Is Ghost of Tsushima historically accurate? We ask a samurai expert

TSA writes: "Ghost of Tsushima‘s Jin Sakai is a badass. This one-man army is single handily capable of fighting off an entire Mongol Horde in Sucker Punch’s newest PlayStation exclusive. Not since Colonel John Matrix gunned down an entire battalion of cover-hating soldiers in 1985’s Commando has one man killed so many with such effortless ease.'

[ArchangelMike]

I enjoyed the article - but I have to say that I know that Sukcer Puch actually went to Japan to Tsushima island and had consultation with actual Japanese historians and Samurai experts on what was going into the game. So yeah, not just going to throw all their research in the bin - obviously they want the game to be fun, but they did do their research.

[Nitrowolf2]

they released an official commentary with the deluxe edition. They heavily consulted with Sony Japan and even brought in expert, but obviously they have been open about this not being accurate. I mean this should be obvious right from the start considering what really happened on Tsushima.

[WelkinCole]

lol! Why I am enjoying this game kicking Mongols ass. Not being racist but if there is one empire in history I really don't like its the Mongols. Not just because of how brutal they were but because of of the knowledge we lost because of them. If people think ISIS is bad. These folks were way worse.

[Army_of_Darkness]

If I want accuracy I'll read a book about it. Not play a video game for fun and enjoyment.

[rainslacker]

It's going to be embellished for narrative effect. From what I understand, it also takes a lot of Japanese culture from different time periods and combines them into this one. The Mongolian invasion did indeed happen, but no one person, or clan, drove them off. I think the protagonist and antagonist are also fictional.

I think if they had made a more accurate recounting of those historical events, then most people wouldn't even call it a samurai game. Samurai, and even Mongolians, used different types of weapons or armor in the 13th century, and from what I understand, Samurai fought from horseback more than hand to hand on foot.

In the end, it's a piece of fiction, using commonly understood things about Samurai and Japanese culture. It isn't doing this to misrepresent them, but rather to celebrate them. It doesn't get all the finer details right, but it creates an interesting and entertaining narrative, and in this case, a game.

If we really want to get into the topic of cultural appropriation, and if these things need to be accurate, we need to also accept that the majority of popular Japanese media on these matters also greatly misrepresents the long history of Samurai, and more so Ninja, because it's either cool, or because it's more entertaining. but the core values of those things is kept in place, and general culture tends to be highly valued within their media to the point of being almost preachy. They take their history and heritage seriously, but also can appreciate the value of entertainment.

[RgR]

No game gets the finer details of any topic right. Nothing is 100% realistic and true to life in videogames. Western culture which is quite a broad statement gets so many things wrong in videogames when it goes to other countries. Not to mention all the historical inaccuracies in recent games for the sake of diversity.

[rainslacker]

Real life is often boring. Even the interesting stuff. More often than not they kind of lump all the stuff into a more concise narrative, even though a lot of things are spread out over years, or sometimes different people

[sprinterboy]

A local paper on the island wrote a article also when they were taking pictures and getting info without realising the journalist might have unintentionally leaked the game from the very beginning. The devs shit themselves when they found out but luckily nobody ever noticed

[NecrumOddBoy]

It's cool that Ghost of Tsushima is driving people to dive into Japanese history and watch Akira Kurawasa films but using this as a critical jumping-off point to talk about appropriation and the authority of devs to create games is getting old fast. I really don't remember past Assasin's Creed games getting the "is this historically accurate" criticism. But in 2020, I have seen several posts talking about how Ubi is misrepresenting the nations of that time and who the Vikings were. This is an arm of cancel culture is and it's a detriment to free expression, art, and creativity. This game is attacked for having an American dev team. Ubi also is getting trashed by some journos for using non-Hispanic V/O actors in Far Cry 6. Battlefield had its controversy of women in combat. The Witcher 3 and Kingdom Come: Deliverance were attacked for their lack of minorities but a lack of minorities would be historically accurate in that region/time period. RE5 was forced to add whites and Asians into an African tribal setting which is historically inaccurate. Hell, the Korean devs are changing the "tribal" offensiveness in Little Devil Inside after being attacked and called white supremacist. Horizon was attacked and called cultural offensive as well.

This is not a healthy ideology and I really see a little more of Orwellian destruction of our freedoms every day.

[lukasmain]

It's blatantly disgusting and should be actively repelled by creators and studios alike. Do not pander to these people. Mostly it's white people on the left that are saying these things, whereas Famitsu gave Ghost of Tsushima four perfect 10 scores. Not to mention the 'sold out' pre-orders of the physical versions from the public. They love Ghost Of Tsushima in Japan, but white leftists say it's offensive and cultural appropriation. Obviously not all leftists, but a significant portion on the left that are a screaming vocal minority and won't seem to shut up. They're power hungry with their virtue signalling. It's sick.

