Ghost of Tsushima

of Tsushima Island on horseback. Ghost of Tsushima is an action-adventure video game played from a third-person perspective. The player has a variety of gameplay options to reach objectives they are given. They can engage in a "standoff", a direct confrontation with enemies using their katana, which can result in a series of fatal strikes against a number of different enemies. In combat, Jin can use different fighting stances to defeat specific types of enemies: "stone stance" for hostile swordsmen; "water stance" for shielded enemies; "wind stance" for spearmen; and "moon stance" for brutes. Eventually the player unlocks "ghost stance", which makes Jin invincible and allows him to kill enemies with a single hit for a limited period of time. To activate ghost stance, players must kill a number of enemies without taking any damage or "slaughter" a Mongol leader. The player needs to stagger enemies or land a successful parry to break their defense before attacking to deplete their health. The player has access to bows, which can fire multiple types of arrows. At certain points in the game, Jin must duel against non-playable characters (NPCs) who act as bosses with unique offensive tactics and attack animations. The game's highest difficulty is a more realistic mode in which the player and enemies do large amounts of damage to each other, with all non-boss fights ending in one or two successful attacks. Alternatively, using stealth allows the player to evade enemies and strike them silently with Jin's tanto. As the player progresses in the game they can unlock chained assassination, which allows Jin to strike several enemies consecutively. To this end, Jin has a large arsenal of ghost weapons. These include firecrackers and wind chime bells to create distractions, smoke bombs to disorient alerted foes, kunai for striking multiple enemies, and explosives to kill groups of enemies. Players will eventually unlock a blowgun that allows them to shoot poison darts and causes victims to hallucinate and attack their peers. When the player restores Jin's health or uses special combat techniques, they deplete their "resolve", which is gained by performing feats of finesse such as assassinating or parrying an enemy. The game features a large open world which can be explored with or without guidance based on wind direction. The three islands of Tsushima are unlocked gradually as the player progresses. The island of Izuhara is unlocked first, followed by Toyotama and Kamiagata. Access to Iki Island is granted to those who purchased the DLC after entering Izuhara. Players travel to different parts of Tsushima on horseback and can use an item that acts as a grappling hook to access difficult-to-reach areas. As the player explores the world, yellow birds will guide Jin to locations of interest. These include hot springs which increase Jin's maximum health, "Bamboo Strikes" which increase Jin's maximum resolve upon completion, "Pillars of Honor" which contain additional cosmetic designs for Jin's weapons, and locations in which Jin will meditate and compose haiku. By following torii gates and completing a platforming challenge, the player will find Shinto shrines and unlock charms that grant the player passive perks such as decreasing damage taken, reducing enemy detection speed, and increasing how much health is recovered when healing. Foxes will also lead Jin to Inari shrines, which increase the number of charms Jin can equip. The game features side quests and NPCs with whom the player can interact. Players can also liberate Mongol-controlled villages and camps by eliminating all the enemies stationed in the area. Combat stances are unlocked after Jin observes or kills Mongol leaders. Completing side quests or helping NPCs grants players minor charms and gifts which can be collected at altars. In particular, completing "Mythic Tale" side quests will unlock unique armors and special combat techniques. Each armor set has different properties that provide various benefits during combat. Most sets of armor and clothing can be upgraded by collecting materials found in the game's world. Jin's appearance can also be further customized with masks, helmets and headbands. Multiplayer A multiplayer mode titled Ghost of Tsushima: Legends was released in late 2020. Players can access this mode from the menu or by reaching the NPC Gyozen the Storyteller in the single-player campaign, which will transport the player to Legends multiplayer lobby. Unlike the single-player campaign, Legends is based on Japanese mythology, featuring otherworldly realms and supernatural enemies. Legends features four classes: The samurai is the group's tank character who can deal and sustain a large amount of damage, the hunter is the group's sniper who specializes at using ranged weapons such as bows and arrows, the rōnin has the ability to summon dogs to aid combat and revives the group, and the assassin can deal a massive amount of damage with one attack and has the "Shadow Strike" ability which allows them to teleport short