Ghost of Yōtei Review
The Art of Revenge & Distraction
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Title: Ghost of Yōtei
Release: October 2, 2025
Platform: PS5
Developer: Sucker Punch Productions
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Genre: Action
ESRB: M
Reviewed on: PS5
Time Played: 37 Hours
Revenge can drive you, break you, or in the case of Ghost of Yotei, keep you slicing through bandits for hours without realizing how much time has passed. From breathtaking valleys to intense sword fights, this game masters the art of distraction. But with all that beauty and bloodshed, does it carve its own identity, or is it just echoing a familiar ghost?
Where it starts
Sixteen years ago, Atsu’s family was brutally murdered by the Yotei Six, a ruthless group of outlaws. She spent the last decade and a half training with her sword and is now ready to seek revenge. Since her last encounter with them, the Yotei Six have taken over her homeland, leaving people starving in the streets and drawing the attention of samurai. Now in a land full of strangers, Atsu will do whatever it takes to find justice for her family.
Situational Weapons
Most of your time in this game will be spent in bloody life-or-death combat. As you progress through the story, you’ll unlock a variety of weapons, each with its own advantages and disadvantages in battle. Depending on what your enemy is using, you might want to switch to an easier weapon. Katana is best against other katanas, the kusarigama works well against shields, and so on. Atsu can carry all of these weapons at once and swap between them quickly, so you’re always prepared. Or, you might fall in love with one weapon and stick with it, making some matchups very challenging but also fun.
Sneak or Face Off?
When encountering a large group of enemies, like in a village, you have a few options for how to handle the situation. Shouting from the entrance can attract a few enemies forward, leading to a standoff, a short event ending with either you or an enemy dead, followed by full-on combat until everyone is dead. Alternatively, you can sneak in quietly and take everyone down through a series of assassinations. If you happen to be spotted, you’ll have to fight, but the entire base isn’t alerted to your presence, so you can often slip back into stealth once the dust settles.
Tools & Gear
Not all combat will be solved with just a blade. Atsu will also have bows and throwables at her disposal to give her an edge in combat. She might use some pocket sand to quickly stun an enemy and block their vision for a few free hits, or a kunai to build up the enemy’s stagger bar, and even some oil and fire to throw on her weapon for extra damage on hits. All’s fair in love and war, and Atsu will use anything at her disposal to win a fight. She also has a grappling hook to help with climbing, but could occasionally be used in a fight.
Skills
Although Atsu is very skilled, there is still a lot locked behind skill trees. Every weapon found, assassination, and even the horse has its own skill tree to fill out. The only way to unlock a point in a tree is to find an altar of reflection and bow. There are many of these altars scattered throughout the game, and the point must be used immediately, not saved for later when a new tree is unlocked to fill. You can fill out every tree if you manage to hunt down all of the available points. There is also a skill tree involving a helpful wolf; however, those points are earned through finding wolf dens, not Altars of Reflection.
Loadouts
You can find a variety of armor and charms to equip, each offering its own enhancements tailored to different playstyles. Stealth, combat, archery, and many others are mixed and matched. Luckily, there is a loadout system that allows you to take advantage of this, letting you wear armor and charms that suit each situation and quickly swap between them. Similar to weapons, this system can make the game much easier by using the right equipment at the right time. Your hat and mask are vanity items, so you don’t need to worry about changing them after you find what looks best.
A lot to explore
Your hunt for the Yotei Six will take you across a large explorable area full of numerous distractions. Between your starting point and the final target, you’ll encounter villages filled with outlaws to eliminate, hot springs to boost your health, challenging bamboo strikes to increase your spirit, and helpful animals guiding you to additional treasures. There is a cartographer found in some villages who sells maps of nearby points of interest, but it still takes a long time to find everything. Luckily, you can fast travel to any named point found on the map, making exploration less time-consuming.
Can the kids watch (check settings)
There isn’t much to worry about in terms of language; the biggest issues would come from frequent combat with sharp weapons. When taking down your enemies, blood will fly with every hit, and the fight usually only ends when someone loses a head or another body part. There are also screams of anguish as people burn alive, with lots of violent acts. And finally, you will see a bare butt when you bathe in a hot spring.
Final Thoughts
I would love to hear any thoughts or questions you have about the game or my review, so leave me a message in the comments below. While you do that, let’s move on to my final thoughts and ratings.
