Ghost of Yotei REVIEW

 

“What Sucker Punch have done is patch a bunch of holes when they really should have built a new boat." 

| PS5 |

HOW I PLAYED: I played on PS5 with a physical copy on an LG C1 with AirPods Max headphones

STORY — 12/20 

INTRO (3) 

After a brief but striking opening cutscene showing a young Atsu - our stories protagonist - the story jumps ahead sixteen years to the present. Early on, we're introduced to one of Ghost of Yotei’s new mechanics — painting the names of the Yotei Six onto a sash, the very figures who anchor the game’s revenge narrative. It’s followed by the usual tutorial-style encounter and an early boss fight meant to set the tone. Unfortunately, the introduction never quite lands; despite its intensity, it feels more obligatory than impactful.

CUTSCENES (3) 

There were definitely moments when the cutscenes pulled me in, but too many relied on plain, static dialogue shots. It’s easy to overlook because the game is so stunning to look at, yet despite all that visual polish, there weren’t any truly memorable or standout cinematic moments that stuck with me.

WORLD BUILDING (3)

I know this is totally dependant on play styles but for me personally I really had to go out of my way in the post game to absorb and get a feel for the world. I had to seek out sidequests and do a lot of extra exploration on horseback and on foot to see what it was all about and try and find a sense of belonging.

There was a feeling of being disconnected that stayed with me through the whole playthrough. It really felt like the devs put more weight into the gameplay than the world and the overall story this time around. Honestly it could just be the fact that I'd seen all this before in the previous game. It was kind - I don't know, stale is maybe the wrong word. Could have been fresher? I wonder how much more inspired the game would have felt had they set it in another part of the world? The Japan thing is starting to run its course. Kind of like what the Assasins Creed games have done. New setting each time. Its an idea.

I could be off on this one but the game's overall size felt much smaller than its predecessor. Exploration was also hindered but seemingly endless invisible walls that are shown on the map as inexplorable grey areas. Like 70% of this map is off limits. The areas in the game are all so segregated and only accessible by ferries initially. The sense of boundaries and restriction really hurt the immersion for me.

OVERALL STORY (3) 

The Mongol invasion of Tsushima in my opinion was an infinitely better setting than Kill Bill set in Japan. This is ultimately what the story boils down too - "get back at all the people who did me wrong revenge story". Even if it was written well enough and had its share of twists, surprises and emotional weight, tracking down thugs just wasn't the same as protecting the homeland. There was a serious lack of pressure, consequence and overall urgency that made ghost of Tsushima so absorbing.

I also felt the main villain was under developed, too. It wasn't until the post game again that I started to discover scrolls he had left behind that provided some more of his backstory. Like he's the main guy and you're just going to make me find out about him through text that I may or may not even find at all? I didn't like how this was handled.

GRAPHICS — 15/15 

CHARACTER MODELS (5) 

Even basic ass nobody NPCs without dialogue have the same level of detail as the main character's. Zooming in up close you can see individual pores on their faces and small hairs. It was nuts.

All of Atsu's armour and outfits looked outstanding as well.

ENVIRONMENTS (5)

There were many, many moments that were so pretty I didn't even want to move the camera around. I could just sit there and stare at the game. It seemed to create its own cinematics as well; riding around on horseback automatically changed the camera to a wide angle look and after I thought to turn off subtitles I turned into a movie director. It was absolutely outstanding. I was creating my own cutscenes. Ghost of Tsushima was ahead of its time but Ghost of Yotei might be the best looking game I've ever seen. The beauty of nature, the wildlife, the colours, the construction of the games landscapes were mesmerizing at every turn.

SPECIAL FX (5)

The use of light is on another level. With the wind blowing at the same time, it looked basically real. Fire looked really good although - this is going to sound weird - was it too orange? Blood splatters were realistic as were smoke, explosions and mud.

AUDIO — 10/15 

AMBIENCE (3)

While I definitely appreciate the effort to use all these traditional Japanese instruments to compose the soundtrack, like the world itself - it just felt a bit like I'd heard this before. It was pretty, don't get me wrong but that's kind of all it was.

BOSS MUSIC (3)

Same goes for the boss music. It did what it needed to; it was suspenseful and aggressive at the right moments but it just didn't do anything for me. I wasn't moved.

SOUND DESIGN (4)

Overall really solid voice acting. When you can just lose yourself in a character and it doesn't sound like acting - that's when you know the performance is on point. Ghost of Yotei had this in spades.

