Characters / Ghost of Tsushima - Jin Sakai

Jin Sakai

Voiced by: Daisuke Tsuji (English), Kazuya Nakai (Japanese), Junya Hirano (Japanese, young Jin)^note Other Languages:Alejandro Graue (Latin American Spanish), Ivan Zharkov (Russian)

"Honor died on the beach."

^{Click here to see him as the Ghost}

The protagonist and titular "Ghost of Tsushima," a samurai under the employ of his uncle Lord Shimura. Barely surviving a disastrous battle to repel Mongol invaders, he wanders the island of Tsushima to protect his homeland and repel the invaders.

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# — F

• The Ace: Jin is a great warrior, tactician, investigator, scholar and mountain climber.
• Acquired Poison Immunity: Not outright Immunity but more akin to 'resistance'. At the beginning of Act 3, Jin is attacked unarmored and without his horse by a band of Mongols testing Khotun Khan's new wolfsbane poison weapons, resulting in him getting struck by a poisoned arrow and displaying the same symptoms as many of his victims, only being able to run for a few meters before vomiting up blood and collapsing. Luckily, Yuna is able to find and and give him treatment, with it being implied that Jin's survival was the result of his own toughness in being able to endure the lethal effects, and afterwards, though Jin can be negatively affected by the same poisoned weapons, he can 'cure' it by using resolve to avoid losing more health, implying that his body has adapted to the poison and can purge it from his system with effort and focus, similar to how Ninjas would build resistance to their own toxins through taking incremental doses to avoid accidentally poisoning themselves when using them on the job. This proves vital during the final fight with Khotun, as the latter cheats during his duel with Jin by tossing a bottle of poison into his face, which only slows Jin down long enough for him to retreat back to his forces on his burning flagship.
  • In the Iki Island expansion, the climax of the Final Boss fight against the Eagle has Jin managing to overcome and resolve his guilt towards his father's death in a hallucination, thereby preventing the Eagle's poison from affecting his perceptions anymore, allowing him to finish the fight with her with a clear head. She's shocked that he was able to overcome her sacred medicine without succumbing to madness or accepting her aid, and Jin can later instruct fellow victims of her poison on how to resolve their guilt and fears that the 'Sacred Medicine' warps and distorts for the purposes of breaking them. Though none demonstrate as complete a recovery as Jin does, they at least no longer hear the Eagle's voice.
• Ancestral Weapon: And armour as well. After his father's death, Jin inherited the Sakai family katana that was used by his father and forefathers. In the mission "Ghosts of the Past," he receives the Sakai Clan armour worn by the clan leaders from his caretaker. Like his katana, the armour also belonged to his father before his passing. The Iki Island expansion also allows him to retrieve his father's specially-crafted horse armour that was left behind after the failed attempt to subdue the raiders on the island, which, when combined with both examples above, greatly help him resemble his deceased father's appearance.
• Animal Lover: Jin has a soft spot for animals, which is given much more attention in the Iki Island expansion with the various animal sanctuaries. He develops a strong bond with his horse, can follow Tsushima's foxes to Inari shrines (and pet them afterward) and will play his flute for the various animals found in Iki Island's sanctuaries (and pet them afterward, as well). With the right charm he can also pet the Mongol dogs and turn them to his side.
• Animal Motifs: Jin could be seen as having two.
  • Foxes. Throughout the game, Jin can follow foxes to Inari shrines, which grant him new charms and abilities. He also said that his mother saw a fox chasing butterflies outside their home when Jin was born. Foxes are also known to be very cunning, which fits into Jin's later methods of fighting the Mongols through stealth and cunning rather than a head-on charge.
  • Dragons. In the second act of the story, Jin recovers the Clan Sakai armor, which was once worn by his father, Kazumasa Sakai. The armor and mask heavily resemble an Eastern dragon.
• Anti-Hero: Played with. As the story progresses, Jin adopts 'dishonorable' methods of fighting the Mongols, including terror, stealth, and poison. However, Jin is shown to have a strong moral compass and is motivated by the desire to protect his people from the Mongols. He adopts these methods not out of true desire to do so, but because the Mongols have learned the samurai code of honor and are using it against the people of Tsushima. That said, he does gain a rather vindictive streak towards the Mongols and Khotun Khan in particular, wishing to see them suffer for what they've done to Tsushima and its people.
• Apologetic Attacker: Sometimes when killing enemies with assassination moves, Jin can be heard apologizing to them for using underhanded tactics. Though as the story moves forward, Jin stops doing so as he's now hardened his resolve.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Jin has absolutely no truck with the supernatural, ironically enough, given his own implied mythical traits, as his immediate reaction to tales of ghosts, kappa, and onryō, is to assert that humans are behind it all. However, he's a believer in Shinto, is well versed in Buddhism, and steadfastly believes that the foxes and orioles of the island are divine messengers and should be treated with the utmost respect.
• The Atoner: The Iki Island expansion shows that Jin is deeply haunted by the death of his father, specifically because Jin feels that he should have and could have saved Kazumasa, or at least died in the attempt. A lot of the subsequent choices in his life seem to stem from this incident.
• Awesome by Analysis: Jin is a quick learner when it comes to swordsmanship. He can learn the opponents' move and use it against them in one fight.
  • As a gameplay mechanic, one way to gain a new style is to observe Mongol generals training. The other is to defeat them in combat.
  • He masters the Heavenly Strike manoeuvre—a mythical manoeuvre that takes great skill—simply by studying the movements of the man he's currently fighting, who himself has just mastered it.
    Yasuhira Koga: What's are you waiting for, boy?
    Jin: Not waiting. Studying... learning... (fight continues) I've got it. (Jin Heavenly Strikes Koga)
  • He's similarly able to learn the "Dance of Wrath" manoeuvre during his duel with the Spirit of Yarikawa, using it as a Finishing Move to put her down and promising he will put it to better use.
  • He also commonly uses his tracking skills to find the path of bandits and other criminals to figure out what happened at a murder scene.
