Ghost of Tsushima

Set during the first Mongol invasion of Japan in 1274, Ghost of Tsushima casts you as Jin Sakai, one of the last samurai on Tsushima Island. After a devastating defeat by the Mongol fleet, Jin must abandon his rigid warrior code and embrace unconventional tactics, stealth, poison, and assassination, to reclaim his homeland. The open world, lush with bamboo forests, shrines, and windswept fields, is a joy to traverse on horseback or by grappling hook. Combat is fluid and brutal, letting you switch between honorable katana duels and ghostly stealth takedowns. A Kurosawa mode filters the game into black and white, paying homage to classic samurai cinema. Developed by Sucker Punch Productions and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, the game launched on PlayStation 4 in July 2020, with a Director's Cut for PS4 and PS5 arriving in August 2021, and a Windows port in May 2024. A standalone multiplayer mode, Ghost of Tsushima: Legends, dropped in October 2020. Critics praised the visceral melee combat, emotional story, and stunning art direction, though some found the stealth and open-world structure repetitive. By September 2024, the game had sold over 13 million units. A sequel, Ghost of Yōtei, followed in October 2025, and both a film adaptation and an anime series are in development.[edit]

You control Jin Sakai across Tsushima Island, a vast open world with dynamic weather and seasons. Instead of a minimap, a guiding wind blows toward your marked objective, a design choice that keeps you immersed in the landscape. Combat splits into two philosophies: face enemies head-on with katana stances or vanish into the shadows with ghost weapons. Each enemy type has a weakness tied to a specific stance, learned by observing Mongol leaders or completing training duels. The Ghost toolkit includes smoke bombs, wind chimes to distract, sticky bombs, and a terrifying chain assassination ability. You can also parry, dodge, and perform a standoff, a high-risk instant kill sequence that feels straight out of a samurai film. The game rewards exploration with hot springs that boost health, bamboo strikes that increase resolve, and haiku spots that grant new headbands. On horseback, you can gallop through fields, and a grappling hook lets you scale cliffs and swing across gaps. The Director's Cut adds the Iki Island expansion, which introduces new enemy types like shamans who buff nearby Mongols, and a grappling hook for traversal. The multiplayer mode, Legends, plays like a cooperative action RPG with four classes: Samurai, Hunter, Ronin, and Assassin, each with unique abilities and skill trees. Survival missions, story chapters, and a raid offer replayable challenges with a distinct mythic art style.[edit]

Jin Sakai, nephew of Lord Shimura, the jito of Tsushima, survives the massacre at Komoda Beach where the Mongol army, led by Khotun Khan, crushes the samurai defenders. Taken captive, Jin escapes with help from a thief named Yuna, who introduces him to the idea of fighting dirty. His uncle Shimura is captured and held at Castle Kaneda, but Jin's rescue attempt fails when Khotun forces him to choose between saving his uncle or the castle's people. This fracture deepens as Jin adopts the Ghost persona, using poison, stealth, and fear to undermine Mongol control. He recruits allies across the island: Ishikawa the archer, Masako the vengeful noblewoman, Ryuzo the starving ronin who later betrays him, and Norio the Buddhist monk. The climax sees Jin storming Khotun's fortress at Omi Monastery, where he defeats the Khan in a duel but cannot kill him before Khotun flees. The final act forces Jin to confront his uncle, who has been ordered by the shogun to arrest the Ghost. Depending on the player's choice, Jin either kills Shimura with honor or spares him, abandoning the samurai code entirely. The Iki Island expansion adds a personal chapter: Jin travels to Iki to stop a Mongol shaman who uses a hallucinogenic substance that forces him to confront repressed memories of his father's death during a previous invasion. The story concludes with Jin embracing his Ghost identity fully, leaving his samurai past behind.[edit]