I Love Ghost of Yotei, So… There?

This post contains spoilers for Ghost of Yotei, available now from Sucker Punch Productions on Playstation 5.

I can only start by saying I was foaming at the mouth to play Ghost of Yotei the moment I saw the gameplay trailer. When Ghost of Tsushima came out back in 2020, I was in a dark place. It was mid-pandemic, life was rough, and hope was sparse. Escapism was necessary, and I was looking for anything that offered it. It was (and still is) a beautiful game that carried me off to another time and place. That’s mostly because it made my troubles feel unimportant by comparison.

Bearing all that in mind, imagine my excitement when I saw that trailer for Ghost of Yotei. 2025 hasn’t been a bad year for gaming as far as I’m concerned as a player. I launched into the year with Like Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. My summer months were spent playing through Yakuza 0 again on the Nintendo Switch 2. I also proceeded to play through all the other Yakuza games on my PS5, as well as Lost Judgment. There was Date Everything and Hollow Knight: Silksong, but honestly it’s been a consistent Like a Dragon year for me overall.

And then, there’s Ghost of Yotei. Beautiful story, lots of action, plenty of blood, fantastic characters, and an unforgettable open world full of hidden areas to discover and explore. So far as I’m concerned, it’s right up there with Pirate Yakuza on my personal game of the year list for a host of entirely different reasons. Let’s take a look at them.

Atsu’s Story Drives Ghost of Yotei Beautifully

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Ghost of Tsushima was emotional, so I expected no less from Atsu’s story. Needless to say, it did not disappoint. When she was just a little girl, Atsu and her brother accidentally led Lord Nariaki Saito to their family home. Unbeknownst to them, their father Kengo abandoned the Saito Clan after their defeat at Nagashino. Having served Lord Saito as a weaponsmith, Atsu’s father realized that his trade would quickly become undervalued with firearms taking the world by storm.

Lord Saito took Kengo’s leaving as a personal attack against him. Since he didn’t know the meaning of forgiveness, he and the Yotei Six descended on Kengo’s quiet country home, slaughtered him and his wife in front of their children, then proceeded to kill Atsu and her twin brother Jubei. Spoiler alert: Atsu survives.

Pinned to a tree with her father’s sword, the Yotei Six set the tree on fire. They leave Atsu and Jubei for dead, and that is how the onryō is born. For those not sure what that is, onryō are Japanese spirits that possess the capability to cause harm to the living. Since my brain only seems to work in Jujutsu Kaisen-lingo, onryō are basically cursed spirits, born from powerful emotions like anger, hatred, rage and sorrow.

The Scariest Thing About Atsu the Onryō Is How Dangerous She Is

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Surviving the loss of her entire world after being forced to watch it all burn, it’s no wonder Atsu’s out for vengeance. Life is hard enough in feudal Japan, and being a young girl, Atsu has no real choice but to fight for her own survival. On her own, she works as a mercenary, honing her skills on the battlefield as her plans for revenge take shape.

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The other part that makes Atsu so terrifying is how she clings to her vengeance. It consumes her. It’s the only thing driving her survival. The fact that she’s fully prepared to lay down and join her family in the grave once they’ve been avenged paints a dark portrait. When you have nothing left to lose, you’ll do anything to get your revenge. Atsu’s got nothing to lose, at least that’s what she believes.

Ghost Of Yotei’s Story Is Not As Predictable As Some Say

In the few game reviews I read, I did see a handful of people commenting on how predictable the story is. For the most part, it’s a revenge tale. Bad things happen. The suffering rises like a phoenix from the ashes. Brutal and bloody vengeance is had. The end.

In most revenge tragedies, the protagonist dies at the end of the story. After all, they lost everything they had to live for. Fortunately, Atsu finds something new to live for. That alone was a breath of fresh air I wasn’t expecting after the brutality she faces. It was also incredibly realistic to see her struggle to let go of her anger after carrying it for so long.

While the basic premise of the story is predictable, there are a lot threads creating the tale. I spent over 90 hours playing the game to near completion, and I’ve been riding around for another ten searching for those accursed Ainu items. I’m still finding little things I missed during the main game. They all work together to create a beautiful story from start to finish and beyond.

Ghost of Yotei Exists In a Stunning Open World

Ghost of Tsushima is only five years old, but it set a beautiful foundation for Ghost of Yotei to build from. To say the graphics took my breath away would be an understatement. I have so many screenshots I took while wandering around Ezo that it looks like I went on vacation. I guess, in a way, I kind of did. There are so many places in the game where you can’t help stopping to take a deep breath and admire the view.

I felt like it took me away from my real world worries so easily, and I often got lost for hours traversing the many pathways to lost and forgotten shrines. Sometimes, I would just hop on my horse, Mochizuki, and ride so I could take in the sights. Stopping to fight of Saito’s men here and there, it was an easy way to explore the game without the rigidity of a timeline or plot, and discovering hidden areas quickly became half the fun.

I also took full advantage of every opportunity to camp when it made sense, and I didn’t regret. Not only did this give me access to different NPCs and potential quests, but gaining that perk from eating and resting was always worth it! I was also excited to see if I would gain any more opportunities to dream of the past and my first confrontation with Saito when Atsu was young and terrified.

Immersive and Intuitive Combat Make It Easy To Enjoy the Battles

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Combat gameplay was surprisingly easy, and I felt like Atsu had a lot of range when it came to her many attacks and weapons. Switching back and forth between all her different melee weapons and ranged weapons seems complicated, but it’s not. Even playing on casual, it was fairly intuitive, and it didn’t take long to master the gameplay. Atsu truly is a force to be reckoned with. Being able to guide her through such fluid (and often brutal) combat makes it easy lose yourself in glorious battle.

There are so many skills you learn along the way that not only improve combat situations, but make stealthing through dangerous areas easier. Being able to crouch and listen, pinpoint targets, and then sneak up to assassinate them is ridiculously satisfying. I’ve always been a huge fan of stealthing through games, and the way it’s handled in Ghost of Yotei makes my inner-assassin so happy.

As I noted above, I played the game on casual, which is the best way to enjoy a first playthrough on any game with an intricate story. I felt like it was still relatively challenging, especially beyond combat, because the game doesn’t just hand you solutions to puzzles or make it easier to discover hidden secrets because you’re cruising through it. You still have to challenge yourself on the paths to shrines, and some of them can take ingenuity to figure out, no matter what difficulty you’re playing on.

Ghost of Yotei On a Scale of 1 to 10

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It’s safe for me to say that when it comes to components that make for an outstanding game, Ghost of Yotei ticks off all the boxes. It’s challenging, beautifully built, has a compelling protagonist and the story is engaging. Atsu’s journey was compelling and emotional. I found myself wishing I had the ability to choose for her, even when I knew my personal choices would not reflect who she was. This game left a mark, and I won’t forget its characters, its lessons, or its landscape anytime soon.

My only real complaint is that a game this beautiful being exclusive is a shame. I have friends on other consoles and PC who would absolutely lose their minds playing this game. Sadly, they can’t enjoy it firsthand because of its exclusivity. That’s enough to knock my rating down from a solid 10 to an 8. Highly recommend you check it out if you’re a PlayStation person. And if not, I pray at the shrines it will come to PC much sooner than Ghost of Tsushima did.

VOID RATING: 8/10