It was a fascinating move to see Sucker Punch, of Sly Cooper and Infamous game, create a new IP based on their love of samurai films. A western development team—based in the most northwestern state of the United States at that—portraying a culture from the literal other side of the world.
Ghost Of Tsushima was a success, bringing smart design choices to an otherwise bog-standard open world stealth-action game. It’s polished to sheen, the operative word I use to describe Tsushima was “slick.” A fun game, but too much “Assassin’s Creed but Japan.” A little formulaic, even taken account of the cool innovations of open world exploration it has.
So here comes Ghost Of Yōtei. A new setting, a new time period, a new protagonist, and a new take on the stealth-action open world game.
But don’t mistake this for a safe sequel that could’ve been called Ghost Of Tsushima 2. Ghost Of Yōtei significantly shakes up the game’s structure, brings more nuance to what one assume to be a typical revenge story, and bring minor yet important refinements to the open world and stealth-action genre.
All of this makes Yōtei into an absolute Samurai Cinema experience, but with a tinge of, surprisingly, Spaghetti Western.
This isn’t just a great samurai game. I’d argue Ghost Of Yōtei is one of the best cowboy games ever, and it doesn’t even have cowboys.
The wild, wild north of Ezo has more in common with wild wild west, at least in this inspired take on the setting, which you have to really see it to believe it.
Presentation
Ghost Of Yōtei is a prime example of what good art direction can produce. In the AAA game space where games tend to look similar as they all strive for graphical realism, Sucker Punch zags instead of zigging, going for a more impressionistic look of 1600s Japan.
Ezo, the old name to the island region we now call Hokkaido, is full of colour, breathtaking vistas and beautiful views. Every named lake, river and mountain are actual places you can go to on your trip to actual Hokkaido. The maps themselves are not to scale of course, but each region feels big enough that on your first visit, it can feel huge.
If you’re here for the visual travel experience, all the colour nature has to offer the year round in this region. Want to get cosy and rustic? The autumnal Ishikari Plains is full of brown and red vibes, via natural sources or otherwise. A winter escape? Head north to the wintery Teshio Ridge where the green landscapes are coated in pillowy white snow. Looking for a summer getaway? Head down south to the Oshima Coast with its long beaches, rice fields and even catch the still-blooming sakura trees scattered around the region.
Wait, isn’t that supposed to be only seen in spring? Wait almost all of Ezo seems to be in spring if the amount of blooming flowers and trees are to go by. What gives?
You see, like a sumi-e smeared ink painting, Ghost Of Yōtei isn’t aimed at capturing the factually correct rendition of the source material, but rather it expresses the essence in which the painter—the developers—chose to capture. Even within the game, you can find this philosophy expressed in various places.
It’s the same philosophy of how cinema sometimes bend the rules of real logic in favour of respecting the Rule Of Cool. Such a move is something you’d expect from a video game as well, though in this regard it’s not just for the coolness factor, but also to make it more palatable to a player.
Don’t ask why you can reliably summon a horse by just whistling and they conveniently come from out of the camera frame even if you have your back to a cliff, but appreciate how the horse matches your movement speed so that you can always conveniently hop on horseback with a button press.
Don’t question how various weapons magically appear and disappear from the back, but appreciate the small lifting of the Odachi sheath and touching the blunt part of the blade halfway to make it more plausible that you can remove such a giant sword from its sheath.
No need to point how unrealistic the dynamic time-and-day and weather system is, just appreciate that the moon at night, the sunset before dusk, the ridiculously plenty lighting strikes before a thunderstorm and auroras are elongated in length so that you can appreciate its presence longer, as they are more than just fleeting phenomena.
Ghost Of Yōtei’s art direction is an expression of that principle in sumi-e: it’s an impressionistic take that isn’t supposed to recreate reality, though it is inspired by the real.
Back on topic, the world surrounding Mt. Yōtei is gorgeous to look at, but also intriguing to explore. Various little details are there not just for pretty graphics. Some are exaggerated for gameplay purpose. Any visible smoke is a potential point of interest. Trees with peculiarly specific placement and colour hints draws you in to explore and poke around.
