Ghost of Yotei

• Genre: Action Adventure
• Spoiler Free Review: No real spoilers, even the screenshots are mostly just environments.
• Time Played: 73 Hour
• Too Short/Long: It was fine. I kind of could go either way too, it could have trimmed ups some aspect and not stuffed the game as much, but it also could have had more story-related stuff and I wouldn't complain.
• Soundtrack: Generally speaking the soundtrack is good. It's not something I'm going to listen to on it's own, but it captures the mood when necessary. A lot of the game is without music and just the ambient sounds of nature or whatever. Optionally there is a lo-fi mode, and while that may be fitting for some, it's not for me - not because I don't like lo-fi beats to samurai duel to, but it feels out of place for the mood.
• Why I played: I loved Ghost of Tsushima and it's on my list of favorite games.
• Did I cry: A bunch of times. Not big cries, but there were a handful of pretty emotional moments.
• Jank: For the most part it's pretty jank free. Something about the controls could be a little better in the thick of big fighters, and I don't like how when you climb on something you're not supposed to you just infinite jump hover and sometimes the game has to phase you back into the last safe location or something, but other than that it's a very polished game.
• Difficulty: A little bit of a mixed bag on this one. Some aspects were too easy, like the platforming which could be too "magnetic" with Atsu latching on to thing and every path clear and obvious with separate climbable terrain, usually rocks and such. While sometimes the combat was damn hard. I feel like it was a good bit harder than Tsushima, but it's been a few years.
• Recommend to others: I would definitely recommend Yotei to anyone who might be interested in any aspect of it. You don't need to play Tsushima first, it barely references it outside one side-quest and random note.(Yotei takes place 300 years in the future). I probably wouldn't even recommend Tsushima over for any particular reason. Though I could say the same for Yotei. I'm not sure if there is one I recommend "more". But Yotei is probably has more going for it, being a handful years newer.

Like Tsushima before it, Yotei was a great game. It's fun to play, but what Yotei has over anything is it's just a work of art in every moment to moment. It's a gorgeous game and screenshots do it no justice when compared to seeing it in motion. Not just that but even how vivid it appears when seeing it while playing just seems like such a bigger deal than a screenshot. I took so many and I feel like not a one truly does the game justice. 

It's definitely a game you don't just play to play. You play to enjoy the experience. Savor the moment. Appreciate the time it took to chisel out each detail. The game is nothing without that. Well that's unfair, it has really solid gameplay outside of that. But it's the game's beauty which makes it stand out more than anything.

Usually I write my reviews right after - or like one day after finishing a game. But at this point everything below was written a handful of days later. I'm still not sure what else to say about the game. I could nitpick and go into details about some of the aspects I complained about with the difficulty or lack thereof in certain aspects. I could detail the combat. I could say how awesome Kusari-gama are and how it both did really cool new things, but maybe not enough, but also I guess it worked best with how they framed their combat mechanics. But then I'm not really actually talking about what matters, because it clearly doesn't, for me.

Ghost of Yotei is a game you should sit with, absorb, know what went into it, have context with going on, and appreciate the little things for. It's also a game that at times, should you be capable and grasp the mechanics well, will make you feel like an absolute badass and beautifully captures it with cinematography rivaling some of the greatest films.

So anyway, here are some extra screenshots.