distances. Legends features a variety of game modes: • Story: In story mode, two players can complete narrated quests and objectives together. As the player progresses in the game, they will be able to unlock additional difficulty levels, new objectives, and rewards. In October 2020, the team introduced "The Tale of Iyo", a three-chapter raid mode described as the "culmination of the story" in Legends. Designed for experienced players, this mode supports a squad of four, stresses teamwork and coordination, and introduces puzzles that need to be solved cooperatively. • Survival: In survival mode, four players can work together and fight against 15 waves of enemies. • Rivals: In rivals mode, two teams of two players each must compete against each other in survival mode. The objective is to progress faster and kill more enemies than the other team. As a team defeats enemies they earn "Magatama", an in-game currency which can be used to purchase perks and curses that disrupt the progress of the other team. Once a team has spent enough "Magatama", the final wave is unlocked and the team must complete it faster than the other team in order to win the match. == Synopsis ==

Characters The protagonist, Jin Sakai (Daisuke Tsuji / Kazuya Nakai), is the head and sole remaining member of Clan Sakai and a samurai warrior. He is the nephew and ward of Lord Shimura (Eric Steinberg / Akio Ōtsuka), the jitō of Tsushima. He meets several friends and companions, including a thief named Yuna (Sumalee Montano / Yu Mizuno), her blacksmith brother Taka (Eddie Shin / Kappei Yamaguchi), a female warrior and widow named Lady Masako Adachi (Lauren Tom / Mabuki Ando), renowned kyūjutsu archer Sensei Sadanobu Ishikawa (François Chau / Shigeru Chiba), merchant and con artist Kenji (James Hiroyuki Liao / Setsuji Sato), Buddhist warrior monk Norio (Earl T. Kim / Mitsuaki Kanuka), Clan Sakai's elderly caretaker Yuriko (Karen Huie / Yuri Tabata), and Jin's childhood friend and leader of the infamous Straw Hat rōnin, Ryuzo (Leonard Wu / Youhei Tadano). The main antagonist is the ruthless and cunning General Khotun Khan of the Mongol Empire (Patrick Gallagher / Tsutomu Isobe), cousin of Kublai Khan and grandson of Genghis Khan. Plot In 1274, a Mongol fleet led by Khotun Khan invades the Japanese island of Tsushima. The jitō, Lord Shimura, and his nephew Jin Sakai lead an effort by the five great families of the island (Clan Shimura, Clan Sakai, Clan Adachi, Clan Nagao, and Clan Kikuchi) to repel the invaders as they land at Komoda Beach. However, the battle ends in disaster, with the samurai killed by the superior weapons of the Mongols, Shimura captured, and Jin severely wounded and left for dead. He is found and revived by the scavenger Yuna, who informs him that the whole island has fallen to the invaders. Jin storms the Khan's stronghold at Castle Kaneda to rescue Shimura but is defeated by the Khan and thrown off the castle bridge. Realizing he cannot defeat the Mongols alone or with traditional samurai tactics, Jin recruits allies and learns guerrilla warfare tactics from Yuna. He recruits Yuna, her blacksmith brother Taka, sake merchant and swindler Kenji, archer Sadanobu Ishikawa, female samurai Masako Adachi, and his mercenary friend Ryuzo along with Ryuzo's Straw Hat rōnin. As Jin disrupts Mongol activities and liberates villages, the islanders revere him as "The Ghost," a samurai spirit that has risen against the Mongols. Taka crafts a grappling hook for Jin to scale Castle Kaneda's walls, and Jin attacks the site with his allies. Destitute and starving from harsh wartime conditions, Ryuzo and the Straw Hats betray Jin to collect the bounty issued to him by the Khan. Jin fends them off, frees Shimura, and retakes Castle Kaneda. Despite their victory, the Khan has already left to conquer Castle Shimura with Ryuzo. Jin recruits the warrior monk Norio, Norio's fellow monks, and the disgraced Yarikawa family to retake Castle Shimura. He also recruits local pirate Goro on Shimura's behalf to carry a petition for reinforcements and a request to be adopted as his heir to the shogun. With a new army being assembled, Jin recovers his family's ancestral armor from the Sakai family caretaker Yuriko, who teaches him how to create poison. Under orders from Shimura, Jin and Taka try to infiltrate a fortress where Ryuzo is located, but are ambushed and captured by the Khan. When Jin refuses to submit to his rule, the Khan demands that Taka kill him for his freedom. Taka instead attempts to attack the Khan, but is killed and his corpse beheaded; after the Khan leaves, Jin frees himself and eradicates the Straw Hats with Yuna's help. The Shogun's reinforcements arrive, and Shimura leads the assembled army in an assault on Castle Shimura, driving the Mongols into the inner keep. As the Mongols retreat, they detonate explosives on the bridge leading to the inner courtyard, inflicting massive casualties on the advancing samurai. Knowing that another frontal attack would only result in more losses, Jin infiltrates the keep to sneak poison