By PlayStation, a new trailer for Ghost of Yōtei was dropped to showcase the brutal kusarigama combat prior to the release of the PS5 game on October 2. The weapon looks absolutely dreadful: it seems like players can swing, slash, and pull enemies to their doom in one fluid, dynamic combat system. And although the gameplay is what has largely drawn excitement, the reveal certainly sent some of those fired-up… shall we say… exchanges to the comment section.
They showed Atsu using the chain-sickle weapon with terrifying precision, so fans have already been assured that Shadow of Yōtei will be able to grant you with a deeply satisfying melee fighting system that probably overshadowed that of Ghost of Tsushima. Players are pretty much sold already: one said preordering the game’s collector’s edition and awaiting announcements on the console bundle, while another commented upon still being deep into their first Ghost of Tsushima, having whiled away at least 40 hours in Act 1 doing most of the side content.
But by and large, it seems people are not entirely thrilled about this new direction. The reveal reopened that boring old debate of whether female leads should exist at all in games. Some people dismissed Atsu in uninspired terms such as “weak female protagonist syndrome” or made veiled references to “gender swap slop.” One gutter-level diatribe lamented about “the demographic being taken over by a bunch of fruitcakes” wanting “lesbian woke leads.” Yuck.
Enough noise than Capo Fisk saw fit to jump in with receipts of wildly successful female leads like Ellie in The Last of Us Part 2, notwithstanding which Elliott’s haters have managed to sell over 7 million copies, along with Aloy from Horizon and Bayonetta. And this somehow descended into a conversation about trans representation- even though Atsu isn’t trans- she’s just a woman modeled after a real Japanese actress-stunt woman.
Actual gameplay critiques started appearing amidst all this silliness. Some players said the story setup felt generic compared to that of Ghost of Tsushima, while others were joking about the weapon options (one user asked if that meant they could toss green dildos around during fights, of course). The clearest real one came from the players themselves; they just wanted more of Jin Sakai and seem to be questioning why we wouldn’t be continuing his story during the Second Mongol Invasion in the sequel.
Ghost of Yōtei looks set to be one of PlayStation’s big holiday releases, whether you like it or hate it. Kusarigama combat sounded uniquely familiar to the series, and the world of feudal Japan has been holding its breath all along. If the story can hold well enough and Atsu can win over skeptical fans remains to be seen. But October 2 is looking set for an answer soon enough. On that note, here’s hoping that some actual gameplay discussion can be birthed out of some respectability before this one.
