Ghost of Tsushima is less than a month away from release, but to help with the wait until players get a chance to put an end to the Mongol invasion, Sony has provided deeper dive into the games mechanics.
The love letter to samurai films, Ghost of Tsushima puts players in the role of Jin Sakai, a trained samurai who mission is to stop the invasion with the help of his mastery of the katana. Focusing on speed, Sucker Punch used motion capture to emulate the movements and reaction of the player and enemies. Sucker Punch found that directly depicting a realistic sword fight felt clumsy and sloppy, and doesn't capture the essence of the films the game is trying to replicate.
Enemies in Ghost of Tsushima have multiple attack combos they can preform, which in a group of enemies, can be easily overwhelm the player if they're not careful. Sucker Punch quickly realized that an initial attack should be more obvious to the player to prepare them to block or counter. It built upon this by added another layer of challenge with Ghost of Tsushima's multiple enemies, which Jin can deal with thanks to his variety of stances. For example, the Stone Stance can be used to quickly end a swordsman while Water Stance can be used to deal with shielded enemies.
Jin's katana is deadly, but so are the Mongols he faces. Instead of giving enemies more health and more hits needed to take down, Sucker Punch has put a major focus on blocking, parrying, and dodging for both the player and the enemies to make combat more intense and costly if the player makes the wrong move. Focusing on precision was a must for the developer, so it could ensure that the moment a player chooses to attack Jin responds in kind.
Jin also does have slower, more methodical moves that can also be cancelled mid-attack to react to the enemies movements or additional enemies on the charge. Blocking and parrying are both done using L1 with parrying being triggered by taping the button on contact. A perfect parry will leave an enemy stunned and open to attack also giving Jin the opportunity to focus on other enemies if needed.
The wait for Ghost of Tsushima is almost over, as it has gone gold, meaning it wont be long until players can make their way through the island and practice the way of the Samurai.
Ghost of Tsushima is out on July 17 on the PS4
Source: PlayStation Blog