Jin Sakai has seen some things. By the time you roll into the Iki Island expansion in Ghost of Tsushima, you’ve likely spent forty hours cutting through Mongols and grappling with the rigid, often suffocating code of the samurai. But Iki is different. It’s personal. It’s messy. Honestly, it’s arguably better than the base game because it stops being a war movie and starts being a therapy session with a katana.
When we talk about the Tales of Iki, we aren't just talking about a checklist of map icons. We are talking about a narrative pivot. On Tsushima, Jin is a hero. On Iki, he’s the son of a war criminal. That shift in perspective changes everything about how you play the game.
The Eagle and the Mind Games
The central pillar of the Iki expansion is the struggle against Ankhsar Khatun, known to her followers (and your nightmares) as The Eagle. She doesn’t just want to conquer the island; she wants to colonize Jin’s mind. Early in the story, she forces Jin to drink a hallucinogenic brew that triggers "visions"—which is a polite way of saying Jin starts seeing his dead father’s ghost everywhere telling him what a failure he is.
These aren't just cutscenes. They happen while you’re riding your horse. They happen during combat. It’s a brilliant, if slightly jarring, way to integrate the Tales of Iki into the actual flow of gameplay. You’ll be galloping through a field of purple flowers and suddenly the sky turns gray and Kazumasa Sakai’s voice booms out, mocking your choices. It makes the world feel unstable.
The main questline, "The Journey into the Past," is where the heavy lifting happens. You have to team up with raiders—the very people your father spent his life trying to execute. It’s awkward. It’s tense. Tenzo, one of the lead raiders, is a phenomenal character because he represents the "other side" of the Sakai legacy. To the Shogun, Kazumasa was a bringer of order. To the people of Iki, he was the "Butcher of Iki."
Breaking Down the Secondary Tales
If you just rush the main story, you're missing the soul of the expansion. The side quests, or the smaller Tales of Iki, flesh out the collateral damage of the Mongol invasion and the previous Samurai occupation.
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Take "The Ghost of Iki Island." It’s a bit of a meta-commentary on Jin’s reputation. You find someone essentially LARPing as the Ghost, and it forces you to confront how your legend has outgrown your actual person. Then there’s "The Caretakers of the Eagle," which shows the cult-like grip the Mongol leader has on the local population. It’s dark stuff.
What’s cool is how the game rewards exploration. You’ll find these "Unwritten Tales" that don't even show up in your quest log. Maybe you find a house that’s been ransacked and you have to use your tracking skills to figure out what happened. No waypoint. No hand-holding. Just you and the environment. This kind of organic storytelling is what makes Iki feel like a living place rather than a theme park.
Memories of the Father
While not technically "Tales" in the quest-log sense, the Wind of Memory leads you to locations that trigger flashbacks of Jin’s childhood. These are some of the most emotionally resonant moments in the franchise. You see Jin as a boy, trying to live up to a father who was, frankly, a pretty terrifying man.
You learn about the "Sakai Shimpa," the specialized combat techniques, but more importantly, you learn why Jin is so broken. He watched his father die and did nothing. Iki forces him to stop running from that. By the time you finish the last memory, the relationship between Jin and the memory of Kazumasa has evolved from pure guilt into a sort of scarred acceptance. It’s nuanced writing that you don't always get in AAA open-world games.
The Mythic Tales: Sarugami and the Black Hand
You can't have a Ghost of Tsushima update without Mythic Tales. On Iki, these are centered around legends that feel a bit more "supernatural" or at least more folkloric than the ones on the mainland.
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"The Legend of Black Hand Riku" is the standout. You’re hunting for the Sarugami Armor. To get it, you have to navigate a pitch-black cave where the only light comes from glowing mushrooms and the occasional spark of your blade. The boss fight against Riku is a visual masterpiece.
The armor itself? It’s a literal game-changer. It removes your ability to do a standard parry but makes "Perfect Parries" devastating. It turns the combat into a high-stakes rhythm game. If you’re good at the timing, you’re a god. If you’re off by a millisecond, you’re dead. This is the kind of mechanical depth that keeps a game fresh 50 hours in.
Then you have "The Legacy of Kazumasa Sakai." This one is a bit of a platforming challenge involving a ship graveyard and some very angry waves. You get the Sakai Horse Armor from it. Yes, your horse gets a power-up. It can now charge through groups of enemies like a four-legged battering ram. It’s incredibly satisfying to hear the thud of a Mongol sentry getting launched thirty feet into the air.
Why the World Feels Different
The color palette on Iki is dialed up to eleven. Sucker Punch went wild with the saturation. Turquoise waters, vibrant purple wisteria, and deep red forests. It’s beautiful, but it’s also a bit deceptive. The beauty masks the fact that the island is a den of thieves and killers.
The environmental storytelling is top-tier. You’ll find "Animal Sanctuaries" where you play a mini-game involving the controller’s gyro sensors to play the flute for cats, deer, and monkeys. It sounds cheesy. It sort of is. But after an hour of decapitating invaders, sitting down to pet a ginger tabby is the palate cleanser you didn't know you needed. These moments are essential to the Tales of Iki experience because they show what Jin is fighting for, not just what he’s fighting against.
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Technical Nuances and the Iki "Vibe"
If you're playing this on a PS5, the haptic feedback is doing a lot of work. The pitter-patter of rain on the controller, the tension in the triggers when you’re drawing a bow—it adds a layer of immersion that makes the world feel tactile.
But let’s talk about the difficulty. Iki is significantly harder than the base game. The Mongols here have "Shamans" who chant and buff every enemy in the vicinity. You have to prioritize targets differently. You can’t just roll in and mash square. You need to use your ghost weapons—kunai, smoke bombs, wind chimes—effectively. The game expects you to be a master by the time you set foot on these shores. If you go to Iki as soon as the game lets you (at the start of Act 2), you are going to get your teeth kicked in.
Actionable Steps for Completing the Tales of Iki
If you’re looking to 100% this expansion or just want the best experience, here is how you should actually approach it:
- Prioritize the Shamans first. In any combat encounter, find the guy chanting. If you don't kill him, the other enemies become parry-resistant tanks. Use your bow to pick them off from a distance before the fight even starts.
- Don't ignore the Flute Mini-games. They aren't just for fluff. Completing Animal Sanctuaries upgrades your charms, specifically the ones that affect your "Ghost" abilities.
- Get the Sarugami Armor early. Head to Mount Barre and start the "Legend of Black Hand Riku" as soon as it becomes available. It is arguably the best armor set in the entire game for skilled players.
- Look for the Wind of Concentration. There are Archery Challenges scattered across the island. They are tough. You need to hit multiple targets in a few seconds. Using the Tadayori Armor set makes these much easier because it slows down time when you aim.
- Search for the Unwritten Tales. Talk to every NPC who doesn't immediately try to kill you. Some of the best world-building happens in these small, un-marked interactions, like helping a woman bury her family or clearing a specific patch of forest of poison.
The Tales of Iki serves as a perfect coda to Jin’s journey. It doesn't overwrite what happened on Tsushima; it contextualizes it. It turns a war story into a human story. By the time the credits roll on the Iki expansion, you don't just feel like a legendary warrior. You feel like a person who has finally made peace with his past. And in a medium full of sequels and expansions that just offer "more of the same," that kind of emotional closure is a rare thing indeed.