Samurai.

Last Thursday, Playstation held a State of Play with Ghost of Tsushima being the sole focus of the event. Developer Sucker Punch brought 18 minutes of gameplay to showcase since we had nothing gameplay related since E3 2018 (I think). Let’s dissect what we saw, but if you haven’t seen it, watch it.

First off, the game looks stunning. I’m afraid that it’s going to make my PS4 Pro sound like a plane though.

Gameplay wise it looks familiar for better and for worse. I was watching the stealth part and it reminded me of Mafia 3 for some reason (here’s a link to a stealth section of Mafia 3 so you can compare). You’ll sneak around and destroy stuff, stealth assassinate, slice through your opponents with a variety of combat stances, traverse a ravaged open world. It’s like a combination of different games blended together, and while it looks good, I hope it offers a different experience than all the other games.

I do think they have pretty cool features such as the ability to play with Japanese dialogue (for all you anime faithfuls), the ability to play it with a noir filter (inspired by the samurai cinema of old), and photo mode all available at the start of the game. You’ll be able to customize your character with different sets of clothing or armor, and I pray to the gaming gods I can make Jin look like Captain Kyoraku from Bleach.

Side note: I do find it funny how much Sucker Punch has evolved their style of games over the years. They started off with cartoonish, yet classic Sly Cooper series. After Sly, they worked on the darker, more mature inFamous series (one of my favs), and now they’re releasing Ghost of Tsushima. What a progression.

It’s crazy to say, but this is going to be one of the last hurrahs for the PS4.

Ghost of Tsushima, after so much shuffling, finally releases July 17th, 2020.