And Yōtei feels much more alive than its predecessor. From running into a herd of wild horses to stumbling into fellow travellers at campsites and rest spots, the world feels lived in. The extra oomph of the particle effects, used to show flower petals and insect swarms following the wind, also gives it that little bit of liveliness to the world.
It’s still a theme park open world, in that everything revolves around the player character. People don’t have a full schedule of routines or anything of that scale. But you’re not walking around an empty wasteland of a playground either. It’s refreshing to see even the most mundane environmental detail like grass feels lively, as it reacts to the wind blowing.
Incredibly, Ghost Of Yōtei’s performance mode can stick to 60 FPS almost rock solid, only the most intense set-pieces have it drop to a respectable 30-ish FPS. It’s nice that you have the option to play at 60 FPS from the get go even on the base PS5, I remember how jerky it feels having stuck to playing at 30 FPS on Ghost Of Tsushima on a base PS4.
There’s also a ray-tracing mode. On my limited testing switching back-and-forth between quality, performance and ray-tracing modes, I genuinely couldn’t tell what’s supposed to be changed here. It’s not the reflections, or the shadows. The general lighting is already good sans ray-tracing. But hey, it’s a feature. Maybe it’s more noticeable on a PS5 Pro.
No matter how many frames per second you prefer, every frame in Ghost Of Yōtei is a painting. A beautiful one if framed the right way. Its beautiful scenery begs you to be lost in it. Get immersed. You’re here in Ezo, enjoy the view o lone wanderer. Pull out that photo mode and capture those paintings should you wish.
On that note, the photo mode may be feature-rich, but it’s not without faults. As it is now, it doesn’t remove any contextual UI prompts and I wish they have the lo-fi beats (more on that in a bit) available as selectable music.
While the environmental art is top-notch as expected, the way the cinematics are presented are… well… cinematic. Sucker Punch reveres highly of samurai cinema if you watch, read and listen to the pre-release marketing. But one aspect that seemed to be undersold is how Ghost Of Yōtei can feel like… a western.
The soundtrack, composed by Toma Otowa, is twangy, whistle-y and gives the vibes of Western flick, as in cowboy movies. Traditional Japanese instruments are used, but it’s fascinating to hear the plucks of a shamisen can sound so much like a banjo. Just listen to the strumming guitar that backs the main theme with that galloping rhythm fit for long, emotional horse rides. Can you feel the brooding tension of two souls twitching their trigger finger to pull out their katana in the Yōtei Six theme? And what about the sparse yet dense composition of Wanderer, that makes you feel all alone in this big world while wearing a big hat to cover the face from the glaring sun with its intentful string plucks and soothing violin?
There’s an early scene that’s more or less is a homage to The Man With No Name that involves a bounty hunter walking into a bar, and blood is being shed out at the front. Every time you initiate a challenge, something out of Ghost Of Tsushima, you hear those guitar twangs that would fit a cowboy gun duel. Which is appropriate since you can also pull out a gun this time around.
This western vibe may not be what the game wants to shout out loud, but it’s there.
My only exposure to Spaghetti Westerns was not movies, but Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Revolver, and I just see so much of that lovely cheesiness here in Yōtei. When the score goes all out you can feel that it’s shooting at high noon, but don’t worry, the gentler emotional moments of the game are accompanied with more traditional Japanese instrumental and vocals. They didn’t go full cowboy, but it’s a cowboy game when you know where to look and hear.
And it’s not like this is the result of Sucker Punch inserting their culture into another. I disagree on that notion. My (admittedly cursory) research on Western films did found some links back to samurai cinema. That seminal Sergio Leone film, A Fistful Of Dollars? That Spaghetti Western classic is based on Yojimbo, an Akira Kurosawa film. Have you heard of The Magnificent Seven? It’s a remake of another Kurosawa classic, Seven Samurai. Dig a little deeper, and you’ll find that Kurosawa’s own works has some inspiration from literary works in the West.
The idea of a lone wolf, aloof and rarely speak, going around bounty hunting may not be an entirely American creation after all, but comes from various works all inspired by each other. Fascinating how culture isn’t borne solely out of isolation, but can also emerge through dialogue, inspiration and interaction with other cultures.
