Ghost of Tsushima review: How a samurai game should be

When I saw the reveal of the gameplay trailer for Ghost of Tsushima back in E3 2018 I was instantly excited to play it.

I told myself, “Finally, a good samurai game”.

Two years later, I finally played it and it’s everything that I wanted a samurai game to be. Sucker Punch, the game’s developer, has made good titles for the PlayStation franchise in the past from Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time to the Infamous series. And now, I can say that Ghost of Tsushima is the best game they ever developed so far.

Story

Ghost of Tsushima is set in 1274 the beginning of the Mongol Invasion of Japan. The story starts with a fierce battle with the samurai and Mongols. You play as Samurai Lord Jin Sakai who defends the island of Tsushima from the Mongol invaders that try to conquer Japan. Eventually, the samurai army was easily defeated by the antagonist Mongol leader Khotun Khan.

Being defeated by the Mongols with their dishonorable tactics, Jin realizes that in order to defeat the Mongol invaders, the honorable and restrictive ways of the samurai code might not be enough. As you play throughout the game, Jin Sakai addresses his inner conflict to bend his former teachings in order to save his homeland at any cost.

Voice acting and sound design

The English voice cast is great and it doesn’t feel like a cheap and funny dubbed version that we are used to in Japanese films. There is an option for Japanese language as well, but it’s a shame that the excellent Japanese audio doesn’t sync with the characters’ lip movement making the Japanese audio look like the dubbed version of the game. But it is a minor issue as it is still a good option to play the game in Japanese since it makes things authentic (especially in the black and white ‘Kurosawa Mode’ that basically looks like an old Akira Kurosawa film). Sound effects are very realistic and satisfying whenever you slay your opponents. Clashing your sword with the enemy sounds great as well.

Musical scoring is excellent and always sets you in the mood depending on each situation. The music seamlessly shifts to a calm Japanese flute or Japanese guitar during stealth gameplay to loud Japanese drums when in battle. The game makes sure that the audio always enhances a scene in whatever it is trying to portray.

Graphics

The graphics of this game just looks visually amazing from the scenic areas of the mountain tops, forest areas with leaves falling around you, and to the grass fields, everything just looks stunning. Sunsets and sunrise show a vibrant yellow/orange hue while the bright moon of the evening really sets the mood. The lighting of this game is just spot on.

Whenever I travel to different areas of the map most of the time I always travel on horseback and seldom fast travel just to admire and appreciate the graphics and taking in the beautiful world that Sucker Punch created. The heads-up display of the game is very minimal to let you appreciate the view and graphics of each location. Even the waypoint aspect of the game when your roam the open world is just a wind blowing to point to you towards the direction you should go to. This alone makes you somewhat feel like you’re in a Japanese samurai movie.

Gameplay

Let me get this out of the way — stealth combat is subpar. It is so basic that it doesn’t even allow you to hide dead bodies so that it won’t be discovered by the enemy.

It is satisfying killing an enemy silently, but the game stealth mechanics don’t help you remain hidden as long as you want to be. Fortunately, what the stealth gameplay lacks, it makes up with its excellent combat mechanics.

Kurosawa Mode

Whenever you’re battling numerous enemies, it exactly feels like you’re in a scene in a Kurosawa movie. The fighting mechanics, for me, feels like a mixture of The Witcher 3, Batman: Arkham series, and Sekiro. The combat system just feels so great and satisfying that in every encounter, I find myself wanting to face the enemy head-on since it makes me feel like a lone skillful samurai, and every enemy you defeat just makes you feel really cool.

Whenever you encounter an enemy, the game gives you an option to do a standoff with your enemy. This lets you wait for an enemy to strike first so that you can perform a swift counterattack leaving your enemy dead — all while his comrades stand in shock of what just happened. I can’t stress this enough, it really makes you feel like a BADASS.

Camera angles in every fight are great as the shot is close enough to show the skillful maneuvers that your character makes, but far enough to see every enemy surrounding you.

I did encounter some camera problems, though, especially indoors with a wall or an object blocking the view of my character, and most of the time I die because of it. This problem is frustrating especially during combat as it can get chaotic and you rely heavily on the timing of your character’s deflect, dodge, and counterattacks to get out of difficult situations.

Character progression for this game is different from the traditional level-up system. Whenever you level your character up, there is no traditional stat progression system, but instead gives you new techniques that your character learns to be more efficient and effective during combat.