into the Mongols' airag and kill Ryuzo. However, he again misses the Khan, who has retreated to a stronghold in the north. Despite the castle being taken without the samurai suffering any further losses, Shimura is furious with Jin, as his actions have violated the samurai code of honor. Jin retorts by criticizing the ineffectiveness of the code against the dishonorable Mongols. Knowing that the Shogun will have Jin executed for treason, Shimura urges him to use Yuna as a scapegoat, but Jin refuses and embraces his persona as "The Ghost." Shimura regretfully arrests Jin and burns the decree of adopting Jin as his son. Jin's allies remain loyal to him and help him escape captivity, but his horse is fatally shot by archers in the process. Jin travels north and learns that the Mongols have learned how to craft his poison, which they intend to use in their assault on the Japanese mainland. Before gathering his allies, claiming a new horse, and assaulting the Khan's final stronghold in Port Izumi, Jin leaves a note for Shimura in his castle asking him to join the effort with the samurai, which he does. With the bulk of the Mongol forces distracted, Jin infiltrates the port and kills the Khan on his flagship. With Khotun Khan dead, the Mongol invasion loses momentum, and the tide turns in favor of the samurai. Shimura informs Jin that the Shogun considers him a threat to the island's stability and status quo of obedience of the people to their leaders. He states that the Shogun has disbanded Clan Sakai and ordered Shimura to kill Jin. Reminiscing about what they have both lost, Jin and Shimura reluctantly duel each other, with Jin emerging victorious. Jin can kill Shimura to give him a proper warrior's death or abandon the samurai code completely and spare his life. Regardless, Jin becomes the enemy of the Shogun but continues protecting Tsushima. Iki Island Jin comes across villagers who have been driven insane by a poison described as "sacred medicine." It was administered to them by a warband of Mongols whom Jin had never previously encountered: members of the Mongolian Eagle Tribe, led by Ankhsar "The Eagle" Khatun (Anzu Lawson). Defeating the warband, Jin learns that the Eagle is engaged in a conquest of Iki Island, where his late father Kazumasa had once led an unsuccessful military campaign against the island's raiders. The samurai withdrew from the island after Kazumasa was ambushed and killed by the raiders. Jin was there during the campaign as a boy; he witnessed his father's death and still blames himself for not saving him. Because of this new threat to Tsushima, Jin sails to Iki Island to stop the Eagle and face his past. A thunderstorm destroys Jin's boat, but he survives and arrives at Iki. Discovering the Eagle's base to be his father's former stronghold, Fort Sakai, Jin storms the fort but is subdued and captured by the Eagle's second-in-command, Khunbish. He and the Eagle force-feed Jin the "sacred medicine" in an attempt to convert him into one of the tribe's shamans. The poison causes Jin to frequently hallucinate visions of the Eagle, his deceased father, and many of his past failures. He is rescued by the raider Tenzo, who reluctantly accepts Jin's help and takes him to the raiders' leader, Fune. Jin works with the raiders to weaken the Eagle's hold over the island, eventually retaking Fort Sakai and killing Khunbish. After fending off retaliation by the Eagle's forces, Jin hears Tenzo say, "May your death benefit all beings" to a dying Mongol — the same phrase a masked raider spoke to Kazumasa before killing him. Realizing that Tenzo killed his father, Jin nearly kills Tenzo before controlling his anger. He proposes re-enacting the ambush that killed his father to lure out the Eagle and ultimately kill her. Although suffering from near-continuous hallucinations, Jin overcomes the effects of the "sacred medicine" by acknowledging his father's faults and, at last, coming to terms with his death. Jin kills the Eagle in a duel, turning the tide in the raiders' favor. Jin and Tenzo forgive each other before parting ways. ==Development==

{{Multiple image |total_width=300 Ghost of Tsushima was developed by Sucker Punch Productions, which had a staff count of 160 at the time of development. During the conceptualizing phase, the studio decided to create an open world game with a heavy emphasis on melee combat. Before deciding on the setting as feudal Japan, Sucker Punch considered various other settings and themes such as pirates, Scottish outlaw Rob Roy MacGregor, and The Three Musketeers. They later found a historical account of the Mongol invasion of Tsushima in 1274 and "the entire vision clicked into place." In 2020, a prototype for one of Sucker Punch's cancelled projects, Prophecy, was leaked. Set in a steampunk setting, Prophecy featured gameplay elements that were later carried over to Ghost of Tsushima. Sucker Punch worked on the game for six years, the longest ever for a game developed by the studio. The game's development was completed on June 22, 2020, with Sucker Punch