Ghost of Tsushima vs. Sekiro: The ultimate samurai showdown

I loved Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. It’s a brutally challenging but masterfully crafted samurai game by the team that ever made my favorite game – Dark Souls. I was willing not to dislike Tsushima despite Ghost, because I thought it would be a dumb version of Sekiro meant to please those less willing to torture almost impossible boss fights.

Now I sink in there for 30 to 40 hours Ghost of TsushimaOh, I’m ready to say I love this game too. It’s beautiful in its own way and not the Sekiro clone I expected. Yes, both have fast-paced fighting, but Ghost is an open world adventure where exciting moments of fighting are balanced by serene meadows and optional activities such as collecting flowers and composing haiku. Sekiro, on the other hand, is a tightly designed linear experience where the focus is almost always on making point A to B in one piece.

Yet both draw heavy inspiration from classic samurai movies, both feature one-on-one duels and their epic swordplay, and both are set in reimagined regions of historic Japan. I also have similar feelings of triumph when I win a tough fight in both games. So despite their differences, I beat them head to head.

Struggle

When Sekiro came out last year, it presented the best melee control system of any game I have ever played. It’s fast and brutal. Usually, in games with swords, you chip in at the health bar of each enemy bit by bit. This is an accepted convention for video games, but it does not have the same urgency of classic samurai movies where a single strike could break an opponent’s heart.

Sekiro offered sword fights that made you feel like you were fighting with a dangerous weapon. You do not chip away at a health bar, you carry off your opponents or maneuver to break through their defense. If you do, you can kill them all at once. You can even beat bosses fast if you learn how to break their defense, but the challenge comes from their ability to do the same to you.

Ghost of Tsushima returns in a traditional approach to health bars. You can break an opponent’s defense, but that only opens them up to a few strikes that jeopardize their health. And you do not even have a defensive meter, so they can not turn the tables in the same way. Fortunately, the fight in its own way is still innovative.

On harder difficulties opponents attack relentlessly and mix and match their approach with feints and unblockable attacks. You can parry and counter many of these attacks, but you’ll also need to kill and use the Ghost’s many additional tools, such as using smoke bombs to control the crowd. The mix of attacks keeps you on edge, and the most unique twist of the system comes in the form of standpoints.

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Other games, like Nioh, have used combat positions to change your attacking pattern to suit the situation. Ghost’s system is simpler and works beautifully as a result. Each of your four positions is adapted to one of the four enemy types. All your attacks are much more effective against a particular enemy if you are in the right attitude.

I actually prefer Ghost or Tsushima’s fight over Sekiro’s when it comes to dealing with crowds. You have to mix strategy and honed reflexes to stay ahead, and it’s a wonderful feeling to swing a shield, stab the carrier to death, switch positions and resist the incoming barrage, and then complete by lowering your blade to bring the attacker to cut arm. It is exciting and takes exercises to become equal, then it feels rewarding if you master it and can defeat large crowds successfully without touching.

Sekiro is a bit clunkier when dealing with crowds, but is still good. You can shoot at one enemy to focus your focus, but switching the slot to multiple opponents feels no mercy. In general, I tried to control with Sekiro crowds, so I only confronted one attacker at a time.

When you go one-on-one with an opponent, Sekiro’s combat is better, and that’s why the boss fights brilliantly. Each one is a puzzle where you have to figure out the right mix of aggression and defense that will effectively break your opponent’s defenses before taking them down. Opponents in particular have powerful moves that can do devastating damage, but each has a specific counter option so you can turn the tide to your own advantage if you read the attack well.

You also have extra tools in Sekiro, but they are more an addition to a strategy than a means to turn the tide like in Ghost. Ghost is then more flexible with combat, but Sekiro finds a lot of tactical wrapping in a simple system, and bosses keep you constantly guessing until you solve the puzzle and can resist anything they throw at you.

Ghost of Tsushima’s combat evolves with new moves and tools as you progress, but the bad guys do not change as much. The one-on-one fights are also great and suspenseful, but they start to mix similarly as the game progresses. Because Sekiro focuses on those one-on-one duels, every boss encounter is strikingly different from the last and defeats a tough opponent after multiple attempts to give an enormous sense of excitement that Ghost cannot match.

