Two months ahead of its release, Ghost of Tsushima continues to impress whenever it shows up. With a dedicated 18 minute time slot on Sony’s most recent State of Play, Sucker Punch Productions unveiled numerous features that had never been shown to the public. Clearly stunning when it was first unveiled at E3 in 2018, the game has grown immensely. With its various approaches to combat, a vast world to explore, character growth and customization, photo mode, and display options, the game’s depth appears immense. All that being said, we can’t wait to dive into Jin Sakai’s story of vengeance. With the PlayStation 5 on the horizon, this may be the perfect sendoff for Sony’s successful platform.

Reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Red Dead Redemption 2, the open-world landscape is gorgeous. It practically begs the player to navigate far and wide, either on foot or horseback. Resource gathering is another similar trait, but it appears that we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg with it. The samurai combat doesn’t appear too different from the previous footage shown, but the ghost combat sure does. Relying on stealth and cunning, the player can evolve into the titular ghost by using the environment, ranged weapons, and items to their advantage.

It appears that you can approach battle with either option. Players will likely find it tough taking on a horde of enemies with just brute strength. With the stealth option available, they’ll be able to tackle situations more carefully. From what we’ve seen so far, enemies seem to go down in one or two hits. It’s possible that the State of Play showcases a massively upgraded build, which could explain cutting through enemies like butter. Since we haven’t seen combat with a boss level enemy, we don’t know for sure.

We do know that upgrading Jin’s skills and changing his armor and appearance will be integral to success. Certain armor sets will have unique abilities along with their unique look. The presentation didn’t mention it, but with all the different color schemes within the game, certain colored outfits could potentially act as camouflage.

It may not be my thing, but the photo mode gives players tons of options to get the perfect shot. Field of view, depth of field, color grading, emotion, wind speed, and even changing the type of particles from say bamboo leaves to different colored leaves highlight this feature. What does do a lot for me is the “Samurai Cinema” mode. As an homage to classic samurai movies, the game has a black and white mode from the very start. Given the game’s visual variety, I don’t think I would want to do this on a first playthrough. However, it does seem like it would be perfect for a second playthrough, or even during random exploration.

Like The Last of Us on PlayStation 3, Ghost of Tsushima looks primed to be the swan song of the PlayStation 4. To watch the State of Play showcase in its entirely, check it out below. Ghost of Tsushima releases exclusively for PlayStation 4 on July 17th, 2020.