Full ReleasePC · PlayStation

Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut

Sucker Punch Productions · Action, Open World, Adventure

Overview

A storm is coming. Venture into the complete Ghost of Tsushima DIRECTOR’S CUT on PC; forge your own path through this open-world action adventure and uncover its hidden wonders. Brought to you by Sucker Punch Productions, Nixxes Software and PlayStation Studios.

For the very first time on PC, play through Jin Sakai’s journey and discover the complete Ghost of Tsushima experience in this Director’s Cut.

In the late 13th century, the Mongol empire has laid waste to entire nations along their campaign to conquer the East. Tsushima Island is all that stands between mainland Japan and a massive Mongol invasion fleet led by the ruthless and cunning general, Khotun Khan.

As the island burns in the wake of the first wave of the Mongol assault, courageous samurai warrior Jin Sakai stands resolute. As one of the last surviving members of his clan, Jin is resolved to do whatever it takes, at any cost, to protect his people and reclaim his home. He must set aside the traditions that have shaped him as a warrior to forge a new path, the path of the Ghost, and wage an unconventional war for the freedom of Tsushima.

Experience Ghost of Tsushima with unlocked framerates and a variety of graphics options tailored to a wide range of hardware, ranging from high-end PCs to portable PC gaming devices.*

Get a view of even more of the action with support for Ultrawide (21:9), Super Ultrawide (32:9) and even 48:9 Triple Monitor support.*

Boost performance with upscaling and frame generation technologies like NVIDIA DLSS 3, AMD FSR 3 and Intel XeSS. NVIDIA Reflex and image quality-enhancing NVIDIA DLAA are also supported.**

Japanese lip sync – enjoy a more authentic experience with lip sync for Japanese voiceover, made possible by cinematics being rendered in real time by your PC.

Choose how you control the action: experience haptic feedback and adaptive triggers through a wired DualSense™ controller…***

…or go with mouse and keyboard, with fully customizable controls.

Haptic feedback – master your blade through the DualSense™ controller’s immersive haptic feedback.***

Adaptive triggers – enhance your accuracy with a bow using adaptive trigger resistance.***

* Compatible PC and display device required.

** Compatible PC and graphics card required.

*** Wired connection required to experience the full range of in-game controller features.

From the game's Steam store page.

THE GAMEQ VERDICT9,998 reviews analyzed

What players are actually saying

1. Summary

Hundreds of reviewers call Ghost of Tsushima one of the best games they have played. Most of the praise goes to the look of the island (raised in 55% of the longer reviews), the sword combat with its stances, parries, standoffs and duels (51%), and Jin Sakai's story of choosing between samurai honour and the Ghost's tactics. Reviewers also single out the Guiding Wind that stands in for a minimap, the music, the photo mode, and a PC version that runs well on mid-range hardware and on Steam Deck. Many of the positive reviews are a word or two of enthusiasm.

The main complaint is structure. One in five longer reviews (20%) calls the missions or side content repetitive, and players compare the map of camps, fox dens and shrines to an Ubisoft or Assassin's Creed checklist. Other complaints cover cutscenes and post-mission animations you cannot skip, a soft lock-on that picks the wrong target, crashes and a memory leak that forces restarts, and a Legends mode that needs a PlayStation Network sign-in and does not run on Linux. Iki Island divides players: some call it the emotional close to Jin's story, others the worst part of the package. English and all-language ratings agree almost exactly, so this verdict reflects Steam as a whole.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

A world players stop to photographHigh

More than half of the longer reviews (55%) talk about how the game looks. Players write about pampas fields, falling leaves, sunsets and fog ("Everywhere you go is a painting"), and about stopping mid-ride to look around; one says they used photo mode hundreds of times. Several note that the art direction carries a game first built for the PS4: a few spot plain textures up close, stiff facial animation in cutscenes, or black screens between scenes. A minority dislike the saturated colours or find the island less striking in the snowy third region.

Sword combat with stances, parries and standoffsHigh

Combat comes up in 51% of the longer reviews, mostly as the reason to keep playing. Players praise the four stances matched to enemy types, the perfect parry and dodge, the standoff that opens fights, and the one-on-one duels, which some call the best part of the game. Lethal difficulty has its own fans (named in 3% of longer reviews), who like that enemies and Jin both die in a hit or two; one wrote, "This game handles difficulty in a way I wish more games would follow." Critics of the combat point to how it holds up over time: a handful of enemy types, stances that one reviewer compares to rock-paper-scissors, and a power curve that makes Jin overwhelming by Act 2.

