And we’re back with another blog, the show where we give you some straight up gameplay and our first impressions of the latest games releasing. As usual, it’s me, Jake Baldino and today we’re talking about “Ghost of Yotei”. This is the follow up to sucker punches “Ghost of Tsushima”, which was a pretty kick ass game. You might not call it a sequel because here it’s like a completely new adventure. It’s in a different part of Japan, in a different time period and a new main character.
But it very much is the continuation of the gameplay ideas of “Ghost of Tsushima”. So I’ll say that right off the jump. This is a bigger meaner sequel. More to do you know, more cool stuff, more action, more world, more story. But it’s not quite the smack in the face, holy cow, that the original Tsushima was. Like it doesn’t quite hit as hard the second time around. If you were looking for a complete revolution, a complete overhaul, you don’t really get that here. It’s more ghost of Tsushima but not in a bad way. Don’t get me twisted, when I say more, I mean a lot more is put in here. And if you just wanted more you might dig this ’cause I certainly have been.
Spoiler-Free Setup and Setting
And the usual housekeeping, just so you know, I’ve been playing a review copy and this footage was captured running on a PS five pro and it is completely spoiler free. I show some of the region biomes but some of that discovery is half the fun. So I tried to keep it limited and all the cut scenes are very early or small side stuff. Yotei takes place in the northern region of Japan, Aso. You play as Atsu, a woman out for revenge after her family was murdered when she was a child by a group of murderous dudes called the Yotei Six. Each one unique and identifiable and typical kind of predictable video game boss fashion. Now you then set out as adult Atsu to murder all these guys. She’s out for revenge and she’s a brute, she’s not a samurai like Jin Sakai, concerned with honor and like the ways of the culture and you know the balance. She’s just a mercenary, so she fights a bit different. She uses different weapons and different gadgets and even interacts with the world and people differently.
Atsu vs. Jin Sakai
Now both protagonists are considered ghosts by their world, but where Jin Sakai to me was kind of like a Batman, here, Atsu is a bit more like a Boba Fett, a more anonymous shrewd bounty hunter focused on only the mission. But, you know, they’ll occasionally surprise you. I’m talking, I’m like obviously people think Boba Fett sucks after returning to Jedi when he instantly dies. I’m not talking about that. Maybe not the best comparison but I’m rolling with it.
Structure and Storytelling
Look structurally the game is different from the last game and it’s probably one of the bigger departures. So Yotei is extremely non-linear and it gives you all these Yotei Six targets that you can at least kind of pursue in whatever order you want. You’re gonna get clues as you progress and you can kind of choose which clues and which information to pursue. And it happens in some pretty interesting and organic ways. It doesn’t really feel like it’s a video game, just blasting stuff in your face and pointing you in the next direction. It’s kind of more slow like information gathering as you progress through these lands.
Narrative Focus and Side Content
Now as a storytelling experiment, it is really nice to see sucker punches, good storytelling chops work well here even if the game is filled with like nonlinear story progression and an endless amount of open world distractions even more so this time. The game still manages to like do a great job staying focused on the core mission. It’s hard for me to explain how but you just never lose sight of what the overall plot is. The last game did that well through, you know, really thoughtful side quests and activities design and that’s even more the case here and you can tell it’s trickier because there’s a lot more freedom with like how things progress.
The Yotei Six and Boss Design
Plus I was pretty skeptical of the Yotei Six thing because I feel like the, you know, the here are all the bosses go out and kill them. They’re all weird and they all have their own thing, that’s been done like to death at this point in video games. But they managed to make it feel different and interesting. It’s not half-assed and it really picks up after quite a few hours. Some of it is predictable which might bum some folks out but the presentation and performances I think really elevated it.
Action, Quests, and Exploration
There’s a lot more action and a lot of cool big action set pieces and even better than last time the game does a good job of blending what’s a side quest and what’s a real main quest because there’s a lot of variety and even some of the smaller activities, it all just feels handcrafted. Unfortunately there is still just like a lot of the same following foxes and following birds, which disappointingly feels like a lot, like more of the same. But then on the flip side at least I’ll say there are some stronger side quests here. Good stuff, many of which I completed and I found myself going, damn, I could’ve just walked past that combat?
Combat and Weapon Variety
This time around builds off of what came before it. It’s still the same type of combat. You know, it’s not the most difficult combat in the world but it it can be really fun and satisfying. You know the perfect par clangs man, those feel so good and badass to pull off still doing face offs and duels and chopping dudes arms off, still doesn’t get old. Katana weapon stances are out here. That’s it. And that really threw me off to be honest. But it’s replaced with different weapons so more moves, more situational combat awareness is kind of needed where you choose a weapon stance for a certain type of enemy with a certain type of weapon. Now you choose an entirely different weapon type against an enemy’s weapon type and they all feel fairly different. Katana, dual katana, odachi, spear. It makes for some good fun, especially ’cause they all have their own nuances and their own spirit abilities and their own skill trees.