Where things really fell apart was in the performances for child Atsu and her brother Jobei. The reason I feel like I can't just dismiss this is because the game makes such a point of including. Not only in custcenes but playable flashback moments where you relive the past - they really wanted to show off these kid. The voice acting for them was cringy bordering on disturbing. I said to myself "it sound like they just got the main character to do a kid voice of herself" After looking it up. I was right. Man this was a bad choice. This is not on the actor whatsoever its a terrible choice by the developers. This was unfortunately paired with equally awful character models which just looked like shrunken adults.

PERFORMANCE — 8/10 

FRAME RATE (5)  

Graphics, performance and ray tracing modes are available. I never once encountered even a minor hiccup.

STABILITY (3)

This was a real surprise for me. Ghost of Yotei felt noticeable less stable than its predecessor. An NPCs for whatever reason stopped following me during a side quest and didn't trigger the cutscene; items I'd dropped couldn't be pickup up; the D pad menu would toggle on an off on the screen but I couldn't actually engage it; dialogue was repeated in cutscenes. All kinds of stuff. Nothing game breaking but way too many small things that shouldn't be present in a big budget game like this.

GAMEPLAY — 28/40 

CONTROLS (3) 

I'm still wearing the iron boots on land. I'm still in that dream where I'm trying to run but I can barely move. The controls still feel sluggish and weighed down the way they did in Ghost of Tsushima. Why does it feel like I'm line dancing? I can see that guy over there but I'm on some imaginary grid and can only move in this direction. Can I take the training wheels off now?

MECHANICS (5)

For me this is where Ghost of Yotei really shines the brightest. The mechanics in the game are so well though out and executed. It feels thoroughly play tested and refined (well aside from some stability issues). It has so many ideas that seem fully realized. The game has a really effortless flow to it when you get going.

The guiding wind system was already great but its been made even better because now through an option in the menu you can literally just swipe up and you'll be facing the direction of your next objective. This might seem really lazy but it was far from it and saved me from having to constantly check the map over and over. If I was ever veering off course I could just swipe up and I'd be turned slightly or dramatically to one side so I was back on course.

The first time I ever saw this was in Visions of Mana last year but it was a great addition that worked in Ghost of Yotei as well. After selecting a location to fast travel to you can then chose from a list of locations within that area to be instantly transported to such as various merchants or key areas within a town. Another really nice quality of life addition and time saver.

You can even go from examining an item within the menu that will show you it has an upgrade available, to then being shown the map then the town and then the exact location all in a seamless sequence. Outstanding.

Large strips of white flowers appear around the world that will provide your horse with a speed boost when entered. Not super original but it worked.

Stealth weapons make a return with some new additions and some replacements. 

My favourite new combat mechanic is the ability to pick up weapons that are either laying around or dropped by enemies and throw them for critical attacks. It was so satisfying. 

The core gameplay created by the combat is so freaking good. Yes I have issues with the camera still - enemies sometimes move off screen and you have to juggle the camera while you're dealing with everything else -  and the controls are clunky but the rhythm of combat is so damn good. The game constantly puts you in seemingly unwinnable positions and emerging victorious after putting all your skills to use made for some really exciting video gaming.

Stances have been replaced with weapon types this time around and I found it to be a much more engaging experience. In a ddition to the main Katana, Atsu will acquire up to four other weapons. Much like the stances from Ghost of Tsushima or elements in Pokemon, each weapon type counters a different one and is weak to another so theres a fun extra layer of strategy going on each time you get into a fight.

PACING (3)

The game's third act definitely felt rushed. A couple of the villains were maybe hastily written or not well though out as well.

The moment to moment pacing of the story was fine though I kind of wish it was longer. I felt like it was lacking a certain ingredient.

The post game was utterly bewildering. I'm not going to go into details but it was really poorly handled in my opinion.

UI/UE (3)

I did't like the UI in Ghost of Tsushima and I still don't like it here. The stark white menus are still hard to look at. The game's map has been improved somewhat from the greyscale sketch of its predecessor but its still pales in comparison to other great game maps like Elden Ring or Breath of the Wild's.

I still have a real problem with the item pickup UI, too and there were some overall really suspect looking text boxes in the game.

BOSS QUALITY (3)

Yes. FINALLY! They listened. Let's get to what worked in a second but first I need to set this up. The boss fights in Ghost of Tsushima were one of the biggest letdowns of that game. Other than some cool set pieces they were no different than every single other encounter in the game. They weren't special. They didn't stand out. This was exacerbated by the fact that you couldn't use any of your cool weapons and skills during the fights. In Ghost of Yotei they scrapped these pointless restrictions and it made a big difference. Not only can you use your full arsenal on the bosses but they actually had - I don't know - Ideas? There were mechanics at play here and more going on than just a basic 1 on 1 dual with the Katana.

