Game Review: Ghost of Yōtei

When Ghost of Tsushima released back in 2020, it’s fair to say it took the video game industry by surprise.  Sucker Punch who until recently were known as the folks behind the Sly Cooper and Infamous franchises were looking to take a confident stride into the new generation with their next original IP.  What captured mine and many people’s attention when the game was revealed was the trademark PlayStation cinematic presentation with the Kamakura-era of Japan serving as an authentic backdrop.  This was before the heavy saturation of Samurai/Ninja games in the modern era so the concept Sucker Punch was pitching was original enough to draw in a lot of eyes. That initial impression clearly paid off because Ghost of Tsushima blew up commercially and critically, selling over 13 million units as of September 2024 and cementing itself as the fastest-selling original IP on the PlayStation 4.  With the legacy the game established as another breakthrough exclusive for PlayStation, it only made sense Sucker Punch would follow that success up by delivering a fully-fledged sequel built specifically for the PlayStation 5.

Ghost of Yōtei is an open-world, action/adventure video game developed by Sucker Punch and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was released on October 2nd 2025 exclusively on the PlayStation 5. Pre-production on Yōtei began in 2021 with the studios key objective was to craft a game where the narrative, gameplay and character all grew together.  After scouting over a dozen locations across northern Japan the team felt inspired by the visual sight of Mount Yōtei reflecting off of Lake Tōya in Hokkaido, Japan and elected to base the sequel in that region. Sucker Punch were eager to incorporate all of the key elements from Ghost of Tsushima but made the distinct choice to portray the game through the perspective of a female protagonist to help give the game’s narrative a specific sense of adversity to overcome. On the commercial and critical front, Ghost of Yōtei was a notable success; amassing over 3.3-million-unit sales as of November 2025 and aggregating a solid 87 critical average on OpenCritic. 

The story of Ghost of Yōtei takes place in Ezo (Hokkaido in modern day) in the year 1603. The central character of the narrative is a young woman by the name of Atsu. During her youth, Atsu was forced to endure the brutal slaughter of her family at the hands of the Yōtei Six who are led by the renegade samurai lord Nariaki Saito. Barely escaping with her life, Atsu spent the next sixteen years honing her craft as a mercenary with the sole intent of returning to Ezo and taking revenge on the Yōtei Six one day. Upon her return to Ezo, she discovers that Clan Saito has subjugated the land and are in open conflict with Clan Matsumae who are trying to bring order to the region.  While initially reluctant to get involved with the open conflict, Atsu soon discovers that if she has any hope of taking down the Yōtei Six then she will have work with key inhabitants of the island to take them down.  Her journey of revenge will see Atsu take on the deadliest of perils as she seeks to define her reputation as the onryō and bring an end to Lord Saito’s tyrannical rule over Ezo once and for all.

Let’s try load the positives on the story first, shall we? I think the emotional core of Ghost of Yōtei is its key strength.  The writing team clearly spent a great deal of effort framing Atsu as a character with depth and complexity.  The tragedy she suffered at a young age would be enough to break anyone, yet instead we see how her resolve is steeled in the hopes of one day avenging her family’s brutal murder.  This makes Atsu’s presentation in the story a morally complex one in retrospect.  We see continuously how despite having justified motivations, her actions and intentions are constantly challenged in the wake of the events unfolding across the island.  Atsu’s quest for revenge must require her to face the reality of the world she is a part of and in turn force her to decide what line is she prepared to cross to acquire it. 

Another key element of the narrative that compliments Atsu’s character arc are the characters she meets during her time on Ezo.  Titled her Wolf Pack, Atsu will come to meet and form working relationships with a group of inhabitants of the island who all have their own part to play in her quest for revenge. In some shape or form, these people have all suffered their own share of grief by the hands of Clan Saito and we see how it has shaped them for good or worse.  This helps offer additional contrast for both Atsu and the player themselves to face the reality of the shared suffering Atsu and these people have faced and in turn how they have allowed it to define them.  This to me is the key component of the story that works, it’s not in your face or obnoxious for the most part.  This is a fairly grounded story which tries to ask the player how much revenge matters to them when considered in line with the dire costs attributed to it.  The only blemish that dampens this intent in my eyes is the lack of choice however. I think Sucker Punch missed the opportunity to flex that approach by allowing the player to choose in key moments in the story and use that as a means of self-reflection.  We have all seen games tackle the concept of revenge and the weight it holds on the soul, but I feel Ghost of Yōtei misses out on the chance to really cement its intent by putting the choices in the players hands as opposed to having the decision made for them.

One other gripe I’d like to get out of the way before I leave the narrative portion behind is the pacing.  Even if you’re not trying to do everything and are just trying to breeze through the main story, I do feel Ghost of Yōtei struggles to define a consistent pace with the story multiple times.  I appreciate when trying to tell this kind of story, it’s important to slow things down and really get the player to soak in key moments, but I do think the plot deviates from itself way too much for my liking.  Often at times you’ll enter a new area and work through a string of missions before you are able to confront the respective member of the Yōtei Six. However, these missions can be very slow and suffer from notable padding.  I get the intent behind the arcs of these missions but it can’t help but slow down the sense of progression the story builds up constantly.  Some sections also drag out notoriously long for my liking.  The sections for the Oni and the Kitsune are the most egregious for this issue in my opinion as their missions are numerous and are paced excruciatingly slow. 

