GHOST OF TSUSHIMA

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy

1274, Tsushima Island, Japan – An army of samurai prepare for the arrival of a Mongol fleet, led by Khotun Khan. Lord Haranobu Adachi approaches the Khan with the intent of dueling the fearsome warlord, but Khotun merely douses Adachi with wine and sets him ablaze before decapitating him. The other samurai, led by Lord Shimura, charge into battle against the Mongols. Shimura’s nephew and student, Jin Sakai, races across the battlefield, but the effort is futile, and all the samurai but Jin and Shimura are wiped out. Khotun taunts Shimura since he had planned so far ahead that none of the samurai could have anticipated his moves. He takes Shimura as his prisoner while Jin is wounded and falls into the ocean.

Jin is swept up by the water but is soon found by a village thief named Yuna. She nurses him back to health, but as he tries to leave, a Mongol guard enters and demands food from Yuna. She feigns helplessness and knifes the guard in the neck before getting Jin out of there. They must sneak past other guards, and after recovering his sword, Yuna tells Jin he must take them out silently, which is against the samurai code. Regardless, Jin utilizes stealth techniques to get the drop on the Mongols and slay them undetected. He thinks back to his youth when Shimura was teaching him to hone his skill.

Jin and Yuna make it to Khotun’s stronghold at Castle Kaneda to rescue Lord Shimura. The Khan emerges to face Jin, ultimately overpowering the samurai and throwing him off the bridge. Jin has another flashback to seeing his father, Kazumasa, being slain in battle when he was too frightened to help him. Shimura passed on Kazumasa’s sword to Jin, who felt responsible for his father’s death. Yuna finds Jin again. Knowing he cannot rescue Shimura alone, he recruits Yuna to help, and he plans on asking for help from allies. Jin rides his horse across the land to begin his quest.

Jin begins in Izuhara, where he gathers weapons such as smoke bombs and kunai (throwing stars) to aid him in fighting Mongols. He recounts Shimura’s teachings on when to kill, as he stopped him from brazenly charging against a criminal who tried to assassinate him, and instead showed Jin to kill him honorably.

Throughout his journey across the land, Jin recruits a number of allies while also aiding them in their own personal missions. Sensei Ishikawa is a master archer, whose student Tomoe has turned against him and is plotting her own agenda with the Mongols. She briefly teams up with Jin and Ishikawa to fight Mongols since she claims she was always working against them, but she flees from the island without answering for her crimes. Lady Masako Adachi is still reeling not only over the loss of her husband at the hands of the Khan, but also the loss of her entire family, as they were slaughtered by someone close to her. It is later discovered that the mastermind was her own sister, Lady Hana, who was jealous of her sister marrying a lord while she was left with an abusive drunk. She commits seppuku before allowing her sister to kill her herself. Jin also gets help from Yuna’s brother Taka, as well as an opportunistic sake merchant named Kenji. Jin also aids Yuna in another mission to take down three brothers who also work as slavers.

Jin also seeks out the Straw Hat ronin, led by his old friend Ryuzo. He knows that with the Straw Hats by his side, they could create a more lethal team against the Khan’s forces. In Jin’s journey, he continues to build up his reputation and legend among the locals as he liberates more camps and villages. It earns him the title, “The Ghost”.

After Taka helps craft a special grappling hook that would allow Jin to make his way into Castle Kaneda, Jin leads his team to make their siege to rescue Lord Shimura. They make their way in overnight, but just before Jin can make it to Shimura, Ryuzo betrays him since there is a bounty on his head, and Ryuzo is most concerned that his men are fed and looked after. Jin duels with Ryuzo, and after defeating him, Ryuzo retreats with the Straw Hats before Jin rescues Shimura and they retake Castle Kaneda.

Unfortunately, Khotun is already advancing and has taken over Castle Shimura. Now with Ryuzo on his side, he has a few civilians tied to poles and orders Ryuzo to burn them one by one until the gates are open for them. Ryuzo burns one and begs the guards to open the gates so he will not have to burn another.

Jin goes to talk to Shimura about their strategy in getting back at Khotun and Ryuzo. Continuing the journey in Toyotama, they need help from the Yarikawa clan, even though their leader, Usijawa Yarikawa, has a grudge against Lord Shimura stopped the Yarikawa Rebellion, which eventually led to the death of Usijawa’s father. Along the way, Jin also recruits a monk, Norio, who was part of a group of warrior monks that were meant to join the battle at Komoda Beach with Jin and the others, but captured. Jin helps Norio track down a group of bandits that tortured and killed his brother, as well as desecrated the temple of the monks. When Jin finds Norio again, he has already tracked down the bandits and slayed them himself.

Lord Shimura tracks down a pirate named Goro to send a message to the Shogun for help against the Mongols. In the process, Shimura also plans to officially make Jin his son and heir.

Jin helps the people of Yarikawa against a Mongol raid, rallying them to fight against their oppressors after Jin battles and decapitates General Temuge, which strikes fear into the hearts of the Mongols and convinces Clan Yarikawa to fight alongside them.

