It's safe to say we adore Ghost of Tsushima. In our 9/10 review, we called it "one of the greatest open world games of the generation", and we stick by that statement having spent over 60 hours with the release. But playing any game for that amount of time reveals flaws, and makes you consider ways in which the experience could be even better.
With that in mind, here are seven enhancements that we'd love to see added to Ghost of Tsushima through future updates.
1. New Game +
Easily the Ghost of Tsushima community's most requested feature, New Game + would allow players to slice their way through the story all over again, but with all of their skills and equipment from their previous playthrough intact.
Being an open world title with fairly light RPG elements, Ghost of Tsushima is practically begging for this mode. By the end of the game, you've unlocked so many cool outfits and abilities -- but you barely get to use them. Once the main story's finished and you've checked off every side quest, there's little reason to keep playing -- unless you're happy to just wander the map slaughtering random Mongol patrols.
New Game + would be the perfect excuse to come back to Ghost of Tsushima time and time again -- especially if gameplay could be rebalanced to reflect your progress. Jin's practically a one-man army by the time the credits roll, so it would be nice to see the game's most powerful enemies show up from the start of a New Game + run. Ideally, bosses would have a maximised health bar as well, so you're not tearing through your opponents in just a couple of attacks with your fully upgraded katana.
Perhaps New Game + could offer upgrades of its own. Additional armour enhancements, or a selection of new perks to purchase, expanding Jin's legend even further. The bottom line is that we'd love to play through Ghost of Tsushima again -- and New Game + would be the perfect way to do it.
2. Equipment Loadouts
Another popular request, equipment loadouts would let you change Jin's armour and charms without having to dig through menus and swap everything out. Just exploring the world, trying to track down some collectables? Simply switch to your Traveller's Attire loadout. About to get into a deadly duel with a murderous ronin? Quickly change into your Samurai Clan Armour, complete with your best defensive charms.
Being able to save a specific loadout for each situation would be a huge help.
3. A Way to Disable 'Ghost Weather'
As you progress towards the last third of Jin's adventure, you may notice the weather becoming more and more stormy. By the end of the game, it can feel like Tsushima's cursed with constant thunderstorms -- and this is by design. As Jin comes to embrace his reputation as the 'Ghost', the game's weather systems begin to reflect his actions. Storms start to break out whenever you enter combat, and a foreboding grey sky keeps the game's glorious sun rays at bay.
On paper it's a cool concept, but in practice, it gets old fast. Thunderstorms are meant to be dramatic, but if you're being bombarded with crackling lightning every 20 seconds, they lose all impact. It gets to a point where the thunderstorm's sound effects are an annoyance, and you find yourself playing Jin's flute to clear the skies after every battle. The nice weather doesn't last, however -- the storms always come back eventually.
Ghost of Tsushima is a gorgeous game, and its lovingly crafted weather effects have a lot to do with how good the world looks. But with these constant thunderstorms, it loses so much of its charm. Again, tying the weather to Jin's increasingly dark actions is a cool concept, but we'd love to be able to disable 'Ghost Weather' so that we can go back to enjoying the often calming atmosphere of Tsushima.
4. A Way to Replay Quests and Duels
Ghost of Tsushima has some amazing moments peppered throughout its story. It's got loads of fantastic quests and intense duels -- but right now, there's no way to experience them again without having to start a new game. An aforementioned New Game + mode would solve this problem to some degree -- but a quick and easy replay option would be much appreciated.
We're not sure how Sucker Punch could implement this -- maybe Jin could reminisce about the past while bathing at a hot spring -- but the game's super fast load times should make for relatively painless transitions.
5. Some Kind of Arena or Horde Mode
Ghost of Tsushima's got a really great combat system, and so we'd love to put our skills to the test against waves of enemies. Now, we're not saying that we want battles of Dynasty Warriors proportions, but it would be cool to have specific combat arenas where Jin could take on various challenges. Even something like the Bloody Palace from Devil May Cry would be an amazing addition.
