantly switching to the right stance to fight the right enemy. While you can unlock advanced moves by earning and using Technique Points, the Mythic Tales will take you through interesting and beautifully crafted side missions to to earn extremely powerful Mythic moves which you can unleash in combat. This brings us to the DUELs, the ultimate showdown between two Samurais- to the death. DUELs are close up one-on-one fights between yourself and other Samurais/Ronins where you get to live the out your own Kurosawa like fantasy. Speaking of Kurosawa, there is a special Kurosawa mode, dedicated to the legendary filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, which lets you play through the entire game in black and white, film grain mode with mono audio, reminiscent of old movies. The soundtrack which compliments the stunning visuals and combat has carved a name of its own and sometime feels both celestial and ethereal at the same time!To sum up, Ghost of Tsushima by Sucker Punch Games has "honour"ably concluded the PS4 era and is a must play!

I bought this game after finishing AC Valhalla , Valhalla had some next gen graphics but lacked in story and voice acting . after being dissatisfied with Valhalla and still craving for some AC stuff I decided to buy GOT , the game had such a good storyline that you could easily sneak in the hidden ones from AC as well , nevertheless here is what I found interesting about the gamePros:- Stealth has the same element as that of AC earlier games , the forts are like a puzzle and will need a lot of thinking.If you get exposed in the middle of a stealth , you can go full lethalThere are elements like standoff introduced in the game which are quick actions which can finish off 5-6 enemies quickly and bring you back to stealth .The world is diverse , fields , marsh land ,beaches, paddy fields, mountains, everything Japan has is put in Tsushima although the real Tsushima is totally differentfighting is between AC odyssey and dark souls , it gets more easier the more you play.one on one duals are unique and each boss has unique attacks,i bet you any kill em in one try.The game will emotionally connect with you.Cons:-Main missions felt too short, I spent considerable time in side missions but still the main felt too shortBy the time you get all upgrades and powers the game is over , so better to leave some side missions to test out your end game skillsIn the non director cut version the lip sync for Japanese is not correct.