Ghost of Tsushima Story & Both Endings Explained!

warriors have only one judge of honor and character and this is themselves decisions they make and how these decisions are carried out is a reflection of whom they truly are this is one of the seven virtues of bushido known as mayo which also means honor not only is the word honor tossed around a lot throughout ghost of tsushima but it's also a driving plot point for how jin and everyone in ghost of tsushima acts and how it affects their character and that's what i want to discuss for today i want to talk about the story

of the mongol invasion on the tsushima island and as a result what it did to jin and everyone around him as always spoilers ahead as we'll be discussing the main story for the game and also we're going to be discussing this in roughly the order that the game makes us played in but i will be referencing events that happen later in the story to solidify actions that take place in earlier parts of the story so relax for a bit and let's get into the story of ghost of tsushima as a samurai you fight to protect

your people and defeat anyone who opposes you and you do so with honor jin and his fellow samurai on top of the hill on their horses no they won't be coming back from this but as a samurai you learn to control your emotions and not to fear death as lord shimra states tradition courage honor there would make us afterward lord harunobo adachi goes to confront the mongol leader in a honorable one-on-one fight against the leaders of each group this is when we get introduced to the main antagonist of the game kotun khan grandson of genghis

khan and cousin of kublai khan and you can tell kotoon doesn't care for honor as he lights lord adachi ablaze in front of his whole army and the samurai and the hill watching him this then starts the attack on komodo beach a very devastating fight and one of the many fights that are going to be occurring throughout the game as you storm you are suddenly hit with arrows from ahuacha and are forced to take the fight on foot after pushing forward enough you are then hit with more arrows and artillery and it's at this time

that kotoon khan comes from on to the battlefield to capture lord shimra kotun while brutal he is a smart man he has studied the samurai code japanese politics and their way of life but while you were sharpening your sword do you know how i prepared for today i learned i know your language your traditions your beliefs which villages to tame and wish to burn he uses this knowledge to exploit his foes for his own gain eventually jyn will regain consciousness saved by a mysterious woman a woman we know as yuna i plan to do a

whole video covering yuna and her backstory as well as the others we meet throughout the island norio ishikawa lady masako among the others so stay tuned for those videos in the future either way though jyn then discovers who saved him and he realizes he's dealing with a thief very opposite in terms of the code they have very opposite of a samurai yuna then states she has a reason for saving jin from the battlefield other than just being nice once again this will be talked about more in an in-depth future dedicated video after sneaking through the

armed soldiers you eventually find your sword of clan sakai this one one of the first of many flashbacks come into play and since we're at this point i thought it would be a good time to put together a timeline of how jin even got to this beach in the first place so we get a good chunk of info on jin actually from yuriko the house servant to clan sakai who we meet later in the second act of the game jyn's mom had died at an early age in his life and jin wanted to believe his

mother's passing was actually a lie and not real so he ran into the forest for three days and did not return home thankfully jin's father lord kazumasu sakai eventually found him and jin was almost considered dead eventually kazumasa would then die in battle in which jin watched jin constantly beats himself up for this encounter as he regrets not having the strength to help his father when he needed him the most and that if he helped him he would still be alive following his death a funeral was held in which the other clan showed up to

mourn the death of jinn's father lord shimmer then passes down the family's sakai blade and says that tomorrow he will train jinn as his ward while training lord shimura tells him to state the virtues they follow and that as a samurai you must set an example for the people by remaining true to the code and yourself which is loyalty to our lord control over our emotions and honor to fight bravely and uphold the legacy of the clan but jinn also states that his version of honor is also protecting people especially the ones who cannot fight

for themselves this then leads to another flashback of the two looking for a bear an assassin tries to sneak up behind lord shimra in an attempt to attack him this teaches jin that only cowards strike from the shadows and to fight with the enemy head on with courage and respect and to either kill them or die with honor courage respect patience honor integrity loyalty these are the virtues all this turns jinn into what we have now jyn then escapes with yuna grabs a horse and heads back to ocasso canada to get lord shimura back he

