Ghost of Tsushima will go down as one of the PS4’s greatest accomplishments. For that matter, it stands tall amongst Sucker Punch’s already stacked catalog, with the developer previously being known for its Infamous series amongst others.
Hopefully, this won’t be the last players see of Jin. That aside, the game isn’t all sunshine and roses. As fun as it is to play and look at, like most games, there are also some things that don’t add up. Here are some of the parts of Ghost of Tsushima that make no sense.
Updated August 18, 2021, by Thomas Heath: Ghost of Tsushima is a great game, but it has a lot of elements in both its story and gameplay that make very little sense. From Jin’s seemingly magical ability to control the island’s weather to the consistently present game feature of infinite pocket space, your adventure in Tsushima is full of these minor discrepancies. This updated list contains five more of these senseless aspects of Ghost of Tsushima, just in time for the arrival of the Director’s Cut and PS5 edition.
15 Sneaking Around In Heavy Armor
Being able to fight the Mongolian Empire as a noble samurai is great. It’s also fun to stealthily take them down like a ninja, it’s like having the best of both worlds. However, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to have Jin be quiet in the armor he’s wearing.
Some of his heavier suits would definitely make some noise. What’s more, having him swim and climb like it was nothing is also a bit unbelievable, especially with some of the more intricate pieces of armor.
14 Bizarre Day/Night Cycles
Unlike a lot of open-world games, there doesn’t seem to be any strict day/night cycle in Ghost of Tsushima. It changes depending on the area, or on missions - the weather patterns and time of day are seemingly dictated by the story.
Also, for that matter, this island has some crazy seasonal situations. In some areas, it is Fall while in other areas it seems more like Spring. Is that really what the island of Tsushima is like? For players unfamiliar with the terrain, it can make little to no sense.
13 Archer Call Outs To Nobody
It’s nice attention to detail when archers call out to their party members to duck whenever they are firing arrows. It’s also a clever way to signal to players that something bad is coming. This is true for bandits, ronin, and the Mongolians.
It is a bit funny though when they yell for the men to duck when they are the last one standing. Are they yelling at the player to duck? Giving Jin a heads up before they fire an arrow at him isn’t the best tactic.
12 Stealth With An Asterisk
A stab to the heart or a slit of the throat does not necessarily mean instant death. However, nine times out of ten those will be lethal blows in reality. The same is true for this game except with one caveat. If the player tries to assassinate a high-ranking leader, they will only do critical damage.
It doesn’t matter if the knife is dull, or fully leveled up either. This does change later in the game with full-on decapitation, which is cool, but it’s limited for a good chunk of the game.
11 Defending Missions
There are quite a few missions in Ghost of Tsushima that act like tower defense games. One example of this can involve protecting civilians from certain harm. Most of the time, these NPCs just standstill even though there is clearly a building, tree, or rock they can hide behind.
It doesn’t really make sense for most missions to have them stand out in the open when they could be easily hit by an arrow. This is a common gaming trope that Ghost of Tsushima consistently uses.
10 Who Put Up Grapple Points?
This question can come up in any game with grappling points and Ghost of Tsushima is no different. The red ribbon and rope tied around tree stumps are actually very reminiscent of the 2013 reboot of Tomb Raider.
The grappling hook is looked at like some new invention in the game which begs the question of who was using these grappling points before, and who put all of them up for Jin to use?
9 More Grappling Hook Troubles
Another aspect of the grappling hook is that the tool itself is so versatile. It should be able to grapple onto anything without the need for well-highlighted rope points. For example, there are some rock shrines in the middle of the game wherein the stairs are broken, but the wood is still there.
It would be very easy to hook onto the wood and climb up, but that would make too much sense. That is just one in many examples of ‘video game logic’ being applied in Ghost of Tsushima.
8 Flower Power
Flowers are one of the many types of currencies in the game. They can be used with certain merchants to buy vanity gear, like hats, or to dye sets of armor. Apparently, these merchants will only accept specific types of flowers with no others being accepted.
