Horizon Forbidden West vs Ghost of Tsushima: Which Is The Obvious Pick?
8 min. read
Updated on
Share this article
Improve this guide
Read our disclosure page to find out how can you help Windows Report sustain the editorial team Read more
Key notes
- Video games keep getting better and better but some can captivate us beyond our wildest imagination, while others are just an experience worth trying.
- If you were thinking of acquiring Horizon Forbidden West or Ghost of Tsushima but you're not sure which is better, we can lend you a helping hand.
- Both titles are PlayStation exclusives, both are played from a third-person point of view, but one is much larger in size and has longer gameplay.
Although Ghost of Tsushima isn’t quite that new anymore, its official release dating back July 2020, it has remained one of the most played PlayStation titles of late.
The breathtaking landscapes, story, and feudal Japan fight scenes have anchored this title into the hearts of many avid gamers.
And, since we are talking about a magnificent PlayStation exclusive, it’s almost impossible not to mention Gorilla Games’ Horizon Forbidden West in the same breath.
Zero Dawn’s sequel has already gathered a massive fanbase and is on its way to becoming one of the most beloved PlayStation exclusive titles of all time.
Both choices will definitely offer you an experience worthy of remembrance, but which one should you go for first?
If you were thinking about POV, they’re both third-person action games, with no way of changing the camera to a first-person view.
We’re here to help you make a decision in that regard, based on information we are going to compare against both Horizon Forbidden West and Ghost of Tsushima.
Horizon Forbidden West vs Ghost of Tsushima: General approach
Horizon Forbidden West
Developed by Guerrilla Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Forbidden West has proven to be the sequel many were hoping for.
As far as surroundings, Horizon Forbidden West’s action is taking place in a post-apocalyptic open-world of the Western United States, where fauna has been replaced by dangerous machines.
The title’s story concentrates around the main character, Aloy, which is also the main protagonist in the prequel, Horizon Zero Dawn.
Six months after the defeat of HADES, Aloy has left Meridian to search for a backup of GAIA to reverse the effects of the planet’s degrading biosphere.
Aloy crosses over into the Forbidden West and quickly discovers a totally different world than the one we got used to in Zero Dawn.
The Tenakth are in the midst of a civil war between Chief Hekarro, who advocates peace with the Carja, and the rebel leader Regalla, who wishes to continue the war against them.
Thus, Aloy must be more mature and make harder decisions, that will impact many more lives than she initially thought.
Also, the challenges are greater this time around, as Aloy will have to face bigger and a lot more vicious machines, as well as more prepared human enemies.
⇒ Get Horizon Forbidden West from Amazon
⇒ Get Horizon Forbidden West from Kinguin
⇒ Obtain Horizon Forbidden West from G2A
Ghost of Tsushima
Ghost of Tsushima is a third-person open-world action-stealth video game, developed by Sucker Punch Productions, exclusively for the PlayStation consoles.
Here, the action takes place in 1274, on the islands of Tsushima and Iki, in Japan. The protagonist is Jin Sakai, the head and sole remaining member of Clan Sakai and a samurai warrior.
He is the nephew and ward of Lord Shimura, who is actually the jitō of Tsushima, which means that Jin must always bring honor to his lord.
When playing as Jin Sakai, you will have to withstand and repel the Mongol invasion that has besieged the entire island of Tsushima.
In 1274, a Mongol fleet led by Khotun Khan invades the Japanese island and local samurai Lord Jin Sakai and his uncle Lord Shimura lead the island’s samurai in an attempt to repel the invaders.
However, the battle ends in disaster, with all the samurai killed, Shimura captured, and Jin severely wounded and left for dead.
Jin manages to pull through and takes it upon himself to avenge his fallen comrades by defeating the Mongols single-handedly, as the Ghost of Tsushima.
His course and all the decisions he makes will bring him closer to victory, but also lead him on a path that the Japanese lords deem without honor.
