Let’s start by quickly going through the customization of Atsu.I know it is something that can be considered a given, but I wanted to quickly highlight the drip in this game. Other than the armour you wear, you can customize all of your weapons and your bows, as well as your Shamisen and horse saddle. I would’ve liked more armour sets, considering that not all of them is going to be to your liking. It is understandable though as they put a great amount of detail into each armour, the different upgrades look different, there are colour variations, and each armour has its own perks. I don’t know how I feel about that by the way. Yeah it adds something to the game, but it also means that you may not play with the armour that you like aesthetically because its perks and game style are not to your liking. Though that probably doesn’t matter in difficulties below hard. Either way, here are some of my favourite fit in Ghost of Yōtei. There are many more that I could include here but then the whole page is gonna be just photos.

I mentioned in my review how this game has a lot of moments, both big and small. I’m gonna start with discussing some of the big ones. There are two quests that stand out in my mind, and they aren’t even main story quests.

This one absolutely gave me goosebumps. The crazy thing, I didn’t even know what I was getting into. I had totally forgotten about the Tsushima sing, the one with the double mountains, and so I didn’t notice it when the quest title came up. It clicked when I saw the name of the location pop up: “Lost Shinobi Den”. I lost my shit, I was about to explore Jin’s home. He fled to Yōtei after the events of Tsushima. You enter the shed and you see Jin’s equipment, old and rust. Not only that, but you find Jin’s clan helmet, which you can equip. Little by little I got more excited as I left the shed and started climbing to where his katana is supposed to be at. I make the climb and I see it there, but the moment is ruined by the Nine Tail as they ambush you and take the swords. I was bloodthirsty, in the game I have never run after someone with as much commitment and energy as I did with the thieves. You have to do some more climbing and platforming, and then you arrive there. The video doesn’t do the scene justice. It was breath-taking seeing the massive field of white flowers with another shed among them in the distance. It made that small, old, broken shed seem so important and significant. You enter the shed to see more of Jin’s previous life, including his flute. You do not find the thief and have to keep going. Then you arrive yet at another location that can blows your mind in terms of beauty. I’ve played this game around 40 hours at this point, and still the game takes my breath away with these landscapes. You duel the thief under the tree and I was so invested man. I was so locked in to get those swords and get them out of the hands of a thief that would dishonour Jin’s memory. I defeat the thief and take the swords for myself. The swords are magnificent, but they offer more than just their looks. With these swords you unlock a special attack that makes you feel like a real onryō. You dash swiftly between enemies and disarm each one you hit, setting you up to pick up the weapons and throw them at any enemies remaining. The storyteller arrives and you are given the cutscene that tells the fate of Jin. The quest then finishes by you paying respect to Jin’s graving, and picking up his ghost mask.

This quest was done so well. The build-up, the reveal of the landscapes, the placement of Jin’s old tools, the Nine Tail and going after them, topped off by getting a new technique and armour pieces. Not only was the quest itself designed well, but it paid respect to Jin. I told yall, Jin is still my favourite, and this quest felt like such a love letter to him and his legacy, his legend. This quest was the highlight of the game for me.

The second stand-out part of the game for me is the Spider Lily General quest. As you explore, you come across a gate, with the storyteller waiting in front. He tells you the story of the General, but unlike previous times, he tries to persuade you not to enter. He warns you that ahead lies the estate of a general so obsessed with battle, that he decided to train his daughter to fight, but accidentally killed her in the process. If you ignore him and enter, there is a sudden change. There is an atmosphere that you haven’t encountered before, a tone that is not welcoming. The path ahead is ominous, with the ground filled with spider lilies and bodies. You are then presented with the Abandoned Tominaga Estate. There no birds to be heard, nor other animals to be seen. A light fog covers the state grounds, while no light penetrates the clouds above. You reach another gate, one sealed shut with chains and four locks. To obtain the keys, you must explore the estate and visit the different areas. Each one offers a small but memorable experience. You must explore caves that are filled with the howls of the general and the bodies of ronin. You must traverse a maze with claustrophobic corridors enclosed by dense bamboo. You encounter the general for the first time near a pagoda, where he appears to welcome you back home, and to say sorry before disappearing. You find other ronin in the graveyard, but as you engage them, a strong fogs sweeps in and obscures your vision. You hear the screams of the ronin, and are left with their bodies as the fog clears. With all four keys you can finally get through. The rest of the estate visually tells the full story, a training range stained with the blood of the general’s daughter, a bloody bed with medicine on the side. After pushing forward, you finally come face-to-face with the general. Mistaking you for his daughter, he compliments you on how strong you’ve become. This encourages his previous thirst for battle, as he challenger you to see how strong you’ve become. After defeating him, you find his grave with his armour and a note, in which he said goodbye to his daughter. On the way back, the feeling of the estate has changed. There is no fog anymore and sun shines bright. What was dead and haunting before because of a restless soul, has now become beautiful and warm as the general has found peace.

