Ghost of Yotei Is a Story of ‘Underdog Vengeance’ in Northern Japan

Even before Ghost of Tsushima won players over with its samurai protagonist and cinematic flair inspired by Kurosawa films like “Yojimbo,” its designers felt confident enough to start planning a sequel.

On Tuesday, Sucker Punch Productions announced Ghost of Yotei, the beginning of an official franchise that will include at least one movie and other spinoffs, putting the series alongside emblematic Sony PlayStation titles like God of War and Horizon Zero Dawn.

Nate Fox and Jason Connell, creative directors on Ghost of Tsushima, had long envisioned a spiritual successor to the 2020 game, which brought players to the periphery of the Japanese shogunate period, with the Mongol invasion of the country’s Tsushima Island in the 1200s. Critics applauded the game’s historical accuracy, and the players who bought 13 million copies eagerly speculated about a sequel.

An initial trailer for Ghost of Yotei, which is scheduled to be released on the PlayStation 5 next year, describes the game’s setting as “beyond the edge of Japan” with an imposing image of Mount Yotei from what is now the country’s northern Hokkaido region. After snowy scenes of battle and bloodshed, a woman named Atsu emerges, bowing to a wolf companion and looking ahead toward an unseen expanse.

“When we started working on a sequel, the first question we asked ourselves is ‘What is the DNA of a Ghost game?’” Fox said. “It is about transporting the player to the romance and beauty of feudal Japan.”