Sucker Punch’s new open world samurai action game, Ghost of Tsushima, finally revealed its gameplay. As of writing, there is no release date.
Sucker Cut
In stark contrast to Super Punch’s previous work, the inFamous games, Ghost of Tsushima seems fairly grounded. The inFamous series was all about high-flying superpowers, but Ghost of Tsushima seems to split the difference between The Witcher and Assassin’s Creed when it comes to combat and exploration. We see deliberate open combat, where it appears that your enemies take very few hits to defeat. At the start of the first encounter, the protagonist defeats the first enemy in the classic quick-draw fashion. Later in the video, the protagonist adopts a sneaking stance and performs a drop kill. The main character also employs a traversal style very reminiscent of AC when it comes to climbing buildings, and uses a grappling hook to bridge the gap between buildings. The demonstration ends with a fight between the protagonist and his companion. The ensuing fight takes place among bright red leaves that are set on fire from Mongol arrows. After defeating his opponent, the main character returns his adversary her sword, and they face the approaching Mongol horde together.
Ghost of Tsushima is the Best Kind of Surprise
When SP revealed that they were working on a samurai/ninja open-world action game, I didn’t really know what to expect. Sucker Punch hasn’t really done stealth or melee focused combat before, and from this brief glimpse, it seems like they’ve got a good handle on it. It has been over five years since inFamous First Light, so SP has had plenty of time to fine-tune this game. And this time shows. The game looks incredible and animations flow smoothly into each other. The cinematography and direction aren’t slouching either, someone at SP clearly enjoys the work of Akira Kurosawa. Ghost of Tsushima is converging with Nioh 2 and Sekiro to create a rich bounty of samurai-themed games. With no release date, odds are this is late 2019 release or even 2020. With Sony’s stacked first-party line-up, they don’t need to rush Tsushima out, but I still want to see more. Hopefully, we’ll get more in-depth looks at Ghost of Tsushima in upcoming press conferences like TGS and Gamescom.