Jin Sakai: The Willingness to Adapt
I had been anticipating the release of Ghost of Tsushima since watching the trailers for it in 2018. It made its debut Friday (finally) after dates being pushed back to rumors of possibly cancelling the project.
I watched the gameplay recently, and I’m the type of person where regardless of what medium it is, be it books, movies, TV or even watching video gameplay, I usually get a particular message or moral to the story out of it at some point, and this game was no different.
Early on, after losing most of his clan in a war with the Mongols, Jin makes an unlikely partnership with Yuna, who he shortly identifies as a thief, judging from her methods of doing things. It’s at this point where the message jumped out at me, and it reminded of one of the things Bruce Lee talked about in his philosophy: the willingness to adapt.
Jin, a samurai, follows a strict code as samurais typically do, whereas Yuna, although I don’t think she was actually a ninja, had a more stealthy, unconventional, improvisational way of getting things done, similar to a ninja, which is the total opposite of the samurai code.
As the game goes on, in order to save his uncle Shimura — the only family he has he left — from imprisonment of the Mongol tyrant Khotun Khan, he had to “break” his traditional samurai code and resort to stealth tactics. It wasn’t easy, and he knew his uncle would be disappointed, but he had to make adjustments in order to accomplish the mission.
It reminded me of how things are in life, in general. Codes, rules and guidelines have their place and usefulness, make no mistake, but sometimes that isn’t all there is to it, and there are times we have to be willing to adapt in order to get things done. Sometimes being too adherent to a code or rules or “sticking to script” can hurt you, especially when you see it’s not working.
This leads me to Jin’s uncle, Shimura. He was so stuck on abiding by the samurai code — as Jin himself said to him in the end, he was “a slave to it” — that he was willing to kill his own nephew to uphold some code, mind you, this is the same person who risked everything to save his life, and all he’s worried about is some darn code. This is what happens when you allow yourself to be boxed in by rigid, strict codes and rules. It reminds me of the dangers of being stuck in your ways.
Now, in the game, there’s an option where you can kill or spare his uncle. After the sacrifices Jin made to save his life, and that’s the thanks he gets? Personally, if I’m in that position, I would’ve killed that bastard, but again, the options are there.
Another thing I got out of it was sometimes when you set out to accomplish goals, your biggest detractors will be the people closest to you. Despite the fact that Jin put everything on the line to save his life, he still had a problem with Jin’s methods of doing it, and wanted to kill him for it. He stated it was the shogun’s order to disband the clans and remove Jin from the samurai sect, claiming that the motive for killing him was his (Shimura’s) punishment from the shogun, and not revenge.
He could’ve let Jin walk, never to be heard from again, but he was so married to a code that he was willing to take out (or at least attempt to) a person who he viewed as a son.
Let me say this right quick: I’m not talking about a situation where you’re being asked to do something degrading. I’m talking about adaptability, not compromising your integrity.
Anyway, while I’m here, I mind as well give a quick review of the gameplay. To me, it was as good as advertised two years ago. The graphics is excellent; the overall gameplay is very good, along with a great story. If there’s anything I didn’t like about it, I guess it would be that was too long, but that’s not enough to warrant reducing my rating for it.
I don’t give too many things 5 stars, but this game is as good as advertised and well worth the wait. If the reports are true, I’m glad they didn’t follow through canceling the project. It definitely gets 5 stars from me.