  • He's also sharp enough to deduce that the friendly peasant Matsu is actually Tomoe.
  • Many missions see him surveying the enemy forces and working out a strategy in advance, often taking advantage of terrain features like explosive barrels, hornet nests or torches to disrupt enemies.
  • His level-ups are implied to reflect how he's continually developing new tools and approaches to combat. His new skills are described as "Evolving Tactics" and the Ghost Weapons are implied to be his own inventions, making creative use of black powder, incense and other tools.
• Back from the Dead: Yuna starts his moniker of 'The Ghost' this way, claiming that he's actually a spirit of vengeance from the fallen Samurai of Komoda Beach, which is helped by the general belief that there were no survivors from the ill-fated defence. It's obviously untrue, but on the other hand, Jin survives multiple near-death situations throughout the game, which help contribute to the perception of him as an otherworldly being, and following the attack, Jin does seem to become more spiritually attuned to the world around him, enabling him to summon the guiding wind to direct him to where he needs to be, implying that there might be some grain of truth to the tall tale after all.
• Badass Cape: A few armor sets he can equip sport one, most notably his signature outfit, the Ghost Armor.
• Batman Grabs a Gun: While he's not pleased with it, Jin is ultimately forced to abandon the samurai code of honor and become a Combat Pragmatist in order to repel the Mongols, realizing that fighting honorably means nothing when the enemy won't do the same and trying to do so will only get him killed.
• Becoming the Mask: Initially, Jin isn't thrilled when people call him the Ghost in large part because while he willingly discards the samurai code, he doesn't want them to forget the samurai are their protectors. As the game goes on and Lord Shimura's tactics only end up causing more harm than good because of his refusal to consider alternative solutions beyond Attack! Attack! Attack!, Jin starts to embrace his status as Tsushima's Terror Hero. By the end of Act II, he fully solidifies his reputation and accepts his moniker with pride after poisoning the Mongols at Castle Shimura, albeit at the cost of forever alienating himself from Shimura and the other samurai besides his closest allies.
• Beware the Nice Ones: A kindly, reserved, patient guy who encourages everyone he helps to help others in turn. He plays the flute, composes poetry, picks flowers, and is fond of animals. He's also capable of decapitating a fully-armored Mongol in one blow and can kill five men with as many strokes of his sword.
• Big Brother Instinct: Develops a close relationship with both Taka and Norio, both of whom have/had older siblings and look up to Jin (flavor text even mentions Taka worships Jin)
• Bow and Sword in Accord: The primary weapons besides throwing weapons that Jin uses are his katana and a bow that is given to him by Ishikawa. Later on Jin can get the longbow of Uchitsune.
• Byronic Hero: Jin grows to fit many of the traits as the game goes on, especially as his values begin to diverge from that of traditional samurai. Jin's tactics grow less and less "honorable" in the name of stopping the Mongol invasion, though he's not happy about it.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Does this to both his biological father and to his uncle, who raised Jin as his own son.
  • During the Iki Island expansion, Jin confronts his father in a hallucination and calls him out on not being a father to him as a child.
    Jin: You did what was needed on the battlefield. Not at home. I needed a father.
  • He also does this with Lord Shimura near the end of Act 2 during the battle to retake Castle Shimura after Lord Shimura gets many of his men killed in a foolish head-on attack that sticks to the samurai code, an attack that he intends to repeat.
    Jin: I sacrificed everything to save our people! I gave them hope! You did nothing!
  • Jin calls out his uncle one last time just before the Final Boss fight starts. When Lord Shimura says that Jin "has no honor", Jin fires back that his uncle is "a slave to it".
• Character Catchphrase: Responds with "I Did What I Had to Do" whenever someone questions his actions deviating from the samurai code.
• Character Development: He goes from being a rigid, stoic samurai to being a person who shows more emotion and willingness to adapt to the situation as the game's story goes along.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: His martial arts training gives him superhuman strength, speed, and reflexes. He can kick armored soldiers twenty feet, cut/stab through iron armor, and perform Flash Stepping to cut down enemies, among other things. The cutscene after the first duel with Ryuzo flat out shows him deflecting an arrow, which is close to impossible to pull off.
• Chick Magnet: He has Ship Tease with Yuna, and Tomoe offers to sleep with him one time (though that was implied to be an attempt at a Honey Trap that he saw past). More than one woman describes him as handsome or charming.
• Child Soldier: He's expected to participate in defending his home from a rebel attack when he looks to be about twelve, and not long after, Shimura makes him execute a would-be assassin. Deliberate Values Dissonance does apply, considering the times the game is set in.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Jin will stop to help every passer-by, regardless if their problems are connected to the invasion or provide any benefit to him. One example is a widow who lied and said bandits took her food when she just had nothing to eat and was starving. Jin lightly scolds her for lying, since he would have helped her if she told him the truth.
• Clothes Make the Superman: Justified. Jin can wear and equip several armour sets around the island that give him benefits if he wishes to focus upon a particular style of fighting. None of these benefits are explicitly superhuman or impossible to achieve without the armour; they're just designed specifically better pull off the techniques required for that fighting style. These include sturdier armour like the Gosaku or Samurai sets to enable Jin to take more hits, Tadayori's armour for ease of drawing arrows, or Jin's titular Ghost Armour, which is a blend of practical and theatrical, covered in weapons to allow Jin to easily utilize his Ghost techniques as well enhances his ability to terrify his opponents and more easily enter his Ghost Stance.
• Combat Pragmatist: Though initially reluctant to do so, he takes Yuna's advice to heart and employs "dishonorable" methods of fighting in his fight against the Mongol invaders, realizing that the traditional samurai ways alone won't repel the enemy, especially when the Khan demonstrates his knowledge of the samurai code.
• Cool Mask: Can collect a number of them in his travels, the Ghost Armor's fanged scowl being the most prominent.
