During the second half of this year, Sony is set to re-release a pair of recent classics, with bot games being packaged with a host of new additions, features, and technological upgrades. Carrying the brand new Director's Cut label, the first of these will be Sucker Punch Productions' historically themed open-world game, Ghost of Tsushima.
Releasing on both the PS5 and PS4, all signs are currently pointing to this latest version of the game being the definitive way to experience the story of samurai Jin Sakai, which focuses on his desperate struggle to purge the titular island from the invading Mongol Empire. With less than a month to go before Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut lands in stores, there are plenty of details new and returning fans should be aware of ahead of time.
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At the core of Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut, players will find the same 13th-century single player adventure that made the original game one of the PS4's defining experiences. In a lot of ways, this latest version represents the ultimate realization of Sucker Punch's vision, as it comes packaged with every piece of previously released content. Returning players who want to experience the game again in this state will be pleased to know that their saves and trophy progress can be migrated over to the newest edition. Considering how this process worked in the PS5's Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered though, owners of the new console may want to keep the old version of the game installed in preparation for a manual in-game transfer.
Being a feature-complete experience therefore ensures that Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut will be be accessible for new players who haven't played the game before. Since Sucker Punch released the game a year ago, there's been one significant addition to the experience that returning fans will want to get involved with as well. Released as a completely free expansion, Ghost of Tsushima: Legends offers a unique co-operative focused take on the island's mythological past. With the mode set to receive more free content in the coming months, the incoming Director's Cut offers the perfect opportunity for players to get up to speed in anticipation of this.
To make Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut a more mouth-watering proposition, Sucker Punch has included a brand new single player expansion within the game's 60GB install size. Set on Japan's Iki island, this DLC story can be accessed at any point after Act 2 and the Toyotama region of the main game is reached. Within the gorgeously realized new map, an additional range of new missions, enemy types, and friendly animals will await both the player and Jin. Unlike a lot of the features packed into the re-release, the expansion will be available to both PS4 and PS5 owners.
On the other hand, additions like 3D audio, framerates targeting 60 FPS, and 4K visuals will all be exclusive to the next generation version of Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut, alongside a new Japanese audio lip-sync option. As has become standard for internally developed PlayStation Studio games, PS5 owners will also feel the progressive revolution that is the DualSense's Haptic Feedback and Adaptive Triggers across all of the games modes and content. Beyond subsequently looking and feeling better to play, Sucker Punch has also promised that this version of the game will feature quicker loading times on top of all of this, which seems like a feat of wizardry considering the lightning fast speeds that were available in the initial release.
The way in which Sony has handled the price of remasters and re-releases has understandably been criticized by some fans. That's because, unlike the often free and straightforward upgrades that the likes of Microsoft have promoted, PlayStation players have routinely found themselves having to fork out extra money multiple times for first party games. Sucker Punch appear to have been conscious that this backlash was coming to an extent, and has promised that anyone who owns any version of Ghost of Tsushima will be able to download a free patch containing a host of accessibility options when the Director's Cut launches.
Existing fans that wish to experience the brand new content that Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut has to offer, though, will still need to go down one of the handful of upgrade paths that's been setup by Sony on the PlayStation Store. PlayStation 4 owners who have the digital or physical version of the original game arguably have the easiest time of things, due to the fact that they can spend $19.99 to get all of the content available to them instantly. Beyond this things become more convoluted, as to then get the PS5 version these same players must then fork over an additional $9.99. Alternatively a direct streamlined upgrade from the base PS4 game to the PS5's Director's Cut is also available at $29.99.
The disparity between the content that's available in each version of Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut has translated over into the price of the game for brand-new players as well. While PS4 owners can spend $59.99 to get that console's version of the game, next gen PS5 users need to pay an additional $10 on top of that. From Sony's perspective, the work that's gone into the inclusion of the new Iki Island and PS5 exclusive features has been enough to warrant these charges across the board. How that goes down amongst fans when the game ultimately comes out remains to be seen, however anyone who is already sold can pre-order the game digitally, or in specific retail stores, to receive access to a digital mini-soundtrack and art book.
Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut launches August 20, 2021 for PS4 and PS5.
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