6. A Playtime Counter
This one's as straightforward as it gets. Why doesn't Ghost of Tsushima track your playtime? Even on the save data screen, there's no indication of how long you've spent liberating the island. This is easily the most basic request on this list, but it's still something we'd love to see.
7. Gameplay Stats
Building on our last point, we think that a statistics screen would be a fantastic addition. It could track how many Mongols we've killed. How many perfect parries we've performed. How many times we've unceremoniously fallen to our deaths. How many times we've forced our poor horse over a cliff. How many hours we've spent pissing about in photo mode. All that good stuff.
And that's just about it for our own suggestions, but what about you? What would you like to see added to Ghost of Tsushima in future updates? Vote in our poll, and then hope that Sucker Punch is reading the comments section below.
Comments 48
The lack of equipment and cosmetic loadouts is a glaring oversight. And I really hate that it auto-equips any armor you're upgrading.
And, yeah, replayable duels and a way to change the time of day and weather more extensively would be great.
If you're not including a playtime tracker in your game in the year 2020, are you even really a game?
⚔️ 57.5 million duels
🦊 8.8 million foxes petted
🐎 810 years on horseback
📸 15.5 million photos taken
They obviously have the ability to track stats...they just need to open it up to the individual.
I want NG+ and a playtime tracker. But along with NG+, I'd like to be able to enable charms that give some unrealistic bonuses too. Unlimited arrows and throwing blades for example. Let the second time through be just for fun.
@b1ackjack This is my most-wanted feature for PS5 — system-level playtime tracking.
@LiamCroft I totally agree. I want the PS5 to keep track of everything that I do on the console, and for how long. We know that they collect that data anyways, why not let us have it too?
I would love the load out option that would definitely enhance the experience for me but I would also quite like the horde type mode!
@LiamCroft @Unlucky13 - Also agreed; would be nice to get an accurate idea of how long I've been playing certain games.
As for the poll, outside the top two, all of the options sound at least somewhat useful. Being able to re-play duels and quests along with a horde/arena mode sound preferable to a NG+ mode imo, and being able to revert back to regular weather also sounds like a good thing to be able to do. And stats are always nice to have around.
It’s a tough choice but I selected equipment load outs. I’m only about 1/3 of the way through so that would be of more use than new game+ at this time. I’d love for everyone if these to be added at some point in the near future though.
@FullMetalWesker even the Switch keeps track of game time played.
I want playtime counter most, and I want to play the flute without changing the weather, it's just nice to stroll around a beatiful place slowly while playing the flute 😃
New game+ that's balanced for fully upgraded jin also good, and I want travellers attire bonus automatically given to jin in new game+ without having to worn the cloth, or just give it to new charm or something. I want to get all the collectible but I want to change my attire too.
Building on the replaying duels, how about a boss rush mode with limited healing and getting new armour as rewards?
Two “X things” articles in one afternoon! I see this has become a trend on the internet and honestly don’t see why.
Whenever I see a video titled “X things you didn’t know about...” on other sites, I tend to avoid them. Having a list of numbers/points in an article or video is fine, but telling me how lengthy the list is in the title is in no way a draw.
Perhaps I’m missing something?
To add a topic relevant comment - definitely loadouts. I always switch armour and gear depending on any given scenario, but clearly the menu system wasn’t designed with instant switching in mind.
Ideally the ability to switch loadouts should be done in-game and not in a menu, but there doesn’t seem like there are many options in terms of button combinations left. Photo mode could be switched to L3+R3, but this mode is proving too popular and it’s unlikely that easier access to it would be removed.
Incidentally, using the back button attachment to pull up photo mode in GoT is very handy indeed.
Grapple hook is poorly utilized, and feels far to rigid in use.
Unless the NG+ mode offers a reason beyond replaying the game with everything unlocked i don't really care for it, a big reason for doing most things outside of advancing the story is the rewards so if everything is unlocked why bother doing any of the side stuff again?
