Last we heard from Sucker Punch's newest action-adventure stealth game, Ghost of Tsushima, was back in E3 2018. Ever since then, its been radio silence from the first party studio from Sony, notable for their Infamous superhero series and Sly Cooper platforming series.All that changed, however, a few days ago when Ghost of Tsushima dropped a teaser during Sony's last State of Play livestream. Fans were hyped to learn that a full video was going to be revealed during The Game Awards 2019.
Did the trailer deliver? We finally have some more gameplay footage from Ghost of Tsushima, and we can finally expect what kind of game we'll be playing with.
In the trailer, we can see the protagonist, Jin Sakai, the titular Ghost of Tsushima, jumping down and assassinating enemies from the tents of Mongol Invaders. We also see him throw what is presumably gunpowder-based grenades. In one scene, we also see him downing enemies using a bow atop a sentry tower. There is also another scene where he jumps off from his horse to deliver a killing blow. Of course, what would a game based in Feudal Japan be without swordplay? We see the Ghost easily slaying down opposing Mongols with fluid motion. We can also expect one-on-one duels in the game if the blog post from Sony from 2018 still remains true.
Additionally, the game finally has a release window. While we only knew that the game was coming to PlayStation 4, we never had exact knowledge of when it was going to be released. Fellow Playstation 4 exclusives either have been released or have known release dates, and the only Ghost of Tsushima was left in limbo. We finally know that the game is dropping in Summer 2020. We don't have an exact date yet, but it aligns perfectly with Sony's strategy for the year.
With Final Fantasy VII Remake and The Last of Us 2 releasing in the first half of the year, it makes sense that Sony's saving a huge exclusive for the second half of the year. We also know that Sony is releasing the PlayStation 5 during the holidays that year, so Ghost of Tsushima is probably going to be the last PlayStation 4 exclusive. It's also been revealed that the PlayStation 5 will also be backward compatible, so Ghost of Tsushima would be playable on Sony's new console as well.
A New Swing for Sucker Punch
This is the third IP from Sucker Punch Productions, one of Sony's first-party developers and part of Sony Interactive Entertainment. The studio's first game for the PlayStation was Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus for the PlayStation 2. The made two more sequels until going silent. In 2009, they released Infamous, a heavily comic book inspired open-world RPG known for its karma system. They released two follow up sequels, one continuing the story of the first Infamous game. The other, Infamous: Second Son, was set in the same universe and was one of the first PlayStation 4 exclusives. In 2020, It will have been six years since the studio last released a game.