What a quest man. It was short, but because it was so different than any other quest in the game, it was such a joy to go through. The mystery/haunting atmosphere is something that I was not expecting in this game, nor encountering a ghost and an area that has a little bit of horror to it. This why it’s important to be creative and try to use every bit of your setting and possible stories to the best of your abilities, as they create real memorable moments. Plus, you get one of the best looking armours at the end of the quest.

But the game isn’t enjoyable just because of these big impactful moments. There are lots of small moments throughout the game that while may not seem as significant, they are important you maintaining your enjoyment of the game and of exploring. These moments are not just the side-quest and side-characters, but it is when you notice small details in the game and you appreciate the fact that it’s there. Take the dude you encounter when you interact with the candles just before heading off to Teshido Ridge. It’s not even gameplay, it’s just a weird conversation between you and some dude that has mistaken you for someone. This, and the failed attempts of the guy at using smoke bombs and intimidating us, makes it a memorable moment. A very small one, but one that I appreciated it being there. Another example is the bounty of the Tooth Breaker. Once you reach your destination for this bounty, you find one of the victims of the Tooth Breaker, a ronin that points you in the direction where you can find him. They could’ve had a random person giving you directions, but the ronin who can’t speak properly because of his missing teeth adds a little bit of comedy as he tries to talk and mumbles. When you reach your new destination, you see a line of people waiting to have their teeth extracted. You shout out the name of the person who would be crazy enough to do this, Mad Goro, my favourite side character in the game. Once you confront him, a bunch of ronin arrive with muskets in hand to try and kill Goro. With him, you two defend the shed with your own guns, which made it feel like a western shooter of some kind. Do you know what is perhaps the craziest moment for me? When I reached the peak of mount Yōtei and saw that I could not only see Ishikari plane, but I could inspect it with my spyglasses. Even though the mountain peak is a separate zone, it is still part of the whole geography. You can look down and actually discovers new places from the mountain top and mark them on your map, or see places that you have already visited from a different point of view. So cool.

You come across these moments as you explore the open world, where you will also be doing the side activities. Different side activities have different values when it comes to keeping you engaged. For example, the ¡¡¡¡¡¡¡ serve the unique purpose of upgrading yourself, and most of them time they are easy to reach without anything else to offer. The shrines on the other, while they also offer one thing, a charm, each one offers a unique experience. The path to each shrine is structured to take advantage of the georgraphical setting of the shrine. This allow the developers to present you with beautiful landscapes that you cannot find anywhere else. While they may not be as memorable as the things I have previously mentioned, the paths to these shrines are ¡¡¡¡¡¡ to climb, not to mention the resources that you can pick up along the way. A similar thing can be said with the wolf dens. After you find the wolf, you will chase her on horseback, and this chase is different for each wolf den. Not just because of the geographical setting and environment, but scripted events take place along the chase that help set the wolf dens apart. These events might be a sudden change in weather, the appearance of other horses that ride alongside you, explosions and fire as you ride through battles, or the unfortunate tumbling of a poor man and his horse that are caught in the wolf’s path. Other than these, the fight that typically concludes the wolf den quest might include some unique stuff itself. For example, the wolves you free will join you for another fight as a group of enemies attack you, or you might find a bear that will fight alongside you. This is not the case for each wolf den, but is just frequent enough to prevent monotony.