For example, you can have the ability to block or deflect unblockable attacks from tougher enemies or gain the ability to deflect arrows and many more. It’s a great progression system because you’ll never have the same problems as other games of wandering into an area with higher-level enemies that will just kill you in one strike. This way you will always have a fighting chance to survive every enemy encounter.

Enemies do get tougher as well and you do have to upgrade your armor and weapons to balance things out. But the game always feels balanced no matter how strong your enemies are or how advanced your character progression is in the game. Another great ability in the character progression system is learning new stances that are individually suited to deal with every enemy weapon type.

You also have a meter called Resolve that you can use to restore Jin’s health or to use for special ability strikes.

Side quests

It’s great that the game’s side quest is never dull or never feels like a chore as it has several different types of side missions. The first is the common side quests where you help random villagers. What I like about this is that it always has different scenarios and never just doing the same tasks as other games do when they recycle side quests. In Ghost of Tsushima, every side quest is something new and never recycled.

Another type of side mission is specific missions for supporting characters. This side mission offers character development for each supporting character compelling you to complete each and every one of them so that you learn more about your supporting characters in the game. Another example of this side quest is letting you find new armor or weapons. All common side quests typically reward you with charms that you can use as a passive ability for your character.

Collectibles

For this game, all collectibles are worth securing as each type of collectible can be used to improve your character aesthetics. An example of this is singing crickets. Whenever you collect singing crickets, a melody on your flute is added. Another example is collecting flowers that will unlock hats, bandanas, or color dye for your outfits. Whenever you discover a shrine, it will unlock a slot for your charms for you to equip them.

For other video games, I don’t even bother collecting because it’s simply not my play style. But for this game, I don’t mind doing so as the game gives you good rewards and it feels satisfying exploring and collecting them.

Final Thoughts

This game isn’t perfect, but it is no doubt the best samurai game I’ve ever played. The game has fantastic cinema highs that often left me with the same emotions I feel after every samurai film I watch. This is a great tribute to the Japanese culture that the developers are clearly trying to deliver.

Sucker Punch did a great job doing the last exclusive title for the PS4 and this is easily one of my top games for the PS4’s generation. From its story, its great progression system, and down to its combat mechanics, Ghost of Tsushima is a great game to end the PS4 era.

Again, if you want to feel like an unstoppable samurai badass then you should definitely get this game.

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OPPO Watch review: A worthy contender?

01/09/2021

January is the year that a lot of us set new goals, especially concerning our own fitness. Most of us aim to be healthier than the year that has passed so we invest in things that would help achieve this goal.

If you’re on the lookout for a device to track your activities, OPPO has officially ventured into the smartwatch line of devices and introduced the OPPO Watch that runs on Android Wear.

Although with the array of smartwatches available in the market today, did the company make a worthy contender? Read our review and find out.

Design

Let’s already point out the obvious. Its square/rectangular form factor is reminiscent of the Apple Watch. This is understandable as the Cupertino-based company already made this design popular. And although I personally prefer a circular design when it comes to smartwatches, it still looks good on anyone’s wrist.

What we have here is the 41mm variant which is the only variant available in the Philippines. For other markets, a bigger 46mm model is available with LTE.

It’s got rounded corners with two physical buttons on the right. The upper button opens up the menu to introduce you to different modes and features, and also brings you back to the main screen.

The lower button with a green marking acts as quick access to your workouts by default, but you can personalize it to quickly open an app or perform certain functions in one press. This also functions as a power button when you press and hold it.

The watch case is made of aluminum alloy and is available in Black, Pink Gold, and Silver Mist. The left side is where a built-in speaker is located. This can be used for short calls or to hear its Google Assistant voice.

Meanwhile, the black strap (which is the only color available in the Philippines) is made of what the company calls fluororubber and is nice and comfortable on the wrist.

And speaking of the strap, it’s interchangeable although it’s OPPO’s proprietary design so you couldn’t simply swap it with a standard strap.

Putting the Watch on, first-time users might find it challenging as the straps don’t employ the standard clasping mechanism that we’re all familiar with.

It actually seems simpler at first because you only need to insert the nub straight into one of the strap’s holes but getting it tight around your wrist is initially harder than it looks. You get used to it over time, though.

Turn it on its belly and you’ll see its plastic bottom case with sensors for tracking heart rate. It’s not as premium-looking as the Huawei Watch GT2 Pro but it doesn’t look cheap either.

Display and features

As this is the smaller variant, the display size maxes out at 1.6 inches compared to its larger 46mm sibling with a 1.91-inch screen. Nevertheless, the display is reinforced with Corning Gorilla Glass so it should do well against hairline scratches.