is then met with kotu and khan who defeats jin and throws him off the bridge once awoken he is then taken to the golden temple one of the many safe havens not under mongol control breaking into the castle isn't that easy jin needs allies and he plans to recruit lady masako sensei ishikawa and yun's brother taka to help her take the castle when you arrive at ishikawa's dojo it had been torn apart as we find later from sensei ishikawa it was that his student tomoy who ended up leaving and betraying him jin must help ishikawa

track toma way down so she can answer for her crimes for lady masako her estate is just as bad as a condition as the previous dojo we just mentioned apparently during the invasion of the mongols someone decided to kill off the remaining members of the family everyone died except lady masako so she is now the lone survivor of clan adachi so then jin is tasked with helping lady masako find the killer of her family as for yuna her brother taka is a master blacksmith when he was captured so you have to search around and find

him this is where jin also first kills someone from behind and as we know from the hunting flashback you're supposed to fight the enemy head-on and look them in the eyes as you take their light this is one of the many situations where jyn has no choice and has to do what is necessary versus what the part of the code is in order to survive in all of these missions your intended goal is not reached furuna getting taka is part of the main quest so this will happen naturally but for sensei ishikawa and lady masako

quests can be done and stopped right there they will continue to fight with you no matter how far you progress so it's entirely up to the player eventually jin meets yuna at a home in southern asimo where a new ally enters the sake dealing merchant kenji every mission with kenji is always so bizarre so it's a nice break from more of the serious stuff the game has to offer now kenji has known yuna and taka for a long time in his life he used to make them taste test his sake and then use them to

sell it to others but after riding in the cart you make it to azumabe and once you finish sneaking around and tailing a few guards you end up finding taka who has been beaten and broods by the mongols and almost killed if you hadn't stepped in even with these allies it is still not enough so jin must recruit the straw hat ronin a fearsome group of individuals who will dedicate their life to the bow and blade also having taka make him a tool to climb the walls of castle canada the ronin are near kishi grasslands

and you become introduced to one of them when you are saved when attacked by a mongol this specific ronin is actually an old friend of jinns ryuzo they're good friends with a slightly troubled past but that's a story for another time the issue is that the straw hats are dying there's not enough food for the group to survive the week so to hopefully get ryuzo and the straw hats on your side jin helps them retrieve food by stealing it from a nearby fort forth o'hira once jyn clears out the fort he realizes there isn't any

food as this is a depot it is a temporary holding spot and the plan is to take it all offshore possibly to prevent what is happening now taking back the food thankfully the boats are still at the depots up by creating a major distraction jyn and ryuzo can move in but for the second time ryuzo comes back empty-handed to his men as the mongols have burned the boat and the food was gone luckily though on the boat there was a map with some destinations that could lead to some supply lines and food but it's not

guaranteed reusa then accepts your proposal of joining the group to help break out lord shimra but you can tell he's isn't exactly happy as his men are his top priority this prioritization ryuzo has is what's going to cause some unsavory problems in the future after helping the ronin jinn then goes to kamatsu forge to find taka and it becomes attacked by the mongol forces since komatsu's forge is a very popular area within the izuhara section of the island and is the biggest town village for blacksmith so cutting the saw from the samurai and taking it

as their own is very key to winning this battle jyn also needs the forge as he needs a tool to climb the wall which can be made at the forge while taka and the residents of kamatsu stay hidden jin must protect the forge from the mongol invaders in doing so rewards him with the kagi nawa allowing him to swing around gaps and reach higher places over at castle canada kotun has reports of your ghostly actions and lord shimmer refuses to believe that this is true as he says lord sakai would never resort to such tactics

