ABSTRACT
ADAM CLULOW
From Shōgun to Ghost of Tsushima:
Using and Challenging Historical Video Games
In 1975, James Clavell’s Shōgun rocketed up the bestseller lists. While many historians criticized the novel for distorting the past, others argued that we should recognize its value as a conduit for engagement with Japan. The contemporary equivalent to Shōgun is a 2020 video game called Ghost of Tsushima which has now sold over 10 million copies. This article considers how the creators of Ghost of Tsushima view their responsibility to history. It then discusses the reductive Mongol-versus-samurai binary at the center of the game before shifting to explore the surprising depths of the world created by the developers.
Volume 49, Number 2 (Summer 2023)
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