On the gameplay front, I don’t think I’m saying anything controversial in pointing out this game is definitely an open world game with all of its common positives and negatives.  I don’t think it’s fair to dismiss Ghost of Yōtei because of the common issues associated with the genre, unless you’re designing something truly unprecedented your game is often always going to be guilty of common tropes here or there.  In Ghost of Yōtei’s case, it helps that Sucker Punch did an amazing job minimalizing the tedium that stems from the genre in their own way.  Your time in Ezo will be spent exploring the games 6 main regions; Yōtei Grasslands, Ishikari Plain, Tokachi Range, Nayoro Wilds, Teshio Ridge and Oshima Coast. Each of these regions offer their own distinct natural biomes to explore and appreciate. Your time throughout all of them will be spent doing a lot of the same thing though.  Primarily you’ll be progressing the story by working to overthrow the Yōtei Six leader who is terrorizing the locals.  You’ll be able to partake in bounty hunts in which you track down and confront deadly targets.  You’ll also come across a plethora of side missions with their own unique plots to experience.  There’s Legendary Mythic quests in which you’ll go hunt down rare weapons or armour foretold in legendary tales. There’s also Saito Bandit camps to clear out. Alongside all of that is minor activities like Wolf Dens, Fox Dens, Reliquary Puzzles, Bamboo Strikes, Shrine Climbs, Hot Springs.  

All of this is to say there’s a great many things to do in this game and that can either work for you or put you off depending on your tolerance for this kind of open-world experience.  For me I think what’s here does often learn into the repetitive side without much variance depending on the activity in itself.  I think the most egregious examples are the Wolf Dens, Fox Dens and Bandit Camps, these do pop up way too often for my liking and they offer little in the way of variation to help disguise their artificial nature.  I do appreciate to a degree though how Sucker Punch tried to make everything feel like a natural occurrence in the world as opposed to an objective to tick off.  Most open world games don’t try this hard to make everything feel relative to the environment but in Ghost of Yōtei’s case you can at least appreciate their intent to make everything feel seamless from an explorative perspective.  I like how the map feels traditional in the sense it’s presented on a piece of paper like something Atsu would carry and how it’s marked with writings as if she’s crossing off key locations during the course of her time on the map.  Nothing feels overly egregious in the way it’s presented to you so it makes the artificial nature of it feel less obvious as a positive.

When you’re not wandering around the plains of Ezo though, you’ll likely be fighting in it and Sucker Punch really commit to the combat portion of Ghost of Yōtei with the blend of authenticity and response.  You start out initially with your single katana but as you progress through the game, you’ll unlock a plethora of weapons through the weapon masters you train under.  This includes the Dual Katana’s, Yari, Kusarigama and Odachi. Each of these weapon’s work in specific ways and offer both advantages and disadvantages depending on the opponent you are faced up against.  It helps you have a selection of throwable weapons to utilize during combat alongside additional quick-fire weapons.  The depth of the arsenal you can obtain makes taking on the deadly opponents you come across in Ezo even more engaging.  It helps Sucker Punch designed combat to feel authentic in the sense that it’s much like a dance in the way you balance your opponents and time your deflections and attacks accordingly.  It’s not an overly technical setup but there’s enough layering here that casual and hardcore players can get enough out of it depending on the difficulty they set the game at. 

Let’s talk about the environmental design in itself as I feel that’s one of the games biggest draws for me personally.  I knew pretty much straight away when I played Ghost of Tsushima that Sucker Punch were right on top of the visual end of things.  Ghost of Yōtei is another clear example of their ability because the world and character are designed and rendered in some truly mesmerising fashion.  Each of the key regions of Ezo offer stunning vistas with distinct levels of beauty that differentiate them from one another.  The scope and scale of these environments is honestly breathtaking and really shows the power of the PS5 hardware with how easily it is able to run and support the renderings of this world with little effort.  Character models also show a pristine sense of detail with their ability to animate and show expressions.  A lot of the key emotions of the story are really conveyed by the facial expressions these characters are able to produce.  I also love how the game elects to switch between aspect ratios between gameplay and cutscenes to help give the story a more cinematic impression.  Toma Otowa does a stellar job as the composer too with the use of traditional, period-centric instruments to help really embed the game within the setting it’s utilizing. 

Ghost of Yōtei is another open-world game, I can’t lie about that designation.  Whether that’s a good or bad thing will predominately depend on your tolerance for this genre.  For me I was able to forgive its reliance on common elements of the genre in light of its honest intent.  I know Sucker Punch fairly well at this point having played nearly all of their games, this isn’t a developer who is just out to nickel and dime you. There’s flaws layered within most of the key elements of the game but they aren’t the kind of flaws that will truly ruin the experience in my perspective.  This is a truly commendable game which does everything it can to justify your investment within it and I can’t give that distinction to too many games these days, so that to me is a definite reason to give it a go.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