PlayStation has just imparted new details for Ghost of Yōtei, and—as usual—the net did what it does best: freaking out. The tweet laid down Atsu’s revenge against the Yōtei Six, with an EXTREMELY juicy trailer; replies, however, are in absolute shambles. The discussion ranges anywhere from accusations of Kill Bill plagiarism to full-blown conspiracy theorizing of some “woke agenda.”
For once, let’s cover some actual news: Ghost of Yōtei seems to be a sort of spiritual successor to Ghost of Tsushima, focusing on Atsu’s tale. Think of it as a brief heavy with slashes, scenic views, and a heavy hand of vengeance. Perhaps a few gamers are still excited about it. Yorch Torch Games openly declared, “Hot damn, I’d play this.” However, some seem to be in doubt.
Now, picture Rakeem Nichols going off twice, one even threatening PlayStation with a lawsuit over an account issue (???) Next came the alleged prophecy of it being “feminist propaganda” by Royalist, who declared the game “doomed to fail” before he ever even played it. Kill Bill comparisons aside—because apparently any game with a female sword-wielding lead is now a Tarantino knockoff—
Voice acting drama was, oddly enough, one of the weirdest things. Players are upset with some calling the English voiceover “terrible” and demanding Japanese audio options, and others critiquing the character design, like SZemkova13567 who basically said Atsu “looks like she was hit with an ugly stick.” (So classy, guys.)
Now…the politics! Oh, God. Some of the replies disintegrated into rants about “leftist activists” and “woke agendas” — all without an ounce of evidence besides their feelings. User GHOSTBXNYC even stated the voice actor’s personal beliefs “destroyed” the game, which—last I checked—has nothing to do with slicing up the Yōtei Six.
The few sane responses tried reasoning with the rage mob. SWolf712 shut down the “woke” complaints with a simple question: “What’s ‘woke,’ exactly?” (Crickets.) Then there’s that guy, Kenshin MacLeod, exposing the misogyny outright: “We get it, you hate women. Go complain somewhere else.”
So where does that leave Ghost of Yōtei? Eh, probably fine. The responses seem a bit overstated when the game itself hasn’t really been shown yet. Come on. Ghost of Tsushima itself had a whole lot of doubters, and that turned out pretty much fine. If anything, though, those responses just show people paying attention.
Speaking of which, whether or not those responses convert into sales is another story. For now, the island of certainty is that wild-rational takes are something only Twitter can provide.
For the rest of us, maybe just wait for the game to come out before writing it off? Just a hint.
Until then, it’s trailer time—decide for yourself. Eh, nah, don’t. The internet’s gonna have an argument about it either way.