it's also here that we discover a small part of kotun's plan which is to gather more men from the samurai and the people of tsushima so we can have enough of an army to overthrow the shogun on the mainland while this isn't exactly part of his entire plan there's a lot more to him than that once again covered in a future dedicated video while getting the kaginawa from taka ryuza then interrupts the conversation and states that his men have been kidnapped at a nearby fort but something's off as he reports the sounds of singing amongst

his men not exactly something captives would be doing on the road to the fort we delve more into riusa's backstory and why he seemed so judgmental of jinn from the very beginning and it was because when they were younger there was a tournament being held by lord nago and ryuzo invited all the commanders of the clan to watch his sparring match with jin but the people on the island only wanted to see jin as he was the jito's nephew and not some average warrior with no clan name you were born lord sakai that tournament was

my one chance to gain attention to enter the service of the lord become a samurai after you arrive where the leftover straw hats are waiting one of them states that some of the men have left so morale is decreasing rapidly once you make it to fort yatate and request you the straw hats you signal ryuzo and take the fight to the mongols according to ryuzo they were singing because the mongols were actually feeding the straw hats and some very unique food as well they haven't eaten anything for days so that was definitely worth celebrating with

all the preparations made it is time to take the fight to castle canada but ryuzo hasn't arrived yet there is no time so jin will have to do it without him sneaking through the castle using stealth and the new kaginawa jinn goes deeper into the castle and finds ryuzo jin has a bounty on his head put on by kotun khan and ryuzo is desperate to save his men so he has to do what he can to survive even if it has to kill his old friend even after defeating ryuzo jin still offers ryozo a second

chance to help him but he refuses ryozo is now considered a traitor and there is no coming back from this anymore jin goes to the top of the castle to rescue lord shimra and retakes the castle from the mongol invaders but kotoon wasn't there as he went north to attack toyotama the neighboring territory but things are looking better as lord shimra is alive and not captured anymore so morale is boosting except that ryuzo is still working with kotun to get food but has to earn it by burning innocent villagers at a castle while lord shimra

scolds shin for acting without honor and not following the code and becoming the ghost that he will eventually turn into lord shimra seems to be stuck in his old ways as he still has a distaste for yarikawa thanks to the rebellion years before and comments about it to yoona people have no love for me i know i grew up there is that where you learn to steal this shows how stubborn lord shimmer is about his ideals and the perception of people and once again this ideology that he has will cause some unsavory problems in the

future right away at the start of act 2 jin must take back castle shimra but to do so he needs even more support than before so he's gonna be recruiting the peasants of old yarikawa and the shogun in japan we get to meet an unexpected ally at this point a warrior monk from cedar temple named norio he has an incredible backstory that we will also be covering in a future dedicated video but from where he came from he said that he was ambushed and taken captive by the mongols like the previous members of the group

norio also has side quests you can choose to do but it's entirely up to you he will still fight for you regardless so for act 2 there are three main objectives claiming the armor of clan sakai recruiting the peasants of yarikawa and then getting a message to the shogun about the attack to get the message to the shogun jin travels to umugi cove to meet a drunken man named goro he's an expert on the sea and the only one who's going to be able to get the message across in time so he's the only option

to do this jin meets with lord shimura and goro to devise a plan the plan is that they need to draw attention to a fort near the coast so that the naval guards and ships within the fort are distracted by jin and shimra allowing guru to sail freely to japan almost immediately noise has been made jin and shimra have the ford's whole attention running through and clearing as many people as they can as they get caught by a huacha a device capable of shooting dozens of arrows within seconds jin then overtakes the huacha but realizes

they do not succeed in the plan and goro was found jin takes matters into his own hands and uses it to defend guru which shimura was hesitant about at first since it's a weapon of the enemy and that's not the samurai way but quickly realizes there is no other option and getting the message to the shogun is what matters because of its powerful attacks and speed the huacha is easily able to defeat the mongol fleet and garo is on his way to japan which shimura reveals that not only did the note request the shogun's help