Speaking of directors, Ghost Of Yōtei brings back Kurosawa Mode, a visual filter that portrays the world through the lense of the seminal samurai cinema director. The world becomes black and white but it’s no mere black-and-white filter, there’s a specific contrast it has that make it live up to the name. The audio is also slightly filtered to fit with the cinematic standards of samurai movie classics. But it’s not just that, Yōtei brings two other notable Japanese directors for their own dedicated visual mode.
Miike Mode ups the blood and mud effects, strong vignetting and a closer combat camera. The game warns how it would be more difficult when playing with this mode on, but I do prefer this camera angle. It’s down and much closer to the ground, you’ll likely get attacked from threats off-screen but seeing the fights up close, and the visceral animations of the sword fights, is worth it.
The final visual mode is a misnomer, as Watanabe mode changes the music instead, despite it being on the display tab on the options menu. If you love the vibe of Samurai Champloo, a samurai anime that blends in hip-hop culture, then strap yourselves in for a treat of three lo-fi remixes, plus one combat music and one sneaking/alert music. The amount of songs isn’t a lot for playlist to play through a game the size of Ghost Of Yōtei, it’s too short to have a “lofi hip hop mix to hunt The Yōtei Six to” video, but those handful of songs are banging, perfect for when just want to kick back and vibe.
(I wonder if PlayStation is doing a sci-fi game, would a Watanabe Mode there bring an acid jazz soundtrack instead? Now I’d like to see a space cowboy game…)
The extra director modes are fun optional additions that I appreciate that the developers had enough budget to put them in.
If all these paragraphs wasn’t enough saying, but Ghost Of Yōtei will leave you with lasting memories of beautiful scenery and sound, thanks to smart art and music direction.
Gameplay
The setup for Ghost Of Yōtei is simple. You play as Atsu, who returns to her home in Ezo to seek one thing: revenge. She was figuratively and literally scarred and traumatised as a child where she was left for dead (with her family all dead) by the Yōtei Six. Now older and stronger after a life’s worth of war in the mainland, she’s off to hunt these six individuals across the wild, wild north of Japan, a land free from the feudal overlords warring in the mainland south.
Historically speaking, the setting is set right at the aftermath of the Sengoku period, where the north most island hasn’t been rolled into the now-solidified Shogun rule just yet and the natives, the Ainu people, still practice their culture. It’s also 300 years separated from the events of Ghost Of Tsushima where Mongols attempt to invade Japan, long before the Shogunate was established.
Atsu is no samurai, she’s a ronin, free to roam the lands without a master or clan. Some will see her as a bounty hunter, willing to kill for money. And to her enemies, she is seen as an Onryō: the angry, wrathful spirit of a dead woman as told through tales.
In other words, she’s a ghost. The Ghost if you will, the Ghost of Yōtei.
New players can play this game with no worries of the story making any sense, and Tsushima veterans don’t need to worry about any key plotlines of the first game either. Treat the Ghost Of series as an anthology.
One of my big criticism of Ghost Of Tsushima is how the story makes a big deal of what’s essentially unlocking stealth gameplay that’s part of the parcel in most open world games of its ilk. It’s a good story still, but just highlights that the game doesn’t have anything new to show as an action game.
Yōtei doesn’t suffer from this fault which is a big relief. It’s still a story about shaking one’s belief, but it doesn’t try to put basic stealth gameplay up on a high pedestal.
The best thing Ghost Of Yōtei changed from Tsushima is how the critical path is structured. It’s still a game split in three acts, but how much of the world you have access to has been front-loaded. You can essentially do the whole bulk of optional content, at least 30 hours worth of gameplay, right at the start of the game. The golden path, as marked by the golden cards you get on the map screen, isn’t as long as you’d expect. It’s only long because of how often, and easy, for a player to get sidetracked.
For the most part, Ghost Of Yotei lets you roam and explore Ezo as you see fit, though they really insist you in following the golden path in the first few steps, in fear that the player not knowing what to do.
Exploration remains the best aspect of these Ghost Of games as Sucker Punch continues to refine the art of creating worlds that players want to get lost in. The world rewards the curious while at the same time lets you enjoy becoming a wanderer. The lush views and beautiful scenery makes you want to just run around, on foot or on horseback, for a little while. And interesting points of interest are designed to subtly stand out, either visually and sometimes audibly.
