Ghost of Yōtei and Ghost of Tsushima

So I finished the game. I think I would have to give it a solid 7/10 (a real 7, not an IGN 7). The combat and other gameplay mechanics were smooth as butter most of the time, very enjoyable to play, but incredibly easy as well. The points it loses for me are entirely based on the narrative. I echo several of Panda's points on this. Many of the characters motivations make absolutely no sense to me. Ishikawa's student being a prime example. In fact that entire story arc ends very abruptly, in an unearned manner imo. All of Act 3 kind of falls flat for me, as the game decides to start moralizing and preaching about the damage you've done (or rather, that Jin has done, since I've had no say in any of this). The small quest chain involving Jin's...nanny? housekeeper? Was absolutely perfectly executed. They truly nailed the difficult depiction they were going for. It moved me to tears, for the only time in the game. I will counter Panda on 1 point however, Adachi clan's death is explained by the mastermind, near the end of the game. The motive is selfish, base and vindictive. But it is at least a totally human motivation that I can logically understand, even though I obviously disagree in every way. Was the one storyline I felt had great payoff. The side story with your Monk friend was the other good one, as it shows what can happen to someone who gets "poisoned" by suffering, despair and violence. 


I would have vastly preferred this be an RPG, where I can have more influence over the outcome and progression of events. There were many times where I was at fundamental disagreement with companions or even Jin himself, and I hate being narratively railroaded this heavily when I find myself at odds with my own character. The first Khotun Khan fight in the beginning is just the perfect symbol of this problem, of how pointless the players input is. You can beat Khotun Khan right away, as a pure honorable samurai, if you're good enough at the game. But no, we gotta have some preachy narrative about how "honor" is too dumb to beat the khan. How a "samurai" cannot beat the khan, even if you did. Too bad your still wrong. If the game didn't have mandatory stealth sections, I would have 100% beaten the entire game as an Honorable Samurai that never used "unsavory" methods. The gameplay/narrative disconnect with this game is otherworldly, and it personally dragged me out of it over and over again because of this. No matter what you do as a player, the game just assumes your acting like a "dishonorable" ninja, and it frankly pissed me off, when I walked into a Mongol camp, challenged them all face to face like a Samurai, destroyed them, and the hostages I freed were horrified, saying how I "butchered" them like a ghost....

All in all, this was the most beautiful game I've ever seen in my life. quietly walking around the island through groves of peach blossoms listening to tranquil music is one of the greatest Zen experiences I've ever had. I applaud the devs for using the environment around you to help you navigate. A refreshing change from constant UI compasses and Quest markers all over the screen. As someone said earlier, it's an experience that transcends the sum of it's parts, for the most part. It's a solid 9/10 gameplay experience for me, but the god awful narrative aspects make it lose those 2 points for me. I was equally relaxed and frustrated while playing this game. I've no idea when I'll go back to play it again. 

Edit: I suppose I should clarify. It's not really "the narrative" as a whole that is the problem, because the game does a lot of things well in terms of presentation and themes, like showing the logical consequences of how mass starvation would take over after an invader passes through, and the consequences of peoples actions that result from said hunger. It's a mature, yet logical depiction of things that actually happen when invaders roll in. How it shows that not just adults are the victims of these types of events (not a lot of games have the guts to even imply the deaths of children, for example).  There are many world building aspects of the narrative that the developers got absolutely correct imo. The fault for me lies a lot in the characters, their motivations and actions.