but to also formally adopt jinn as his son a huge moment for both of them as they've been together since the beginning ever since jin's parents have died beginning as a master and student and now reclaiming the castle as father and son for the people of yarikawa it's not about storming a fort it's defending one the people of yarikawa are still alive and well even after the rebellion but are now under attack from mongol forces since yarikawa is surrounded you have to sneak through an old entrance which you make it inside you have a meeting

with ujimasu son of the old leader of the yarikawa the one selling in the rebellion ujimasa does not want help but helping in the battle against the mongols may be enough to convince him to help you the issue is that it's a small amount of samurai and a larger army of mongols but apparently some skilled archers of yarikawa have gone missing and recruiting them to help might just turn the battle in their favor after enough searching jin finds the archers and helps break out the fellow archers that were captured so you can prepare an ambush

and wipe the mongol forces with ease now that the archers are safe and back home it's time to defend the town night hits and the attack has started the mongols have an overwhelming force full of swordsmen brutes archers and even a couple siege weapons after some time jyn disposes of them and sprints to the temple to defeat general tugame once defeated from a game mechanic standpoint you get the ghost dance but from a story perspective your legend has been growing across the island at a rapid rate and everyone knows of you and the ghostly actions

you've been performing so when faced and go stance is activated you are such a fearsome warrior that you scared the mongols allowing them to be killed instantly and any ones that were not killed will be running away in fear now that the mongols fear you driving out the invaders of yarikawa as simple as they've retreated immediately and with your help yarikawa is safe once again and they have offered to join you in your fight against the khan after defeating the mongols from attacking yarikawa kotun meets with ryuzo and mentions he has a plan to eliminate

jin ryuzo has one as well but offers that he should do it without requiring the killing of jin but this will come into play later but now that all the objectives are finished the very last thing to do is to claim the family armor of clan sakai jin travels to omi village where his estate lies he then finds his old house servant yuriko who we briefly mentioned earlier in an attempt to stop anyone from getting the mementos from the clan they hid the armor which she will then go fetch for you while she fetches the

armor you can go to your father's cemetery a beautiful looking place with generations of legacy behind it which all led to you being the next in line with the sakai armor jin has realized fighting the mongols is going to require a lot more than what he has now another instance of him choosing what he needs to do over what the samurai code wants him to do so he asks yuriko if he can procure some poison for him to use it against the mongol invasion once jyn grabs the dart and blow gun from a fort and

some herbal ingredients near the cemetery yuriko can then make the poison darts for you and jin will be able to use the poison darts against the mongol invasion you can have to play through yuriko's tail and earn the hallucination dart which causes enemies to turn on each other but it's not an unnecessary item for the story with all the preparations made it's time to take the fight to the mongols and co-tune once again to take over the castle and rid the mongols of even more territory but before that happens jyn receives word that ryuzo is

going to use the straw hats to flank the army so you must take care of him at first before you proceed with the frontal assault jyn requests eunice help but said she's leaving in the morning and already holed up her end of the deal jin accepts and continues alone upon reaching the fort you find taka is there taka left yuno when she wasn't paying attention so that he can help he proposes an idea of creating a distraction to sneak into the fort unnoticed which it works originally as you sneak into the fort until ryuzo finds

you and you're knocked unconscious by a straw hat and taken captive taka notices that jin took too long to finish up in the fort and wanted to check on him to make sure everything was okay and go into plan but ended up getting caught as well with the two of them held captive jin is then given the choice of surrender by kotun khan as he arrives he refuses so he unravels taka's binds and says to kill jin and he'll be set free taka continues to play nice then swings at the khan which the khan dodges

then proceeds to kill taka in front of jin leaving his headless corpse in front of jin to look at hoping that he will think to himself and possibly ponder if surrendering could have saved taka and his friends once jin has an opportunity he breaks free and causes havoc on the straw hats throughout the fort when jin gets to a gate he finds that yuna was here when she realized that taka wasn't here with him she went to go see him she then finds out about taka's death and is overcome with all sorts of emotion and