In Ghost Of Tsushima, one of the tricks the game uses to lead players to a nearby discovery is via the Golden Bird. The bird appears when you’re close to a point of interest and guides you to it. Yōtei has the bird still, but it has been significantly nerfed, for the better. They don’t appear as regularly, as there are other methods to discover the world. The onus is on you to find what secrets the world has to offer yourself.
I love how Yōtei has its fair share of watchtowers, but these are unmarked, unremarkable locations. It’s only important if you decide you need a good vantage point to spot cool sights from your spyglass, which can be any elevated space. The game doesn’t just reveal all the theme park rides and attractions you can go—the onus on finding them is on you, that rules.
I also love how the game subtly makes the player to try use the spyglass more often when exploring, through reinforcing its use during the main missions. Binoculars and anything of its kind are usually something I ignore, but the game successfully made me want to look far and wide, into the horizon, and see if I can spot a cool place to head to. The far draw distance thanks to the power of modern consoles also helps.
On the topic of main missions, Ghost Of Yōteihas the best implementation of the “walk-and-talk.” You know how some missions in games where you have to follow an NPC around as they fill you in some lore, story or just casual conversation? In some games (looking at you, Starfield) you run too fast but walk too slow compared to the NPC you’re following.
Yōtei has none of this issue, the NPC always move at your pace—running, walking or on horseback—and they always be just in front of you. No need to think of where to go, they’ll always lead the way and move to the right direction. It’s a small thing, but that’s what I mean by how these games can be slick. It ensures the little details are buttoned up, knit tight, and presented well. And I gladly appreciate all the work that went to what some other games would have prioritise less.
Back on the topic of exploration, one new way of discovering the world is by buying maps and getting leads from people. Buying maps will have you do a little jigsaw puzzle to match the map fragments you have with the full map (wait long enough and the solution will reveal itself, if you’re really bad at lining the borders up). Talking to people or interrogating enemies will lead you to new locations, or give you hints to continue the main hunt, the latter does sound cool when it was revealed in the state of play broadcast, but they run out rather quickly.
Even if you’re terrible at exploring the world on your own, you’ll eventually build up hints on the map on where to head to. Eventually, you’ll get shamisen songs that can guide you to a specific point of interest of your choice, just like Tsushima had with flute songs. It can end up being a checklist-clearing open world game, but not right from the start.
And there’s another reason I feel Ghost Of Yōtei is a Western game. It’s the fact that, in most regions, Mt. Yōtei always appears at your west. It’s fascinating how many times the camera is framed westward, with Yōtei-sama making a cheeky cameo in various cutscenes. The mountain is in the title after all. But I also find it handy when orienting myself around. A more fun, and somehow easier way to navigate rather than just a typical compass in a typical open world game.
It all else fails, the guiding wind is there to guide your way and still is one the best, and effective diegetic implementation of a waypoint system in a video game.
That said, not all of Yōtei’s new features are remarkable. You can set up camp anywhere and have specific vendors come to you, but it’s buried in a specific menu, can’t be activated when you naturally set up a camp and fast travelling to a town or inn where they reside is just as fast. So it’s a pointless feature. And with crafting material in abundance, I generally have no real reason to buy ammo with coins, so I just craft my stock at camp rather than summon a member of the Wolf Pack to help.
And as mentioned earlier, hunting for leads to find the Yōtei Six is a quickly forgotten gimmick that’s only there for the first five to ten hours, as around that point you should have uncovered most of the map. The whole one-button-press to switch between past-innocent-kid Atsu and current-vengeful Atsu is a nice tech flex, but also something I’ve forgotten about this marquee feature existing halfway through my playthrough. She didn’t explore much of Ezo as a kid outside of the Yōtei Grasslands.
While not all of Ghost Of Yōtei’s exploration features are noteworthy, the execution of it remains leaps and bounds better than most open world games. Its aversion to turn this theme park open world as a map of checklist ticking ordeal makes it so fun to discover the world yourself with your own eyes and ears. The rate it doles out hints to specific points of interest is spaced out nicely, and the fact that you are encouraged to find some of these locations yourself using actual exploration skills (think of the money you saved from not buying maps!) makes this one of the most fun open worlds in a video game to get literally lost in.
