In yesterday’s post, I talked about how I had lost all enthusiasm for Ghost of Tsushima. There were reasons for that in the end of the second act, and I want to talk explicitly about it. This is the big warning that I am going to spoil the shit out of the end of the second act/beginning of the third act.
*SPOILERS WARNING*
So many people loved the story in the game. I was surprised because I found it so generic. Only one person said he didn’t really gel with Jin because Jin was such a blank slate (Blessing from Kinda Funny Games), and the others said he was that way beacuse you can imprint yourself on him. Which I get, but I did not find him very interesting until the end of the second act, but I really resent how I got there.
Here’s when I’m going to be more specific. I am going to go into the details of the story because I can’t get over it. Again, I know it’s just me because most people (guys) were creaming in their jeans about how great the story was. The (guys) is important because this kind of power fantasy is more appealing to men than non-men in general.
Anyway.
Back to the end of the second act. Here’s the thing. I had an ex who had a description for situations in movies in which the action seems backwards-designed. He called it, “Please move your face to hit my fist” and what he meant was that the action was written in such a way that this had to happen in order for this to happen in order to get the end result the director wanted.
I bring this up because I strongly felt this at the end of the second act. Yuna, who has had my back the whole game up to this point (but with the very clear motive of getting her brother off the island) inexplicitly says that she can’t go with me on a mission because my uncle gave her the boat she wanted to get to the mainland. She says that Ryuzo (my childhood friend turned enemy, more on that later) was my problem so she wasn’t going to help me.
I was like, “Excuse me, what?” I had helped her rescue her brother, get her revenge for her village and her friend, and now she’s doing me like this? It didn’t make any sense to who Yuna was as a person, and what’s more, I had a sinking feeling it was setting me up for something that was supposed to be Very Emotional.
I was not wrong. I got betrayed by Ryuzo and captured, along with Taka, Yuna’s brother. He idolized me and followed me to the camp (wherever I was going. I forget the details because they were so bland and generic). We’re tied up and Khotun Khan (the main baddie) unties Taka and hands him a sword.
Taka has been portrayed as not a fighter. He is a blacksmith and the one who fashioned my grappling hook (which I hate). We had to save him, and Yuna told me the sad tale of their childhood. She had always looked after him and protected him, whicgh was why she was doing everything she’s doing. This was all fine and good. This was a serviceable story, and I really liked Yuna. In fact, I liked most of the NPCs and their stories–much more than I did Jin. I didn’t dislike Jin, but he was just so forgettable (again, until the end of the second act/beginning of the third).