ENEMY VARIETY (4)

Enemies are equipped with a wide range of weapons and come in several categories of toughness. Bears will still attack you out in the wild and guard dogs are constantly a threat.

GAMEPLAY VARIETY (5)

Hotsprings are back as are fox dens, bamboo strikes and shrines. Haikus have been replaced with painting which I found to be a lot more interesting and all the Uncharted platforming is on full display. There's a new mini game called zene hajiki where you flick coins on a table and you get to learn songs again for a musical instrument.

There's some other new additions too that make really great use the the PS5s motion controls. Overall a staggering amount of gameplay to be found in Ghost of Yotei.

I didn't get a chance to bring this up in my Ghost of Tsushima review but I feel like now is just as good a chance to talk about it. What I'm trying to understand is that stealth was Sucker Punch's bread and butter with the Sly Cooper games and they seem to have abandoned it. Well at least abandoned executing it properly. Where did they go wrong? It seems crazy to me. They made a complete mess of it in Ghost of Tsushima to the point where the mandatory stealth sections in Ghost of Yotei are completely absent. You can still sneak around and assassinate enemies if you want but the forced stealth is gone. Does anyone have theories or suspicions about this? I find it very curious.

REPLAYABILITY (2)

There aren't really "builds" to speak of - you can customize your playthrough somewhat with the use of charms which were actually pretty cool - I found them more interesting than before - but the game has one ending and each and every playthrough you're going to have the same weapons. You can chose not to acquire certain weapons and limit yourself for the challenge: for example I didn't get the spear until the post game but this was more of an accident. So I don't really see much replay value after you've played through the game once.

BONUS — 3/3

Ghost of Yotei offers a staggering amount of accessibility features and customization. Colourblind options, assist modes for quick time events and

OVERALL — 76/100 

GOOD

Ghost of Yotei is a gorgeous but conflicted sequel — one that dazzles visually yet struggles to capture the heart and soul that made Ghost of Tsushima so special. Its landscapes are breathtaking, the combat mechanics feel refined and satisfying, and the sense of cinematic beauty remains unmatched. However, this polish can’t quite mask the hollow feeling at its core. The story leans too heavily on familiar revenge tropes, the world feels oddly disconnected and constrained, and the emotional weight that once carried the series has been replaced by something far more mechanical. Even with moments of brilliance, it lacks that spark of purpose and urgency that once defined the Ghost’s journey.

Much like a relationship where there's physical attraction and definite sexual chemistry but eventually you realize you're dealing with a very flawed human being and the routine is getting old.

What Sucker Punch have done is patch a bunch of holes when they really should have built a new boat.

Ultimately, Ghost of Yotei feels like a mechanical marvel in search of meaning. For every stunning vista or perfectly timed sword clash, there’s a missed opportunity for deeper storytelling, worldbuilding, and emotional payoff. It’s a game that clearly benefits from experience but also one that desperately needs fresh inspiration — a new setting, a new theme, something bold to reignite the magic. What remains is a beautiful, well crafted experience that plays great, looks phenomenal, but leaves little lasting impression once the wind dies down.

PROS

✅ Incredible visuals

✅ Gameplay variety is off the charts

✅ Core gameplay is refined and fun

✅ Great mechanics

 

CONS

❌ Ugly UI and menus

❌ Some really questionable voice acting

❌ World and map feel disconnected and empty

❌ Story was serviceable

TLDR: 76/100 (GOOD) Ghost of Yotei is a visually stunning and mechanically polished sequel that plays great but struggles to recapture the emotional weight and immersive storytelling of Ghost of Tsushima. While combat improvements, refined systems, and huge gameplay variety make it exciting moment to moment, the world feels smaller, restricted, and less inspired, with a revenge-driven narrative that lacks urgency and deeper impact. Gorgeous environments, outstanding graphics, and cinematic flair keep the game engaging, but its stale setting, uneven character development, technical hiccups, and disappointing UI hold it back. Ultimately, it’s a technically brilliant experience that feels familiar and safe—patching the old ship instead of building a new one.

PICK UP (GHOST OF YOTEI) HERE:

PlayStation: https://youtu.be/P71NUbdeTiI?si=trScCuii1BPL_1Ps

CHECK OUT OUR VIDEO REVIEW HERE