Ghost Yotei, Brilliant and Hypnotic Honor to Samurai Movies

Almost 30 years have passed since the American Studio Sucker Punch was founded and deeply rooted in video games in the landscape. Special life expectancy, especially when measured by the particularly difficult context of the video games industry, where many studios – and not less important – are liquidated without care or their service record, though it may be proud.

It seems that a long time ago, when the studio created the fantastic adventure of anthropomorphic raccoon sly Cooper, or its superhero who is strictly inspired by comic books, shameful. There are two franchises that will make the studio success and the success of the Sony Playstation Consoles, the fact that the Japanese firm will buy the Sucker Punch in 2011.

Ghost of Tsushima, spectacular turns

A very spectacular shift took place in 2020. After almost six years of development, the studio has released an impressive title, tsushima ghost. In this game, which took place in 1274, after the invasion of the island of Tsushima on the island of Tsushima, we played Gin Sakai, the former samurai, which received the ghost path, or rather Shinobi, to fight the conqueror by abandoning traditional techniques.

Fully named in English and especially for larger sinks in Japanese, Tsushima’s ghost has occurred in the open world and mixed action, adventure and infiltration. According to the latest data, fantastic game and colossal success were sold with 13 million copies. And who originated in almost every shot with his unconditional love CarpMore often known as “samurai films”. Specifically, the works of the master Akira Kurosava, including Sanduro and, of course, 7 samurai.

Jason Connell and Neut Fox, creative directors of the game, were not satisfied with the quotation of kinematical influence. They got this approach even more – especially for the sword quarrel – by working with the Japanese director, developing a game mode called “Kurosawa”, which was not just a simple black and white filter.

The studio team shot some scenes taken from samurai films, weather effects (for example, a scene of confrontation in the seven samurai) and lighting effects according to different periods of the day. Even sound treatment has taken special care in this game mode, working like a soundtrack in the film in the 50s and 60s, which he found in the cinema.

Revenge is mine

Given this approach in time, it is because it makes it even more deeply to the new game of the studio, which came out in early October: Ghost of Yotei.

Here is a trailer again …

This time, the game forms its plot on the island of Hokkaido, more than 300 years after the first game. In 1603, very precisely. The date is clearly not chosen by accident. This actually points to the beginning of the Edo period. The problematic and, above all, a very long period (it will end in 1868 in the Meij era), which will gradually see the entire Japanese archipelago unification.

In this context, the sucker punch develops the tragic and painful story of his heroin, Atsu. The thirst for revenge on those who severely killed his family members when he was only a child, this former mercury, who was past and, above all, lonely, traveling to the region to look for killers, who call themselves “six Iotes”.

In a small game of comparison, this is inevitable, the story that is easy to develop at least 50-60 hours in the game, in our opinion, the previous game of obvious levels of growth. If the story of Jane Saskia was interesting, her personal search would eventually represent a rather distant emotional issue that we could lead to a certain detachment.

Contrary to ATSU, which fully encompasses its destiny and the way he has chosen, whose personal issues are much more affected by the influence of the player on this character. To look for revenge, but also redemption, Atsu is a terribly beloved, charismatic character.

The appreciation, which has become especially possible in the intellectual way that the studio has had to connect with its past, the sequences of which, sometimes gentle or vice versa, sincerely brutally serve as a slow burn fuel, in the ruthless search of its damaged heroin, physically and morally.

A beautiful outline of crying

Further refinement of the recipe, which is already widely confirmed by the seemingly proven tsushima, the Sucker Punch its title is absolutely exciting in artistic direction. They were beaten by the wind from the huge green meadow and traveled at the speed of the galloping horse, before the steep and snowy landscapes of the Teshio Ridge, passing through the Tokachi Mountains and its amazing autumn landscapes, or Oshima and its alternative fields. Yotei’s ghosts of the environment are hypnotic and tearful.

As such, there is a real point in comparison with its competitor Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which also occurs around the same period. If the latter’s world is also aesthetically high level, it is also much more charged. Too many, sometimes with this filling of this feeling, which is very paradoxically, causes an emptiness.

The opposite of the ghost of Iote, which is intended to purify. The sanctity in his landscapes, in his fight, and even with his interface, is completely invisible on the screen. For example, the development team also received a wonderful idea of ​​navigation using the wind than the bombing of players with an invasive marker. Right – which is not a sense of emptiness at all – which allows us to emphasize the wandering of his character; The keyword is for the sucker punch teams.

Kurosava, Mici and others

We talked about this offspring above, which fully demanded Chanbara’s films. With Yotei’s ghost, the teams got this approach a little. Because it is no longer one, but three games modes, except for the “basic” game.

“Kurosawa” mode that logically returns to its return. The regime, called Miike, tribute to the fruitful filmmaker Takashi Miiki, who signed a wonderful genre films, 13 killers, in itself the remake of the 1963 Eich Cudo Film. This regimen, which adds more mud and blood, with closer camera footage, which can also greatly complicate clashes because the danger is more difficult. Lastly, a mode called “Watanabe” called Shinichiro Watanabe, which includes the original lo-fi music, compiled by the Watanabe itself.

Of course, the game is not perfect; If only by its sometimes excessive gameplay mechanics; Unfortunately, it is often common in open world games and to avoid them. But this wandering, this exciting feeling of freedom proposed by the game, and many side effects that go with it, is never the detriment of the tense thread of his story, which we follow to the end. It is, directly or indirectly, related to elements that always give the characters slightly more meat and the context of the story that fits perfectly into pieces of puzzle.

In the end, it really stands out for the studio’s unconditional love for its original material. This ghost of Joth is a brilliant demonstration of this, which would have been criminal.