I really enjoyed my time with the game; between the gorgeous views and intense combat, I was hooked every time I started playing. I could never focus on just one mission, always getting distracted by everything along the way—hidden collectibles, other missions, or random groups of enemies looking for a fight. There’s a lot offered in this game, with barely anything I didn’t want to do. As a fan of the first game, I wasn’t disappointed at all; the only aspect that was a bit lesser was the story. Not that it was a bad story, but it didn’t hit as hard, just the typical revenge tale with lessons about why that’s not a healthy lifestyle.
I liked the shift from fighting stances to using different weapons. Not that I switched weapons after finding my favorite, but it was still nice to have options and shake things up when needed. Swapping weapons for the right matchup could make things easier, but it’s not impossible to do everything with just one weapon, at least on medium combat difficulty. For those looking for a challenge, there are many settings to tweak, like making enemies more aggressive or increasing the chance of being hit once and dying. You can easily adjust the game to suit your personal preferences.
A really cool aspect of the game was how the controls would change to help me feel the challenge Atsu was experiencing. Like learning to duel-wield katanas, she had to practice slicing bamboo with her left hand. The button combination to do that was all on the left side of the controller and spaced out in a way that made it very challenging. As she practiced, the combination became much easier to perform.
The world was enormous, with few empty areas. From the beginning, I could almost go anywhere and still focus on the main story. I wasn’t fixed on a single path. When traveling, it didn’t take long to find something interesting. Everything could potentially help with advancing in the game, whether it’s increasing stats, finding new gear, or upgrading existing gear through small activities. In between destinations, I could stop and set up a camp. This required a short mini game using the controller to start a fire. Then I could craft arrows and gear, talk with a random passerby who joined the camp, or prepare some new food for a minor boost in combat. Cooking also involved a short mini game. They were fun at first, but I quickly grew bored with the mini games, though luckily there was the option to skip that nonsense. It seemed impossible to fail at cooking anyway.
This wasn’t a stealth game, but it did feature some really fun stealth mechanics. Sneaking into a village taken over by outlaws and taking everyone out without being noticed was a highlight for me. Sometimes I would get noticed, but when that happened, I only faced a small fight. If the village was large enough, everyone was too far away to realize I was attacking. When the game started, Atsu was skilled at fighting and killing enemies silently, but as the story progressed and I filled out more skill trees, new abilities unlocked more advanced moves and more exciting sequences in combat or stealth.
Though I really enjoyed my time, I wouldn’t say there was much replay value. The idea of getting back into the game is fun, but starting fresh and having to track everything down again doesn’t sound appealing. It was a straightforward story with the only choices being how to respond to comments, with no lasting effect. While mainly focusing on the main story and leaving behind a lot of collectibles and side missions, I managed to see the credits after 37 hours. I’d say there’s easily that much time left if I wanted to hunt everything down. That sounds much better than starting over.
One thing I didn’t like much was how weapons or skills were locked deep in the story. For example, the ability to sense enemies while focusing was sorely missed during the first twenty hours of gameplay until it was learned through the story. It could have been unlocked sooner if I had gone right instead of left, but I didn’t. It’s great to see character progression as they get stronger, but some skills and abilities felt like they took too long before I could use them. There wasn’t a new game plus option at launch, but if one is added in the future, allowing me to restart with everything gained, it would definitely boost its replay value.
And now, we’ve once again come to the ratings.
The visuals were great, expansive valleys and gorgeous environments everywhere, and the combat sequences were amazing, a definite 5
The story was all about revenge and what it takes to get it, nothing new, but still entertaining and fun to get through. I’ll give it a 3
Gameplay was awesome, the combat worked very well, and there was a lot to do outside of combat that was entertaining to do, that’s another 5
There is a little replayability to the game, mostly running around after the credits roll to find anything missed. I would say replayability would be higher if there was a New Game plus option, but for now it’s getting a 2.
I’m having a lot of fun with this game, time flies and I could easily fight bad guys and explore the lands for hours on end, that’s worthy of another 5
Giving Ghost of Yotei an average score of 4 out of 5. Earning it a spot on my Top Shelf. Very close to special reserve, a new game plus mode would bump it up there. However, if you enjoyed Ghost of Tsushima, I would wholeheartedly recommend checking this one out. If you haven’t played the first game, it’s cheaper to check that out first, but you’ll see everything I’m talking about.