Ghost of Tsushima is an action-adventure game that’s available on PS4 and PS5. You play as Jin, a Japanese samurai who seeks to liberate his home island alongside his uncle from the Mongolian invasion.
In this video we will be looking at the control inputs and settings related to these and also the motor accessibility of the game such as the Simplified Mini-Game Controls and Aim Assist options. Footage captured is on the PS5 console from the PS4 version of the game. We will first go through the default controls.
Controls:
Left Stick moves your character.
Right Stick moves the camera.
Cross will make your character Jump.
Square performs your Quick Sword Attack.
It also assassinates an enemy when sneaking up on them.
Triangle acts as your Strong Sword Attack.
Circle performs a Dash.
Pressing Circle twice will perform a Dodge Roll once you acquire it.
Holding L2 will Aim your weapon.
While aiming, pressing the D-pad directions selects a different weapon and pressing Square, Circle or Triangle changes the variant of the selected weapon once they have been unlocked.
Pressing R2 while aiming will Fire your weapon. When holding R2 you can choose a quickfire weapon by using the D-pad directions once you’ve unlocked them and, you can choose your sword stance using Cross,Circle, Square and Triangle, once you’ve unlocked them. Pressing R2 also acts as interacting with other characters and objects as well as using your Grappling Hook once unlocked.
Holding L1 blocks enemy attacks. Pressing L1 just before an enemy’s attack lands will Parry the attack.
R1 will use your Quickfire Weapon.
L3 will make your character Sprint.
R3 makes Jin Crouch.
Pressing D-pad up will lock onto the enemy making it easier to keep them in view when in combat. It also allows you to enter a standoff when prompted. By default this is done by pressing D-pad Up. However, if you have turned on Lock-On in the settings, then you would need to hold the button down instead.
D-pad down will heal Jin.
D-pad Left will call your horse.
While riding your horse you can simply hold Left Stick up and your horse will navigate around obstacles such as trees and rocks.
Pressing Touchpad will activate Focused Hearing.
Swiping the Touchpad will activate the Guiding Wind.
There are also several actions that you acquire later in the game that require two buttons pressed at the same time to activate.
Triangle and Circle perform the Heavenly Strike.
L1 and R1 acts as Dance of Wrath. Once you have defeated several enemies in a row without taking damage,
You can press L3 and R3 to enter Ghost Mode.
When climbing walls you can press Cross to grab the wall and push the Left Stick in the direction you want to move.
Difficulty:
Before you start the game you have to choose a difficulty from Easy to Lethal. You can change the difficulty of the game at any time by going into the gameplay sub-menu found in Options. Easy provides minimal challenge with enemies providing little resistance, whilst Lethal is the most difficult where enemies are at their strongest.
Settings:
There are various settings in the game that can be turned onto make the game easier for some players. These can be found in the Options menu.
The game features some controller schemes that may be useful if you prefer the main buttons to be mapped to either the left side or the right side of the controller. You could choose between a Left-Handed, Melee Alternative or Melee Alternative (Left-Handed) layout. The Melee Alternative schemes swap the attack actions from Square and Triangle to R1 and R2. For the Left-Handed Melee Alternative the attack buttons are mapped to L1 and L2.
You can invert the Up/Down and Left/Right camera movements. By default moving the Right Stick to the left moves it left and moving it right moves it right. Turning on Invert Camera (Horizontal) swaps these movements around so that moving the Right Stick to the left will move the camera right and pushing it to the right will move it left. For default up and down movements, pushing the Right Stick up will move the camera up and pushing down will move the camera down. In the camera menu turning on Invert Camera (Vertical) swaps these movements around, so pushing up will move it down and pushing down will move it up. By changing the camera speed you can adjust the sensitivity of the camera with Cinematic being the least sensitive and Fast being the most sensitive.
Swap Left and Right Stick While Aiming option swaps the aiming stick over to the left stick. This reduces the need for Right Stick.
While aiming, you can still move your character with the Right Stick.
System remapping can also be done from the PlayStation menu to customise controls. However, this will not change control input prompts in the game.
Turning on Low Intensity Combat reduces the intensity of the combat therefore allowing more time to react to enemy attacks. Enemies also take longer to detect you whilst in Stealth Mode. Selecting this option will force the difficulty into Easy Mode.
Target Lock automatically targets and locks onto an enemy. You have the option for the target lock to continue locking on to other targets after defeating an enemy.
Simplified Mini-Game Controls removes the timing element when taking part in a Bamboo Strike, so you can take as long as you need to press the button sequence.
Toggle Button Holds turn certain actions requiring a button hold into button presses. Actions that are affected include Aiming, Firing with your bow, Opening cages and Igniting black powder caches. Even with the toggle option turned on, the on-screen prompt will still read as Hold to Open when opening cages or Hold to Ignite when lighting black powder caches.
Aim Assist automatically locks on and adjusts the aiming reticle to keep the target in the centre of the screen while aiming. After defeating an enemy, the reticle locks onto the next nearest target. This option can reduce the need for Right Stick. The Aim Assist does not apply to throwable weapons.
We hope you found this video useful and if you have any questions please get in touch with SpecialEffect.
Ghost of Tsushima [PEGI 18] is an action-adventure game that’s available on PS4 and PS5. You play as Jin, a Japanese Samurai who, along with his uncle, seeks to liberate his home island from the Mongolian invasion.
In this video and its accompanying post, we will be looking at the control inputs and their related settings, and also the motor accessibility of the game, such as the simplified mini-game controls and aim assist options.
Controls:
Left stick = moves Character
Right stick = moves Camera
Cross = Jump
Square = Quick Sword Attack/Assassinate
Triangle = Heavy Sword Attack
Circle = Dash (press twice to dodge roll, once you acquire it)
L2 = Aim [hold] (while aiming, pressing the D-Pad Directions selects a different weapon, and pressing Square, Circle, or Triangle changes the variant of the selected weapon once they have been unlocked)
R2 = Fire/Throw Weapon/Interact/Use Grapple Hook [press]/Change Quickfire Weapon [hold, followed by pressing the D-Pad direction after unlocking] or Sword Stance [hold, followed by pressing Cross, Square, Circle and Triangle after unlocking]
L1 = Block [hold]/Parry (press just before an enemy’s attack lands)
R1 = Quickfire Weapon
L3 = Sprint
R3 = Crouch
D-Pad Up = Lock On [press]/Enter Standoff (when prompted) [press by default or hold if lock-on is turned on]
D-Pad Down = Heal
D-Pad Left = Call Horse
While riding your horse, you can simply hold Left Stick up and your horse will navigate around obstacles, such as trees and rocks.
Touchpad = Enter Focused Hearing [press]/Activate Guiding Wind [Swipe]
There are also several actions that you acquire later in the game that require two buttons to be pressed at the same time to activate.
- Cross + Circle = Heavenly Strike
- L1 + R1 = Dance of Wrath
- L3 + R3 = Ghost Mode
When climbing walls, press Cross to grab the wall and push the Left Stick in the direction you want to move.