Jin's story of honour and survivalHigh

Most longer reviews talk about the story, and 21% use strong praise for it ("emotional", "masterpiece", "powerful"). Players connect with Jin's slide from honourable samurai to the Ghost, the conflict with Lord Shimura, and an ending that some say made them cry; Yuna, Taka, Kenji and Ishikawa's tales come up by name. A smaller group (7% of longer reviews) finds the plot predictable, generic or bland, objects that the game lectures you about honour while forcing the Ghost path, or wanted real choices beyond the final one. Those views are concentrated among the thumbs-down reviews, where 17% of longer reviews make that point.

The Guiding Wind and a clean screenMedium

The wind that points to your objective, along with foxes and golden birds that lead to points of interest, appears in 8% of the longer reviews, mostly as praise. "The Guiding Wind is such a creative response to still have map waypoints but not be glaring and in your face." A few players found the wind hard to read, wished for a minimap, or said the white petals are distracting.

Music, sound and voice actingMedium

Music and sound come up in 9% of the longer reviews, mostly as praise: the duel music, the title theme, the clang of steel, Jin's flute. Some reviewers recommend playing with Japanese audio and English subtitles for immersion, and a smaller group praises what reviewers call Kurosawa mode. A few note that the lip sync does not match the Japanese audio and that background NPC chatter goes untranslated in Japanese mode.

A PC port that runs well, Steam Deck includedMedium

Reviewers who discuss the PC version mostly praise how it runs, and a few credit Nixxes by name for the port. They mention high frame rates on mid-range cards, DLSS and frame generation, ultrawide support and short loading. "Ghost of Tsushima is the exception to this trend," one reviewer wrote of poor console ports. Steam Deck, ROG Ally and Legion Go owners report it plays well, several quoting around 40 fps on Deck: "the fact this runs perfectly on steam deck while still looking beautiful is insane to me".

Foxes, haiku, hot springs and armourMedium

Some players say small rituals give the world its character: petting foxes, composing haiku, bathing in hot springs, bowing, playing the flute to change the weather (6% of longer reviews). Armour sets with charms and dyes that show up in cutscenes are another draw (7%). The same activities turn into a chore for completionists, which feeds the repetition complaint.

Where players are split

Iki IslandMedium

Iki Island is named in 6% of the longer reviews, and opinion runs both ways. Supporters call it the most personal part of the package, digging into Jin's father and his trauma: "It digs into Jin's past and his relationship with his father in a way that feels raw and personal." They also like the animal sanctuaries, archery challenges and tougher enemies. Critics dislike the hallucination sequences, shamans that buff enemies, weapon-switching foes and the Eagle fight: "Base game is incredible, the DLC is pretentious garbage, just skip it". A handful of reviewers say the expansion opens up in the middle of the main story even though it reads as if you have finished it, and they advise waiting until the main story is done.

Legends co-op modeMedium

Legends is named in 4% of the longer reviews. Some who played it found a deeper co-op horde and raid mode than they expected: "The multiplayer gamemode is also very fun and overlooked a lot." Others could not get in. Reviewers report that it needs a PlayStation Network sign-in, that it is unavailable in some regions, that it does not run on Linux or Steam Deck ("The Legends multiplayer game-mode does not work on a Linux system"), and that matchmaking can be slow ("Requires a PSN account, multiplayer is dead"). Some Steam achievements are tied to Legends, so players who cannot reach it say they can never get 100%; about 40 reviews raise the online achievements, and a few who can play it call the Legends rank achievements a grind.

Difficulty and the power curveMedium

Players disagree about challenge. Some find combat demanding for hours and praise Hard and Lethal; others call it easy, say Jin is overpowered by Act 2, or that Hard only raises damage. Some advise starting on Hard or Lethal. Boss duels draw the opposite complaint from a smaller group, who call the Ryuzo, Shimura, tournament and Eagle fights unfair, with fast unblockable attacks and moments where the game disables your inputs.

PriceMedium

Where price comes up, reviewers who call the game worth the money ("worth every penny") outnumber those who say to buy it only on sale, and others simply mention buying it discounted. One negative review says $20 "seems more reasonable" than the full price.

StealthLow

Stealth gets mixed reviews. Some enjoy clearing camps unseen with the Ghost tools; others call it basic, with AI that forgets you in seconds ("Enemy is dumb as a rock with a 1 sec memory."), no way to move bodies, and a few story missions that force stealth on players who prefer open fights.

Keyboard and mouse controlsLow

Some play on keyboard and mouse after remapping, while others advise using a controller: "Key mapping is beyond bad but the game was clearly made for a controller only." A couple of players object to block on Q, and one controller player says the button that changes stances also picks up items.