• Cowboy Cop: Jin symbolically fits this to a T. The rebellious and pragmatic way he fights against the Mongols runs counter to how the samurai caste wants him to conduct himself. At best, Lord Shimura barely tolerates Jin's methods even though he vehemently disagrees with them, but come the final mission of Act 2, both Lord Shimura and Lord Oga drop the pretence and tell Jin that he will have to cease acting as "the Ghost" because of the political ramifications. Needless to say, Jin refuses.
• Cultured Badass: Befitting his upbringing, Jin is well-versed in the history of Tsushima and the samurai clans that have lived there, has written dozens of haikus, can read Chinese, and has studied Sun Tzu. He's also incredibly skilled with his katana, and by the end of his journey, will have amassed a large variety of weapons for dealing with his enemies, and very nearly single-handedly defeated the Mongolian invasion.
• Cynicism Catalyst: The opening of the game, where the Mongols ruthlessly exploit the samurai's codes of honor to slaughter them all, severely disillusions Jin and convinces him that dirtier techniques are necessary to prevail in the battle against them.
• Dark Is Not Evil: A few of the outfits Jin collects during his journey across Tsushima, such as the Sakai Clan armor or the Ghost armor, are dark in color and evoke the image of a demon warrior when wearing the masks. While Jin does instil fear in the Mongols and capitalizes on it, not to mention brutally slaughtering them by any means necessary, he's nonetheless a heroic figure to the inhabitants of Tsushima island and generally a decent and gentle guy.
• Deadpan Snarker: Notably, Jin trades some good snipes anytime he has to deal with Kenji's antics. Otherwise, he's a patient, respectful man. He also makes quite a few snarky comments in the DLC with Tenzo, more than he does in the main game.
• Death Seeker: A conversation with Lady Masako reveals that his first attempt to rescue Lord Shimura was a sort of suicide attempt. He wished he had died with the other samurai at Komoda beach and threw himself into a battle he knew he had no chance of winning, because it was easier to die than live with the pain of losing everything he cared about. After barely surviving getting thrown off a bridge, he gained the resolve to keep living and save his people.
  • Based on the Iki Island expansion, one could interpret that he has had this mentality his entire life, after he failed to save his father from a gang of bandits, and he somewhat feels that he should have died alongside Kazumasa.
• Determinator: Jin goes through quite a lot in his quest to repel the Mongol invaders, but pushes onward at all costs. Gameplay-wise, he heals himself by pushing through the pain in a gaming mechanic known as Resolve—which shows his absolute refusal to die until the Mongols are gone.
• Divided We Fall: Jin attempts to appeal to Masako when she tries to kill Junshin, the monk they saved who she mistakenly thinks is one of those responsible for the deaths of her family, telling her if they fight each other, the Mongols will win. Masako bitterly replies that "[Mongols] already won" and proceeds to duel Jin.
• The Dreaded:
  • From both the Mongol invaders and some of the Tsushima residents as Jin grows more and more into the mindset of the Ghost, using whatever means necessary to kill the Mongols. Some commoners remark that he fights like a demon while Mongols will potentially flee in terror if Jin is being particularly vicious. By the end of the game, while the inhabitants of Tsushima look up to Jin as a quasi-supernatural guardian spirit, the Mongols are downright terrified of him while he ruthlessly hunts them down.
  • This becomes a Gameplay and Story Integration with the passive Terrifying system and the Ghost Stance. As Jin gains certain abilities and buffs, his actions in the game such as using Ghost weapons to kill enemies undetected and defection attacks have a chance to terrify other enemies. Once Terrified, they will literally flee from combat. The Ghost Armor that Jin receives during the story further increases the chance of this happening. Finally the Ghost Stance, a stance achieved if Jin can successfully chain kill a number of enemies without getting hit, once activated will freeze enemies in terror while Jin murders them in a single strike.
• Emotions vs. Stoicism: His character arc through the game involves this inner conflict. Being raised with the code and values of the samurai, Jin strives to be stoic and in control of his emotions. However, he struggles with keeping his composure as he finds himself unable to defeat the Mongol invaders without forsaking his honor.
• Exceptionally Tolerant:
  • Jin is a proud samurai, demands respect for his station, and sees nothing wrong with feudalism as a model in general. But besides that, he is shockingly tolerant of sex and class differences for a 13th century noble, defending Yuna's honor to his uncle, loyally serving even the lowest peasant, and encouraging thieves, mercenaries, and farmers to fight alongside him. Eventually, the Shogunate reveals they have something to say about that.
  • He's also sympathetic and doesn't judge a man in a side-quest for having a lover of the same gender (though Japan was tolerant of male-male relationships, and even saw them as honorable for the warrior class, until the Meiji Westernization). His acceptance of Masako having an extra-marital affair with another woman, however, is more remarkable but understandable given that nothing came of it and she is now in mourning for her family.
  • One side story is about someone having looted a samurai armor and impersonating a lord. Jin is angered but simply let him off with a warning to never do it again instead of killing him.
• Expecting Someone Taller: As his legend grows, tales of him get more extreme. By the time he gets to Kamiagata, people believe he is ten feet tall with eyes like a demon, and are surprised when neither is true.
• Experienced Protagonist: By the time the game starts Jin is already an experienced samurai, archer, mountain climber and leader. The only thing he has no experience in are the dishonorable Ghost tactics and it doesn't take him long to adapt to that as well.
• Expy: Of Batman. Jin lost his parents at a young age, his father was killed while Jin could only watch fueling a guilt complex, he dresses in black, he wages a one-man war against those who would hurt his home, he works at odds with the local laws, his primary weapon is inspiring fear in his enemies, he uses a lot of gadgets, and he dresses up like something scary. The main differences are that Jin is a lot friendlier than Batman and doesn't adhere to Batman's Thou Shall Not Kill rule.
• Fighting Your Friend: He’s forced to do this twice, first with Masako and the second with Ryuzo. The first ends with them reconciling while the latter does not.
• Flat-Earth Atheist: Downplayed, Jin is religious and seems to adhere to Shinto but he has takes no heed of legends trying to dissuade him from seeking out mighty techniques, weapons and armor from Mythic Tales. His mantra seems to be "Curses can wait until the Mongols are dealt with."

