Highlights

  • Ghost of Tsushima's stealth gameplay allows players to be a samurai Batman, using unconventional ways to silently navigate enemies and wearing a mask to conceal Jin's identity.
  • The Ghost persona in Ghost of Tsushima is comparable to Batman, as both characters operate outside the law to protect their people, and this samurai Batman concept should be emphasized in a potential sequel.

Approaching an overrun settlement in Ghost of Tsushima with players’ swords drawn, ready to cut through multiple Mongols before taking them all on in an offensive assault, is an unmatched experience. There’s something exhilarating about taking this strategy, which is what Jin Sakai is supposedly meant to do rather than take a silent approach, though players would be missing out on a huge portion of gameplay if they only ever confronted enemies this way. Brandishing Jin’s tanto and sticky bombs instead gives players a variety of options in stealth encounters, and it’s here where Ghost of Tsushima’s mechanical diversity truly shines.

Most of all, the neat part of Ghost of Tsushima’s stealth that sets it apart from common stealth tropes is that it lets Jin seem like a samurai Batman of sorts. He takes to the shadows of nighttime, finding unconventional ways to traverse silently around enemies, and wears a mask to conceal his identity. The Ghost persona is also an intentional symbol like Batman’s, and though Batman doesn’t kill he still operates as a vigilante who does what he believes the authorities can’t or won’t in order to protect their people. In this way, Jin Sakai’s Ghost is remarkably comparable to Bruce Wayne’s Batman, and that should be accentuated more in Ghost of Tsushima 2 due to how well-executed of a premise it is in Sucker Punch’s open-world epic.

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Ghost of Tsushima 2 Should Let Jin Sakai Go Full Ghost

Ghost of Tsushima Mimicked Batman’s Persona in a Feudal Japan Setting

Batman didn’t invent stealth from the shadows, to be fair, but the events that catalyze Jin’s actions are certainly reminiscent of Batman. Batman may not typically wield a katana, but tip-toeing across rooftops and silently taking out enemies while under the shadowy guise of a symbol greater than himself is certainly something Ghost of Tsushima’s Jin Sakai can relate to.

The Ghost becomes what Jin couldn’t and accomplishes what he can’t, though Jin and the Ghost are mutually exclusive without Jin ever feeling as though he’s splitting himself down the center to do what he believes is necessary. Unlike Bruce Wayne, who normally needs to keep up appearances and live a double life, Jin’s double life is only apparent when he’s in the company of his uncle, Lord Shimura, and even he learns of Jin’s persona fairly quickly.

Either way, it’s still a neat hook for Ghost of Tsushima to blend the honorable dueling combat of a noble samurai with the dishonorable cunning of a predatory shinobi. Jin’s not afraid to use whatever means to eliminate his foes, and even though he kills to defend his homeland there are still many interesting visual parallels between the Ghost and Batman that are unmistakable.

Ghost of Tsushima even goes as far as to have a stealth mechanic where players can descend upon unsuspecting enemies and cut them down in rapid succession, not unlike Batman’s multi-enemy fear takedowns in Arkham Knight .

Ghost of Tsushima 2 May Have No Further Need for the Ghost

The only reason Jin donned a mask in the first place was to hide his identity from Lord Shimura. Indeed, Shimura will likely be actively pursuing Jin in Ghost of Tsushima 2, but there hardly seems like any reason necessary for Jin to maintain the Ghost persona now that he is fully aware of Jin’s actions. Of course, he could continue to be the Ghost for posterity’s sake and to perpetuate the legend if it was effective in warding off invaders or rekindling hope in Tsushima’s residents.

The Ghost never truly played a paramount role in gameplay because players could decide how they wanted to encounter enemies on their own beyond scripted quests, but Ghost of Tsushima 2 could make the Ghost an even more fearsome legend with quiet assassinations within smoke pellet plumes and a lot more nightly patrols in the same vein as Batman scouring Gotham City for ne’er-do-wells. Still, leaning into samurai Batman undertones shouldn’t stop Jin from relaxing in a hot spring now and then.