confirming it had been declared gold, indicating it was being prepared for release. Nate Fox served as the game director, To ensure that the game's world was authentic, the team consulted Japan Studio, a fellow Sony game development team, early in the game's development. Japan Studio was excited about the idea and helped fly approximately 10 members of Sucker Punch to Japan and Tsushima Island for a 10- or 11-day guided tour with a historian. Japan Studio also helped connect Sucker Punch with historians who the team consulted on the history of the invasion and local Japanese customs and traditions. Experts on Japanese dialects, religions during the 13th century, and the recreation of 13th century kanji were also consulted. Seattle-based historical sword fighting expert David Ishimaru was also involved in the creation of the game's combat style. Jin's samurai armor and katana are not historically accurate, with his armor based on that of the Sengoku period during the 16th and 17th centuries. According to Chris Zimmerman, one of Sucker Punch's cofounders, samurai armor from the 13th century was "jarring looking" and did not align with players' expectations of what samurai armor would look like. The katana was included in the game since it was considered to be the "quintessential icon of samurai". One of the core objectives of the developers was to have strong and well-developed characters. Unlike the Infamous games, Ghost of Tsushima does not have a character karma system. Its absence allowed the team to tell a more cohesive story which better reflected Jin's transformation from an honorable samurai to a legendary warrior who must sacrifice everything he knows about honor and tradition in order to save Tsushima. Instead of the player being presented with binary choices as in Infamous, the world and characters react dynamically to Jin's choices in the story, either disapproving of his actions or encouraging them. Despite this, the player can still switch between the ghost style and samurai style seamlessly, as Jin's roots as a samurai do not change despite his transformation to become the ghost. While the game does not have a karma mechanic, the weather in Tsushima Island becomes more stormy when the player uses ghost techniques more frequently. The game's antagonist, Khotun Khan, does not undergo any transformative change. While he is a ruthless invader, he has a "bureaucratic aspect" as he attempts to conquer Tsushima Island with minimal bloodshed. Patrick Gallagher joined the cast in 2017 and prepared for the role as Khotun Khan by watching The Godfather and drawing on his experience portraying Attila the Hun in Night at the Museum. , including Seven Samurai, helped inspire the game. While Fox said that the game was "entirely grounded in reality", the team took the liberty to create a fictional narrative. The initial real-world Mongol invasion was foiled by a hurricane, and the team acknowledged this with Jin's katana which is engraved with storm wind designs. 13 Assassins from Takashi Miike and films directed by Akira Kurosawa such as Seven Samurai, Sanjuro, Yojimbo, Red Beard, and Ran, served as major sources of inspiration for the team. The ending of Sanjuro directly inspired the game's "standoff" gameplay feature, in which a warrior must wait for their counterpart to make their first move and then kill them with one strike. The team tried to replicate the samurai code depicted in Seven Samurai in the game. Additionally, the team reached out to the Kurosawa Estate in order to use the director's name for their black-and-white gameplay mode. The comic book series Usagi Yojimbo, which features a soft-mannered rabbit samurai solving various problems for ordinary citizens, also influenced the team. Fox read this comic series when he was working on the Sly Cooper games. The surname of the game's protagonist was a tribute to Stan Sakai, the creator of Yojimbo. The combat system was the most difficult feature to implement in Ghost of Tsushima, as the team had to build multiple versions of it and modified its design frequently during the game's development. Early playtesters complained that the enemies were "sword sponge" (i.e., they absorbed a large amount of damage before they died), breaking immersion. The team responded to this criticism by adding "hit points" and "armor points", but ultimately decided that all enemies would be defeated within a certain number of hits. Health of enemies would not change regardless of the selected difficulty. Instead, enemies would adopt more defensive tactics such as parrying and blocking at higher difficulties. Early prototypes of this design was described as overkill, as enemies would deflect all attacks. As a result, the stagger system, which allowed players to break their enemies' defenses while remaining offensive, was introduced. The team allowed combat to take longer in the game's 1v1 duels, as players likely expected them to be boss fights and these encounters could not end too quickly. The ghost weapons were designed to be "exceedingly lethal" and generally