Mongols retaking outposts would be fun. I miss those.
I really like all of these!
I'd also like for them to add some kind of prompt to tell the yellow songbirds to leave Jin alone, or if that's not possible, at least an option to turn them off completely. It is extremely annoying when they show up in the middle of a quest/mission and keep circling and chirping at Jin, and you either can't or don't want to leave the quest/mission to follow them...even more so now that I'm on my second time playing through the game and don't really need their help finding anything (I hate saying it, but there have been times it's gotten so bad I've checked to see if you can shoot them with the bow).
@DavLFC I was actually extremely comfortable with it immediately. Its not exactly like the ones in Uncharted, but its very close. Having played AC and Uncharted for the past 13 years, it was super easy to step into this one and just go. Felt very natural.
Can someone explain what you mean by loadouts? I've been playing games a long time, but I've never encountered the team before. Going into the menu and switching seems really easy to me. What would be the process otherwise?
A deadzone slider for the sticks. This game is wreaking havoc with my aging dual shock yet I have no issues with any other games. Does nobody else have the same issue with Jin jerking about like a junkie? There are a number of posts about this on Reddit and gamefaqs yet everywhere else seems to be totally ignorant to it. I was going to buy a new controller until I saw that it's actually quite a wide spread issue.
@Unlucky13 Loadouts is a term used for quick access to a specific set of equipment. So in Ghost, you could make a 'stealth' loadout, which consists of your best stealthy armour and a bunch of charms that give you stealth boosts. And the idea is that you can swap to this 'loadout' with just a couple of button presses, rather than having to go into a menu and equip everything manually.
And if you could save a number of different loadouts for different situations, it would mean having quick and easy access to your desired equipment. It's pretty much a quality of life improvement.
I would like an option to play the duels whenever I want and I would be happy with at least some of the unnamed Mongol camps respawning from time to time with Mongols to clear out again. It would follow with the story but not cancel any of the rescued villages. Maybe after saving a npc captured by a Mongol patrol they could also say "hey, have you heard? There's Mongols at a camp near blah blah blah." Not sure if that can be done though, I can't even program my coffee maker.
Love this game though. 100%'d a few days ago and just finished grinding out flowers to get the last of the merchant gear. which I don't normally do with a game. Its the game I didn't know I've been waiting my whole life to play
As others have said a loadout swap would be welcome, even if it had to be a menu page where you could store a bunch of saved custom loadouts. Beside that I'd really like a FOV slider.
I'd like some post-game things to be added. When I finished it I'd already liberated the whole island and done all side content. It'd be cool if there were random events that could happen for you to deal with. Also if you could find your friends like Yuna or Ishikawa in the world and they could accompany you as you deal with those events or fight random enemies.
Also, while Ghost behaviour does make storms more likely, the weather also gets almost always stormy anyway because narratively, and historically accurately, there's a massive storm coming that wiped out the Mongol fleet IRL - and the exact same thing happened a few years later when the Mongols tried to invade again. 🤣
All I want is the ability to skip pre/after scene fluff. I've wasted hours of my life waiting to walk again, or stand up, or quit drinking, or for a duel to start, or for text to leave. I love this game enough to work towards platinuming it, but it does not respect the players time at all.
I just want extra content. I am literally doing everything because I do not want this game to end.
Thankfully I have a few AAA open world game on the horizon. Because this really has made me want to keep playing more. I totally loose track of time in the world.
@Dubbicakes - Pretty much all those things are hidden load screens. If you think this game has no respect for your time then God forbid you ever play one of the many games with horrible drop tables and RNG in the point zero percentages. Play something like Ni No Kuni, a Yakuza game or Destiny 2 and you'll see just what a game with no respect for your time looks like.