G — N

• Gadgeteer Genius: As he levels up he personally invents new Ghost Weapons, each having a voice line explaining how it was accomplished (smokey incense for smoke bombs, black powder and tar for sticky bombs etc.).
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • Sensei Ishikawa suggests that Jin isn't a very good archer, but there's nothing preventing the player from becoming a master sniper. It's also made increasingly clear through his quest line that Ishikawa is just a raging perfectionist.
  • There are also missions when he becomes reluctant to attack enemies due to their numbers when he’s likely fought just as many if not more before and after said encounters. Most notably during a mission where he reluctantly agrees to have Taka lure away a score of Mongols guarding a camp in order to thin their numbers, which indirectly leads to Taka's death. Never mind that a previous mission had him raiding a fort with Shimura alone as backup and they both killed everyone inside with little issue.
  • During one of Sensei Ishikawa's sidequests, the game expects you to Ghost through the encounter, and Ishikawa scolds you appropriately. Dicing them like an honorable Samurai, or sniping them, however, makes no difference, the game still treats it like you stealthed through.
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: With Yuna, especially in the early parts of the game, where Jin is almost entirely dependent on using melee weapons, while Yuna primarily uses her bow. Even though Jin and Yuna are shown to be proficient with both types of weapons, this contrast remains.
• Hammerspace: A downplayed example, but the game somewhat treats Jin's katana and tanto as if they were the same weapon, despite them being separate blades that he must upgrade for different purposes. Notably, following the combat tutorial in the beginning, Jin is only shown to be recovering his katana, and Yuna only exclusively refers to selling his katana and not the Tanto blade with it, yet after dealing with the spear-wielding Mongol, Jin is wearing both blades at the hip. It happens again when Jin embraces the identity of the Ghost and becomes considered a traitor to the samurai as he quickly hands over his katana to Yuna and implores her to find Khotun Khan. Despite keeping the tanto blade with him, when Jin later recovers his equipment with Yuna, the tanto is returned to him at the same time he regains his katana, though it could be partially justified as Yuna notes that she made sure to retrieve all of Jin's equipment to enable him to keep being the Ghost even when separated from the majority of their allies on the other side of the mountains.
• Handicapped Badass: Downplayed. Jin never gets a health bar in-game until after the fight at Komoda Beach, and it's shown as being the same size as it was when he was a child receiving instruction in the way of the blade from Lord Shimura. Given that Jin receives health boosts from soaking in the hot springs around the island, it's implied that Jin's body was still badly hurt from his near-death experience on the beach, not helped by his near-suicidal one-man assault on Castle Kaneda shortly afterwards, and Jin is less receiving health than he is allowing his badly battered body to rest and recover for a moment from running around non-stop all over the island fighting Mongols. On a technical note, the armour he's forced to wear during that assault is the only armour in the game that provides no benefits to Jin, and yet he's still able to cut his way through the castle until he's stopped by Khotun Khan.
• Heroic Willpower: How Jin heals his wounds: he just uses his resolve to power through the pain and shake it off. He can even use it to shrug off being poisoned by the same toxins he uses to instantly kill enemies that leaves them convulsing and coughing up blood.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: At the end of the game, Jin is labeled as a traitor by the mainland Shogunate for the "crime" of inspiring the peasants of Tsushima to rise up and fight for themselves, as this threatens the delicate caste system that keeps the samurai on top.
  • Averted among the citizens of Tsushima, however. While an old "friend" of Yuna's mentions some citizens beginning to fear him due to his brutal tactics—along with a few others after the poisoning at Shimura castle—the vast majority remain on his side and admire the Ghost for fighting back and encouraging them to rise up against the invaders.
• Home Base: Since Jin is constantly on the move, gathering allies or liberating towns, he has no real place to hang his mask for the first two acts. In Act 3, where Jin's objective is to corner the Khan and he needs a place to easily observe and mount an attack from, he and his allies set up a base at Jogaku Temple. The samurai of Yarikawa permanently move there, even in the postgame.
  • In the postgame, Jin occupies a dilapidated house hidden in the wilderness. Depending on your final decision at the end of the game, Jin will set up shop either a little ways north from Omi Temple, in a secluded grove behind the giant Buddha statue and a short walk from Omi Village, or on a hill in the middle of the forests of Otsuna. He keeps a Trophy Room of his completed side-quests and adventures, mementos of his friends, a forge, a worktable with Shout Outs to plenty of PlayStation 4 games, supplies of wolfsbane and grenades (purely decorative; you still have to get these from the field), and a humble straw mat to sleep on. At least Yuna, but possibly others, know of its secret location.
• Honor Before Reason: Subverted. The opening chapters focus on Jin coming to terms with the fact that this mindset will only get him killed. He is so deeply rooted in the upbringing that his uncle raised him in that he is reluctant to carry out any actions that he deems as dishonorable. Against Yuna's caution, Jin unsuccessfully attempts to storm Khotun Khan's stronghold from the entrance and nearly dies. It's not until he starts actively attempting to help liberate prisoners later on that Yuna convinces him that Jin will need to bend his code if he hopes to survive.
• Iaijutsu Practitioner: The "Stand Off" ability has Jin challenge his opponents to a duel. A successful duel involves Jin drawing his blade and killing his opponent in one move after his opponent has already started his attack. This ability can be upgraded to kill up to three people and up to five with the right gear.
• I Am Not My Father: Jin proves himself to be more merciful than Kazumasa throughout the Iki Island DLC, and during his last hallucination, when Kazumasa orders him to kill Tenzo to avenge him, Jin decides against making the same brutal mistakes like his father.
• I Did What I Had to Do: How he justifies his more pragmatic tactics against the Mongols—fighting honorably will only get him and innocent people killed, so he’ll do whatever it takes to fight back. The words "I did what I had to" even become a sort of a Catchphrase to him.