takes to the fight with the straw hats along with you remaining in the fort once that's over jin helps yuna bury taka now that the flanking threat is over it's time to do a frontal assault on the castle lord shimra the shogun and all of jin's allies he's accumulated throughout his journey fight alongside him together to retake castle shimra after waves of enemies you make it through multiple gates of the castle defeating every swordsman and archer in sight you make it to another gate in which you climb atop to scout the enemy ahead and use

this opportunity to make use of the poison killing the nearby guards and slicing the mongol's head clean off with one strike but not only is jin striking from behind he's also using poison to kill his enemies not what a samurai should do so once again lord shimro will scold him once more jin clears even more of the fort using a huacha this time to ease through the process and then comes to the bridge the mongols retreat to draw the samurai's attention and launch horses with explosives in the carriages to simultaneously blow up the bridge and

the samurai forces jit is extremely upset by this and goes back to his honor code of honor which is to protect people and lord shimra is just sending people to their deaths even if it's honorable it's not right lord shima then suggests that they repair the bridge and attack a dawn once it's finished but jin suggests that he sneaks into the fort and uses poison on the enemy there is a large disagreement between the two one wants to win the war or die with honor the other wants to do what is necessary to win and

give the people hope for a better future ana died on the beach the khan deserves to suffer you were ruled by your emotion i sacrificed everything i knew to save our people i gave them hope you did nothing with that jyn leaves and once again decides to go against the code he's grown up with and to do what he can to save his people as nightfall comes you gear up with new armor that taka made for you before he passed with that and the kaginawa jyn sneaks along the bridge and into the mongol side of

the fort the plan is to sneak around to where the milk is being held and poison it so that everyone who drinks will die allowing safe passage to the khan after sneaking through and making sure not to draw any attention jinn poisons the milk and watching everything unfold as an army of mongols who are once standing tall are now coughing up their own blood and dying in front of him after everybody has died jin makes his way to the main keep assuming he will meet kotun but instead he finds ryuzo ryuza this time wants to

not kill jin but it's too far rizo has already betrayed jin's trust and is unable to make up for it so a duel ensues after defeating ryuzo jin grants him a honorable warrior's death and leaves him there as he walks out lord shimmer arrives with his band of samurai and confronts jin on his actions lord shimmer says the shogun will want to head for these crimes that he's committed and that he can blame the act of terror on yunna all he has to do is renounce the name of the ghost jyn refuses as he knows

what he did was right and what he had to do for this he was thrown in jail to await punishment for his actions and the document that is presumed to have the official announcement of jin's adoption to lord shimra is then burned away with nothing but ash remaining it's unclear how long he was put in jail but after some time a familiar face comes by to lure the guard away from his post and have jin escape lord asked me to deliver sake a reward for helping retake his home receives word from kenji that yuna and

all of his other allies are waiting for him and figuring out a way to stop the khan so jin sneaks through the samurai guards up until the gate when he's caught and then shot at by arrows for escaping your horse takes a few shots and you can get just far enough but not your full destination and it will succumb to its wounds and die in front of you and with that we come to the final act act three at the start of act 3 jyn has no weapons or armor just clothing jyn is tasked with

going to the sacred tree to find yuna and take the fight to the khan once again once jin gets the tree he notices that she isn't there then an arrow hits him the mongols took after jin and started using poison luckily before jin dies yuna comes to the rescue again and saves him once you collect all your gear you head out in search of a base camp which is jokaku's pagoda to get there you kill the guards by the fishing hut and then launch a cannon that alerts the guards at the temple and lure them

into a barrel and eliminate them all at once now that there is less guards going into the temple should be a whole lot easier and now that the base has been established all there is left to do is reunite the allies and kill kotoon khan to do so you need to free a nearby fort from mongol control and some of yoona's friends might be able to help you out with that once jin goes inside and starts with the first area he moves to area after area of the fort stopping anyone who opposes him and then

