REVIEW: ‘Ghost of Tsushima: Legends’ (PS4)

Sucker Punch Productions has recently released its first major update to Ghost of Tsushima with a free multiplayer mode, Legends. Ghost of Tsushima, the base game, is an open-world action-adventure game while Legends is a 2-4 person multiplayer mode that offers nine linear story missions, three survival challenges, and the promise of a couple of raids in future updates.

The base game centers around the life of a single samurai, Jin Sakai, during the brutal Mongol invasion of his home, Tsushima. However, Legends removes itself from the main character but still resides overall in Tsushima, just with a few embellishments. In the base game, Jin earns the moniker “The Ghost” because many people believe he is the spirit of a vengeful samurai. Legends takes a very similar idea and runs with it.

In Legends, you’ll play through a series of stories featuring Japanese mythology all the while your journey is narrated by a mysterious man by the name of Gyozen. Gyozen is retelling tales of the Mongol invasion in which the spirits of fallen samurai rose up to fight both the Mongols and the Oni they brought with them. Gyozen’s tale is a supernatural exaggeration of the story of the main game. Knowing that, players take control of one of these ghosts.

There are four ghosts to choose from: a samurai, assassin, hunter, or ronin. Each has its own abilities although they all can equip the same gear. So, although each class moves the same and uses the same weapons, the few abilities you can equip are diverse enough to truly separate these classes. You’ll get a tutorial focusing on each class which is a great help given their differences between the base game and the DLC.

Beyond just the mechanical differences between the classes, they also differ aesthetically. Each has its own set of outfits and masks to unlock. All of these accessories can be unlocked by accomplishing various tasks in both story and survival mode. And, surprisingly for a free DLC, there are a lot of accessories available and most are easy to unlock.

As you play through the game, you’ll gain new gear and weapons, each of which has its own level of Ki. Ki is just a gear level system. Your character’s overall Ki is determined by the average Ki of all your gear, and this Ki is important because it increases the damage you dole out and decreases the damage done to you. On top of this, story missions and survival mode have three difficulty levels and each level requires a minimum Ki. This gear level system is very typical and nothing revolutionary. However, increasing your Ki seems to be relatively easy and doesn’t require much grinding, focusing on the fun of the game over accomplishing repetitive tasks.

Despite the class diversity, the combat often looks the same in the story missions: a lot of sneaking around, assassinating, and trying not to get spotted while hiding in the grass. The real diversity in classes expands itself in survival mode. Survival mode features 15 waves of enemies, with every 5 waves ending in a boss wave with substantially harder enemies. There are three maps in this horde mode, with three control points on each map that players will have to protect. With up to four players, survival mode is extremely fun. Each map has various elements that allow for a variety of play styles: sniper points, explosive barrels, rooftops to drop down on enemies from, and grass to hide in.

Overall, Legends is an amazing addition to the already impressive base game. For content that is completely free, Legends is surprisingly robust and isn’t trying to trick you out of your money. The supernatural elements also set up this DLC as unique and the future multi-part raids should continue to improve this multiplayer experience.

Ghost of Tsushima: Legends is available now on PS4.