• I Regret Nothing: His actions to stop Khotun Khan cause the Shogunate to have Clan Sakai dissolved and Jin stripped of his status as a samurai. While clearly saddened by this, Jin proudly states that he would do it all over again because he saved the people of Tsushima.
  • Can go either way in regards to him poisoning the Mongol's drinking supply, after which they adapt and begin to use said poison themselves (and he hears that even a Japanese merchant used said poison against his business rivals). During a conversation after learning this, Jin can either show regret for giving the Mongols such a weapon or say that he only did what had to be done.
• Ink-Suit Actor: He is portrayed by Daisuke Tsuji, who also voices him in the English dub.
• Instant Expert:
  • During one mission he’s forced to use a hwacha to defend an allied ship, and instantly knows how to properly use and reload it with enough accuracy to take down multiple ships.
  • Once he acquires the grappling hook, he immediately "tests" it by swinging from trees and logs and fortifications as if it were second nature. He himself notes how handy and easy to use it is for him.
• Interclass Friendship: With Ryuzo (a commoner turned Rōnin), Yuna (a thief), Taka (a blacksmith) and Kenji (a sake merchant and scam artist). In fact he seems closer to them than any other nobles.
• It Gets Easier: With regards to stealth kills; he's no stranger to normal combat. He's very leery of fighting foes any way but head-on at first, and it takes a special mission from Yuna to even begin to backstab. He regrets it less and less as time goes on, especially since this helps him save hostages who would otherwise be killed by their Mongol captors. Gameplay and Story Integration also factors in: as Jin upgrades his short sword, he goes from noisily struggling with an assassination target to simply stabbing them in the neck and moving on swiftly.
• It's Personal: At first, he justifies his use of dishonorable tactics not as being cruel or bloodlust, but as a necessity to drive out the Mongols and for save his people. Once Taka is killed, he wants his foes to suffer.
• Jack of All Stats: At first, Jin is clearly made out to be a very skilled and proficient warrior in his own right, but he also doesn't normally stand out with many of his allies and enemies excelling at greater feats than his own. However, he begins studying said allies and enemies, and proves to be a quick learner by not only greatly improving on the skills that were taught to him, but also adding his own flare as well. By the end of the game, Jin is effectively a Master of All, and fully upgraded enough to face and defeat Khotun Khan.
• Knight in Shining Armor: Jin is the romantic ideal of a samurai in a setting otherwise Deconstructing the idea.
• Kleptomaniac Hero: Unlike with other dishonorable tactics, it doesn’t take much to convince him to start looting indiscriminately for supplies and materials. It’s fine when he does it for Mongol and bandit camps or abandoned villages, but it does get silly when he can go into starving villagers’ homes and take everything not nailed down. It's arguably justified early on because he has nothing besides his blades and his armour, which is busted to the point that it's only slightly better than going completely without it. Gathering supplies and resources to obtain better armour allows Jin to face tougher and more well-defended Mongols. Towards the endgame once he's considered a traitor to the samurai, he cannot get the resources he needs to provide the equipment he uses as the Ghost. As his deeds grow, however, Jin will be given supplies as offerings at various trees around Tsushima by the grateful populace, and it's hinted that they're allowing Jin to take what he needs from places that are still occupied because they know he needs all the aid he can get to fight the Mongols—or he recently just saved them from attackers.
• Leeroy Jenkins: At the beginning of the game, his first, disastrous attempt to rescue his uncle consists of him walking right through the enemy stronghold's main gate and demanding a fight. He gets more sensible about it after the Khan throws him off a bridge. He later admits that he was borderline suicidal when he attempted this.
• Legendary Weapon: Jin acquires the longbow of Uchitsune, one of Tsushima's legendary heroes. He also gathers three legendary armor sets through various quests.
• Light Is Good: Some armor dyes give Jin's armor bright, vibrant colors. One example is the Righteous Punishment dye for the Ghost Armor obtained after killing Lord Shimura at the end of the game.
• Lightning Bruiser: Jin is not only quicker than many of his foes, but is a lot stronger than what he appears to be. He is able to cut through his foes with extremely blinding speeds and evade many oncoming attacks (including the deflection of arrows), but he's strong enough to kick the much larger and heavily armored Mongols into the air as well as breaking through the brute's immensely powerful shields.
• Like Father, Like Son: Yuriko mentions that his father Kazumasa similarly argued against Shimura for being too conservative and rigid in his adherence to the samurai code. She also recalls a story of Kazumasa chasing after ronin on foot and coming back covered in blood after killing them, which scared his own men. Just like how Jin tends to scare people the more he falls into the role of the Ghost.
  • However, in terms of personality, it's very much Like Father, Unlike Son. As we discover through one of Jin's hallucinations, Kazumasa had always been strongly disapproving of Jin's softer personality, believing him to be unfit as both a samurai and the future clan head (then again, this could also be the Eagle's poison distorting Jin's insecurities into a manifestation of his father). Kazumasa was also much more of a brutal Blood Knight than Jin, being far more willing to slaughter the raiders of Iki, as well as the villagers who aided said raiders. Jin, on the other hand, is willing to put aside his preconceptions and work with his family's enemies or the underclass, not even attempting to mock or denigrate them (something his father and uncle would most certainly do).
  • From what little that we can imply from stories, Jin seems to have adopted a more mellow and peaceful personality from his mother. His ability and willingness to persuade former would-be enemies to help his cause can be traced to his own mother gently persuading him to do chores instead of fighting or commanding him.
• Living Legend: Yuna helps spread the story of him being s vengeful ghost come to stop the invaders. The siege of Yarikawa solidifies this with people bowing to him and screaming "for the Ghost!" as they charge into combat. By Act 3, he’s almost exclusively referred to as the Ghost and the people he counters are in awe and/or express surprise at him not being a ten-feet-tall demon, treating him as more a mythological figure than a regular samurai.
