Review - Ghost of Yotei
"I will avenge my family... Then I will join them in death."
October 2, 2025 - Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sucker Punch Productions
Action Adventure - Nate Fox, Jason Connell, Toma Otowa
PS5
One night, a young girl and her family are attacked and left for dead by a group known as the Yotei Six. The girl, Atsu, survives the attack and sixteen years later finds herself back at home seeking to kill all six members as vengeance, turning her into the Japanese legend known as the Onryo, or ghost.
Characters, World, and Presentation
Ghost of Tsushima is my favorite game of 2020, but I’ll be the first to admit that the story was predictable, and as much as I liked Jin Sakai, I do understand the criticism that he could’ve been a more fleshed-out character. For the sequel, Ghost of Yotei takes place 300 years later, in 1603, at the start of the Edo period. This time, we follow Atsu, a survivor of a murderous night where a group called the Yotei Six burned her family home and killed her family. Now back, Atsu is the legendary Onryo, a Japanese tale of a vengeful ghost. Her reputation precedes her everywhere you go in the Ezo region. I gotta say, Atsu has quickly grown on me as one of my favorite protagonists of the modern gaming era. She’s tough as nails, but there’s a heart of gold hidden in there. Her character goes through a much bigger arc and growth than Jin's, and by the end, it felt like I'd watched a person evolve. There’s no fight within her on honor vs vengeance like there was with Jin. She does not care for the samurai code.
Ghost of Tsushima had great side characters, and in many ways, they were the heart of the game. This entry continues that tradition. There are some well-written people here, and even some of the more minor villains and bounties have surprisingly good lore to them. There are some funny moments too. I do think comedy in video game writing can be hit and miss, but it felt natural here and there’s one quest in the game that legitimately had me laughing because of the dialogue. The villains are all standouts. The Yotei Six live up to their names, and each feels like a unique threat. While Lord Saito is the big bad and he’s interesting in his own way, I felt his son, The Spider, is the most interesting of the group, though I wish we'd seen a little more of his story.
The world in the game is simply described as beautiful. This has been the year of great art direction, but when I say this is a beautiful game, I really mean it. When you’re riding your horse in colorful flower fields and trees, it’s like you’re dancing with a work of art. The environments feel like 1600s Japan, and it adds to the feeling that you’re part of an epic story. You can select different modes to give your session a movie look, including the return of Kurosawa mode. I myself went with Watanabe Mode, which adds lo-fi beats and gives the game an anime-like presentation at times. It comes together perfectly during duels and boss fights.
Gameplay, Design, and Sound
The combat in Ghost of Yotei is similar to Ghost of Tsushima, but I have to say it felt a little more difficult. You can’t just hack away at your enemies. You’ll have to use patience to block, parry, and dodge attacks. You have to visit masters of different weapons and techniques and undergo some training to acquire those abilities. Don’t worry, these sections are actually well-paced and they don’t overstay their welcome, but they still make it feel like Atsu is going through a learning course. You're supposed to switch between weapon techniques to take on certain enemies, but I didn’t feel like it mattered. I tried to stick to the dual katana technique myself. The duels and boss fights always feel like you’re in an epic moment. Some side bosses and bounties feel just as incredible as the mainline boss fights, and the music adds to the atmosphere.
An interesting addition to this one is your bond with a wolf. It’s not really explained why the wolf seems to follow Atsu around, but it offers more help and combat choices the more you help different wolf dens around the region. There are also the fox dens that return, and the masks and various armor sets are there too. The really cool side quests for me are the myths you can follow, which lead to some pretty interesting missions and characters. There’s one particular one of these that will have fans of the first game feeling the feels.
The exploration is going to vary depending on what you want to do in an open world environment. For me, I start to get annoyed with open world games when it starts to feel like a chore and while there a few side quests here and there that came close to feeling that way, I do think the focus on nature and finding dens, bamboo strikes, and hot springs works for me. Similar to Red Dead Redemption 2 and Breath of the Wild, you can get lost in the world. It made me realize that focusing on these things is the kind of open world games I like, over the Ubisoft go here type of quests. That doesn’t mean you might not experience open world fatigue, just that for me, this style of play for the open world fits me.
Just like its predecessor, Yotei does a good job guiding you through the world without making you put up a bunch of markers. The wind guides you to the locations and areas you’re looking for, and there are encounters with a golden bird that can lead you to hot springs and altars. The altars help you level up skills and get better in combat. You can also find different styles of weapons, each themed and has its own story. You have a shamisen, and when you learn different songs, they can also help guide you to other locations and needs.
Lastly, the music. Not a shock here, especially since 2025 is filled with great soundtracks, but the game delivers in its score and music. No matter what mode you pick, the music kicks in perfectly. The game starts with a goosebumps-inducing opening score. The scores for everything, from the duels to traversing the world, to the lo-fi beats, to the emotional moments. The composition and editing is all there and do what music is supposed to do - add to what you're experiencing and feeling. To make it all come together, the DualSense does a heck of a job with the haptics, and the touchpad gameplay for drawing art and playing your shamisen doesn’t feel gimmicky.
Negatives
The main negative to this game is that it is a bit predictable. There’s been a discussion recently on whether PlayStation exclusives are starting to become one-note with stories around revenge, and I think that’s a fair assessment. Of course, stories can follow a similar theme but be told differently. While I’m not a fan of how the themes of revenge were presented in The Last of Us Part II, I do feel this game handles them, especially in how they impact the characters, better. However, it doesn’t take away that if you are good at understanding the beats and tropes of storytelling, you can guess a good amount of what happens in this game.
Another point, if you’re not like me and you still have open world fatigue despite the getting lost in nature aspect, that’s just something you’ll have to deal with. You can technically just golden path the game, but a lot of the ways you upgrade and get better stats sort of require going outside of the mainline quests.
Ghost of Yotei is pretty much Ghost of Tsushima on steroids, and since that game was a favorite of mine in the current decade, you can obviously guess how I feel about this game. Atsu, led by the excellent performance from Erika Ishii, comes out of this as one of my favorite heroes of the decade so far. The world and exploration left many memories for me, as did the duels and fights. This is a game that respects Japanese history and culture, while telling a tale about how much revenge can take over you and whether you let it. The world is gorgeous, the music is incredible, and the overall atmosphere is special. By the end of the game, I was happy to have experienced the journey, not just the physical but also the mental one, that Atsu’s story took me on.
Awesome review. Thank you for writing and sharing.