If you love the highs you get when trekking across Skyrim or The Capital Wasteland, Ghost Of Yōtei’s Ezo certainly hits the same spot.
Atsu is no samurai, and she’s open-minded with learning to use different weapons.
Rather than different stances of the katana in Tsushima, Yōtei lets Atsu use totally different weapons, but the same rock-paper-scissor-style rules apply: each weapon is strong against a specific weapon type.
You’ll need to search for the masters and learn from them before you unlock them for use, and I really love these missions. Atsu genuinely have to go through hardship and learn real lessons. Some of them even expressed through gameplay- a nice example of ludonarrative harmony. That left-hand training Atsu has to do is just one of many examples of this beautiful and well-executed design in service to narrative.
My big issue with Yōtei’s combat is how finicky it is to quick switch weapons during combat. I feel like it’s a problem with Tsushima and it still is with Yōtei. Very frequently I find myself trying to quick switch mid-combat, see the UI reflecting on the buttons I press to switch a weapon, but it somehow didn’t switch to the right weapon. Try quick switching weapons immediately when respawning in a boss fight and you get what I’m saying here, it sucks that you can’t do so reliably. With so many weapon options this time around—it goes beyond the face buttons as you have five different melee, ranged and quickfire weapons each—it’s a bit disappointing that the button recognition couldn’t be improved, or having it more clear that you can’t switch weapons at that moment. I keep getting punished for trying to use every toy I have for funsies.
I don’t know how the likes of Sunhilegend can work around with these issues and still have fun styling through combat, but just shows how talented some gamers are to work around its quirks.
The core combat controls are extremely solid though, with most attacks cancellable into dodges, rolls or quickfire throw of a kunai. So you won’t be too vulnerable when you hear the queue when a far-away archer fire an arrow or a gun.
Combat can be incredibly punishing in Ghost Of Yōtei. My biggest mistake at the start of the game is thinking I could play this on Hard. But even on Medium difficulty, the game is balanced in the way that if you get slashed three times (more or less), you’re dead. I made an effort to go get those hot springs early on just for the maximum health bonus yet I still can’t tank hits unless I wear that one armour set where you could.
Yōtei and Tsushima aren’t a soulslike, but they have that parry-or-die mentality etched on top of its Arkham-style no-lock-on combat. You can’t do anything if you simply mash light attack, and you’ll be open for punishment should you mindlessly mash heavy attack. But if you can parry consistently, you have more opportunities to stagger enemies and get your light attack strings to kill them. A very important skill in duels.
Don’t worry if you can’t though, there’s no need to fight with honour—pull out a kunai, a bomb, or a gun to the sword fight. Or someone else’s sword for that matter, throwing one out to an enemy usually results in is a one-hit-kill. Or set your weapon on fire rendering it unblockable and can set enemies ablaze.
Fighting honourably is punishing and requires extreme precision and focus, while fighting scrappily with every unfair advantage will cost you resources, which means you need to take breaks by camping to replenish ammo. Both ways are equally viable to play, the game doesn’t judge so play your way—you’re a not a samurai, nor a shinobi, you’re a Ghost.
What if you love the stealth gameplay? Your options are a bit limited early on, but Atsu will eventually learn some familiar shinobi tricks. Stealth gameplay is a bit loose and forgiving. Not many enemies look upwards and you can go back into stealth mode after getting detected easily, so have fun toying with enemies in each of the unique camps you’ll encounter. But don’t be surprised if the tables got turned.
Despite Yōtei being billed as an RPG, it absolutely isn’t. You’re not looting for gear with bigger numbers, you’re not comparing what number is bigger. In fact, most of the loadout screen has no numbers whatsoever.
Your health is just a bar, the spirit (more or less MP used to heal or do special skills) is quantify as multiple symbols, all the buffs on your armour are expressed as minor, major and anything else that does not involve numericals. The only numbers you see is the ammo count for your range and quickfire weaponry. The different buffs on armour is only there to give you advantages of one playstyle over the other, with only a handful of equippables that has a buff together with a tradeoff disadvantage. There’s no transmog, but it’s okay to prioritise form over function.