more effective than the samurai weapons. This further complemented the story and Jin's emotional dilemma between maintaining samurai honor and saving the island through dishonorable means. While players may enjoy playing the ghost path, the narrative would remind them that these techniques are loathed. One of the goals of the studio was to create a "beautiful, serene, and nature-filled open world feudal Japan". During the game's reveal at Paris Game Week, Connell went off the script to announce that the game would not feature any waypoint mechanics and that the game's exploration would be primarily driven by the player's curiosity. This announcement was unexpected to the team, and they had to add additional features in order to fulfill Connell's promise. Side-quests in the game were likened to an anthology of stories, and Jin meets characters who are simply trying to survive the brutality of war. Connell added that ultimately, the studio wanted players to get lost in the team's recreation of feudal Japan. While implementing the feature, they were inspired by Shadow of the Colossus, in which the player is shown the direction of their objectives when they hold up their sword. Connell added that "nature is a symbol for Jin's home", and guidance using wind served as an important tool for players to "connect" with Jin's home. According to Fleming, guiding winds also evoked a feeling that "nature herself is on [the player's] side". Many of the game's particle effects and systems were imported from previous Infamous games. This is achieved through the use of bold and vibrant colors when modelling nature. The team also chose the dominant foliage in each area and significantly exaggerated its presence, creating "little pockets of massive boldness and beauty". For instance, the team focused on orange and yellow hues for the trees when they were creating the Golden Forest, one of the game's locations, instead of including all the types of trees that would realistically grow there. Fox added that the landscape featured in the in-game island is more diverse than its real-world counterpart, as the team also incorporated the aesthetics of mainland Japan when they were recreating Tsushima Island. According to Fleming, "everything in Japan tends to celebrate negative space". As a result, the team pushed for simplicity from the design of the game's architecture and interiors to the minimalistic HUD. Much of the game was designed to be "serene" and "tranquil" so that it more sharply contrasted with moments of violence throughout the game's combat and story. Jin's armors were heavily inspired by the armor designs of the Kamakura and Heian periods. These armors were designed to be bulky and colorful, radiating "a sense of regality" while contrasting with the darker and more agile ghost outfit. The team intentionally avoided the traditional assassin design in which characters are dressed in all-black fully-cloth clothing for the ghost outfit in order to make it appear more realistic. Parts of some outfits, such as capes and tassels, respond to the wind, further connecting the player and Jin to the game's world. Peasant recruits wear leftover armor and have a more ragtag appearance than typical samurai characters. Peasants frequently wear clothes with geometric patterns that reflect their origins. For instance, people living on Northern Tsushima wear clothes with snowflake patterns. The game's antagonist, Khotun Khan, has two armors, one of which is completely void of color and angular in shape to further signify his oppression and brutality. Audio and music Brad Meyer served as the game's audio lead. To record the sound of sword fighting, the team used sword blanks previously used in recording sessions for God of War, which was developed by Santa Monica Studio, another Sony developer. According to Meyer, the team spent a lot of time "scraping them against each other, clanging them together, swinging them, suspending them from the ceiling and spinning them around" in order to record interesting sounds. The team also used them to cut through fruits, vegetables, and cloth to create the sound of a sword cutting through a human body. Combat sounds are deemphasized when the player is exploring and not engaged in combat. Jin's wind chimes were recorded using a Japanese fūrin. The black-naped oriole was chosen as the game's guide bird because it can be found in Japan and Meyer had the opportunity to record its sound during a vacation in Sri Lanka in 2018. The audio and music system was initially based on that of Infamous Second Son, in which combat music will gradually intensify over three different states. However, due to additional gameplay elements found in Ghost of Tsushima such as ghost stance and standoff, the team was required to create additional states for the combat music. British composer Ilan Eshkeri wrote the game's music. Eshkeri extensively researched Japanese musical styles in the 13th century, including Gagaku, Shōmyō Buddhist chanting, and the biwa hōshi. However, he deliberately avoided listening to the musical scores of Kurosawa's films in order to keep his music original. The most difficult track for Eshkeri to write was the one for the final battle, as the track needed to be simultaneously action-packed and emotional. Eshkeri ultimately wrote double the amount of music that was actually needed. The game also features five musical suites by Japanese composer Shigeru Umebayashi, who was responsible for creating the game's exploration music. ==Release==

