Ghost of Tsushima is getting free online co-op multiplayer

PlayStation has announced a free online cooperative multiplayer mode for Ghost of Tsushima.

Ghost of Tsushima: Legends is described as “an entirely new experience” that will be made available for free to owners of the original game on PS4 later this year.

Legends is a separate mode that doesn’t follow protagonist Jin, but instead focuses on four warriors who have been built up as legends in stories told by the people of Tsushima, game designer Darren Bridges told The PlayStation Blog.

Players will be able to partner up with friends or via online matchmaking and play Legends in groups of 2-4 players. Each player can choose from one of four different character classes: the Samurai, Hunter, Ronin, or Assassin. Each class has unique advantages and abilities that will be revealed later.

“Ghost of Tsushima’s single-player campaign focuses on an open world and exploring the natural beauty of the island, but Legends is haunting and fantastical, with locations and enemies inspired by Japanese folk tales and mythology and an emphasis on cooperative combat and action,” he said.

Two players will be able to play a series of co-op Story missions that escalate in difficulty, Bridges said, building on the foundation of combat from the single-player campaign but with “new magical twists that often require careful synchronization with your partner.”

With four players, players will be able to take on wave-based Survival missions, fighting new, tougher opponents such as the Oni enemies with supernatural abilities.

Finally, a four-player Raid will arrive shortly after the launch of Ghost of Tsushima: Legends, sending players to “an entirely new realm to challenge a brutal, terrifying enemy.”

Released in July, Ghost of Tsushima broke PlayStation’s first-party PS4 launch record, with more than 2.4 million copies globally in its first three days of sales.

In VGC’s Ghost of Tsushima review, our critic said the “Kurosawa homage forges its own identity, but is weighed down by the genre’s more perfunctory tropes”.