Ghost of Yotei Review – Sucker Punch’s Boldest Story Yet

0:00In the year of the Samurai, is Ghost of Yotai the best Samurai game we've seen this year? Is this Sucker Punch's best game of all time? And is this game the wokest of woke-wokeness? We're going to find out all that stuff in our review for Ghost of Yotai.

0:27so i just finished ghost of yotai after putting in about 50 hours and i have to say man this game is very very good it absolutely blew me away in a lot of different ways i did not expect while also keeping very very close to the traditional story that we saw in Ghost of Tsushima. I know you're all kind of wondering how similar is it to the previous game and you know a lot of folks went into it myself included thinking okay we have a whole new samurai game it's going to feel exactly the same it's going to look exactly the same and although there are some similarities there I think it is very different in some important ways and I think the first version of it that comes across immediately is we're not playing as Jin anymore and I'm really excited about that because if you watch my original Ghost of Tsushima review I did not like Jin I didn't think Jin was a really cool character I thought that the story that they pulled around him wasn't great and now we have Atsu this young woman who was the witness to a brutal murder of her family and is left for dead by this gang called the Yotai Six and after surviving the ordeal she collects herself and goes on this quest for justice as this mysterious onryo which is for those who don't know basically a vengeful spirit in japanese folklore it is the ghost of yotai and and the story they've crafted around her is just really really dope what really got me into the game was how this wasn't your actual typical revenge story yeah it starts with a classic setup but it gets a lot more complex as you go the supporting characters aren't there just to kind of move the plot along they feel more real than they did in the previous game and you really do start to care about their motivations their backstories and honestly the thing that brings it all together is Erika Ishii's performance.

2:15Erika brings something very dope to this and especially in the moments where cut scenes are kind of prevalent I would say it's a little bit up and down when erica's character of of atsu is kind of just giving her verbal quips and in lines during gameplay and kind of just out in the world talking to other characters you are the one who kicked saito's thugs out of the inn you are the onryo i don't know what you're talking about too bad though i made a bow just for the onryo the best of its kind maybe i could give it a look I think Atsu really does come to life when speaking to other main characters and other side characters in those moments.

2:59And it's like genuinely some of the best voice acting and facial capture performance I've seen in a game recently. Erika brings this perfect mix of vulnerability and determination that makes you really invested in Atsu's journey and makes Atsu themselves feel like a real dope badass. The thing that surprised me the most was about how the story was made to make me think differently about revenge as a theme. Again, it wasn't your typical bad guy kills my family. Now I must go kill bad guy story. There's layers to it and questions about justice versus vengeance and about what we become when we pursue vengeance and how do our actions affect the people around us.

3:41And it made me start to think a lot about the choices of those characters and their consequences days after finishing. And I sat with those and it really came to a good understanding that this character is flawed, but flawed in really smart ways by the writers that had written this game at Sucker Punch. I think the writing here is very, very strong. I think the ideas that they are laying as foundational tent poles for things to think about are very smart in the way that it works. So I want to give them some props and give them some love for the work they did in terms of writing this really dope story that makes you feel really cool.

4:17I do want to dig into gameplay. Of course, I think gameplay is extremely important. This game is going to be 50 plus hours of your life. And because this is where it gets really interesting. So if you're coming from Ghost of Tsushima, the combat feels very similar, but it does feel evolved in a certain way. Like they kept in what worked, but added some extra stuff to keep it fresh. The stance system is back and they tweaked it with some really smart ways. Of course, you got your different stances and different weapon types for different enemies. But now there's much more fluidity to them. And you can chain combos across stances in ways that feel really natural.

4:55I think the new weapons are Chef's Kiss. I think they're super, super good. There's this weapon that I can't remember the name of where you basically have a weighted ball on the end on one end and almost a sickle on the other end. You get this weapon a little bit later in the game, but it definitely completely changed the way I approach fights. and it's a perfect weapon for a game that really keeps a lot of characters around you so crowd control is super important right you want something that's going to move people away from you while you're fighting and having these moments where you're almost surrounded and almost overwhelmed by a lot of the folks that are in here and when you play as that so you get access some of these tools and techniques that jinn never really had you know you have more throwables you have more interesting throwables you have more ways that you can you know move around the battlefield and find yourself feeling like you are controlling your space in in much better ways and the stealth mechanic that was okay in the first game feels much better in this one they're not doing the kind of good versus evil levels of it that they were doing in Tsushima where you know you were supposed to be using your stealthiness to kind of play up the idea of you being this ghost and that kind of affecting the world.

6:09They're not really doing that in this game, but it has been really improved. It feels more natural. And in the first game, it just felt a little bit clunky. But this one feels a lot smoother. The ability to kind of chain together takedowns feels really good in a way that you feel in Assassin's Creed feels super satisfying. And when you're playing as Atsu, there's some really cool fear mechanics where enemies start to get spooked by your presence, but it isn't based on the overall ability to do a specific thing in terms of the lore of you, which is different than you having some ability to have a maneuver or a thing or an action that you do kind of scare and make enemies flee away from you.