Ghost of Tsushima's marketing campaign began in October 2017 when a trailer was shown at Sony Interactive Entertainment's Paris Games Week press conference. Sony opted not to announce the title too early since many of the game's systems were tentative and subject to change. A gameplay demo was shown at E3 2018 along with a live shakuhachi performance by Cornelius Boots. The game was released for PlayStation 4 on July 17, 2020, having been delayed from its original June 26 release date due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Sucker Punch announced four editions: standard, digital deluxe, special, and a collector's edition. Art prints, produced by Cook & Becker, were released in November 2020. A multiplayer expansion titled Ghost of Tsushima: Legends, was released on October 16, 2020, alongside the addition of a new game plus feature to the base game. Unlike the main game, Legends features prominent supernatural elements drawn from Japanese mythology. While Legends was introduced as a post-launch update, Sucker Punch decided early on that some form of cooperative gameplay would be included in the final game. Development of the mode started in 2016, and the studio experimented for six months to a year when designing the multiplayer mode. The team ultimately chose supernatural elements as the focal point of Legends, which gave the team more creative freedom when they were designing the characters and their abilities. A storyteller character was introduced to tie the mode thematically back to Jin's journey and the world of Tsushima. According to Darren Bridge, the senior game designer leading Legends development, the visual style of Legends was unrefined until the final nine months of the expansion's development. The final boss fight was also completed relatively late in the game's development, with the team once considering delaying its addition or completely removing it from the game. In December 2020, Legends introduced four character outfits based on other PlayStation franchises: Bloodborne, God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Shadow of the Colossus. Legends received a standalone release on September 3, 2021, and was one of the free games offered to PlayStation Plus subscribers in March 2022. Sucker Punch released ''Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut'' on August 20, 2021, for both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. The PlayStation 5 version includes exclusive features such as full Japanese lip sync, haptic feedback and adaptive trigger support, 3D audio support, dynamic 4K resolution, and decreased loading times. The Director's cut also includes an expansion in which Jin visits Iki Island to stop a Mongol tribe led by a shaman named Ankhsar Khatun. The size of Iki Island is similar to Act One of the main game, and players can access the island once they have reached Act Two of the main story. Iki Island is drastically different from Tsushima Island as it is mostly populated with bandit, raider, and criminal NPCs. When designing Iki Island, the team continued to use bold colors, though it used a different color palette so that players could easily differentiate between it and the main Tsushima Island. According to the team, the story also delves into Jin's past and the history of Clan Sakai, exploring a different viewpoint of the Mongol invasion. Iki Island also added new combat skills, such as the ability for the player's horse to charge at enemies, new side quests and open world activities including visiting animal sanctuaries where Jin can pet various animals, An armor set inspired by Aloy from Horizon Forbidden West was added to ''Director's Cut in February 2022. In April 2022, Sucker Punch announced that they have stopped working on further patches and updates for both the main game and Legends'', as the studio shifted developmental resources to other projects. Nixxes Software developed the PC version of the game, which was released on May 16, 2024. On May 11, 2024, it was reported that the Steam listing for the game had been delisted from 177 territories due to the unavailability of PlayStation Network in those regions. This came after widespread criticism following a similar occurrence with Helldivers 2, another PlayStation Studios title that was released on PC. Helldivers 2 had come under controversy due to Sony enforcing PlayStation Network account linking, a statement the company would backtrack on. Sucker Punch had previously clarified that PlayStation Network account linking was mandatory only for Ghost of Tsushimas multiplayer component, and that single-player would not be affected. The regional lockout was lifted on October 28, 2025, after a patch for the game that separated Legends into free downloadable content was made available, though the Legends content remains region-locked. Sony announced in September 2025 that players who earn the Platinum Trophy by December 2025 can unlock special merchandise for purchase. The merchandise includes a pin and t-shirt. ==Reception==