Dynamic Combat and Tools
What I enjoyed even more about this was facing off against enemies that would switch their weapons on the fly, meaning you do the same to counteract them and kind of like a game of weapon, rock, paper, scissors, it’s good stuff. It’s still brutal, it’s still bloody and like I said it’s not the most difficult combat system in the world but there is a good deep level of mastery to it and when you’re really locked into it it can feel great Ranged weapons are still here with tweaked arrow types as well as early firearms. Also some really cool useful throws like fire bombs that like while similar to last time, still managed to feel really different here and a nice burst of dirt to distract enemies mid fight.
Stealth, Wolf Companion, and Customization
A couple other things that really work well. Stealth once again doesn’t really feel great at the start, you know it’s pretty simple stuff but like last time it gets much stronger as the game progresses and you get better tools. Sometimes depending on how you play though, you could end up going a long time without some useful stuff. So just keep that in mind, really look around, really evaluate where you pursue things. You also get access to a cool wolf like more and more over time. It kind of starts as a random occurrence and it can be earned as a new game mechanic through exploring and pursuing side objectives. And the wolf is really awesome in a fight, it can save you as a kind of last stand mechanic. It can be summoned and it has its own dedicated skill tree and everything does really. Armor and cosmetic progression is the same as the last game. There’s a lot of ways to look in this game like from a Ronan badass to a brute warrior to like a stealth person, like all that is here. And then of course there’s still a photo mode to soak that all in too.
Crafting, Camping, and Mini-Games
You can camp anywhere and craft throw balls and ammo. You can cook food for some buffs and what I do like is that like the bow person, the armor person and a mat person for certain things. Like they can actually come to you occasionally when you camp and you can sort out your business then and there. It’s not as much of a game changer as they kind of hyped it to be, but it is a nice touch and the game just has a lot of those. Like Tsushima, it’s just a kind of chill, contemplative game at times with side objectives like the bird and fox stuff I mentioned earlier, but also the hot springs return and engaging in arch. Haikus are out but now Atsu paints landscape paintings through these chill little mini games and also she can play her shamisen as opposed to a flute and it’s a little bit more involved.
Visuals, Performance, and Bugs
Tsushima touched upon a mythical elements, the fantastical stuff here and there and Yotei continues that and does a bit more in some interesting ways I’m not gonna spoil. The world feels significantly bigger this time around though. The sense of scale and variety seems like a massive upgrade. Grasslands and fields are vast, mountains are huge and it helps just feel like a massively bigger world that you slowly piece together, following the wind to the next thing but also getting distracted and just going on vibes.
So that leads me to that, the game is gorgeous. The HDR implementation is great. The color palette is insane and the foliage and atmospheric effects they really are worth seeing in real time. Like I’m not trying to be like a hype man or anything, but this game, like, mainly environmental more than anything looks incredible. It has high frame rate, high resolution and ray tracing features or options and it can do the ray tracing with 60 FPS on PS five pro. But with performance on base PS five, it also seems to run well.
My only issues that I encountered overall in many, many hours was a glitch where my horse wouldn’t spawn, which was fixed upon restart and only happened once. A little bit of clipping with clothing and stuff like that. Like some of the armor sets have little clipping issues with a cape or a sword poking through and the occasional like lighting flickering glitch. That was kind of annoying. Very sparingly though otherwise pretty smooth sailing from my naked eye at least.
Also the music is top tier. I actually think it might’ve topped the last game. The score from like big to small and ambient exploration music, like all of it is really fantastic.
Final Thoughts
So it’s an additive sequel, like I said, it’s Ghost of Tsushima but way, way more packed on top of it. It’s an upgrade but there’s some subjectivity to that. You might like the switch to multiple weapons or you might miss the sole focus on the Katana. You might like Atsu or you might sorely miss Jin Sakai. You might have wanted more ghost gameplay, more of that or maybe wanted a bigger step forward. A real evolution and departure, kind of like how they did with the main character, at least here. Either way it’s gonna be down to like what you want. What can I say for me personally, I was a bit skeptical but I very quickly became heavily addicted to the game. Just like I was hooked on Ghost of Tsushima and that’s what I was hoping for.
Story and Emotional Impact
Much like that game Yotei gets better the more time you put into it, the gameplay gets better and more empowering and the story gets more dramatic and there are some incredible performances here. The game once again can pull off effective storytelling, great direction and moments that make you actually, I don’t know, feel something, feel some emotion. Did I love the story as much of the as the first game? Not quite. It’s a matter of taste, it’s up to you, but it didn’t top it for me personally, but it is still a hell of a lot of fun.
Pretty simple video honestly, more than I expected before I jumped in and started making it. I give you some pros, some cons and some personal opinion and now I want to hear yours. There are a lot of opinions about this one already, so let me know what you’re thinking. But also let know what you think about the original “Ghost of Tsushima”. I enjoyed it, I thought it was decent but like towards the later half of the game when it really picked up, that’s when I truly fell in love and then a hundred percenting it.
That’s when I realized it was like one of my favorite games. Lemme know if you feel the same about the original. Lemme know if you’re looking forward to playing this new one. Either way, hit us up. And if you like this video and maybe helped you out, maybe informed you at all. But as always, thanks for reading and we’ll see you guys next time.