The 2020 blockbuster, Ghost of Tsushima, combines samurai action with a healthy dose of legitimate history. While most Japanese historical games are set in either the Sengoku Era or the later Edo Era, Ghost of Tsushima defies this unspoken tradition with a story that takes much earlier during the medieval Kamakura Period, giving the game a unique aesthetic.

While not everything in Ghost of Tsushima is factually accurate - it is historical fiction after all - Sucker Punch Productions did quite a bit of homework and got some things right. It's best to look at this game as a work of fiction and a spring board to learn more about the history itself.

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Updated by Stephen Morin on 8/16/2021: Ghost of Tsushima continues to intrigue, and players have now had ample time to explore the world and see everything the game has to offer. The historical accuracies and inaccuracies are better documented than ever before. This update mostly fixed some structural issues with the original article, but there are also interesting new entries on the list for all the history lovers who can't get enough of Ghost of Tsushima.

10 The Brutality Of Komoda Beach

Ghost of Tsushima Komoda Beach Samurai Clans

Ghost of Tsushima begins on Komoda beach with Lord Shimura watching Lord Adachi (Lady Masako's father) get set on fire and beheaded by Khotun Khan. This sign of disrespect triggers the battle to start and hurls the player into the fray. After a bitter struggle, nearly all the samurai are dead.

In the real-life battle, Sukekuni (the real-life Lord Shimura) led about 80 mounted samurai to confront the Mongols. The Mongols had no desire to negotiate and launched a storm of arrows on the samurai, signifying the start of the battle. More than half of the samurai were killed, including Sukekuni. Unlike the game, however, there were other simultaneous Mongol landings on Tsushima, and the island fell within a few days.

9 The Request For Help From The Mainland

Ghost of Tsushima Setting Ships on Fire

In the Ghost of Tsushima mission "A Message In Fire" Lord Shimura and Jin send two samurai - with the help of a pirate named Goro - to Mainland Japan to spread word of the Mongol invasion. They hope the Shogun will send reinforcements to Tsushima.

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It is reported that before Sukekuni fell in battle at Komoda Beach, he sent two men to slip past the Mongol ships and sail to Dasaifu to tell the Mainland about the Mongol invasion. There was no mention of any pirate named Goro or anyone else assisting them, but it isn't impossible they found a capable boatman to ensure they arrived safely.

8 Inari Shrines

Inari Shrine cliffside Ghost of Tsushima

Players will find it impossible to forget the Inari shrines on Tsushima Island. They're prolific (maybe too prolific) and really bring the Shinto and spiritual aspects of Japanese culture to life.

It turns out that Inari shrines were built in Japan starting in the 9th century. Inari is the kami of foxes, fertility, and agriculture - among other things - and generally represents success. In both real-life and in the game, fox statues sit at the entrance of these shrines, though it is improbable that there were so many Inari shrines on Tsushima Island (Ghost of Tsushima featured 49 fox dens).

7 Gunpowder Was Used In Battle

Black Powder Bomb Menu Screen Ghost of Tsushima

Gunpowder was invented in 9th century China. After, it spread like wildfire, finding itself in different regions of the world. By the 13th century both Mongolia and the Middle East knew of it, and it's very likely that the Mongolians used gunpowder during the invasion of Japan.

In Ghost of Tsushima, it is the Mongols who originally have gun powder. Jin has to acquire it from them before he can use it to craft weapons. The Japanese never used gunpowder during the Mongol invasion of Japan. However, Sucker Punch was correct in giving it to the Mongols in the beginning of the game.

6 Tsushima Island

Looking out over a panorama of the incredibly colourful Tsushima Island in Ghost of Tsushima

The game's name comes from the island of Tsushima, which is located in the remote waters roughly halfway between the shores of Western Japan and mainland Korea. For centuries, Tsushima was the site of pirate activity, and it was a key port in a major trade network prior to the Mongol Invasion.

The island was the first point of contact during the Mongol invasion. The fleet of Mongol ships landed at Tsushima and quickly overwhelmed the initial defense of mounted Japanese troops. Setting the game here roots it in a sense of historical realism.

5 The Use of the Bow and Arrow

Ghost of Tsushima Jin Holding Bow

While Samurai and blades go together like sushi and ginger, the bow and arrow was actually the showstopper in the 13th century, not the katana (which didn't even exist yet).

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The bow and arrow plays second fiddle to the blade in Ghost of Tsushima. However, the bow is still a potent weapon, and if the player upgrades the bow and gets the mythic bows, it becomes downright deadly. The samurai of the 12th century would rather have picked people off from afar rather than swing heavy blades in close quarters. Sensei Ishikawa might actually be more emblematic of a 12th-century samurai than Jim himself.

4 The Mongol Invasion

Khotun Khan Mongol Invasion Ghost of Tsushima

The Mongol Invasion of Japan came in two waves, the first of which set sail in 1274. As was stated earlier, the Mongols first landed on Tsushima, where they clashed with a Japanese cavalry unit.

At the time, both Japanese officials and Mongol representatives misrepresented many of the details of the invasion to cover up for the shame and embarrassment of their various defeats, but also because they genuinely misunderstood one another. Piecing together the truth from the documents of the time has been the cause of heated debate among modern historians. However, the broad details of the invasion seem to be in keeping with historical events.

3 Enemies Run In Fear

Swords hurt. This might seem obvious, but there is something truly terrifying about close-quarters combat against a foe wielding a sharp blade. The psychology of combat with blades tends to frighten people more than combat with guns, despite guns being more destructive overall.

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In Ghost of Tsushima, some enemies will run away in fear, crawling in a panic across the ground as they desperately fight to stay alive. The player has a plethora of options to terrify enemies in Ghost of Tsushima - Ghost Armor and the Terror Charm, for example. Such realism and fear is rare in games, which is something Ghost of Tsushima is looking to rectify.

2 Swordsmanship

There were two primary arts of the sword in feudal Japan: kenjutsu (sword fighting) and iaijutsu (drawing a sword and killing in a single stroke). The fighting styles in the game are not a perfect representation of any single school of Japanese swordsmanship, but they do reflect how a samurai would fight against enemies, taking them down one at a time with clean killing strokes.

In Ghost of Tsushima, Jin uses four different stances, each of them strong against a specific kind of foe. It turns out that these stances do bear resemblances to real samurai stances. Despite this, they are still more akin to cinema than history. To make the stances historically accurate, everything from the position of the sword to how Jin holds it would need to be changed.

1 Religious Buildings

There are a number of shrines dotting the island of Tsushima in the game, their wooden architecture in keeping with the designs of the period. Outside these shrines stand tall wooden gates: torii.

Both Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines would have been prevalent on Tsushima. While Buddhist influence from Korea would have spread relatively quickly and were increasing in popularity during the Kamakura Period, the island is one of the sites associated with the Shinto story of the creation of Japan by the gods. Buildings seem to reflect architecture that would have existed at the time, as evidenced by the cobbled stone stairways, carved stone lanterns in front of the buildings, and high arched roofs of central buildings.

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