6:57It's a little bit different in nature, but it still has a little bit of the same understanding of you are a character who is being talked about in the world. There is a whisper of what you're doing. You're going after this Yotai 6 crew. You're basically marking your list off as you kill these enemies. And that fear rolls through the world. Like people are telling stories of you. so some of that gets incorporated but it is a little bit different in the way that we saw initially um i think it works well i think i think it's not as prevalent as i would want it to be i was hoping that you'd get a little bit more of it but it doesn't feel like it's as important in either the first game or this game it's a nice to have but doesn't really drive uh the way that your character is um kind of perceived in the world immediately um and sometimes it does come back to bite you in the butt like some people will see you walk up and be like i know who you are because there are also these uh um bulletin boards with uh pictures of your face on them these bounty boards where you're on them and they're kind of looking to get to take this bounty as well because you are worth a lot of money uh based on the the money that's been put up by the yotai six um combat difficulty feels really well balanced i think it's challenging but not frustrating i think there are moments where you know you're mastering the different systems of parrying and dodging and stance switching and once you do the combat flow is is just incredible you can do some really fun stuff there the boss fights are especially memorable i think there are lots of um small incremental twists and turns in some of those each one of those fights feels unique and test certain aspects of your skills while also having these random dope amazingly cinematic duels that you will go and find throughout the world.

8:58I don't want to spoil that because each one is set in a really specific space that showcases sucker punches just ridiculous amazing level of detail and world building in a way that I don't think anybody else can do.

9:19You're not of Clan Eguchi. You're here for my bounty. That's right. Clan Eguchi slaughtered my brothers, then refused to bury them. Their bodies were picked away by crows. I am only returning the favor. There's more to that story. I fought in the South. I remember hearing about Lord Eguchi's assassination at the hands of your clan. He deserved to die. They all do. Why? Because your lord said so? He's dead. A mercenary could never understand.

10:25I think no one else is really capturing the style or the visual splendor that you get from this locale in the way that Sucker Punch has been doing it. I think it really speaks to their knowledge and their want to really build this, you know, connection to Japan in a way that doesn't feel forced and doesn't feel problematic and doesn't feel, you know, like they are culture vulturing, to put it nicely, you know, the world around them in the ways that people have kind of labeled them to do. I think they've really paid attention, really paying homage to those spaces. And you can see a lot of that in exploration, because again, this world design is phenomenal.

11:13Every area feels distinct and purposeful. You're not just riding around in empty fields. There's always something interesting to discover. The side quests actually tie to the main story in meaningful ways, which is a really good touch. It doesn't feel like anything is disparate. It feels like everything is really focusing you towards the main path while also giving you really interesting and fun things to be able to do in all these other spaces. Like, of course, you have the things that are collectibles. You can go find the foxholes. You can now do other things with another sidekick that's in the mix, too, that will come in and help you from time to time.

11:51But all of those things do feel like an extension of the world as opposed to things that have just been dropped in for the sake of it, which is always good, which always feels great and always makes it important to be able to check those things out in those ways. but you're also kind of seeing that not only from things that is happening to Atsu but things that are happening from the Yotai 6 you're seeing some villages that have been abandoned you're seeing people be displaced with camps that are just kind of in the middle of nowhere because they've been driven out because of this evil gang that's been doing this stuff you know you're you're kind of seeing again how the world feels lived in in a way that makes a lot of um a lot of sense and you know You're traversing on this horse that is driving through and riding through everywhere, and that feels better and moving around in those spaces.

12:39But also weather plays a really interesting role in the game, too. Weather actually affects gameplay in interesting ways. When it's raining, your footsteps get dampened a little bit, so it makes it a little bit harder for enemies to hear you when you're approaching. It's great for stealth missions. Sometimes you even want to take missions, especially because you know there's a lot of people around and it's raining. So you're like, ooh, let me go potentially do this mission. at nighttime. Let me go do this mission when it is raining, when there's different elements in the space to be able to kind of take advantage of.

13:10And this is where the game really shines, because I think all of those pieces together make what is the best looking game on the PlayStation 5 to date. This game is stunning. This game is gorgeous. And I'm playing it on PlayStation 5 Pro. So all the footage you're seeing right now is from the PlayStation 5 Pro on the PlayStation 5 Pro fidelity quality setting. So the lighting systems they've implemented are just stunning. Whether you're watching the sunrise over a beautiful mountain range or seeing the shadows kind of dance through the bamboo forest, it's all just breathtaking stuff. The character animations are next level two, facial animations, body language.

13:51Everything just feels super natural. And during cutscenes, I found myself just kind of staring at the details, the way Atsu expressions change and shift between kind of this determination and vulnerability and how her posture changes when she's in this kind of ghost mode, when she's kind of just being herself. It's all incredibly done well. And that kind of moves to the small things, the way like fabric moves in the wind and how kind of mud sticks and mud and blood sticks to your armor and the way that the snow deforms when you're in it. And again, these are all things that we've seen across the visual landscape for games in this generation.