Jin goes back to his home to recover his father’s armor. There, he finds his old caretaker, Yuriko, who is stunned to see him. Yuriko helps Jin craft a poison to use against the Mongols. Jin helps her out with other tasks as he gathers what he needs, but notices that Yuriko is ailing, to the point where she starts to confuse Jin for his father. Yuriko eventually passes away by Jin’s side, and he buries her near their home.

With help from Yuna, Jin attempts to get into Khotun’s camps to use the poison, but he is found by Ryuzo and captured with Taka, who went to help against Jin and Yuna’s orders. Khotun faces the men and orders Jin to surrender. He even offers to let Taka go, but both men are defiant. Khotun knocks Taka down after he attempts to fight back and then slashes his throat before gruesomely ripping his head right off. After Jin frees himself, he cannot stop Yuna from discovering her brother’s headless body. She briefly blames Jin for Taka’s death in her grief, even though he told him to stay behind. They later bury Taka.

The Shogun arrive to aid in the battle. Shimura leads the raid against the castle to fight the Mongols, managing to push them back slightly, until Khotun resorts to more dastardly tactics to bring down the forces. Before proceeding, Shimura plans to have more men attack, despite Jin knowing that this would cost the lives of more men. When Jin argues with his uncle, Shimura slaps Jin, but then immediately expresses remorse for his actions.

That night, Jin sneaks into the Mongol camps and uses Yuriko’s poison to sneak into their food, then watches as the Mongols begin to violently throw up blood before succumbing to the poison. Jin then finds Ryuzo again. He tries to weasel his way back into Jin’s good graces by trying to have him convince everyone that he was a double agent against the Mongols, but Jin knows his true nature, and the two duel once more, with Jin ultimately killing his former friend.

Khotun has already begun to move forward. Shimura chastises Jin for his tactics and even tries to get him to blame Yuna for the attack, but Jin refuses since he has now accepted his duties as The Ghost. This also means he rejects Shimura’s request to formally adopt him. Jin is imprisoned by the Shogunate for his actions, which go against the samurai code. Yuna manages to help Jin escape, but he is shot at, and his horse is killed in the process.

Jin wanders through Mongol territory unarmed until he reaches Kamiagata. He reunites with Yuna and his allies as they plan to take their final stand against Khotun Khan. After getting help from a team of archers, Jin learns that Khotun has found out how to recreate his poison and is using it against the island’s residents.

The heroes gather to take down Khotun’s last stronghold at Port Izumi. They slaughter Mongols left and right until Jin makes his way to Khotun. The Khan sics his soldiers on Jin, but after slaying them too, he battles Khotun on his ship before ultimately impaling and beheading him after remind him that he and his men will ultimately be forgotten.

In the aftermath, the Mongol forces start to retreat and die down. Jin goes to meet with Lord Shimura, who rides with him to a spot near their old home. Shimura reveals to Jin that the Shogunate has ordered Jin’s execution for going against the samurai code, as well as rallying the citizens to fight back on their own without dependence on the samurai. This leads to Jin and Shimura fighting one another before Jin finally defeats him. Two endings can be chosen from here: either Jin can fulfill Shimura’s final request to die honorably and kill him, or Jin may refuse since he no longer abides by the samurai code and ultimately abandons his uncle. Either way, Jin understands that he will be hunted for the rest of his life, for he is now…THE GHOST OF TSUSHIMA.

The Mongols, led by Khotun Khan, invade Tsushima Island, slaughtering nearly every samurai. One survivor, Jin Sakai, must rescue his uncle and mentor, Lord Shimura, from Khotun's forces. He teams up with a number of allies, including a thief named Yuna, her brother Taka, master archer Sensei Ishikawa, skilled swordswoman Lady Masako Adachi, and the monk Norio. He also attempts to get help from the Straw Hat ronin and their leader, Ryuzo, but when they storm Khotun's stronghold at Castle Kaneda, Ryuzo betrays Jin to get the bounty on his head so he may feed his men. Jin defeats him in a duel and rescues Shimura, but Khotun now has the Straw Hats by his side and advances forward.

Throughout his journey, Jin faces off against many Mongols and liberates many villages and settlements, earning him the name, "The Ghost." When trying to reclaim Castle Shimura, the heroes start off well against Khotun's forces until the Khan resorts to more fiendish tactics, resulting in the deaths of many of Jin's allies. Knowing that they cannot risk losing more men, Jin sneaks into the Mongol camp with some poison he was taught to make, and he kills many Mongols with it before fighting Ryuzo again and killing him. Although Khotun's forces have been brought down further, Shimura and the Shogunate are displeased with Jin's methods of killing the Mongols, as they go against the samurai code. He is imprisoned but later escapes.

After gathering more allies and rallying the residents of Tsushima, Jin and his team storm Khotun's final stronghold and reach the vicious leader himself. Jin and Khotun battle on his ship until Jin impales and beheads him.

With the Mongol forces dying down, Jin meets with Lord Shimura, only to learn that the Shogunate has ordered Jin's execution for his tactics and going against their code. Jin duels Shimura and ultimately defeats him. Regardless of what choice he makes (whether or not to kill Shimura honorably), Jin must now go on the run for the rest of his life.