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FANTASTIKA JOURNAL This issue is published by Fantastika Journal. Website registered in Edmonton, AB, Canada. All our articles are Open Access and free to access immediately from the date of publication. We do not charge our authors any fees for publication or processing, nor do we charge readers to download articles. Fantastika Journal operates under the Creative Commons Licence CC-BY-NC. This allows for the reproduction of articles for non-commercial uses, free of charge, only with the appropriate citation information. All rights belong to the author. Please direct any publication queries to [email protected] www.fantastikajournal.com Fantastika Journal • Volume 5 • Issue 1 • May 2021 “POLITICS CAN WAIT UNTIL THE KHAN IS DEAD” Review by Charlotte Gislam Ghost of Tsushima. Sucker Punch Productions, Sony Interactive Entertainment, 2020. Video Game The Mongols have invaded. Most of the samurai are dead. Jin Sakai is the last hope for the people of Tsushima, but not if he keeps to the traditional samurai ethical code. That is the situation which players of Sucker Punch Productions’ action-adventure game Ghost of Tsushima (2020) find themselves in within the first hour of play. A situation which the developers use to frame a member of the most privileged class of Japanese society as an underdog and hero of the people. On completion players will have experienced a narrative which, although enjoyable, twists constantly to maintain that framing. This process discourages players from reflecting on their avatar’s body count and powerful role within the political structure of Tsushima; those who do will discover that at every stage the narrative finds ways to condone and encourage the violence, both physical and structural, as violence is the main tool Sakai has for interacting with the world. The game structures its narrative around the real invasion of the island of Tsushima by Mongols in the thirteenth century. Within that structure Ghost of Tsushima combines Japanese history and myth to form a Fantasy version of events for players to explore. The player controls Jin Sakai, a member of the samurai ruling class and one of very few samurai who survived the game’s first set piece: the massacre of Komoda beach. The main narrative revolves around the repulsion of the Mongol invasion and the internal conflict for Sakai between his role as a samurai and the Ghost: a vigilante persona he anonymously adopts. He attempts to balance remaining true to the code of the samurai by fighting honourably while simultaneously breaking that code to become the titular Ghost by using under-handed techniques to assassinate the Mongols. The game puts this tension to the forefront of both the embedded narrative seen in cutscenes and within the game’s combat system. Players can experiment with Sakai’s combat abilities, combining pre-set techniques from his samurai background including standoffs and parries, and an expanding library of ‘Ghost weapons’ such as smoke bombs and poison darts, incorporated into his arsenal after key story missions. However, regardless of the means chosen, the result is the same, a pile of dead Mongols, an act which the game assures the player is justified. The Mongols are placed as distinctly ‘Other,’ an invading force that literally never stops. Kill or be killed; the only choice left is whether you should kill through face-to-face combat or stealthily. Beyond the internal struggle of the player’s avatar, Ghost of Tsushima explores the external struggles between the different economic classes – between the people of Tsushima, identified 199 CHARLOTTE GISLAM Fantastika Journal • Volume 5 • Issue 1 • May 2021 in the game as peasants, and the samurai. The events of the game reveal, to both the player and Sakai, a wide gap between the two classes as well as a way for the ruling class to unite the island of Tsushima under one banner. Sucker Punch Productions shows an understanding of the power dynamics at play between the samurai and the peasants, as the game convincingly shows how politics are wielded by those who are wealthy and powerful. The promise of freedom is offered to some characters for their participation in fighting the Mongols, for others their fight for equal treatment is deliberately held off until the Mongols are defeated. Outside of cutscenes and scripted dialogue the player can also enact this imbalance between samurai and the people when engaging with the system for upgrading the weapons and armour. The main ingredient needed across all upgrades are labelled ‘supplies,’ nebulous material which can be found on the corpses of enemies, around campsites, and in people’s houses. The people will band together to ‘gift’ Sakai with supplies once he has completed a set number of missions, however, the player can also enter any house and just take the supplies that they require. This action is not reacted to in any way by any mechanic in the game, which is itself a tacit acceptance of the act. Samurai can take as they see fit, and the people have no ability to defend themselves against this theft. While it is up to the player to decide if they should take these items, the item’s necessity within gameplay pushes players towards this act and as such enacting this imbalance. Ghost of Tsushima fails to capitalise on any criticism of this dynamic partially because its narrative is constrained by its violent gameplay. It is unable to visualise a world beyond the mechanics of katanas, bows, and poison darts. Instead, the continued presence of the Mongols, even after the main story has long finished, stalls any meaningful changes to the current status quo. As Sakai states during a main mission, “politics can wait until the Khan is dead”; every Mongol must be defeated and on the fictional version of the island of Tsushima they appear neverendingly. The player can take this to extremes with the 1.1 patch which enables new game +, an option for players to reset the story and begin anew but with endgame equipment and abilities. This reset holds back any possible future beyond the violence enacted throughout the game, as Jin Sakai rids the island of Mongols only to have to do it again. Politics can wait until the Khan is dead, but when the Khan can be resurrected, waiting will forever serve the powerful and be wielded against the oppressed. The Mongols are also used to frame those who stand against Sakai as either not able to prioritise the real danger or as taking advantage of the chaos. In a side mission, Sakai faces off against the spirit of Yarikawa’s vengeance, a vigilante samurai who shares many features with Sakai’s persona of the Ghost. However, the spirit’s tale of revenge is framed negatively, as distracting from the real issue, the Mongol invasion. The game presents the spirit as a foil to Sakai. Yet, the constant presence of Mongols save Sakai and the player from extended introspection of this foil. Anyone who is in the way of this goal is in some way evil or misguided. These side missions, known as tales, populate each of the game’s narrative acts. These are not required for completion of the main story and they are not time sensitive. As these tales must stand alone, they cannot make changes to any element of the main story, and they must return the character of Jin Sakai to the same emotional and moral state he was in before the tale began. This 200 CHARLOTTE GISLAM Fantastika Journal • Volume 5 • Issue 1 • May 2021 results in a multitude of vignettes which aim to establish, explore, and resolve any ideas surrounding the Mongol invasion and the people of Tsushima within a short timeframe. As these vignettes are often focused on the people of Tsushima but must not affect the emotional make-up of Jin Sakai or the structure of the main story, the stories of the people appear to be either easily resolved with a samurai in the role of judge, jury, and executioner, or end tragically. For example, “The Spirit of Yarikawa’s Vengeance” has the player following the spirit, seeing first-hand how they have enacted the people’s vendettas against: each other, the Mongols, and finally Sakai himself. When the player duels the spirit, it is made clear that many of the people of Yarikawa wish for Sakai to die. When asked who wants him killed, the spirit responds: “the peasants who bow to you, the merchants who smile as you pay them.” On completion of the duel, the tale ends and the world is returned to the state before the player started the tale. The player can read new meaning into the actions and emotions of the people around them but there is no change noticeable within the world of Tsushima. Sakai also gets the last words, ruling that: “you let rage blind you to the true enemy,” therefore reframing the duel as a misdirection of anger. Ultimately, Ghost of Tsushima wants players to enjoy enacting the role of a samurai but is aware of the imbalance of power inherent in casting the player as part of the ruling class of Tsushima. The game does not want players to feel uncomfortable with their role in the narrative and as such any moment for introspection is resolved within a tale, not acknowledged by the game’s mechanics, or reframed via the constant presence of the ‘Other’ to be defeated. Players can choose to internally interact with these themes through the knowledge they gain during play, however, the possible actions available to them is limited only to violence. Potential players should expect to be ushered along the cinematic rails of the main story, constantly encouraged to interact with the twisting narrative on offer.

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