[franwex]

You guys have a great point! But weren’t a lot of people angry when Battlefield V added women soldiers-due to it breaking immersion because there were no women soldiers during WW2?
To the point that DICE said pretty much stated what you said: if it offends you don’t buy it?
It’s not just the left, the right gets pretty vocal about small creative stuff that they find offensive. Both groups are ultra annoying and the right can just as annoying as the left regarding creativity.

Granted Battlefield V is a trash game regardless, so no big loss there.

My stance is that game creators can create any world that they want without compromise- and should be able to without any need for pandering to sensitive people.

[jznrpg]

I don’t think it’s leftists it’s just people who hate on Sony games in general

[Silly Mammo]

Both sides have their extremes. Remind me again who was doing all the hand wringing over the inclusion of LBGQT characters in the TLou 2?

[stuna1]

Well said!

[WelkinCole]

It goes both ways unfortunately. For the majority and for personally. I really wish SJW and anti SJW can go jump and leave gaming alone. Most of us just want to play great games.

[franwex]

The anti SJW has become what they were annoyed the most by.

A bunch of overly-sensitive cry babies.

[gerbintosh]

And here we always thought the government would be the ones to censor the people. No need for them to when we do it to ourselves

[haku]

The game, outwardly declaring itself to be inspired by Kurosawa films, is clearly based more on Japanese period dramas/films (jidaigeki) than real history, and Japanese period dramas really obviously don't care about how "authentic" things are. They don't use historical stuff, they go with what's been codified in the genre of period films, mixing and matching what audiences like or are used to. There are tons of period films set in the Edo period but you'll pretty much never see any where the women have blackened teeth, history be damned, because modern audiences don't want to see that stuff. It's a stylised genre to begin with, and the so-called experts complaining about how the helmets are from the wrong era and so on are obviously missing the entire point.

[rainslacker]

Almost all representations of Samurais are from time periods later than when this game is set. Even other media which shows these older historical events, or stories that take place in those times don't usually accurately show the social make up of feudal Japan, or how it was interconnected with the varying classes of warriors or soldiers. In some ways it glorifies groups of people to almost god-like status(Ninja's in particular), to the point that many people are completely clueless on any real historical fact, or even any modern day culture that may surround it.

I don't think that's really a bad thing for entertainment though. I know for myself, because of these kinds of things, it has made me more interested in learning the real history behind it, and Japan has nothing if not a rich cultural history. They also tend to keep the core values of Japan's culture and society in tact when showing those things, and Samurai in particular were always raised on a pedestal as paragons of honor, and honor is considered a pillar of Japanese culture and society.

[TheHunter81]

There will be some accuracies but in the end this is a game and it’s called fiction.

[GrizToof]

I didn't read the article because I can tell you right now that it is not historically accurate.

[monkey602]

The comparisons can be fun to make though. There a lot of videos on YouTube where experts give the break down of inaccuracies in sword fights / stunts / shoot outs / parkour/ driving etc. You name it and a professional will give their 2 cents. Most of these have fun with that. They won't belittle the subject matter because they know its for entertainment purposes. I'll often look at the truth behind "based on a true story" and it never ruins the material.

[Vx_]

Who cares.. it’s an amazing piece of art.

[stuna1]

My thing is does it have to be completely accurate? Because if that's the case, everything we know of the world needs to be discarded.

[Final_Aeon]

What is the fascination with historical accuracy in this game? And why does it need to be pointed out when it isn't. Unless SP had said beforehand that they were going to make the most historically accurate game, then maybe I'd get it.

However, SP has made a fun gameplay experience while taking some liberties in the history department. Seems like a strange element to keep bringing up as it objectively should not impact one's experience with GoT.

[DerfDerf]

He says the Samurai used stealth but that is a direct contradiction to everything we know about Samurai and their honor.

[Kados]

Yeah, guy is a hack. The Samurai considered stealth and deception to be dishonorable. No Samurai would ever hide behind a bush or sneak up behind an opponent. Their entire system was based on open face-face combat. Not sure what back alley they found this "expert" in, but they should look harder next time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...
http://factsanddetails.com/...

[chiefJohn117]

It's a game does it really matter? If a dev want to build a game as realistic and historically accurate good for them. If they don't for story or gameplay purposes... good for them. Gamers make the biggest deal outta everything.

[Kados]

Dude has no idea what he is talking about in regards to Ninja vs Samurai.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...
http://factsanddetails.com/...

Samurai were the equivalent of Knights, they were soldiers of the emperor and were selected entirely from uppper class citizens. Ninja were selected from peasents. Most ninja weapons were actually modeled after farming tools, and their techniques, all forms of stealth included, were deemed as dishonorable by Samurai. No Samurai would ever hide behind a bush.

[Pixelift]

Who cares. It's a great game... doesn't have to be [historically accurate].

[SaveFerris]

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dcL5...

[P_Bomb]

What game is historically accurate?