I totally want a New Game Plus mode, but the idea of having higher-leveled, damage-spongier enemies sounds terrible to me, and I would reject that. What's the point of upgrading my weapons, unlocking powerful skills, and getting great charms if I'm just gonna be weaker to new enemies in the next playthrough? I play New Game Plus modes to feel ultra-powerful against enemies. Otherwise, what's the point?
Dont care either way. I platted it. I am done.
Armor swap on the fly would have been very handy though
@Unlucky13 well, it means that you save a bunch of presets, like ghost armour and straw hat, and they're saved as a loadout, and you can just select it without waiting to put the ghost armour and straw hat each and every time
@ShogunRok I guess I get that. I would just never have any use for it myself. I finished Tsushima yesterday, having taken my time, gotten nearly every item, and completed nearly every task possible. But I still only really changed armor when I was in the Ghost set and was going into either a duel or big battle, where I'd put the Sakai armor back on. Early on, once I got the Samauri set, I just wore it all the time.
@Unlucky13 I was pretty much the same. I never really found myself swapping armours on constant basis — I'd just wear whatever I liked best for long periods. But it's clearly a popular request, so...
Huh, there already is an option to change the weather in the game. I don't know why we'd need a second method.
A playtime counter should be a system wide feature, like Nintendo does. It's such a small thing, but I personally care so much for it. Hopefully PS5 has it from the very beginning
I would much rather see dlc and content added to Jin’s story vs just doing it all over again in ng+
@Tulio517 Does Nintendo keep track of the total time that you've played on a game, across all save files? That would be so awesome. I'd love to see my list on the PS4.
@sprybry Typically, I wait for both before I do a second playthrough. That's the most satisfying way for me.
@Shigurui I do play all those games and enjoy them very much, Yakuza especially. I'd rather look at a loading screens that specifically tell me when I can play than to be forced to watch Jin feed his horse for 20 seconds wondering when my PS4 will catch up to let me start playing again. =]
Also, RNG systems are directly disrespectful to player time for longevity and not simply failing to respect a players time with fluff. There's a big difference in the two.
@Dubbicakes - If you play them then you'll know how things like the Cat Scratch Fever trophy in Yakuza 0 is an absolute piss take for wasting your time or how you can rattle through NNK in about 40 hours but if you want that platinum then be prepared to double that while you do nothing but grind out 1000's of battles hoping that you get a capture with incredibly low success rates.
Those things are an absolute middle finger to respecting the players time. A few hidden loading screens are not.
I would like to see temporary weapon honing for fully upgraded katana and bow, perhaps a 10% damage boost that lasts for 7 game days. I have had no use for the resources collected since the middle of act 2.
I also think that outposts being recaptured by Mongols would really help to give the game longevity. For me new game+ would only be useful for playing the harder difficulties as you can get every perk in one play through, so you would have zero progression with new game+.
Female skins
Like how Shadow of Mordor/War or Nioh 1/2 did them
Conversation skip.
Armour equipment etc load outs.
Just a touch of a button in game to swap Would keep you in the game action far better.
I would love the NG+ for sure and I want a way to replay some missions. And for sure the Yarikawa siege because that mission was the best for me. As for the playtime tracker, sony at the end of the year shows how much time have we spent at ps4 and what games we played, so I think that if they put it inside the console, or to our mobile ups, it would be awsome.
@ShogunRok All good suggestions, but will you let Suckerpunsh know? Or do you know they read this article?😊
Before anything else, there's this bug that really really annoyed me: the difference in highs that would make impossible to hit or get hit..
Anyway, since I can only choose one, I would go to New game+.
I've platinum the game and I still have it installed because I'm waiting for more content.. doesn't happen often.. The combat can be so addictive.. damn.
But a horde mode, new gear and a utlra realistic difficulty would be great. Like lethal but more hardcore. But with a few less enemies in some areas, other wise i think it would be really to hard to be fun.
@gamer_since_83 We just have to hope that someone from Sucker Punch has given it a read!
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