Difficulty:
Before you start the game, you have to choose a difficulty level from Easy to Lethal. You can change the difficulty of the game at any time by going into the gameplay sub-menu found in options. Easy provides minimal challenge with enemies providing little resistance, whilst Lethal is the most difficult where enemies are at their strongest.
Settings:
There are various settings in the game that can be turned on to make the game easier for some players. These can be found in the Options menu.
Controls Sub-Menu:

Control Scheme: The game features some controller schemes that may be useful if you prefer the main buttons to be mapped to either the left side or the right side of the controller. You can choose between Left Handed, Melee Alternative, or Melee Alternative (Left Handed).
Invert Camera (Horizontal): swaps the left/right camera movements.
Invert Camera (Vertical): swaps the up/down camera movements.
Camera Speed: changes the sensitivity of the camera with Cinematic being the least sensitive and Fast being the most sensitive.
Swap Left and Right Stick While Aiming: swaps the aiming stick over to Left Stick. This reduces the need for Right Stick. While aiming, you can still move your character with the Right Stick.
System remapping can also be done from the PlayStation menu to customise controls. However, this will not change control input prompts in the game.
Gameplay Sub-Menu

Difficulty: allows you to change difficulty of the game at any point during the game
Low Intensity Combat: reduces the intensity of the combat therefore allowing more time to react to enemy attacks. Enemies also take longer to detect you whilst in stealth mode. Selecting this option will force the difficulty into Easy mode.
Target lock: automatically targets and locks onto an enemy. You have the option for the target-lock to continue locking-on to other targets after defeating an enemy
Accessibility:

Simplified Mini-Game Controls: removes the timing element when taking part in a Bamboo Strike, so you can take as long as you need to press the button sequence.
Toggle Button Holds: certain actions requiring a button hold can now be accessed by a press instead. Actions that are affected include:
- Firing with your bows
- Aiming/changing weapon/weapon variant
- Opening cages (the on-screen prompt will still read as “hold to open”)
- Igniting black powder caches (the on-screen prompt will still read as “hold to ignite”)
Aim Assist: automatically locks on and adjusts the aiming reticle to keep the target in the centre of the screen while aiming. After defeating an enemy, the reticle locks on to the next nearest target. This option can reduce the need for Right Stick. The aim assist does not apply to throwable weapons.
We hope that this video and post have been useful. If you have any questions, please visit the ‘Contact Us’ page.
Ghost of Tsushima | Motor Accessibility Video Information
Video by Cara Jessop
Music:
Moonlight (Japan) – Hans Johnson (artist.io)
Leaving Japan – Lingerwell (artist.io)
Developer Resource:

For more video examples of how developers have improved the motor accessibility of their games, please visit https://specialeffectdevkit.info/