14:28But it feels like Sucker Punch really does take the time to see how all of these pieces just work together really well. Particle effects are really beautiful, too. I think, you know, you're looking at, you know, lightning bugs fly around the screen and all those things. Those all also add another layer of it. But I think, again, going back to all of this running on PlayStation 5 Pro, it was really good. I didn't have any frames dropping. All of the things that I just talked about were smooth as butter. The haptic feedbacks on the DualSense Edge were even better. It all adds to this layer of the game.

15:09When you're drawing your bow, feeling the tension kind of come through the controller. When you're riding your horse and feeling the gallops kind of in the controller. and the audio in this game is super good like they've done a good job not only mixing in really smart vfx of like the sound of swords hitting and you know just arrows cutting through the air all of those things feel extremely well done and just very immersive i think you know there are just pieces of this that make the world feel special and i think what sucker punch does extremely well is they take all those moments all your sensory um attributes and they really play to them in a good way that makes their game shine in a in a in an amazing way like is the game perfect no um you know no game is perfect you know sometimes the camera gets gets a little bit wonky during some of the fights i think when you're surrounded by a bunch of enemies sometimes it doesn't really work as well as you would want the camera lock that you have in the game uh kind of works sometimes and kind of doesn't like there is this idea that you want to be spinning the camera around yourself while you're taking on these fights and getting hit from different angles and sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't feel as good as it necessarily needs to because you're getting shot from a thing off camera or you're getting uh you know run up on by multiple enemies and sometimes you just can't see everything um that you want and that doesn't necessarily help uh you getting through some of the fights that you want all that said you know a couple of new things that got thrown into the mix that i think were bullet bullet points on the back of the box for ghosts of yotai that i think kind of worked and and maybe didn't, were some of the new modes that they put in, visual and audio modes.

17:11The Miike mode, which intensifies the game's visual style with a closer camera and some blood splatters and some more blood splatters. And the Watanabe mode, which is supposed to swap out traditional Japanese soundscapes for these lo-fi beats. I think they're okay. I don't think they really add that much to the overall experience. i think the the the lo-fi mode felt really out of place in a lot of different ways it does feel cool in small snippets where it does feel like it ramps up the the overall experience but overall i had i turned it off uh for the most part early on played around with it looked at it to see if it was decent and it didn't really do much uh for the overall game experience come on

18:05Let's see what you're made of.

18:26She's going to kill us all!

18:42Lord Saito will pay me well. All of this to say, I think this is Sucker Punch's best game to date. I think Ghost of Yotai is brilliant. I think this is one of those things that if you're trying to boycott this game, you're an idiot because it doesn't really do anything. and also you're going to miss out on one of the best games of the year. I think this game is brilliant. I think it's super good. I really want to give props to Erika Ishii. I think they have brought something very special to this performance. Getting a chance to meet them at San Diego Comic-Con when I was hosting the Mortal Kombat panel was a pleasure.

19:18I had been a big fan of their work for a long time and getting to see them talk about their likeness being the main part of this storytelling kind of game it just really brought uh you know some some some some smiles to my face knowing that they are going to be the person who is going to be the main thing that you see during this game uh for for as long as you're playing it and there are moments where you know i couldn't really separate atsu from erica in those moments i was like in duels there were parts where erica's face would be there and I was like, yo, beat this dude's behind. It was super dope to be able to see those moments and feel like that Erica was embodying this and they were in all the real ways, which was super, super cool.

20:10So I have to say, if you're on the fence about this, don't be. This game is fire. This game is dope. There's still a bunch of things I still need to go unlock. A couple of weapons and a couple of kind of more masteries of those weapons that I need to go unlock. there's a couple of baddies out in the world that I need to go take care of too and you can you can finish the story and still have some of those moments in in the space to be able to go find and go work through but man I this is this is a game that I have been hoping for for a long time I think the the conversations we're seeing outside of the game right now um don't deserve the merit that even I'm giving it right now but I would say if you're looking to give sucker punch some props, you should, because they are a damn good studio who makes really fantastic games.

20:55And I think Ghost of Yotai is the pinnacle of what they've been able to put together so far. This is a must play. This is a game that I would give five out of five car faces. I'll put that somewhere on the screen, but definitely go top this joint. I think it's really good. And shout out to our friends over PlayStation and Sony for providing us code to be able to check this out early. What is so great about what they did on coverage for this game is they gave us a long time to play through this thing and as a reviewer a solo reviewer a person who's doing this work by themselves that is amazingly helpful and showed a ton of confidence in this game in a lot of ways that i had hoped so massive shout out to them as well for for getting us together and and working with us and always supporting our show that is everything for ghost of yotai please go check out more of our reviews on the swanami channel we'll have more episodes up on spawn on me's channel as well for the podcast i've had to take a little bit of time off i've been job hunting and also digging through a lot of other stuff some personal stuff that's gone on um but definitely uh go check out more of the work we love doing this stuff and we love doing it for y 'all so tell me what you think in the comments below leave some comments there uh let us know what you think about the game would you let me know what you think about my review and we'll all check you out very very soon with more dopeness coming to come to you from spawn on me very, very soon.

22:15Much love. Peace.