Sunday, July 12, 2026

Spinmaster: Playstation The Shapes Collection: Jin Sakai (Ghost of Tsushima)

 I really enjoyed Ghost of Tsushima. It was a fun, open-world game with a good story, cutscenes, characters, and mechanics. I guess you should say "open-world" a little loosely, because the narrative is pretty linear and the side quests and such are fairly repetitive.  The game focuses on the 1200s era of Mongol invasions, with the character being a kind of avenging angel against wrongs against the Japanese people, seeking to free them from the Mongols and kill their leader. The game's cinematics and scenery are beautiful. You even get mini-games where you can create Haiku poetry. It's a pretty awesome game, though I will say you get to kind of mix and match playstyles of being more samurai or being more ninja about how you approach encounters. However, you get punished narratively for using stealth or "ninja" playstyles, which sometimes you're kinda forced to do. That's odd.

This is an excellent physical representation of Jin Sakai. The details are there in the sculpt, though some of the smaller paint details aren't done, like the rivets or ropes that connect the armour. Some of the paint is a little muddy, like the rope wrapped around his chest and the kunai. The figure has decent flexibility in the hips and lots of joints; however, it was so stiff in the shoulders, ankles and wrists that I had to give it the hot water treatment to get them moving without worrying about breaking. Just like the Aloy figure, this one has an elasticity to its joints that makes it harder for it to stay ratcheted in a pose. It's harder to achieve dynamic poses, even though overall the shape and proportions of the figure look pretty good. The accessories aren't bad either, though it would've been nice if they included him being able to draw his tanto short sword, as it did feature in the game, among other weapons like his bow.