• Made of Iron: Jin has a penchant for surviving otherwise fatal wounds. The example standing out the most is after the first duel with the Khan, where he falls for what seems to be at least fifty meters while unconscious, and wakes up no worse for the wear. Even the way he recovers health is him powering through the pain rather than actually healing himself. However, he would have succumbed to the two arrows that pierced his back had Yuna not nursed him to safety. He’s also the only one shown surviving wolfsbane poison. The first time he passes out and Yuna has to heal him, while the second time during his fight with the Khan he simply powers through it.
• Master Swordsman: Ryuzo states that Jin is the best swordsman on the island and he more than lives up to this claim. Apart from the beginning duel with Khotun Khan—which can also be chalked up to him recovering from his grievous wounds from the intro—he never loses a single fight whether he’s fought alone or with groups of enemies. That said, it's also implied that part of his sword mastery at the end of the game comes from him encountering and adapting legendary sword techniques from past heroes to compliment his existing skills, and that Lord Shimura has a technical edge over him when wielding the blade. This gets proven during their duel at the end of the game, as Shimura can easily overwhelm Jin with fast speedy attacks that switch between blockable and unblockable and is presented as having greater depth of sword handling skills than Jin, who instead makes up for this with his multiple techniques.
• Magnetic Hero: Jin is able to convince people from various groups to following him ranging from peasant thieves (Yuna), sake merchants (Kenji), warrior monks (Norio) and nobles (Masako and Ishikawa). They even decide to follow him after he’s been made a fugitive and continued association would make them criminals as well. By the end of the game it’s gotten to the point where the peasantry have rallied behind him, referring to themselves as "the Ghost's army", which Jin is surprised and a little concerned by, since he never told them to do that. It’s deconstructed by Shimura when he worries that the peasantry would rebel against their lords. Jin assures him he won’t let that happen and that they would listen to him but Shimura has doubts. Jin convinced them to follow him by turning against his own uncle, so why wouldn’t they do the same to Jin if they don't agree with his orders?
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane:
  • A wind blows over Jin as he lies on the beach. The wind is also factor during gameplay. In a flashback Jin is told by his retainer Yuriko that his dead father is "the wind at his back". Jin interprets the wind as his father's guidance, while the player is left free to either follow him along on that perception or not.
  • The fight with the Tengu-masked man over the supposedly-cursed longbow: was it a Battle in the Center of the Mind or him tripping on some hallucinogens?
  • When Jin learns the Heavenly Strike technique and uses it to kill the man who murdered for it, the opponent dies instantly from a lightning strike. Good timing or divine intervention?
• Mook Horror Show: As the Ghost, Jin has tons of tools to scare his enemies so much they run away at the mere sight of him, not unlike a murderous Batman.
• Mr. Fanservice: Scattered through the game are hot springs. Choosing to stop by them and meditate will have Jin strip naked to enter, with his butt visible. And then he is subject to a Sexy Surfacing Shot upon leaving.
• My Greatest Failure:
  • As a teenage boy, when accompanying his father on his campaign to pacify Iki Island and they were caught in an ambush by the raiders, with his father gradually being overwhelmed why the number of attackers and his own exhaustion, the elder Sakai begged for Jin to save him, but the boy hid in a nearby house instead, resulting in his father's death. Whether or not it's reasonable to expect anything more from a boy in his early teens at most aside, this has been eating at Jin even when he became an adult, and his failure to rescue Lord Shimura is a stark reminder of that time.
  • He also considers losing at Komoda Beach and letting his uncle be captured to be one. This time he manages to make up for it by saving his uncle.
  • Getting Taka killed is a big one for him, as he urged the young man to run away and get a better life. In the fight immediately after, he's screaming in rage, which he never does any other time, and he constantly feels guilt over not being able to save him.
• My Name Is Inigo Montoya: Played straight and zigzagged on two occasions.
  • When Jin confronts the Khan for the first time at Castle Kaneda, he introduces himself in this fashion before fighting Khotun Khan proper:
    Jin: I am Jin Sakai. Nephew of Lord Shimura. I have come to avenge his honor.
  • Near the end of Act 2, after Lord Shimura discovers the aftermath of Jin poisoning the Mongols in the castle with the rest of the Shogun's reinforcements, he begs him to have Yuna take the fall and proclaim himself as "Jin Shimura"^note To give context, Shimura decides to formally adopt Jin as his son and make him his heir and the next jito of Tsushima, only for Jin to rebuke him and refer to himself not by name, but by the Red Baron title the people gave him.
    Jin: I am not your son. I am the Ghost.
• Never Hurt an Innocent: Regardless of how much people begin to fear him and his increasingly dishonorable tactics, this is the one line he’ll never cross. When an old “friend” of Yuna’s mentions that a few people are scared of him for killing the Mamushi brothers and leaving their decapitated heads on a pike, thus proving he doesn’t reserve his wrath for just the invaders, he counters that innocent people have nothing to fear from him.
• Nice Guy: Even before he becomes more open with his emotions, Jin is still kind, gentle, and compassionate. Of course, with his status as a warrior, Beware the Nice Ones is in full effect.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: At the end of Act 2, Jin commits his biggest break from samurai code yet when he poisons the Mongols' drink supply, horribly killing them all. Aside from getting him branded a criminal by the Shogun, his poison idea gets adopted by the Mongols who test out their new poisons on villages before planning to use said poisons in their campaign against mainland Japan. And Japanese citizens have taken to the idea of using poisons against each other, with one silk merchant killing his competition that way. Jin can either feel regretful about it or say that it was necessary based on your choice.
• Nice to the Waiter: In a contrast to his uncle, even as his adherence to honour wavers as the story goes on, Jin remains polite and courteous to even the lowliest of commoner he runs into, so long as they in turn show him at least a nominal degree of respect and deference due to his station—and if he likes you, he'll let even that slide. It's rather telling that his childhood friend was the commoner Ryuzo and he's closer to the thief Yuna and blacksmith Taka than any of the other nobles. Even in the flashbacks Ryuzo is his only friend mentioned, making it likely he was this even from a young age.
• Ninja: Becomes more this and less a samurai as the story goes on, and many of the "Ghost" weapons and tools that Jin pioneers the use of are those historically used by shinobi. By the end of Act 2 he even receives the Ghost Armor (the one he wears on the cover art) which emphasizes stealth over open fighting.
