Today’s nearly 19 minutes long State of Play from PlayStation gave developer Sucker Punch and opportunity to highlight the exploration and combat in their upcoming game, Ghost of Tsushima in which you play as Jin Sakai on his mission to protect his island from Mongol invaders. 

The full video is at the bottom of this article, but here are some key features that were shown off during the presentation.

As was somewhat rumoured, there is no typical waypoint system or mini-map in the game. Although you can select a location on a map you want to go to, you have to use gusts of wind to guide you in the direction you want to head. The game does tell you how many metres you’re away from your target though, so it doesn’t seem like it’ll be too hard to find where you need to go.

This hud-less decision also adds a lot to the presentation of the game. Ghost of Tsushima already looks absolutely beautiful and the 1274 setting during the Mongol invasion during Japan is brought to life in the game through love for samurai cinema. There’s an option to turn on the Japanese audio track from the start of the game and you can even play it in a gusty black-and-white for the ultimate Kurosawa film-like look (aka, Kurosawa mode.)

At one point early in the demo, Jin travels to a secret location. These don’t appear on your map at all. Instead, you’ll find them by heading towards things that stand out in the game like smoke or different coloured trees. A bird will appear to help guide Jin further towards a secret location. Once he arrived, Jin  was guided by a fox to an ‘Inari Shrine.’ It seems to collect several of these will unlock new charm slots. 

Charms in the game will give you new abilities or tweak Jin’s character. 

Combat in Ghost of Tsushima offers many different ways to play between an honourable samurai or the cunning and ruthless ghost. 

As a samurai, you’ll be able to ‘standoff’ with another enemy for a cinematic duel. Overall the combat is built on parrying for quick precision-based kills, not mindlessly slashing into enemies. Jin also has the ability to change combat stances with each one being better suited for dealing with certain enemy types. 

As a ghost, Jin will get access to many tools to help him lure enemies into traps for assignations including firecrackers. He can also use kunai for quick kills in a pinch.

Sucker Punch created one of the generations first great photo modes in inFamous: Second Son. Now, they’re stepping things up again with the photo mode in Ghost of Tsushima that’ll let you create videos and control the wind speed. This opens up the opportunity for some beautiful gif’s that I’m sure we’ll see all over Twitter. 

Some quick details:

• You will be able to fast travel.

• You can call your horse from anywhere it seems ala Assassins’ Creed Odyssey.

• There is crafting of some sort. Jin was shown to be picking up Bamboo and other resources.

• Collecting flowers will allow you to customize the game’s armour. 

• Armour, masks and hats in the game give you different abilities, not just a look. 

• There is some sort of skill point system for unlocking abilities.

• A character warned Jin of spirits in the forest – will there be supernatural elements to the game?