By Luca Newton
To my excitement and joy, rumour has it that a new Ghost of Tsushima game is coming sooner than we expect, in the vain of Spider-Man Miles Morales and Uncharted: Lost Legacy..
Ghost of Tsushima, an open world action adventure game made by Sucker Punch, released in 2020 to critical acclaim. I personally adored the game, as it was incredibly well made with a badass story and an incredible open world. I reviewed it very recently, and it would definitely be appreciated if you would check that out. Anyways, @Shpeshal_Nick recently came out and said that Sony have reportedly got a "expandalone" type Ghost of Tsushima game in the works, for a 2021 release date, called Ghost of Ikishima.
An Expandalone Style Game
Nick used the word "expandalone" in his description of Ghost of Ikishima. But what does mean? Well, expandalone isn't a word, it's an amalgamation - however, it is directly referring to a game such as Uncharted: Lost Legacy or Spider-Man Miles Morales. It makes a lot of sense to me. Ghost of Tsushima literally only came out last year, I doubt they'd make a new game this quick, the fact that they have made a smaller game in this short amount of time, if the rumours are to be believed, is pretty good.
Some people will say this is a bad thing as it's just "glorified DLC for full price", but I personally disagree with this sentiment. Let's use Miles Morales as an example. That game released last year, and was a separate game to the OG, but much smaller in length and scale. It focused on a lower scale story that is Miles-centric to really establish him as Spider-Man for the inevitable sequel. I see a lot of people hate on it because it was so much shorter, and they thought that it was basically glorified DLC. While I can acknowledge it's much smaller than Spider-Man PS4, I still believe Miles Morales justified its own existence. While it is undeniably short, it honestly felt really compact in a good way for me. Granted, I had just played Spider-Man PS4 right before, but the smaller scale was a nice little refresher. In many ways, I think the downscaling helped the game overall. A lot of things that were filler, were taken out, quests and tracking was made even better, and even combat and stealth were improved. The game felt different to the original enough to be more than DLC, but was small in scale enough to not feel like a full sequel. I can't speak for Lost Legacy, I've never played it, but I do know that apparently it gets a whole new cast of characters, and has an almost open world area to explore - small in scale, but plenty of new improvements and additions.
Based on these previous "expandalone" games, Ghost of Ikishima will probably be much shorter than the original game, have a much smaller map, and remove some of the fat in order to streamline the overall gameplay for a shorter adventure. And it will certainly somehow look better than the first game with PS5 enhancements which, God help me I'm not ready. Ghost of Tsushima was already one of the best looking games I've seen. Could see the characters models improving perhaps.
The Ghost of... Ikishima?
Nick obviously revealed it was called Ghost of Ikishima, but what does that exactly mean? We assume that The Ghost will be Jin again, but both expandalone games starred new characters - so what if there's another Ghost? Who could they be? Why are we following their journey? I love Jin, but if they want to save his next story to the proper sequel, and focus on a brand new protagonist in Ghost of Ikishima, then bring that character in the full sequel, it would be pretty smart honestly. If it's not Jin, I expect an entirely original character as opposed to, like, Yuna or something (that would be badass though).
However, the more intriguing part is Ikishima. What is Ikishima? Well, there actually isn't a place called Ikishima, but there is the Iki island. I assume it used to be called Ikishima or something. Iki is a small island right next to Tsushima, was also invaded by Mongols. Iki fits the idea of this smaller version of Ghost of Tsushima, as Iki island is substantially smaller than Tsushima, so from a game scale standpoint, it would be a smaller area to have to make and be able to explore. But thematically and story-wise, it makes sense why you'd be on this smaller island, as Mongols did invade the smaller area. It makes for the perfect area for a shorter game that actually makes sense. I cannot wait to see how Ikishima looks.
2021 Release Date?!
One detail that was most striking, was that this Ghost of Ikishima is apparently coming out this year, 2021. We've only heard about it halfway through the year, and apparently it's releasing later this year. It's pretty cool, honestly. I suspect this leak has released now because of a Sony State of Play is imminent, to announce stuff they would have announced at an E3. I can definitely see a game like this being a big part of the State of Play. I expect a November/December release given how late this will be announce from release.
But honestly, with rumours going around that Horizon Forbidden West may be pushed back to 2022, a game like Ghost of Ikishima would be a smart bet to release and get holiday sales while letting Horizon to cook more. Ghost of Tsushima was insanely well received and sold really well, especially for a new IP. It was their best selling new IP. They even have a movie in development already. Sony would definitely Ghost of Ikishima on Miles Morales level for their holiday game. What's best is that if Horizon manages to release this year, then they'll have 2 hits in one holiday. It's honestly a win win for Sony either way.
Do you believe the rumours? Would you buy a new Ghosts game which is much smaller scale? Do you think Jin will be the main character of this specific game? What improvements could they make in gameplay?
Thanks for reading.
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