• Noblesse Oblige: He considers protecting the people of Tsushima, no matter their station, as his first and foremost duty as a samurai. He always stops to solve the problems that his people may be facing.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: He almost singlehandedly stops the Mongol invasion and personally kills the Khan. His reward? The Shogun brands him as a traitor, he's stripped of his title and lands, and sends Lord Shimura to kill him in a duel.
• One-Man Army: Jin can and will frequently slaughter an entire camp of Mongol troops without any help. This plus his increasingly brutal tactics is why the citizens of Tsushima both fear and revere him. This gets especially prominent during the final assault on Khotun Khan's fleet, with Jin's allies drawing fire from the Mongol defenders whilst he sneaks his way into the port, identifies Khotun's location, and then proceeds to carve his way through a small army of Mongols standing between them. Upon beating Khotun Khan in a fair duel, the latter retreats to his flagship where he summons a second small army to fight alongside him, only for Jin's Ghost tactics to even the number difference with ease.

O — Y

• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Jin is usually a fairly stoic and soft-spoken individual, and his flashes of rage towards the Mongols generally take the form of subdued seething. But when Taka is killed by Khotun Khan and the Straw Hats, his subsequent rampage is punctuated by furious screaming as he cuts down dozens of Ronin and Mongols.
• The Paragon Always Rebels: Not really, but this is how Shimura and other loyalist samurai to view his lapse into dishonorable tactics. By the end of the game he fully fits from their perspective: He was the ward of Tsushima’s lord and would’ve been his adopted son and official heir. Instead he betrayed all he stood for, was branded an outlaw and influenced the citizens of Tsushima into following his radical ways.
• Parental Abandonment: Both his parents died when he was young. His father's death is shown in a flashback to be caused by a rebel attack, while his mother's passing is explained as being due to illness.
• Perma-Stubble: His facial hair never grows past a constant five-o'clock shadow.
• Platonic Life-Partners: Despite being constant companions and essentially each other's best friends throughout the entire adventure, he and Yuna don't seem to have any romantic interest in each other.
• Pragmatic Hero: Initially trained in the ways of the samurai, the invasion inevitably forced Jin to use tactics unfitting of the ways of the samurai, such as stabbing his opponents in the back, striking from the shadows; tactics that would otherwise be employed by a shinobi.
• Protagonist Title: The titular "Ghost of Tsushima".
• Red Baron: After being described as a Vengeful Ghost by Yuna after defending Komatsu Forge, the residents of Tsushima begin calling him "the Ghost".
• Red Is Heroic: Some armor dyes give Jin's equipment a red color. Of particular note is the Vow of Vengeance armor dye for the Ghost Armor obtained after sparing Lord Shimura at the end of the game.
• Religious Bruiser: Jin is a devout follower of the Shinto religion, believing that charms blessed by the kami can change one's fate and that foxes are sacred messengers of Inari.
• Required Secondary Powers: A lot of Jin's Ghost abilities require him to throw projectiles mid-fight one-handed so he always keeps one hand on his blade. Accordingly, he has a mean throwing arm, able to kill 3 men in a single toss with multiple Kunai, once properly upgraded, which stands out as it's something that his Samurai training wouldn't have prepared him to master, meaning it's all natural talent on Jin's behalf.
• Rōnin: Technically, he becomes this due to the Shogunate disbanding his clan and him abandoning or killing his former master Lord Shimura.
• Samurai: He was raised as a member of a samurai clan. After surviving against the Mongols twice, he changes tactics and slowly transitions into a ninja-like assassin out of Pragmatic Heroism.
• Samurai Ponytail: Of course. He never undoes it even when bathing.
• Samurai Shinobi: He provides the trope image. At the beginning of the game, Jin starts off as a samurai who adheres to the code of Bushido, only to be forced to take on less than honorable means of freeing Tsushima from the Mongol hordes by utilizing stealth and underhanded tactics. Over time, he learns new stealth techniques and even acquires stereotypically ninja weapons. While his growing resemblance to ninja in his appearance and techbique are never openly stated — instead referring to him as a "Ghost", the ninja weapons referred to as "Ghost-weapons" — he can be considered a transitional warrior between both.
• Scars Are Forever: Jin has a scribbly-looking scar on his left cheek. While the moment he receives it it not shown, the wound that made it is—he got it from another boy as a child soon after Lord Shimura took him in as a ward.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: While rules might be stretching it, samurai did take their honor very seriously. Initially adhering to the samurai code as much as possible, Jin begins to forsake the code and his honor in order to combat the Mongols, which earns him harsh criticism from Lord Shimura and others. Even after being told point-blank by the Lord he serves to cut it out and fight with honor, Jin refuses.
• Sexy Surfacing Shot: Whenever Jin finishes bathing and reflecting on his thoughts in a hot spring, he will surface from the water and begin to turn around while raising his leg up in a way that barely conceals his crotch, which is when the camera will fade to black.
• Single-Stroke Battle: Stand-offs end with him killing enemies with a single slash.
• Sins of the Father: During the Iki Island expansion, Jin has to come to terms with his father's legacy as the "Butcher of Iki", who the locals regard as a much-hated samurai invader. As such, he initially has to hide his identity to protect himself from the locals.
• Skilled, but Naive: Yuna tells him that he has long forgotten what it's like to fight a stronger enemy. As a lord, Jin is well-educated and trained in the art of war, but the threats he was expected to face were bandits and rebel clans which wouldn't need him to fight in an underhanded way.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat: Jin frequently engages in this with Tenzo throughout the Iki Island Expansion.
• The Stoic: Being raised to be a samurai, Jin is generally reserved, though his composure starts eroding as the story progresses. Lampshaded in one early conversation with Yuna in Act 1: she points out that Jin doesn't open up much, which he admits to be true due to his upbringing.