As a whole, I still prefer the fight against Sekiro, but Ghost of Tsushima comes closer than I thought it might.

Stealth and reconnaissance

Beyond combat, the games differ in style, tone and even gameplay. Do you want to ride a horse through sun-floating fields, fight enemy armies, and learn about a small group of mischievous friends in the course of various side missions? Go with Ghost of Tsushima. Do you want to navigate tightly designed levels, full of hidden keyboard shortcuts, while searching for secrets, finding your way and doing everything you can to stay alive? That’s Sekiro.

Both have simple stealth systems so you can get the drip on enemies – sometimes literally. You can climb in both games and kill your opponents from above. The open world of Ghost of Tsushima lends itself to more flexibility, but Sekiro’s levels are well made enough to approach many possibilities. Both go well from stealth to open combat if and when you are tracked down. Both stealth systems are as robust as what you would get in a stealth-oriented title like Metal Gear Solid 5, but both are functional and fun.

I will call this category a band. Ghost of Tsushima most of the time has more flexibility, but also missions with forced stealth which annoys me. Structurally, it offers the freedom of an open world, but has more bare in terms of filling in signs of time compared to Sekiro’s tight structure. Both are good examples of two different video games.

Accessibility and storybook

Ghost of Tsushima gets extra points for accessibility. Following a recent update, it has options to make subtitles easier to see, help with projectile targeting, and reduce the speed of enemy attacks. It also has four difficulty settings, and I like how it tackles the challenge with each.

Most games make enemies to damage sponges at higher settings, so it takes forever to kill them as they take blow after blow. Ghost of Tsushima does not change health. You are just as deadly at higher difficulties, but the enemies are more aggressive, they attack harder and the timing needed to counter enemy movements is stricter.

Sekiro has shamefully no explicit difficulty options. You can find some hidden items in the game to make combat more challenging, but you can make it no less punishing. I appreciate this, if it is perfectly balanced as it is and part of the experience is patiently learning what game you are trying to learn. You do not have to be a huge gamer to defeat Sekiro, you just have to be ready to learn. That said, accessibility options would have been a nice extra touch.

As for the story, I found the story in Sekiro. Other games by publisher From Software have told most stories backstage, but Sekiro has explicit beats and interesting characters. It differs to some strange territory and still takes some detective work to figure out all the nuances, but I was generally invested in the lots of the lead role.

The story in Ghost of Tsushima is one of the highlights. It has a compelling villain and interesting, flawed main characters with captivating story arcs. The story in Sekiro was competent enough to keep me involved. The story in Ghost of Tsushima was potentially enough to make me really emotional.

Declare a winner

I did not expect this to be a close fight, but I really find that both games are great. Sekiro has better combat, but Ghost of Tsushima comes close, has a better story and is more accessible. And yet Sekiro is unique. Ghost of Tsushima mixes ideas from other series such as Red Dead Redemption and Assassin’s Creed, but the combat is on its own.

Both game is perfect. I mentioned Ghost of Tsushima’s inflated side missions, plus the pacing suffers a bit in the middle of the game. Sekiro makes you look sad mini-bosses in the first few hours, which is not great. Carefully picking out the minions around the boss so you can have a head-to-head faceoff is once exciting, but a gigantic pain as the mini-boss takes several attempts to strike.

Ghost of Tsushima is the better fit for most people looking for a fun samurai game and a way to relax after work. It’s not completely original, but it’s polished and fun. I still prefer Sekiro for its excitement and unique design. If you want a challenging game that swords to the extreme shot, Sekiro is better. I also believe that years from now, because of its originality, Sekiro will remain more in my memory.

For a while, Ghost of Tsushima was what I was afraid it would be – a samurai game for the masses that will probably sell better than Sekiro. Surprisingly I like it. It’s a good own game and I’m glad I got both. I’ll still call Sekiro the winner, but the Ghost would make for a great boss fight.