New York Game Awards and GG! Fest tickets (which includes the big, Supergiant Unplugged concert) are now available! Get them before they sell out!

---

By Ronald Gordon

There are various ways one can experience Ghost of Yotei, Sucker Punch’s majestic sequel to Ghost of Tsushima. The first is to explore what it means to live life with empathy for others, to have a code of honor, and explore the turmoil within one who has set upon this path. Or you can forsake morals entirely as someone hellbent on personal goals. For me in Ghost of Yotei I played with no code of honor. I played as if I were just another blade ready to take lives. And damn, it felt good. 

Yotei takes place 300 years after Tsushima and follows Atsu, a relentless ronin known as the onryō, who slits the throats of those who murdered her family. As you explore the magnificent landscape of Ezo, a massive island overshadowed by the ever present Mount Yotei, you’ll find more weapons to enact your dangerous deeds, more powerful enemies as you learn to play, and more reasons to put down the dogs that Lord Saito employs before you take his head next. 

While similar to Tsushima in terms of gameplay, Yotei brings with it some enjoyable new features that potentially couldn’t have worked in the first game. Atsu’s main goal is ending the life of  Lord Saito, who is renowned for his mastery over various weapons, meaning in order to succeed she has to adapt to using multiple weapons before she can face off against him. As an outrageously fast learner, Atsu can not only wield a katana better than most samurai, but also take up dual blades, a spear, an odachi, chain blades or kusarigama, and even firearms like muskets and pistols. Much like the Stances from Tsushima, Yotei’s weapon styles coincide with various enemy types, dealing greater stagger damage and offering strategic bonuses when a weapon is matched against what it counters. 

The weapon switching is my absolute favorite aspect of the game, making every fight into a test of the player’s attention in the heat of the moment. Swarmed on all sides by enemies and their varying weapon types, you have to adapt fast or the legend of the Onryo will be cut short, and that cannot happen before Saito dies first. The act of gathering another weapon isn’t just relieving to know I’ll have yet another counter to a specific weapon type. It’s exhilarating because I have yet another tool and even more moves to add to the laundry list of combat skills Atsu boasts. I feel like a war machine, a lonely blade with no home to return to, ready to bury those who have caused me the most pain, and I will take no prisoners if given the choice. 

The first time you begin to explore Ezo, riding on the back of Atsu’s old horse as she returns to her homeland after so long, you’re left with a view that can’t be simply described by words. A field of yellow flowers leads to  a forest of never ending greenery, and despite parts of Ezo billowing black smoke from raider attacks, the blues of the skies overpower the dimming smog. Above all, the glorious Mount Yotei watches over the warring land, her snow-covered peak visible throughout all of your adventures in Ezo, serving as a constant reminder that no soul is truly alone while under her grace. 

Art and music go hand in hand, as each fantastically dramatic scene within Yotei is only accentuated by an equally awe inspiring song from the soundtrack. Yotei doesn’t just bring its heavenly soundtrack, it gives the player the chance to pursue the music.. 

It offers up songs that Atsu can learn to play on her guitar-like shamisen that’ll direct you towards various spots (hot springs, bamboo strikes,  rare plants,  etc.) around the map. Atsu’s shamisen is more than just a background element, she laments how she couldn’t hear the music in everything until she had lost the person who taught her (her mother). 

Now, with a new hole in her heart to fill, Atsu hears the music in everything and is determined to capture it as her mother would’ve encouraged her to. Each song you gather feels fresh yet mournful, as Atsu is only now using skills she was reluctant to learn as a child, connecting every tune she plays to the core of her soul, and to yours as well. 

I won’t lie and say that Yotei isn’t more of the same you’d get out of Tsushima. Ezo feels bigger than Tsushima, yet equally breathtaking, the characters are deceptively heartwarming, and the narrative is a grueling but rewarding kick in the pants. Still, I highly encourage you to play Yotei just to experience its gritty story and ferocious combat told through the lens of an enthralling main character. You watch Atsu get hurt, make new friends, brutalize enemies, and learn the cost of seeking vengeance against someone as powerful as Lord Saito. I myself adore what I’ve seen, even though I had finished 100 percent of Tsushima just last year. But I still want more. 

Ronald Gordon is a New York Videogame Critics Circle Member and Mentor. He was the first of our writers – or any intern anywhere – to complete an internship at Rockstar Games.

---