What frustrates players

Repetitive missions and side contentMedium

This is the most common complaint: 20% of the longer reviews call the game repetitive, tedious or a chore, and it appears in 34% of the longer thumbs-down reviews. Players describe the same loop of following an NPC on horseback, tracking footprints, freeing hostages and clearing a camp of the same handful of enemy types, then doing it again in each region. "Cinematically amazing, but insanely one-dimensional." Some say the game peaks in Act 1 and drags through Acts 2 and 3, especially for anyone chasing 100%. Assassin's Creed and Ubisoft comparisons appear in 12% of longer reviews and cut both ways: some use the comparison for the checklist map, and a few call the game "what Assassin's Creed should have been". Some players who raise repetition advise following the main story and the companion tales and skipping the rest.

Cutscenes and dialogue you cannot skipMedium

About 100 reviews complain that cutscenes, dialogue and post-mission animations cannot be skipped, and the point appears in 11% of the longer thumbs-down reviews. A few add that some cutscenes only become skippable in New Game+. Players cite thanks from every rescued villager, Jin leaning on his horse after each tale, and identical duel intros. "Not being able to skip cutscenes is a huge red flag though." A few said the cutscenes alone made them avoid side content.

Crashes, a memory leak and other technical problemsMedium

Crashes or freezes come up in 95 reviews and in 7% of all thumbs-down reviews. Reports include crashes on ROG Ally handhelds, crashes after GPU driver updates, freezes in menus or the opening cutscene, and long autosave stalls. About 30 reviews describe a memory leak or stutter that builds until a restart: "Having to restart the game every 60/90 minutes of playing cause it started to stutter and textures acted weird." Smaller groups report missing or broken cutscene audio, dark interiors and black crush in HDR, and input lag. A few reviewers say they changed their review to positive once later fixes stopped the crashes or stutter.

Camera and soft lock-on in group fightsLow

A small group says the automatic targeting swings at the wrong enemy or at nothing, and that the camera loses track of attackers when several close in or when fighting near a wall: "the targeting system is sometimes very awful". A few mention a lock-on option in the settings: one says it only locks the camera, and others say keyboard and mouse players have no target lock at all.

A beautiful but static worldLow

A smaller group finds the island empty between its points of interest, with NPCs who only talk about the Mongols and villages that look the same after you liberate them: "The world feels incredibly static and empty." One adds that a region still looks occupied, with Mongol ships offshore, after the story ends.

Small irritantsLow

Players also mention the stance tip that pauses the game and cannot be turned off ("My only complaint is the stance popup if you dont switch. It will literally pause the game and make you switch."), autosaves overwriting manual progress before duels, fade-to-black transitions, and the unrealistic fall damage.

3. The player conversation

The conversation is overwhelmingly warm, and most of the volume is short: "peak", "absolute cinema", "you can pet the fox". Nearly all of it was written from late November 2025 onward. Some reviewers mention picking the game up in a sale, and some are PS4 or PS5 owners who played it there first and bought it again on PC. Weekly approval stayed between 90% and 99% every week from late November 2025 through autumn 2026. The few reviews kept from the May 2024 launch weeks were cooler (75% positive in launch week) and more about crashes and account requirements.

What reviewers write about shifts with how far they got. Crash reports and talk of refunds are most frequent among reviewers with under 5 hours, while calling the game boring or generic turns up at about the same rate at every playtime. Shimura, Act 3 and Iki Island are raised almost entirely by reviewers past 20 hours, and fox dens, shrines, collectibles and the Legends achievements mostly by those past 50 hours. Steam Deck owners mostly report good performance, and the few handheld crash reports come from ROG Ally and Legion Go owners. Some recommenders add two tips: buy it on sale, and do not try to clear every icon.

4. What the developers could do

Vary and trim the side content. Repetition is the most common complaint, with players naming the follow-the-NPC tales, footprint tracking and identical camp clears as the reason Acts 2 and 3 dragged.
Allow skipping cutscenes, dialogue and post-mission animations on a first playthrough. About 100 reviews complain about unskippable scenes, and a few note that New Game+ already lets you skip some of them.
Fix the memory leak and the remaining crashes. Reviewers describe restarting every hour or so to clear stutter, plus crashes on ROG Ally handhelds and after driver updates.
Open Legends to more players or separate its achievements. Players blocked by the PSN sign-in, regional availability or Linux and Steam Deck say they cannot use the mode and so can never reach 100%.
Add a hard lock-on and improve the camera in group fights. A small group describes losing fights to swings at the wrong target and attackers off screen, and a few say the lock-on option in the settings only locks the camera or is missing on keyboard and mouse.
Ship better default keyboard and mouse bindings. Some players remap the controls and others advise a controller, with block on Q among the bindings they object to.
Tell players to finish the main story before Iki Island, and let them mute tutorial tips. A handful of reviewers say the expansion opens mid-game but plays as if the story is finished, and others want to turn off the stance pop-up that pauses combat.