You see, we have come to a point where most of the video games released today are nothing but glorified movies which lack any sort of identity to truly be seen as legitimate video games, and this review will be discussing that part as it has to do with how Ghost of Tsushima (along with most Playstation exclusives released in the modern day) horribly utilizes its own medium, along with how it's just a terrible game in general.

First, let me get into the positives I have for this game. The visuals that surround us, the player, are absolutely amazing, and when traversing through Tsushima island, there are various sights to behold for their beauty, along with the photo mode which really helps out to take stunning pictures of such areas.

Another thing I like about the game is the idea of the message, keyword IDEA, not the execution. The way it brings up the talk about honor is pretty cool to hear, and that's that.

Anyways, let's talk about the game in general and why it is just one awful mess.

To start things off, let's look into Jin Sakai as a character. In my eyes, Jin is probably the most overrated video game protagonist ever, and what makes me say that is how he is just incredibly barebones when it comes to the amount of depth & meaning he holds, and his ending is the only big redeeming factor which even then, cannot fully make up for his incredibly poor writing throughout the entire story. Like, I get the idea of honor, forwarded with how it was tied to Jin, but when executed, it's just a bunch of corny dialogue, and him turning into a "Ghost" just follows up in such a dull & boring matter. However, this is when he starts to finally develop as a character, only to suck even more with the lack of substance and the ending choices in the game that don't have any true meaning behind them whatsoever.

Now, into the side cast and the story as a whole. Throughout my entire playthrough, I did not give a single shit about the cast at all, as everyone in it was just a set piece made to help Jin Sakai reach into his character development, and while yes, there doesn't need to be a good cast all the time, it still does matter to have some sort of depth when they have such a big role into carrying the plot forward. And oh, my god, the story is fucking abysmal. It goes absolutely nowhere before Jin becomes a Ghost, plus there is almost nothing to remember outside of the beginning, and when Jin would talk to his uncle that's literally it. Also, even if the story does become more straightforward near the end, it feels so lackluster as the only thing that matters at that point is the fight between Jin and Shimura, nothing more and nothing less.

I replayed Ghost of Tsushima twice in the last 1 year, and all I can truly remember is the ending, the gameplay, some of Jin Sakai's lines, and 2 major battles, whereas I played Twilight Princess ONCE about 7 years ago, and I still vividly remember the characters, the story, the background lore, the dark theme, Link's development, so on and so forth. If that should tell you one thing, then that one thing should be how forgettable Ghost of Tsushima really is, particularly due to its lack of focus on the many categories that the game is supposed to cover.

The structure of the world is also just god-awful. It feels so clustered in a bad way, what I mean by this is that the design of the world feels incredibly tedious and short. Sure, the sightings are nice to take a look at, but is that all which has been left? Probably, and there is no point of thinking about it any further.

Lastly, the gameplay. which is probably my least negative thing about the game. It can feel fun at times when you are fighting against one person, but when it's multiple, shit hits the fan and it starts to get incredibly tedious and boring, with the exception of the Ghost stance that is really fun at first, all before getting stale later.

Now, in the first paragraph, I've talked about how modern games do not utilize their own medium properly, and I stand by this. The thing with Ghost of Tsushima is that it is basically a glorified movie and the narrative's structure with how it follows the act method makes it so much more clear that we are just watching a modern Akira Kurosawa film where you can interact with the environment. Now, some other games I know that also utilize their mediums terribly are none other than God of War 2018/Ragnarok, The Last of Us Part I & II, Uncharted 4, Marvel's Spider-Man, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Metal Gear Solid 4. Did you notice how 7 of the 8 games which I had just mentioned are all Playstation exclusives? Its come to a point where Sony values cinematic structures more than the actual, thematic balance between gameplay & narrative because while they try to lure in an audience who can enjoy deep stories, the narratives remain lackluster and basically just spout out levels of pure laziness and nothing else. Not that I want the old era of games back, but when you do not know how to utilize your medium correctly, you will eventually fade into the sands of time by more people as society moves on (Which is another reason why Breath of the Wild, despite being a more modern focus on the Zelda franchise than the other games, will forever be remembered for welcoming both the old and new parts of the fanbase due to itself being locked in with its identity as a video game.)

My final rating for Ghost of Tsushima is a 3/10.