30-some miles off of the coast of South Korea is the island of Tsushima (対馬), the point of the first Mongol invasion and the setting for Sucker Punch Productions’ 2020 Kurosawa-inspired game. The previous PlayStation 4 exclusive and later PS5 title was released amid the pandemic for a console that was months away from being surpassed. Only now Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut is set free to rummage through bushes on PC as I rummage through its graphical settings for a consistent frame rate.

Playing the titular ghost, Jin Sakai (voiced by Roronoa Zoro himself) looks to single-handedly take down the Mongol Empire’s invading force in a typical third-person PlayStation action-adventure fare. This isn’t a slight against Sucker Punch, I think despite my heavy gripes with latter-day Infamous titles, it is one of the more under-appreciated studios. Visually, Ghost of Tsushima is striking partially because of the studio’s recent foray into jamming as many particle effects onto a screen at any one time. Second Son (and First Light) did the tech-heavy induction of that, with Ghost of Tsushima again taking influence from Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, and Sanjuro.

That said, the plotting suffers from “I’m a big action-adventure, just like God of War (2018).” Particularly in those early couple of hours: Showing Jin during the Mongol invasion, as a kid, he gets knocked out during the Mongol invasion. He becomes a sad kid, and big adventures begin. Storywise Ghost of Tsushima tries to kickstart your connection with Jin before you’ve had much time to throw him off cliffs and face-first into pointy sticks. It’s ok to have a hero who had a normal childhood and now things are taking place they have to solve.

Somewhat focused around gameplay though, Ghost of Tsushima tries to marry the Sony action-adventure full of story with a larger Ubisoft sandbox of a world, similar to Horizon Zero Dawn. However, as you might have guessed with the use of Japanese in the opening paragraph, mention of the first Mongol invasion, and several other things I’ve mentioned, unlike red-head tech Jesus, you play as a Samurai lord. As a result, a large portion of Ghost of Tsushima is about honor, the ability to control yourself in battle, and much like Sekiro, parrying like your life depends on it.

Gaining skills through mini-games/collectibles dotted throughout the map, you have three level-up trees. These trees can often have two or three paths to complete. For example, defeating Mongol encampment leaders will often give you more stances, each of the four requiring the death of more and more leaders. Meanwhile, if you want to work through the trees from these opening tiers, you need technique points, offering everything from slowed time while firing your bow like Horizon, better Batman-vision, to gaining little bits of health from perfect parries.

One way the tech tree (or Techniques) tries to be original is that levels are defined as Jin’s Legend, which opens up Ghost Weapons as you progress. Between leveling up your Legend, you gain Technique points. You gain more as your legend grows as well. Not only do you get special attacks and, for lack of a better term, Samurai Powers from your Legend and Technique Points, but there are Mythic Tales Jin can listen to, which are exploration-focused followed by boss battles. Spreading the gameplay even further is environmental puzzles and platforming.

I say puzzles, there are no Tomb Raider (I-III) puzzles around these parts, it is similar to Uncharted and general open-world puzzles, which you’ll enjoy like a good Samurai. It should be no surprise that there are also supplies to collect in the open world to craft better gear, charms to enhance your powers, different outfits to collect, shrines to visit, lighthouses to light, and more. One example of the mini-games taking up your time is Bamboo Strikes, offering an increase to Jin’s Resolve. What’s Resolve? Estus, because Japanese Horizon Zero Dawn/Assassin’s Creed with hints of a more methodical combat system wouldn’t be complete without a hint of Dark Souls influence.

I don’t think Ghost of Tsushima is trying to be a Souls-like. In fact, I’d say it is far from it, though it has hints of its influence as it also has those hints of Assassin’s Creed too. It feels like a fairly easy thing to say Ghost of Tsushima is a mix of all the popular games of the last decade with Sucker Punch’s more recent signature of stunning particle effects filling the screen. What I am trying to get to is that the gameplay is inoffensive by design, which can be slightly off-putting if you find the story grating with its near cut-and-paste formalities too.

By inoffensive I mean that you have a block, a light attack and a heavy attack. You have items to distract the Mongols, and you have a bow to take people and wildlife out from a distance. There is almost nothing original or entirely refreshing, though I do enjoy the stand-off mechanic where you call out the Mongols before an attack, pressing and holding Y/triangle and releasing it once the Mongols initiate the attack. Eventually, you can intimidate using this, killing 4-6 foes at once then use your bow to take out those running away.

The block, parry, and stand-off mechanics all make you feel like Toshiro Mifune’s Kikuchiyo or rather Takashi Shimura’s Kambei Shimada. A perfect parry slowing time as your Uchigatana (Katana to those in the west) shines and clangs satisfyingly, allowing you to bring it down for killing blows and smattering it and Jin himself in blood. Similarly, though jumping the parrying step, the stand-off slows down to make you feel awesome. Eventually you can get a skill to block arrows before walking up to the bowmen and cutting them in two.

From a technical standpoint, Dutch studio Nixxes – Sony’s concerted effort for PC ports – does a decent job with not only the graphical options but also the performance. Since Sucker Punch’s Infamous Second Son, there seems to be a heavy focus on particle effects, be it the neon of authoritarian Seattle or be it the Kamakura period of Japan. One major portion of Ghost of Tsushima focuses on using particle effects because having a map, waypoint marker, or those dotted lines to follow everywhere is so PS4, not PS5.