⇒ Get Ghost of Tsushima from Amazon
⇒ Get Ghost of Tsushima from Kinguin
Horizon Forbidden West vs Ghost of Tsushima: Main differences
Supported devices
There isn’t much to be said here, since both games are available exclusively on PlayStation. This is, for the moment, the only platform that supports these titles.
That being said, Horizon Forbidden West could very well follow its predecessor, Zero Dawn, towards a PC release on Steam, but it will take some time until that becomes reality.
As far as Ghost of Tsushima is concerned, there have been a lot of rumors about it coming to Steam as well, with many websites that sell video games advertising a 2022 release.
For the time being, however, only PlayStation console owners get to enjoy these two gaming masterpieces.
Size
Horizon Forbidden West
Because Horizon Forbidden West offers extremely complex graphics and stories, it is no longer a surprise that it will require an important amount of disk space.
Thus, expect the game to take around 90 GB on PS4 and PS5, with some minor variations that depend on the region where you’re downloading and installing the game.
To give you an example, in the United States, the PS5 edition needs around 87 GB with the day one patch installed. In the EU, it’s around 98 GB, while in Japan, it’s 83 GB.
Ghost of Tsushima
Ghost of Tsushima is considerably smaller in size than Horizon Forbidden West, so keep that in mind if available space is among the selection criteria.
The Director’s Cut for Ghost of Tsushima, which also includes the Iki Island DLC and the Legends online mode has around 60GB.
The increase in the file size could be due to the new technical improvements and additions that have been made for the PS5 version, including haptic feedback, adaptive triggers, and 60FPS support.
Story length
Horizon Forbidden West
If you’re interested in discovering what is the Horizon Forbidden West story length, keep in mind that focusing only on the main story, with just a few side activities and quests, will take around 25 to 35 hours.
There are those of you, however, that absolutely need to complete everything in the game, meaning you can spend up to 100 hours. It only depends on the difficulty of your own goals.
Ghost of Tsushima
Although there is a lot to get done of both Tsushima and Iki islands, the game isn’t as lengthy as Forbidden West.
When focusing on the main objectives, without paying any attention to any side activities, Ghost of Tsushima is about 24½ Hours in length.
If you’re a gamer that strives to see all aspects of the game, you are likely to spend around 61 hours to obtain 100% completion.
Horizon Forbidden West vs Ghost of Tsushima: Issues
Horizon Forbidden West
Yes, this is a newly released game, but just like any other game, Forbidden West might sometimes run into several annoying issues.
Because it is important for you to be aware of the most common ones, we recommend checking the list below:
- Horizon Forbidden West is not installing – Usually, this one is related to your disk space, so if you face this issue, verify how to free up some.
- Horizon Forbidden West bugs, issues, and glitches – These can be pretty various, from textures, to bad visuals and in-game features. In case you’ll ever face similar errors, make sure you check a specialized fixing guide.
- The Horizon Forbidden West is not generally working – In this situation, your PS might be corrupted or outdated.
Ghost of Tsushima
As much as we would want to believe that Ghost of Tsushima came to us as a bug-free experience, we can kid ourselves forever.
This game has also been plagued by some game-breaking bugs that drove players crazy. But, rest assured, that each and every one of them has a fix.
- Charm of Nekoma’s Hunt – Assassination chains fail to complete and leave Jin hanging in slow motion for several seconds if any NPC stands between Jin and the targeted enemy, or the targeted enemy is terrified.
- Hints are always displayed when the Hint Screen setting is set to off.
- Sarugami Armor – in duels, taking the enemy stagger bar down to 0 using Sarugami’s perfect dodge counter causes the stagger bar to regenerate.
So, if you were looking for a detailed Horizon Forbidden West vs Ghost of Tsushima comparison, here you are, with all this extremely useful information placed together in one guide.
Overall, both are incredibly good games, one depicting a more fantasy-like world, while the other focuses on the brutality of events that have transpired long ago.
In case you encounter any related questions or curiosities, feel free to leave a comment in the dedicated section below. We’ll come up with an answer as soon as possible.
Read more about this topic
