Ghost of Tsushima is a very special game to me. It is my favorite open world game of all time, and romantic elegance of the game's design, art direction, and music won me over easily. Coming into this expansion, I was just excited to be given a chance to spend more time in the game's beautiful setting. By the end, that desire has been fully satisfied, and I can't help but fall in love with Ghost of Tsushima all over again.
Before we start, I would like to disclose that I played the Director's Cut on PS5, and the game pretty much looks and performs like a true next-gen title.
Let's start with the story. It is a personal tale about Jin Sakai's self-discovery and redemption, as he seeks to not only save his people from the Eagle Tribe's dangerous plans, but also understand the perspective of a group of people that he has indirectly wronged in the past. The new cast of characters that Jin meets are pretty good overall. I particularly like Tenzo and how his relationship with Jin progresses as the game goes. I also enjoy seeing the Eagle's constant threatening presence, thanks to her hallucinogenic-driven psychological warfare against Jin. While the story can feel a bit rushed pacing-wise, it still manages to resonate with you like the main game did, and it is very much a story worth telling.
From a level design perspective, Iki Island is as engaging as Tsushima, with nearly the exact same open world structure, but it feels more dense due to the island's relatively small size. Thankfully it has many landscapes that feel unique to the island, like the Senjo Gorge and the Thunderhead Cliffs.
The familiarity of the expansion will feel like a warm blanket to anyone like myself, but it has quite a few new tricks up its sleeves. Some of them you might even miss quite easily. The new enemy type, Shamans, adds an extra sense of urgency to the combat. There is a new ability introduced early on, which enables you to ram through enemies with your horse in a violently satisfying fashion. The island is filled with new kinds of side activites, like the addictingly simple yet challenging archery mini game, and the spiritually appeasing animal sanctuaries (which also helps in building Jin's character). The new armor set and the variety of charms that are introduced here are not only fun to play with on their own, but also enables older armor sets to achieve new heights of capabilities. The hallucinations that Jin experience makes for some very interesting moments, many of which are optional. Finally, there are secret events/rewards you can get, either by solving riddles or stumbling on a place unmarked on the map, and it is perhaps one of my favorite parts of this DLC.
To put it simply, the Iki Island expansion is the kind of DLC that doesn't happen very often. It has a story that is meaningful and important to the plot of the main game. It has polished many aspects of the main game while putting it all in a very digestable package. It also introduces new gameplay aspects, which it uses to spice up the mostly familiar base ingredients. And most of all, it does all of it effortlessly, giving you the impression that Sucker Punch was still holding back when they made the main game. I think that is the best part of this expansion. It lets you imagine what a possible sequel will be like, and it reminds you once again that Sucker Punch will not rest on their laurels.
Before we start, I would like to disclose that I played the Director's Cut on PS5, and the game pretty much looks and performs like a true next-gen title.
Let's start with the story. It is a personal tale about Jin Sakai's self-discovery and redemption, as he seeks to not only save his people from the Eagle Tribe's dangerous plans, but also understand the perspective of a group of people that he has indirectly wronged in the past. The new cast of characters that Jin meets are pretty good overall. I particularly like Tenzo and how his relationship with Jin progresses as the game goes. I also enjoy seeing the Eagle's constant threatening presence, thanks to her hallucinogenic-driven psychological warfare against Jin. While the story can feel a bit rushed pacing-wise, it still manages to resonate with you like the main game did, and it is very much a story worth telling.
From a level design perspective, Iki Island is as engaging as Tsushima, with nearly the exact same open world structure, but it feels more dense due to the island's relatively small size. Thankfully it has many landscapes that feel unique to the island, like the Senjo Gorge and the Thunderhead Cliffs.
The familiarity of the expansion will feel like a warm blanket to anyone like myself, but it has quite a few new tricks up its sleeves. Some of them you might even miss quite easily. The new enemy type, Shamans, adds an extra sense of urgency to the combat. There is a new ability introduced early on, which enables you to ram through enemies with your horse in a violently satisfying fashion. The island is filled with new kinds of side activites, like the addictingly simple yet challenging archery mini game, and the spiritually appeasing animal sanctuaries (which also helps in building Jin's character). The new armor set and the variety of charms that are introduced here are not only fun to play with on their own, but also enables older armor sets to achieve new heights of capabilities. The hallucinations that Jin experience makes for some very interesting moments, many of which are optional. Finally, there are secret events/rewards you can get, either by solving riddles or stumbling on a place unmarked on the map, and it is perhaps one of my favorite parts of this DLC.
To put it simply, the Iki Island expansion is the kind of DLC that doesn't happen very often. It has a story that is meaningful and important to the plot of the main game. It has polished many aspects of the main game while putting it all in a very digestable package. It also introduces new gameplay aspects, which it uses to spice up the mostly familiar base ingredients. And most of all, it does all of it effortlessly, giving you the impression that Sucker Punch was still holding back when they made the main game. I think that is the best part of this expansion. It lets you imagine what a possible sequel will be like, and it reminds you once again that Sucker Punch will not rest on their laurels.