I have talked about a lot of things but not yet about the main story and characters. Atsu and her revenge story are done well. The character herself goes through an arch, there are multiple aspects to her personality that can be seen as she interacts with different characters. The revenge story has highs and lows, with small twists here and there. BUT, it lacked impact. We see that Atsu is absolutely hell bent on taking out the Yotei Six and how this might take her down a dark path that she might not come back from. Even though she has made peace with it and has accepted this is how it must be, people around her, specifically Jubei and Oyuki, voice their concerns and try to convince her in the value of life, her own life that she can have. She also meets small side characters through side quests that impart her with their own experience and wisdom that can make her reflect and think about her own story. The story takes her to the highs of the moments where she takes out her targets, and the lows when she is unable to or makes a decision that she regrets later. These are all good and fine, but you can’t help but feel as if you’ve been here before. After the massacre of the Spider’s men, you know how those around her are gonna react and how she will respond. You know this is probably gonna be the closes she will be to really becoming the onryo before some events changes her mind. The turning point where Atsu chooses to fight the Dragon rather than help Oyuki and Jubei, which makes her really reconsider her path and choices moving forward to the point where she chooses to spare the Spider, it sort of shows the storie’s hand and what to expect. So even though they play it as an uncertain moment, after the fight with the Spider you can already tell that Atsu is gonna spare him, there was no tension. In the finale, where she burns the sash before the fight against Saito, it is a cool moment and important to the story, but lacks REAL impact. When her brother dies during the fights and she hangs up the sword and title of onryo, further shown by her letting go of the wolf companion and going their separate ways at the end, it is all done well, but if feels very familiar, as if you’ve seen it somewhere else before just with different characters.

You can probably the same thing about the story in Tsushima. Seeing how events unravelled during the game, you could anticipate that maybe in the end Jin would be facing off against his uncle and the law and tradition. But what sets it apart is that Jin did the right thing, but was punished for it. What his story enduring to me and more impactful, is that he saved his island, his people, fought of the Mongol invasion, but then was seen as a threat, a man with no honour, shunned by the government and those who held the traditional Samurai way close to heart. He, in some way, did sacrifice his life to achieve his goal, whereas Atsu got to live a good, happy life after killing Saito. Yes she lost her brother during this, but afterwards she was not punished in any way. Oyuki and Kiku did not see the onryo in her anymore, and the people of Ezo, generally speaking, did not fear that name or what it stood for. Yes the Matsumae would probably be against her story and legend spreading, but she would be living life with her new family in the safety of her childhood home. Unlike Jin, who would have to go on the run, even eventually leaving Tsushima for refuge in Ezo.

I’ll emphasize this again, the story nor the characters are bad, but at the end it does feel like a typical revenge story. In this aspect Yotei falls short of Tsushima, even though the individual characters may have been done better or had more personality.

There isn’t uch more that I can add to the combat other than the things I mentioned in my review. I do not remember if the combat in Tsushima got stale at any point, nor do I remember any specifics, so I cannot compare really. That said, with all the additions to the combat in Yotei, I can say confidently that it surpasses the ones in Tsushima.

I think objectively Yotei is the superior game, and I very much enjoyed playing it. That said, Tsushima because of its protagonist and story just takes a place in my heart that Yotei cannot. Maybe if I visit Tsushima again one day I might change my mind and see the flaws better with a critical mind. Even if so, both games have been incredible experiences.

[Games a tool for learning] One aspect that is left out a lot of times when discussing video games and their importance is their ability to teach us. I am not referring necessarily to the exploration of themes and topics, but rather the way we simply learn from the game and its presentation. When it comes to other countries and their culture, our exposure to them can come through different means; the restaurants with authentic food, movies and series depicting said culture, the internet and social media. While we can learn a lot in the beforementioned ways, we can forget how games can do the same, perhaps even more effectively. Ghost of Yōtei incorporates its setting not just into the story, but into the gameplay as well. This allow the game to show us many aspect of life in Japan during the 1600s, some of which can still be seen in the modern era. One my bigger takeaways from this game is actually the things I learned. For example, I did not know about the existence of the Ainu before paying this game, I had no clue that Japan had a indigenous ethnic group. The game has side quests and characters that taught me about this group and the basics of their culture, and this is made better by the fact that these characters and stories are intriguing and interesting. Another example is the instrument that Atsu can play in this game, the Shamisen. I am familiar with the instrument in that I am sure I have seen it in a movie or series before, but I did not know its name until I played this game. This game continues what Ghost of Tsushima did, making us interested in the setting and drawing attention to it. Other than the effect the game can have on the players, it can have real world consequences as well. Tsushima the island saw a huge rise in tourism after the game came out, boosting the economy and bringing more attention to its cultural significance. While this level of impact from a game is rare, players learning from the game they are playing is not, and each game can offer different things for us to explore and draw out attention to. In Ghost of Yōtei, it does this beautifully with some of the history and traditional culture of Japan.

Something that I couldn’t properly discuss in my review was how the game switches things up. I touched on it but I couldn’t give examples as I think it’s best when you experience them for the first time yourself. With side activities like the old shrines and wolf dens, you