Key Takeaways
1. Gameplay Length and Value: Ghost of Yotei offers great value, with playthroughs averaging 44 hours, and potential for much longer play, especially on tougher difficulties.
2. Technical Achievements: The game shines on PS5 with fast loading times and supports ray tracing, although it runs at a cinematic 30 FPS with occasional drops.
3. Story and Themes: The narrative follows Atsu seeking revenge 400 years after Jin Sakai, but lacks depth and feels predictable, with a rushed conclusion.
4. Gameplay Mechanics: While retaining the core formula from Tsushima, Ghost of Yotei introduces refined mechanics like camp setups and interactive mini-games, enhancing exploration.
5. Combat Dynamics: The game features improved weapon variety and challenging combat, though players may need to adjust settings for optimal enemy engagement.
As a follow-up to Ghost of Tsushima, Ghost of Yotei has high expectations to meet. Can Atsu capture the charm of Jin Sakai? Not entirely, but that’s not a bad thing. Ghost of Yotei offers great value for its price. My playthrough lasted around 44 hours, but players can easily stretch that to three times longer, especially on tougher difficulties. New Game+ isn’t available just yet, but it should be added in the future. Those with a PlayStation 5 Pro can enjoy enhanced visuals, although I tried it on the standard console.
Technical Achievements
Without a PS4 version to consider, Ghost of Yotei truly shines. Sucker Punch delivered a technical marvel with Ghost of Tsushima’s fast loading times on the PS4, and they’ve done it again here. This title is among the few that supports ray tracing on the base PS5. However, you’ll be limited to a cinematic 30 FPS with occasional drops. As someone used to playing at over 100 FPS on PC, I found that a bit frustrating, but the stunning visuals made up for it, giving plenty of moments worth capturing.
Story and Themes
The tale of Ghost of Yotei begins about 400 years after Jin Sakai liberated Japan from the Mongols. Atsu, who has lost his family to a mysterious group known as the Yotei Six, returns to Mount Yotei to seek vengeance. Immediately, I noticed similarities between Ghost of Yotei and The Last of Us Part 2. Like Ellie, Atsu is obsessed with revenge, raising the question of whether vengeance is truly worthwhile. As a high-budget AAA exclusive for PlayStation, it’s filled with recycled themes and predictable twists that you can see coming from a mile away. The conclusion feels rushed, seemingly crafted just to meet a deadline. In Ghost of Tsushima, we help Jin realize his full potential and overcome his self-doubt, only to see it all thrown away at the end. Ghost of Yotei doesn’t have that depth, which is a notable flaw in an otherwise strong game. Atsu could have been a compelling anti-hero, but the writing falls flat.
Gameplay Mechanics
Ghost of Yotei doesn’t change the core formula from Tsushima significantly. The expansive open world is packed with activities. However, finding shrines and hot springs becomes easier if you pay for map fragments. Some of these can be purchased, while others are acquired through NPC interactions. Golden Birds guide you to points of interest, but you can turn them off for a more immersive experience. Overall, it’s simply a refined version of what Tsushima offered. The ability to set up camp is a fantastic addition, providing an instant reset point for health and a dynamic fast-travel location. The cooking and fire-starting mini-games are nice touches, although they can become tedious. They do, however, provide a nice break from all the exploring and fighting. Additionally, the inclusion of paintings and playing songs on your Shamisen is delightful. Ghost of Yotei takes full advantage of DualSense’s speakers, which I would say is one of the best usages seen so far.
Combat Dynamics
One of the standout features in Ghost of Yotei is its weapon variety, a much-needed upgrade from Tsushima’s stance-based combat. Balancing different weapons can be challenging, but nothing feels overly powerful. Switching weapons during combat is smooth and necessary since enemies often carry various weapons, and certain ones counter others; for instance, Yari users can be countered by dual Katanas, while brutes fall to the Odachi. The combat itself is quite challenging, even at the regular difficulty. You’ll face multiple enemies at once, and keeping track of them can be overwhelming. By default, the option to lock on to specific foes is off, so I recommend turning it on in the settings. You can customize various difficulty aspects like damage taken, enemy detection speed, and aggression for each item. Think of it as a simplified version of what Doom: The Dark Ages presents. Parries are easy to get the hang of with some practice. To master timing, try the Bounty Hunter armor, which disables regular deflects, but allows for relaxed parry timings. Ranged combat gets a new twist with throwable bombs and a gun, which I wasn’t very fond of, but others might enjoy. One side quest gives you a charm that allows for automatic headshots with no effort, perfect for those flashy 360-no-scope moments.
Conclusion
In summary, Ghost of Yotei is a worthy follow-up to Ghost of Tsushima. However, on its own, I wouldn’t call it a game-of-the-year contender, especially with heavy hitters like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Death Stranding 2 looming. Ghost of Yotei has many great parts individually, but they don’t quite come together to create an outstanding game. It feels like Sucker Punch became overly focused on fine-tuning the small details and lost sight of the larger picture. The main gameplay loop still feels stuck in the Far Cry 3 era, with outpost clearing, climbing puzzles, and unnecessary hallucinations as plot devices. Is the game enjoyable? Absolutely. Will it resonate with you for years to come? Probably not.
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