the door bus open and it's all of your allies and friends ready to back you up once more all that's left is the khan but you can't go through the front gate without a plan and jin knows this the khan has ended up being stationed at port izumi so there is a lighthouse that is nearby which can be used to scout out the area for a plan on how to proceed the khan is going to take supplies in the barrels of poison to the mainland and use it against the shogun and his army in light

of this news jin then travels to kashil shimra even though he is still wanted sneaks into the castle to notify lord shimra via a note on what the khan is planning to do in hopes of him joining with his army while infiltrating the castle you find out that the shogun has orders for lord shimra which is mentioned at the end of the game but it's a foreshadowing of what's to come once you leave you go back to the pagoda to talk about the plan to your allies and then afterwards the final battle will commence you

rush through killing enemy remaining mongol forces left and pushed through to the khan the archers have opted to use poison now thanks to jin's actions at casual shimra and halfway through the engagement one of the gates busts open and it's lord shimra and his shogun samurai army at the gate ready to attack while they distract the enemy you make it to the manor where the khan is hiding and you start the final one-on-one battle between jin and kotoon khan jin manages to wound the khan greatly and he uses this opportunity to use more cheap tactics

and poison gin and run to the boat to escape you end up catching up to him before he takes off and you fight off waves of enemies on top of kotoon in an attempt to end his life jin manages to greatly wound kotun and kotun will then say his death does not matter as he will be remembered but jin assures him that that's wrong and he will be remembered not him once you kill kotoon the mongol threat is no more or at least not as huge as it was there are still mongols on the island

but not in working order as their leader has been slain after the battle jyn then talks to yuna and then yuna mentions that jin has a letter from lord shimra and meets him at the original training spot he mentions how if they work together they can finish off the rest of the forces but lord shimra has other plans as well as the shogun clan sakai is no longer a clan and their territory is no longer theirs whoever decides to take it be it a new or old clan will claim the spot jin is also no

longer considered a samurai anymore of course going against the code you then ride with lord shimra for the very last time and then when you eventually make it to your father's cemetery it is then discovered that the shogun declares jin a traitor and that the price of it is his head to be taken by lord shimra as lord jimar as punishment you write down the very last words of clan sakai in form of haiku and then dual lord shimra the game at this point presents you with two options kill lord shimra or spare him virgin

either option is really not a good option if he kills him he shows that he still has honor but he has to kill his uncle in front of him but if he spares him his uncle gets to live but shows that honor is no longer a part of him even for his family regardless of the option you choose it is up to the player the only difference is that killing lord shimra gives you the ghost armor in white and while sparing him will give it to you in red the house is also the still the

same with all the items inside that you can look around in except the locations are slightly different killing him gives you the broken down house near mamoushi grassland and then sparing him gives you the broken down house near omi village other than that there is really no difference the ghost is still alive and well and will be haunted by the shogun for the rest of his days for not being dealt with if that happens in a future dlc remains to be seen and that is the story of ghost of tsushima and i want to thank

you guys for joining me on this very long ride this was a fantastic game and very unique in many ways like i said in the beginning i have plans to make videos on other characters like cartoon lord shimra yuna as well as many other characters as they have all of their different reasons for joining jin on the battle and their own personal troubles that jin can help them with which i believe need their own dedicated video to delve into with that i want to thank you guys for coming to the video let me know how

you guys thought about ghost of tsushima down in the comments below like i said it's been a fantastic ride playing this game one of the best games i've played in a very long time and a really good end to the ps4 era and hopefully if it comes to the ps5 it'll look even better yeah as well if you have any other questions or any other types of videos you want me to make in terms of ghost of tsushima with some of the characters mentioned as well just leave them in the comments below but with that

like to be if you do enjoy subscriber for new guys take care and goodbye [Music] you