It’s July 2020, and just like everyone else, I’m locked down in my home while I wait for COVID-19 to leave the world alone so we can get back to our normal lives again. Video games have always been a significant part of my life, but even more now, as my pregnant wife and I have found ourselves sitting around at home more than we ever did before. I’m grinding away at two of my favorite recently released games, Animal Crossing: New Horizons for its cozy vibes, and Final Fantasy 7 Remake because I love Final Fantasy and I always will. Then, a friend comes along and interrupts that grind with a comment about a game called Ghost of Tsushima, and I’m intrigued.
I actually hadn’t even heard of it. My job as a video game journalist hadn’t started at that point, despite already having my B.A. in Mass Communications and Media Studies, so I wasn’t necessarily up to date on all the current events in the gaming industry to the extent that I am today. Nevertheless, I took my friend’s advice and started reading reviews of Ghost of Tsushima, eventually walking away with questions about why I had never heard of it and why I was not currently playing it. I immediately purchased it and dove into its breathtaking open world, only to discover an adventurous escape I had been craving during such a tumultuous time as the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Ghost of Tsushima’s Open World Was the Escape I Needed
Apart from what I had seen in reviews, I didn’t know what to expect with Ghost of Tsushima, but it certainly wasn’t what I ended up getting. I had grown to appreciate and even crave open-world games by that time, simply because of how much they offer in terms of content — even if that content is frequently artificial in nature. Prior to September 2020, I didn’t have kids, meaning I had more time to invest in sizable maps filled with icons and achieve 100% completion on massive games like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey without giving a second thought to how they could be designed differently. So, naturally, when I met Ghost of Tsushima, I fell in love with its world.
Sure, the gameplay aspect of its open-world design takes plenty of cues from a formula that has since been condemned, with repetitive activities and perhaps too many map markers, although that part is more subjective. And to be fair, I did begin noticing that at the time, to the point where I eventually expressed the desire for Ghost of Yotei to treat its open world differently. However, it wasn’t the content in Ghost of Tsushima‘s open world that I cared about so much as it was the way it gently guided me through its peaceful, immersive world and set me free, in a sense, especially during a year when I felt trapped, suffocated, and uncertain about the future.
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Ghost of Tsushima Offered Me Peace During a Time of Chaos and Uncertainty
Much of that immersion came from its minimalistic HUD, which, in turn, highlighted the undeniable beauty of its world. Most open-world games offer players a compass or mini-map to guide them, but Ghost of Tsushima led me through feudal Japan with its innovative Guiding Wind mechanic, even when I had a custom waypoint set. It was something I had never experienced before, and not only was it a brilliant way to replace a potentially immersion-breaking UI, but it encouraged my investment in the path rather than the destination, and the sound of the wind sweeping across Tsushima Island gave me an overwhelming sense of calm as I explored.
It wasn’t the content in Ghost of Tsushima‘s open world that I cared about so much as it was the way it gently guided me through its peaceful, immersive world and set me free, in a sense, especially during a year when I felt trapped, suffocated, and uncertain about the future.
Ultimately, I treated Ghost of Tsushima as I would have any other open-world game at the time, ignoring the main quest as often as I could, choosing instead to let myself wander into the unknown. However, things were different this time, as exploration felt less about gameplay and more about discovery. Even without a clear objective at times, moving in any direction still felt like I was going somewhere that mattered, as real life asked me to stop going altogether and Ghost of Tsushima simply asked me to slow down and take in its gorgeous vistas.
Here, I found peace. Despite the real world around me seemingly coming to a halt in many ways, the questions that swirled overhead still made it feel like everything was careening toward the end of an era. But the tranquility of Ghost of Tsushima somehow silenced all of those questions for a bit. Ghost of Tsushima, in its own quiet, had a way of being louder than the confusion, anxiety, concern, and doubt that the world was echoing on social media and news outlets while we all remained indoors. It didn’t offer answers, but it gave me a place to breathe. And for that brief window of time, that was exactly what I needed.
Ghost of Tsushima
9/10
- Released
- July 17, 2020
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Language, Partial Nudity
- Developer(s)
- Sucker Punch
- Publisher(s)
- Sony
- Engine
- Proprietary