Guided by the wind, you’ll have to focus on the pollen blowing in the breeze, the flowers shaking in the wind, or the literal cartoon gusts of wind cutting through the trees. As an idea, I don’t hate it, but it does mean the use of lots of those particle effects which can be taxing on some hardware. Despite meeting and often exceeding the Recommended system requirements on Steam, I had seen a couple of minor blips below 60 on the higher graphical presets in the launch-day patch. Not a drop in the multiples of tens, but certainly a drop of 10 could occur.

Playing around with the graphical settings in more detail certainly solves some of those issues, with maybe one or three frames lost in every ten to thirty thousand. I’m exaggerating, but the odd dip here or there is insignificant, especially if it is that small and short-lived. The only thing I’d “complain” about graphically is the character textures, even on the highest presets there is something “off” about them. Up close Jin looks like he doesn’t belong in this beautiful world. Under inspection, the hilt of the Katana blurs under lower texture settings, but chances are you won’t run low.

Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut is a fantastic PC port that offers several options to improve on what we see on consoles, some are more specific and significant than others. If you want roughly the same experience as PS5 users, then you need not look further than high settings with Ambient Occlusion set to SSAO. Though PC pips the PS5 with a LOD that’s “better” but also less specific. If you’ve played a Nixxes port before, such as the fantastic Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart, you’ll know the real-time graphical options well enough and you can see the details change as you alter them.

That said, parts of the port could have been better from this graphical standpoint. I’m not going to push glasses I don’t have up my nose and talk about PSI bandwidths and other things common people don’t care about, but I will talk about something significant and noticeable. Screen-Space Reflections are something that leaves me wanting a better or higher option as the many puddles Jin runs through and rivers he’ll swim through are left looking (I’ll say) quite crap. Like wobbly jelly smattered with artifacting reflections.

The aforementioned texture quality of characters is the other major disappointment, though as I understand, overall texture quality isn’t a great improvement either. Being a third-person action-adventure, chances are you aren’t doing extreme close-ups on the hilt of Jin’s Uchigatana or Tantō blade. Saying this will get me killed by the “PC Master Race” weirdos: The texture quality is passable though it could be significantly improved for those odd close-ups we’ll get here and there. I think the character models are the worst culprit in this one major offender.

Everything else looks stunning aside from the odd low frame rate ground particle effect (most won’t notice). From Jin’s armor to far-off blades of grass and leaves coating Shinto temples, there is a crispness and beauty to higher quality textures, as well as visual direction aiding the overall presentation. I don’t want to spend too long on the technical, but this port exceeds not only the initial release platform (by miles!) but also its successor in the PS5, often in very noticeable ways. Most notably it also doesn’t need upscaling, which I’m personally not a fan of in the first place.

Despite Jin’s adventure being fairly simple (I’m trying not to spoil details here) and you won’t feel like it is a breath of fresh air, its overall presentation and feel does make it enjoyable if you can look past the problem of “this is the same story we’ve seen before.” If you can enjoy Tears of the Kingdom for its mechanical aspects while overlooking the story’s shortcomings, I think you’ll feel similarly about Ghost of Tsushima. It is the same typical honor-based storytelling and the beats that tend to follow that for these open-world adventures. Again I’m drawing comparisons to Ubisoft titles.

Yet despite that, the setting, the theme, and the appreciation for this era of Samurai and of course Kurosawa films embrace every moment of Ghost of Tsushima. Whenever I’d find a fox den leading you to Inari shrines, I’d shout “狐” (Kitsune – fox in Japanese). I’d get quite happy at the mentions of Kami and general mentions of Shinto (the way of the gods), composing Haikus, and of course the Mythic Tales. “The Curse of Uchitsune” is one of the more favorable ones.

As much as reiterating that Ghost of Tsushima is your typical big-budget triple-A release, there is still something about that setting and presentation that leaves me enjoying my time with it. With over 40 hours in just over a week (a busy week), I know I want to play more after writing this review. The gameplay is fluid and refined as you’d expect with this sort of budget, the port is great from an optimization standpoint and graphical (for the most part), and eventually, the story does pick up even if it feels familiar.

However, if I had one more gripe it would have to be the aptly titled “Kurosawa Mode.” As much as I love the idea of playing in a proper Black and White mode that mimics the films of the director, it applies more than just that as an effect. There is added film grain, scratches, and most annoyingly as a base-level audiophile, an effect to lower the quality of the audio.

I can already hear the “but it makes it sound cinematic,” well you know what also makes the cinema experience enjoyable? Being able to hear what is being said properly without having to crank volumes up beyond my standard setting making everything else uncomfortable. If the accessibility options allow for font subtitle color changes and other standards we’ve come to accept, I’d happily take the ability to drop the low-quality sound effect. Or at the very least let me dump it for the voice-over. I’ll take low-quality sounding sword clanging and otherwise over low-quality VO.

Ultimately, Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut for PC is the ultimate way to experience this fantastic exploration of that “cinematic gameplay” thing we’ve been pushing toward for years. Between clanging blades, particle effects, and countless invaders, you often feel like you’ve been placed into one of Kurosawa’s epics. Technically Nixxes could do more to improve on what we’ve already seen from the studio’s ports, though this is another great example of Sony’s investment paying off.

A PC review copy of Ghost of Tsushima DIRECTOR’S CUT was provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment for this review.

Phenixx Gaming is everywhere you are. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Also, if you’d like to join the Phenixx Gaming team, check out our recruitment article for details on working with us.

Phenixx Gaming is proud to be a Humble Partner! Purchases made through our affiliate links support our writers and charity!

Ghost of Tsushima DIRECTOR'S Cut

$59.99

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• I often feel as if I'm in a Kurosawa film.
• A great technical port from Nixxes.
• Such a rich world to explore and collect/do all the activities.

Cons

• The texture work could have been improved a bit.