• Tragic Keepsake: The Iki Island expansion reveals that the flute he always carries around with him and uses to interact with certain shrines (or change the weather if the player has unlocked the right tune) used to belong to his mother, and he keeps it with him to always keep a piece of her close. It's the only item he never loses throughout the game, even when stripped of his armour and weapons at certain points such as after being branded a traitor. His family's katana also counts, though Jin wields the blade as much to honour his family legacy and protect the people of Tsushima as to keep a painful reminder to himself of the time he failed to save his father, as least in his eyes. His father's armour serves as a straighter example, as Jin notably struggles to put it on when requested to by Lord Shimura, still haunted by his memories and guilt towards his father's passing. Tragically his iconic Ghost armour and grappling hook, the trademarks of his eventual identity as the ghost, also end up becoming this, thanks to the passing of their maker, Taka, shortly before. Following his betrayal of Jin, Ryuzo's straw hat ends up becoming this as well. In fact, during the postgame, the player can walk around Jin's Home Base to find it filled with supplies and weapons for his usage as the Ghost alongside reminders and trinkets from side quests he's completed, many of which end up falling into this thanks to the cost of the Mongol invasion.
• Terror Hero: Act 2 has Jin learn the ways of instilling fear in his foes, building on his reputation as "the Ghost". When he lifts the siege of Yarikawa, he learns the "Ghost Stance" which requires stealth killing a commander or killing 5-7 enemies without being hit. It allows him to One-Hit Kill three enemies which has a chance to terrify any nearby enemies, causing them to drop their weapons and run away. Other equipment and abilities also cause certain actions to have a chance to terrify. The Ghost Armor has any kill cause a chance to terrify, not just certain types of kills.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: Ultimately decides that samurai honor is only going to hamstring any effort to save his home and fully commits to the "Ghost" persona. He knows very well this will see him go down as a criminal and traitor and be the end of his clan, but results are more important—and it allows him to personally shoulder a good deal of the blame, diffusing any Shogunate retribution against the peasantry he rallied.
• Übermensch: His entire arc is about embracing this, especially under his namesake Ghost persona.
• The Unfettered: He'll use whatever means necessary to combat the Mongolian invaders, even if it involves going against the code of honour his uncle taught him. It eventually results in him being declared an outlaw by the Shogun.
• Universally Beloved Leader: To the people of Tsushima. While Jin isn't the official leader of the island, he's still a feudal lord the people look to for guidance and protection, both of which he does with flying colors during the Mongol invasion. Even when the Shogun announces that Clan Sakai is to be disbanded and Jin is stripped of his samurai titles while also being marked for death by other samurai, the people of Tsushima don't turn him in. The end of the game deconstructs this slightly as Jin's reputation has also caused some people to act "in his name" such as creaing the Ghost's Army or gathering supplies for an invasion on the Mongol homeland, neither of which Jin knew about nor approves of.
• Unstoppable Rage: His barely-maintained calm finally breaks when Taka is murdered before his eyes, causing him to slaughter all the Straw Hats in his path to the point they are completely wiped out. While he does compose himself between missions, it's clear that his wrath does not subside until he finally kills the Khan.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Zig-zagged; he's understandably fearful and despondent in the time of his parents' death, but the flashbacks of his training with Shimura show him as a lot more cheerful and generally emotive than he is as an adult, even before the Komoda Beach battle, likely due to Yuriko and Shimura's love and support. In fact, Kazumasa regarded him as too soft as a child. It seems his father's death made Jin decide Kazumasa was right.
• Vengeful Ghost: He is still among the land of the living, but he's described as such by Yuna when they kill the Mongols invading Komatsu Forge. It also helps that, as far as the villagers know, most of the samurai on Tsushima died when they attempted to repel the Khan's forces on the beach.
  Yuna: He is a vengeful spirit... back from the grave to slaughter the Mongols.
• Warrior Poet: Certain places in the world allow Jin to take a moment to compose some Haiku.
• Warrior Therapist: Serves as this to many of the people he aids across Tsushima, particularly his main allies, each of whom has encountered an event that has made them question their identity and purpose in life.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: The Iki Island expansion reveals that Jin had always struggled to live up to Kazumasa's expectations of him, which greatly contributes to his guilt over his father's death.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Numerous characters who believe in the samurai code disapprove of Jin's "dishonorable actions" as the Ghost, chief among them being Lord Shimura, who taught Jin how to be a samurai in the first place.
  • Ryuzo resents Jin beating him at a tournament, solely because he couldn't consider going easy on his childhood friend, because it'd have meant "Lord Sakai" would've lost to a commoner.
  • Jin's poisoning of the Mongols during the recapture of Castle Shimura was considered the final straw for the samurai as a whole; up to that point, they barely tolerated Jin's actions as the Ghost, but because his refusal to disown his title as the Ghost after that, they brand him a criminal.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: In a hot spring reflection, he mentions that in his teen years, under Lord Shimura, he and Ryuzo used to dress as maidens.
• The Wise Prince: While not a prince, Jin definitely fits this role quite well.
• Worf Had the Flu: Jin suffering a Curb-Stomp Battle to Khotun Khan in their first fight can be chalked up to him still recovering from almost dying from the opening battle. He also admits to Masako his attack was more a suicide run than anything.
• Would Hit a Girl: Though there aren’t many female enemies, the few times he faces women in duels he doesn’t hesitate to fight them just as he would his male opponents. If they’re attacking him, then he will defend himself as he would any other time.
• You Can't Go Home Again: In the end, the Shogunate revokes the Sakai clan's status as a samurai, intending to hand Jin's estate over to a new clan. Jin Sakai, now a fugitive, relocates to a run down shack with souvenirs of his journeys and side quests.
• You Have Researched Breathing: When Jin unlocks the ability to assassinate Mongols, he does so rather clumsily and struggles to quietly kill his target. As his tanto is upgraded, his assassinations become much smoother and faster.
• Your Costume Needs Work: Due to most of the villagers believing all of the Samurai died at the start of the game, some will either not believe Jin is a real Samurai or accuse him of having stolen Samurai armor.