It seems silly that not all flowers are accepted when the idea is that the flowers are used for dying clothes. There are multiple fields of flowers that should work but don’t for some reason, they just don’t.
7 Feudal BFG
In the mission “A Message In Fire” Jin will take control of a hwacha. This is basically a turret filled with exploding arrows and is used to protect a ship while it gets out of a clustered harbor full of Mongolian ships.
Players will undoubtedly take down at least two big ships along with a half dozen smaller ones. The hwacha is way too overpowered to exist in this century and is one of many historical discrepancies in the game.
6 Where Does He Keep It All
Probably the most senseless part of the game is that Jin can carry a seemingly endless supply of items with him. The strangest of which is just raw iron. He is a samurai so he probably did some weight training, but this is a little too extreme.
Maybe he keeps it all on his horse, but even then there aren’t endlessly large saddlebags. That said, having no limits on storage is great for the player even if it doesn’t make sense in realistic terms.
5 Mongols Remaining In Tsushima In The Post-Game
After you finish up Ghost of Tsushima’s main storyline, which sees the Mongol’s expelled from the island alongside their leader Khotun Khan, you’d expect the Mongol presence on Tsushima to be rather lackluster. In reality, there are still Mongol’s all over the island and it’s up to Jin to take down every patrol he sees.
It makes sense that Sucker Punch wouldn’t want the island to be empty of Mongol’s gameplay-wise, but it would have been nice to see some story-based reasoning for their presence on Tsushima.
4 Enemies Ignoring Jin After He Kills Someone
Ghost of Tsushima is heavily reliant on its stealth mechanics, with Jin’s ability to blend back into the surroundings crucial to his persona as the ‘Ghost’. It’s still funny though to watch enemies become alerted after he kills one of their compatriots before quickly losing interest in the Samurai whilst his head sticks out of a patch of long grass.
Of course, like a lot of games, suspension of belief is important in Ghost of Tsushima, but sometimes things can border on the comical. The smoke bombs are a more interesting addition to this mechanic and help things make more sense but it still isn’t perfect.
3 Ryuzo Claiming He Can’t Feed His Men
Ryuzo is a great addition to Ghost of Tsushima’s cast and is a great antagonist in Jin’s journey to liberate the island. After being friendly with Jin during the game’s first act he ultimately betrays Jin, citing the fact that the Mongols promised they would help feed his starving men.
This makes little sense though, the Mongols razed Tsushima to the ground but there is still plenty of wild animals and plants Ryuzo could have collected/hunted in order to feed his men. Perhaps he just had a personal grudge with Jin and wanted an excuse?
2 Jin’s General Lack Of Urgency
Most open-world games suffer from the same issue as Ghost of Tsushima, in that story pacing is heavily affected by Jin’s numerous side missions and world exploration. During story missions, Tsushima looks to be on the verge of collapse, with the repelling of the Mongol horde being paramount.
However, in between missions Jin is off chasing foxes, riding through flowery meadows, or writing Haikus. These are all great gameplay additions, and add some much-needed rest in between the more intense parts of the game. We can’t help but wonder what the islanders are thinking as they see their hero picking flowers and following birds around whilst their villages burn.
1 Jin Controls The Weather
Ghost of Tsushima isn’t afraid to incorporate supernatural aesthetics into its story and gameplay, with the guiding winds acting as a map replacement and embodying Jin’s own father’s spirit. The flute is another one of these elements, allowing Jin to summon different forms of weather based on the tune he plays.
Something else which makes little sense, although it is pretty cool, is that the weather responds to Jin’s actions. Kills with Ghost weapons will cause the weather to become more overcast and stormy, whereas fighting in the samurai fashion will clear things up again.
NEXT: Ghost Of Tsushima: All Mythic Tales Rewards, Ranked From Worst To Best
