FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Ghost of Yotei
A phenomenal sequel to Ghost of Tsushima.
I have put about ~10 hours into Ghost of Yotei and I am so happy with this game, it takes everything that Tsushima did right and improves upon it while still keeping the fundamentals intact.
Gameplay wise, it keeps all the fundamentals that made Ghost of Tsushima my 2020 GOTY, the most improved aspect so far MASSIVELY is exploration, there is so much more unique content to find now, question marks on the map are finally gone and it embraces natural exploration, I especially love the random encounters that feel inspired by RDR2 and bring even story context.
The combat feels just as good as it did in GoT but now instead of stances, you swap weapons entirely, I adore the animation work on all the weapons here, I thought the stance system worked fine in GoT but changing it to weapons makes each one feel distinct in a way that GoT lacked.
So far the story is a lot different to what I expected, it is a revenge tale but it is distinctly different from Tsushima in more ways than I thought, Atsu isn’t a Samurai, she is a mercenary and she has no problem with using stealth, the conflict of Honor versus being able to actually fight back is not a theme and this is a good thing as it ensures Yotei feels very distinct from Tsushima, the focus here to me, so far is on Family, Revenge and Atsu finding a connection with people around her after a lifetime of being a lone wolf.
I am quite intrigued by the story so far and I am excited to experience more. Atsu is just as cool as Jin somehow too.
Graphics speak for themselves, everything is more detailed than it was in GoT, it is jaw dropping and runs perfectly, you have to play this on a 4K HDR capable screen to get the best experience.
Overall I am loving Ghost of Yotei so far, I am curious where the story will go and I am loving the gameplay and world, everything I could’ve asked for from a Tsushima sequel.