And the dialogue choices? Only matters in the moment, where you can roleplay Atsu as a heartless, cynical woman or a hopeful empathetic one with little, if any, consequence. For this game, it’s for the better.
Content
Ghost Of Yōtei is a big game, but it’s as big as you’d want it to be. For me, I rolled the credits having done most of the side content after 55 hours of play.
Some side missions, like Tales and bounty hunts, are short and sweet, yet deliberately designed to have specific gimmicks so you don’t feel like doing the same thing over and over again. There are few missions where you get hired to be a Yojimbo, but each one unfolds differently. The longer Myths as well as those Sensei missions are must-plays, even if they’re technically optional. Those are more elaborate quests with bigger payoffs, as they usually lead to new weapons and armour.
The game has enough distractions to not make you fatigued of all the stealth, action and exploration gameplay. Between the relaxing platforming through dilapidated shrines, engage in a little gambling of zeni hajiki (which is based on ohajiki, which is curiously rather similar the Malaysian childhood past time of that bottle cap game) or do some some gimmicky motion control mini-games (which are skippable), there are a lot of ways to lose hours on end. In my experience, the game managed to engage me through long play sessions. As I get older, I now find some games make sleepy on long plays, and fortunately Ghost Of Yōtei isn’t on my metaphorical sash listing the names of all the games that run foul of this.
If you’re into collectibles, there’s plenty to hunt for. Quite a number of them are unfortunately recolours of a the same cosmetic item, but it’s still fun to get a little reward for actually investigating some peculiar looking element of the world.
But don’t let my clear playthrough time scare you. I was simply going through most of the side content for 30 hours straight, right at Chapter 1. You can really lose yourself to various side stories and discoveries without progressing the main story.
This does mean the main story path is lean, in the right way. There’s not really any filler mission, each of them either progress the narrative forward or help develop the few characters in Atsu’s Wolf Pack.
As such, the main story missions always feel eventful, full of meaning, even if there are mechanically the same as the smaller, shorter missions you find around Ezo.
The story of Atsu’s vengeance is rather overused in recent times, and Atsu herself seems to struggle in appeal. How many games does PlayStation has where a woman is out to kill specific people that ruined their life? At least two. How many lone wolf, sarcastic quipping female leads does PlayStation has right now? At least two. So I get that some folks may not find the premise compelling at first glance.
This isn’t me complaining Atsu isn’t pretty or some other petty complaints being tossed around on socials. I think Atsu being a tough tomboy, whose likeness and English voice is a certified muscle monarch and her Japanese seiyuu voiced the badass herself Jolyne Cujoh, is a strong concept for a protagonist. It’s just that in the greater roster of PlayStation heroes, Atsu’s personality and story doesn’t stand out. We’ve sort of explored similar themes and characters before, which I argue is what’s at the heart of Astu’s lacklustre star power, at least leading up to the game’s release.
But seeing Atsu not giving any shit to casual misogyny, fellow ronin look down on her is a regular experience, that’s refreshing. Especially when you can, if you wish, deal lethal damage to those wussies who dared to disrespect the Onryō. Her character arc in the story also takes her somewhere different, she’ll find her fans when people come around and give the game a chance.
On the topic of the story, I loved how the plot unfolds, even if I was able to predict where the story goes. The way it tells its story makes the cast memorable, the tale gripping, and the ending satisfying.
It’s a good emotional ride that may not be winning awards, but you feel good after seeing the credits roll like any good film is, and any good game should.
Don’t worry if you fear the other open world samurai game released this year, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, may have tread the same path. I compared notes with my colleague who reviewed Ubisoft’s earlier release (by way of swapping bingo cards—that’s how Gamer Matters do our diligence) and suffice to say that these are two different revenge stories and two different samurai experiences.
Personal Enjoyment
Ghost Of Yōtei made me realise what I actually want from open world games. It’s not the thrill of visiting every part of the theme park and get the checklist ticked, like most formulaic open world games are designed around. It’s also not really to follow some rigid main story plotline.
Rather, my love for these open worlds is having the ability to simply exist there and be part of it. Yōtei lets me roam around the vast lands and let me do as I see fit. Sometimes I engage in hostile ronins. Sometimes I leave them be. Maybe I’m in a mood to hunt one bounty this play session. And in another, I just want to bask in the beauty of it all and go chill on a platforming hike up a shrine.