I really like how its glass features curved edges which makes swiping from the sides easy and feeling natural.

It carries an AMOLED touch display that delivers vibrant colors, deep blacks, and is bright enough even when used outdoors — texts are legible and images can easily be seen. The glass is a smudge magnet but that’s kind of expected already so just be sure to give it quick wipes once in a while.

In terms of features, the OPPO Watch is equipped with NFC for mobile-wallet payments and is sealed with 3ATM water resistance. This protects the Watch from splashes of rain and the likes but not from showering or swimming.

For activities that involve going to different locations, a GPS system with A-GPS and GLONASS is readily available for more accurate tracking.

Software

Like what I’ve mentioned earlier, the OPPO Watch runs on Android Wear OS and that is a huge plus for me personally since I really find some of its functions helpful in day-to-day usage.

To pair the Watch with your phone, just download the Android Wear app. From there, you can change your watch faces, select which activity and data are easily seen with a swipe, among other personalizations

The Watch’s familiar drop-down menu also gives access to useful features like Airplane Mode, brightness, flashlight, and even Do Not Disturb.

Although for tracking your exercises and workouts, you’ll need to download a second app called HeyTap Health as OPPO struck a partnership with HeyTap, an internet services platform, to collate and sync all your activity data.

Using this app lets you further customize your watch faces like using your own photos as background and an outfit-matching feature to make your watch blend with your OOTD.

But apart from all the watch face customizations, what I appreciate most about its software and its Android Wear OS is how many tasks I can accomplish right from the watch itself.

When someone sends me a message, I can do more than just read it. I can reply from the on-screen keyboard, send voice clips as a reply, or even retweet a post — all from the watch itself.

Tracking and performance

When it comes to trackers, the OPPO Watch is armed with useful features to extract accurate data from your workouts and other activities. It comes with a 24-hour heart rate monitor and a sleep monitor, among others, while workout duration, steps taken, and calories burned are some of the standard information you could see at a glance on its display.

If you need more information, open the HeyTap Health app and it will show you details like exercise breakdown and a more comprehensive look at your daily/weekly/monthly progress so it’s especially helpful to those who are on a fitness journey. The Watch also comes with various workout modes with real-time fitness data from Google Fit.

To further help you with your fitness goals, you can opt to choose voice-guided instructions or animated routines to ensure you’re doing the exercises correctly. I found it really helpful during sets that were unfamiliar to me.

If, for example, you feel like stress is creeping up on you from work or other tasks, you could use its breathing exercise feature that guides you as you inhale and exhale some of that tension away. Meanwhile, its GPS also proved to be useful and accurate while jogging or running as it can be used to retrace your steps back if you’re in a new location or just view your entire track after a good run.

In terms of overall performance, the Watch was responsive and had no lags or hiccups during my entire time of using it. Swiping through different Tiles to check my fitness progress was snappy, replying to messages using its on-screen keyboard was hassle-free, and Google Assistant’s presence for news updates and other info have been easily integrated into my operation of the watch.

Battery

This 41mm OPPO Watch carries a 300mAh battery which is a bit smaller than the 430mAH pack that its bigger sibling is powered by. Still, it has support for Watch VOOC Flash Charging to make charging times faster than normal.

Charging is done through its included magnetic cradle and takes about an hour, give or take before it reaches its full capacity.

When you begin your morning with the Watch on, one full charge lasts an entire day’s usage until around dinner time — that’s with power-saving turned off and notifications active for multiple apps. So if you know you’re facing a long day ahead, it’s best to bring a power bank with you.

As expected, battery life gets cut down significantly when using Always On Display so if you don’t have access to wall chargers or power banks, you can activate its power-saving mode that extends its life up to 14 days according to OPPO.

What’s good, though, is that you still get access to heart rate monitoring and other trackers even with this battery-saving feature activated.

Creature Feature

In our reviews, The Modern Creatures looks for special features in devices that make them worth having — something that gives a product an edge from its peers. For the OPPO Watch, it would have to be its easy integration of other apps to maximize performance on-the-go.

I personally love that you can accomplish minimal tasks all from your wrist and without having to whip out your phone. That and its fairly affordable price tag are a good combination for users who want to experience a capable smartwatch without breaking the bank.

Pricing

The OPPO Watch is priced in the Philippines at PhP 12,990 and can be purchased both online and offline. And with a design that’s close to the Apple Watch with functions similar to it, this is easily a worthy contender and a great alternative for Android users.

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