Cherry blossom petals float through a cool breeze as a mysterious mercenary, sword in hand, glides through the tall grass of a plain. It’s the scene of the Ghost of Yōtei, an open world action-adventure game set in an island called Ezo on the 1603 feudal Japan archipelago. You play as a 28 year old mercenary named Atsu colloquially known as the Onryō, a vengeful spirit with a striking vengeance. She is set on a warpath against the main antagonists of the game known as the Yōtei six who killed her family when she was a young girl.
The immediate emotion many placed in their mind for this game when it was first announced was excitement and anticipation. Many gamers loved the predecessor Ghost of Tsushima which is made obvious by the fact that Steam data shows an all time high of 77,154 concurrent players on PC alone in May of 2024, which surpassed God of War’s previous record breaking release, a trust set for the public in future games developed by Suckerpunch (the developers of the Ghosts series)
The game opens with a refined sequence that sets the scene. With the first inputs, the player is tasked with is writing the names of the Yōtei six on a paper sash that is carried for the whole game and is one of many representations of Atsu’s thirst for revenge is is referred to as her “hunt” creating a parallel between her and her wolf companion.
When Ghost of Yōtei first released many were hooked, right from the start with the beginning tutorial sequence crossing a name off the sash by killing The Snake, one of the Yōtei six. Even from the start it’s easy to notice its obvious similarities and improvements from Tsushima. For example, in Tsushima the player gets a choice between four different kata’s (combat forms) for the katana that are progressively learned from different teachers throughout the game. Yōtei expanded on this tenfold by introducing eight new weapon systems, which is revolutionary because no other game has such a seamless switch between countering different enemies with different weapons. The combat system in Tsushima was addicting and Ghost of Yōtei improved it so much, and rivals games like The Last Of Us and Elden Ring for its unique controls and immersive action.
Most people’s favorite weapon is the katana due to its versatility and how much it opens itself to different combos with itself and other weapons. However, the Yari (spear), was also very unique compared to other weapons because it had the reach of the Odachi (very large sword) while still having the finesse of The Kusarigama (a weapon that has a large metal piece connected to a scythe via a chain).
Ghost of Yōtei greatly utilizes Playstation’s semi new haptic controllers with its distinctive use of the touchpad. In the same vein, it has an advantageous employment of the button layout in mini games like the bamboo strike where the player presses buttons in a specific order quickly which gives a spirit (stamina) increase. There is vanity painting that gives a cosmetic, and most especially the gambling game found in most sake houses and central towns. Zeni Hajiki is a game where the player flicks coins at other coins using precision and accuracy on the controller’s trigger to get rewards like charms and mon (the currency used in the game). Zeni Hajiki is so unique to Ghost that there has never been a mini game like it before.
One of the few faults was that although Atsu makes significant character growth and development throughout the story the fact that it was structured as an open world game where other than the main story the player could do a side quest at any point after discovering it. This meant that the developers of the game were sort of forced to keep Atsu’s dialogue kind of tame in the side quests so that her voice lines don’t seem out of character, though this did come off as her being very serious and acting like the Onryō rather than Atsu. There is a lot of dialogue even mid chase during a bounty hunt or while Atsu takes out an enemy encampment which forces the exposition to lean more on the other characters and put Atsu’s emotion and opinion into the main storyline. It’s also a somewhat predictable storyline but the reason was that it heavily paralleled Jin’s revenge story from this game’s predecessor.
The larger map is very well made, even though the main opinion online is that it’s a big empty map. However, the random encounters scattered throughout fill the map with a lot of life, as well as the vastness of it influencing exploration and cinematic horse riding. Additionally every single side quest feels like its own story aside from Atsu’s tame shut off reticent personality while it takes place. It almost every time had an extremely inspired and riveting plot along with characters that made sense.
The animations in this game are astoundingly crafted, the live action mocap with most notably Erika Ishii who played Atsu elevated every single fight that took place. As well as every single bit of parkour and horse riding helped represent the dexterity of Atsu and bring more bite to her bark. The developers assemble a team of people that use special cameras that film the actors wearing special suits with little white tracking balls all over them similar to CGI suits for movies. Erika Ishii’s performance as Atsu and other actors’ performances really tie the story together, and all the motion captured cutscenes feel like an actual well made movie rather than just a video game.
The sound design of Ghost of Yōtei strived to be very authentic like for example the use of the shamisen as not just an instrument but also a connection to the spirit world and the dead. Atsu has a character arc represented by her wolf companion that represents her hunger for the hunt and her desire to kill the Yōtei Six, it starts vicious as she slowly tames her rage to work better for her but it’s still a savage unkempt monster. Just about every time she takes out a camp the wolf is there, every plot point, the wolf is there, and she feeds the wolf metaphorically and literally, and only after the Yōtei six are dead the wolf can rest.
Ghost of Yōtei is a near Red Dead Redemption level open world combat based game with a variety of different play styles and scores a decisive 9.7 out of 10 because of its heart-string pulling story and genius combat mechanics. Ghost of Yōtei leaves gamers hopeful and excited for a possible third game in the series.
