Ghost of Tsushima gets an expansion and a Director's Cut

Both available for PS4 and PS5 next month, new content and functionality included

It’s not often that Sony games get special editions for two different PlayStation generations, so Ghost of Tsushima is something of an exception. (Image: Sony)

Rumors have been flying around for a few weeks now, but Sony finally made it official: one of 2020's best video games regardless of format, Ghost of Tsushima, is getting a generous content expansion and a "Director's Cut" edition. The Japanese company has offered extra downloadable content for hit games in the past (Horizon and Spider-man spring to mind) but this being a production that was released between two different PlayStation generations makes things somewhat... complicated.

So first things first: the stand-alone expansion (which upgrades the standard PS4 version to the Director's Cut version) costs €19.99 and will be available on August 20th. It includes a whole new island to discover and explore, Iki: a smaller island near Tsushima to which the protagonist, Jin, travels in order to investigate rumors of a Mongol presence. Soon enough Jin "finds himself caught up in events with deeply personal stakes that will force him to relive some traumatic moments from his past". The Iki Island expansion offers a whole new story and new characters, brand new environments to explore, new armor for Jin as well as his horse, new mini-games, new techniques, new enemy types, new animals to pet and more. The Director’s Cut upgrade offers new Trophies to unlock based on this new Iki island content.

The Iki island is close to Tsushima but decidedly smaller, as is the scope of the Director’s Cut extra content compared to the original’s. (Image: Sony)

Worth mentioning is the fact that this is playable on the PS5 via backward compatibility, but it is still the PS4 version offered today. For gamers that do not have a PS5 yet, buying the Iki Island expansion will make them eligible to upgrade to the PS5 version of Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut at any point in the future for €9.99. For people owning a PS5, furthermore, Sony also offers the option of upgrading directly from the standard PS4 version of the game to the PS5 version of Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut for €29.99.

So what does the PS5 version of Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut offer exactly? As it turns out... a lot: it properly takes advantage of the haptic feedback and adaptive triggers of the DualSense controller, it makes use of the PS5's fast SSD storage for drastically improved load times, it offers enhancements to 3D audio as well as new graphics options including dynamic 4K resolution and framerates targeting 60 FPS. The PS5 version of Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut also offers proper lip-syncing in the Japanese language because Sony's new system renders cinematics in real-time.

The PlayStation5 version of Ghosts of Tsushima offers a number of technical improvements over the PS4 version but it is not rebuilt from the ground up as e.g. Demon’s Souls was back in November. (Image: Sony)

Sucker Punch, the game's development team, confirms that gamers playing Ghost of Tsushima on the PS4 will be able to transfer their progress to the PS5 in order to pick up where they left off. For new players, the new Iki Island content will be available beginning in Act 2 of Ghost of Tsushima (after they've made their way to the Toyotama region). Apart from the new Iki Island content and the PS5-specific enhancements, all players will be receiving a new patch near or on the game's Director's Cut release day that adds features and options suggested by the Ghost of Tsushima community.

On August 20th Sony will also be releasing stand-alone versions of Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut edition for the PS4 and the PS5. These contain everything mentioned earlier plus the Legends online mode (this will be expanded too), a number of in-game items, a downloadable digital art book and a director's commentary, for €59.99 and €69.99 respectively. Both editions will be available at the PlayStation Store as well as in physical disc form. Sucker Punch promised to offer a few more details about the Iki Island content and a new Ghost of Tsushima Legends game mode closer to release.

Ghost of Tsushima could definitely evolve into a franchise during the PlayStation5 era and Sony may be planning to do just that. (Image: Sony)

Needless to say that, by promoting this new Director's Cut version, Sony probably expects Ghost of Tsushima to surpass 10 million copies sold in the long term (it stands at about 7 million now). This game certainly deserves it: its action sequences and control are among the best in the genre, while its art direction has to be experienced no matter what type of games anyone usually plays. It's definitely the kind of material that can grow to become a successful series of titles on the PlayStation5 and Sony knows it. An enhanced cross-gen title to lead the way for a true PS5-exclusive production at some point, then? It certainly looks like it!


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