Ghost of Tsushima best standoffs are cinematic, thrilling, and sometimes silly

The Ghost of Tsushima best standoffs are tense and exciting, and the player community have started sharing some heart-pounding highlights (as well as some humorous mishaps).

If you haven't played yet, standoffs let you intentionally discard the element of surprise by challenging a group of enemies to single combat. From there the camera sets the stage with a dramatic letterbox effect, framing hero Jin Sakai as he faces off against a lone opponent: wait for just the right moment to strike and you can kill your foe with a single cut.

Standoffs are my favorite addition to the vocabulary of open-world action games since the air assassination, and players are working some true magic with standoffs. Note that some of these highlights show players who are quite far into the game, with upgraded skills and gear - if you'd rather encounter it all for yourself, beware of minor spoilers.

This standoff from Ryanicrude is just about perfect - from the foggy plains, to the swelling music, to the way Jin ends up perfectly silhouetted against the rising sun at the end.

This battle on a beach from almight_ultra ends with Jin outlined in bloody sand. I love the relentless pacing.

This standoff from _herbert-earp_ flows straight into some nearly flawless standard combat. The camera swinging efficiently from one target to the next makes Jin feel like a merciless predator.

And then, because Ghost of Tsushima is an open-world game, there is the occasional standoff mishap. Like this video of the world's most anticlimactic duel from natlrogers - it's like fighting the intro guy from Monty Python's Flying Circus…

Or sometimes your dramatic fight is interrupted by a bird landing on your rival's head, and then you feel so bad for accidentally killing it you miss the next guy, as submitted by AlterMyStateOfMind.

Finally, YellowSnowTheGamer proves that proper duel etiquette must account for fire safety.

Forge your own legend with our guide to Ghost of Tsushima duels.