Ghost of Tsushima has an excellent combat system, which is utilised to great effect with all the different sword stances you can unlock.
These stances not only change up how your protagonist, Jin Sakai, holds his sword, but also enables you to attack your enemy in different ways.
In the game, you have your normal attack buttons, Square and Triangle, for heavy or special attacks designed to break an enemy's guard.
You begin the game with the Stone Stance, which is where you hold the sword in two hands in a slightly raised position. This stance is the default and good for pretty much every encounter you'll find early on in the game.
Combat is based on timing and extremely satisfying. Time your parries, change your stance and knowing your enemies' attack animations will go a long way to help you master fun melee fighting.
The way to unlock different stances is actually pretty nifty, eventually giving you access to the Water Stance, Wind Stance and Moon Stance.
Each one you unlock is good for different enemy types, for example you'll want to use Water Stance against shield-using enemies.
Here's our guide on how to unlock all combat stances.
Water Stance
Water Stance is best used when fighting enemies who have shields – and it's incredibly stylish to boot.
Once you unlock it, you can change stances by holding down R2 and pressing the Circle button.
The way you unlock stances is simply by killing (or observing) Mongol leaders who have taken over towns and turned them into war camps.
Early on, you'll be able to tell which enemy is a leader by their golden armour and jewelled round-shield.
You'll actually be able to unlock stances relatively quickly if you just bound around from camp to camp, killing everyone in your way.
To unlock each one, you need to observe or kill a certain number of Mongol Leaders and your progress can be tracked under the Techniques tab in the main menu.
Each time you defeat a Leader, it will go in slow motion and show that you have made progress, telling you how many more you need before the stance unlocks.
In some cases, you can actually observe a Mongol Leader from stealth by holding down a button, and then go on to kill them to fill two of the bars required.
Wind Stance
After getting Water, you'll be tasked to kill a higher number of leaders to unlock the Wind Stance.
Wind Stance is an extremely useful one to unlock as soon as you can because it is effective against pesky spear users.
The heavy attack will deal more stagger damage and if you hold down the Triangle button you'll do an incredibly satisfying kick.
Moon Stance
The final stance you'll unlock won't be necessary until much later in the game where you'll be fighting a wider variety of enemy types.
Moon Stance is effective against Brute enemies, who you will recognise as being extraordinarily large.
As with the other stances, the Triangle attacks will let you stagger these enemies faster. Bear in mind that these attacks are not an instant win, you'll still have to time your parries and dodge when necessary as your foes will block your attacks.
Importantly, as you change stances in combat you should know that your normal attacks with Square will do the same as always and have no special effects.
While it is extremely weird that Jin, who is probably in his mid 30s at this point, is only just now learning these samurai techniques, it is clearly a gameplay consideration.
As you gain more Technique points, you can upgrade the effectiveness of each stance up to four times.
This gives you more powerful hits, staggers enemies easier and some nice quality of life additions to each one.
What are you waiting for? Tsushima needs your help.
Ghost of Tsushima is available on PS4 now. Buy it here.