Doing any of these is encouraged, rewarded and more importantly, frictionless.
I since started playing another open world game after Yōtei and I sorely missed how simple and effective the map and exploration user experience is. They have done everything to make me able to roam around doing my own thing for as long as I want, seeking out my own fun.
The worst experience I’ve had with open world games has to be Cyberpunk 2077, not because the game’s bad, but the premise of the story and the way the open world is designed isn’t the same game I envisioned in my head when I heard that the tabletop RPG is getting a video game. It’s too restrictive, the activities you do are lame and there’s not much point of simply vibing around town.
In contrast, my best experiences with open worlds are with Bethesda Game Studios’ titles. Whether that be losing myself in Skyrim or the Capital Wasteland in Fallout 3, and yes, even the empty planets of Starfield, I just get to see the world as this lone roaming wanderer. Ghost Of Yōtei fulfills my wanderlust in that way, where getting lost in the world doesn’t feel frustrating or a wasted time, it’s the experience. I love it so much.
Ghost Of Yōtei is now my favourite cowboy game, replacing Red Dead Revolver. I love Red Dead Redemption 2 as well, but its big open world serves a different purpose and despite its theme it purposely steers away from the many stereotypical depictions of the Wild West. But that’s what I love about Red Dead Revolver, it embraces the cheese of a Spaghetti Western. And Ghost Of Yōtei, whether intentionally or not, has that same taste of cheesiness to it. And this is the sort dairy that I’m not lactose intolerant to, give me more of this cheesy ramen carbonara Sucker Punch is serving.
On another note, I can empathise that fans of Sucker Punch are disappointed that the current iteration of the team may not be interested in making new Sly Cooper games. It sucks that the old IP you grew up with remain dormant and the developers behind them have moved on from it. I don’t know if it stings harder or brings you comfort when I say this, but Yōtei is filled with tributes, nods and winks to Sucker Punch’s past, some are unmarked and off the beaten path, you only notice them if you’re in the know. Modern Sucker Punch haven’t completely forgotten their past, but the past exists today as mere relics.
But let’s end this section on a less dreary note: Ghost Of Yōtei has so many little details I appreciate. The map screen has a cool little effect when you pull it out in the middle of a rain. The bamboo-cutting segments have fun little scenes that makes it more than just a simple button-pressing mini-game. Atsu doesn’t write haikus, but that particular mechanic reappears in a different context.
A lot of people put love and attention into this game, and those little details are what makes it feel like an expression of art rather than just a mere RM299 product.
Verdict
Ghost Of Yōtei has made an open world that’s incredibly fun to explore and get lost in thanks to brilliant game, art and sound design. At its best, the game will want you to live out the fantasy of the lone, wandering mercenary—like cool cowboys and samurais are depicted in films—experiencing the world as a badass for hire with a thirst for vengeance.
The game is mechanically familiar, it’s an open world game with stealth and action gameplay which has been done so, so many times. While it may not surprise you with its core mechanics, its real trick is how the game loop is presented. And the fact that it can work its magic to make you not notice that it’s another one of those open world games for hours on end speaks to the brilliance in design you rarely seen out of a premium AAA game.
Ghost Of Yōtei is one of the smartest take on open world stealth-action games. It has increased the bar yet again for what good exploration in a video game can be. It’s not only one of the best samurai games, but also a one of the best cowboy games you can play.
If you seek to lose yourself in adventure, Yotei-sama beckons upon you with thrills and wonders for you to experience and discover in this impressionistic take of the wild frontiers of Ezo in Edo period Japan.
Played on base PS5. Review copy provided by the publisher.
Ghost Of Yōtei is one of the smartest take on open world stealth-action games that has increased the bar yet again for what good exploration in a video game can be. It's not only one of the best samurai games, but also a one of the best cowboy games you can play.
If you seek to lose yourself in adventure, Yotei-sama beckons upon you with thrills and wonders for you to experience and discover in this impressionistic take of the wild frontiers of Ezo in Edo period Japan.
- Presentation 9.5
- Gameplay 8
- Content 9.5
- Personal Enjoyment 10