Critical reception Ghost of Tsushima received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator website Metacritic. The story received a generally positive reception. Matt Miller from Game Informer wrote that Ghost of Tsushima offered "a tale about the contradictory ideals of honor and revenge", praising the side quests for offering a somber contemplation on the brutality of war and how it affects the everyday life of ordinary peasants. several reviewers noted the lack of lip-syncing for the Japanese audio, which was later rectified in the ''Director's Cut version of the game. Kirk McKeand from VG247'' also criticized the game's open world activities for hindering the pacing of the story and deemed the structure of some quests "archaic". A thesis paper done by Asha Bardon argues that the game’s detailed recreation of Tsushima, its religious heritage, and its historical setting actually promotes the island, encourages greater post pandemic tourism, and helps increase interest in Japan’s history and culture. Fox and Connell were named as tourism ambassadors to Tsushima Island in March 2021 for spreading "the name and history of Tsushima through their works". The game has contributed to the restoration of Watazumi Shrine on Tsushima Island. After a typhoon damaged it in 2020, the game's community came together and created a crowdfunding campaign raising over 27 million yen for repairs. Sales Ghost of Tsushima was the best-selling physical game in its debut week of release in the United Kingdom lasting three weeks and sold 373,473 units in the country by the end of 2020. It was also the best-selling physical game in July 2020 in the US and became Sucker Punch's fastest-selling game there. The game also topped the download charts in both Europe and the United States. It went on to become the seventh-best-selling game of 2020 in the US. The ''Director's Cut version was the best-selling game in the UK in its week of release and the second-best-selling game in the United States in August 2021 behind Madden NFL 22''. With the release of the PC version, the game topped the U.S. software sales chart in May 2024. In Japan, Ghost of Tsushima was also the best-selling game during its debut week, with 212,915 units being sold. The game was out of stock in some stores in Japan during its launch month. The game remained in the top 30 best-selling video games in Japan for more than 15 consecutive weeks, totaling over 412,000 units sold. It had the second-highest lifetime sales for a Sony first-party video game in Japan, only behind ''Marvel's Spider-Man''. In May 2023, Sony confirmed that the game had sold over 1 million units in Japan. Worldwide, Ghost of Tsushima sold over 2.4 million units in its first 3 days of sales, making it the PlayStation 4's fastest-selling first-party original IP debut. In November 2020, It was reported that the game had sold over 5 million units. By July 2022, it had sold 9.73 million units. In September 2024, Sucker Punch announced that it had sold over 13 million units. According to court documents filed by Sony in the Microsoft/Activision merger, the game was highly profitable. Against a reported budget of $60 million, it had generated $397 million in total revenue as of the filing in 2023. Awards In addition to the following awards, the game was selected by PlayStation Official Magazine – UK and Hardcore Gamer as their Game of the Year. == Adaptations ==

On March 25, 2021, Sony Pictures and PlayStation Productions announced the development of a film adaptation of the game, directed by Chad Stahelski. The film will be produced by Stahelski, Alex Young, and Jason Spitz of 87Eleven Entertainment alongside Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan of PlayStation Productions. Sucker Punch will serve as executive producers, with Peter Kang overseeing production on the studio's behalf. On April 12, 2022, Takashi Doscher was brought on to write the screenplay. The film is in development. Jin Sakai made a cameo in episode 15 of the Secret Level TV series. In January 2025, Sony announced an anime inspired by the game's multiplayer mode, titled Ghost of Tsushima: Legends. It is being produced by Kamikaze Douga in partnership with Aniplex, Crunchyroll, Sony Music and PlayStation Productions and directed by Takanobu Mizuno, with series composition by Gen Urobuchi; it is scheduled to be released on Crunchyroll in 2027. == Sequel ==

Ghost of Yōtei, a sequel to Ghost of Tsushima, was released for the PlayStation 5 on October 2, 2025. The story takes place around Mount Yōtei on Japan's Hokkaido island in 1603, following the female warrior Atsu. == Notes ==