Sucker Punch Productions’ 2020 samurai action game, Ghost of Tsushima, was a huge hit for its developer, so it’s not surprising that a sequel is on its way. Announced at a 2024 PlayStation State of Play showcase, Ghost of Yōtei tells a totally separate story from the one in Ghost of Tsushima. Now, PlayStation has revealed a bit more about the game and finally locked down a release date for later this year.
Ghost of Yōtei is set to release on October 2, and like its predecessor, it will be a PlayStation 5 exclusive. Ghost of Tsushima did eventually come to PC in a director’s cut edition, so while Sony hasn’t specifically said as much, it’s extremely likely that Ghost of Yōtei will get the same treatment. As expected from a game with as much hype as Ghost of Yōtei, it will also get a collector’s edition, which includes a replica of protagonist Atsu’s mask and other physical bonuses. Preorders will begin some time in May.
Along with the launch date announcement, Ghost of Yōtei also got a bloody new trailer showing off a bit more of its story and gameplay. In the trailer set in ancient Japan, we see Atsu as a child leaning against a tree near a burning house. A gang of sword-wielding bandits has slaughtered her whole family, but make the rookie mistake of leaving one alive, which, as we know, in samurai stories has an almost 100 percent chance of setting her down a path of vengeance.
Known as the Yōtei Six, the gang of miscreants all come to wear masks concealing their faces when the action of the game picks up, and Atsu’s mission is to find all of them to get her revenge. According to PlayStation, players will need to find clues to track down each member of the Yōtei Six, and have the freedom to decide in what order to pursue them. That’s nearly identical to Naoe’s main plot in the recent Assassins’ Creed Shadows, but there’s not much more to the comparison than it being a common samurai trope both games are playing on.
The trailer also shows bits and pieces of Ghost of Yōtei’s gameplay, but not much that’s entirely new for anyone who’s already familiar with Ghost of Tsushima. The landscape of Hokkaido (or Ezo, as it was known in 1603) looks gorgeous, but the most interesting detail comes from one short shot of a wolf. In an earlier cinematic trailer for Ghost of Yōtei, Atsu is shown seemingly befriending a wolf, and she’s even called “little wolf” by one of the Yōtei Six in the new trailer’s flashback sequence. In a montage of combat scenes showing Atsu taking on various enemies, there’s a single shot of a wolf attacking a man with Atsu nowhere in sight. That could mean that Atsu will have a wolf companion, or have some limited ability to sic wolves on her foes, as some viewers speculated after seeing the game’s debut trailer.
With the sequel to a game as big as Ghost of Tsushima, PlayStation will certainly be eager to show off more information as it gets closer to launch, but its release date is already one of the most important details players have been waiting for. The second half of the year is finally starting to get some launches on the calendar, most notably with Marathon announcing its September 23 launch date in a livestream the week before this new look at Ghost of Yōtei. With players still holding their breath to see when Grand Theft Auto 6 will launch — if it even makes it out this year — Ghost of Yōtei is currently the biggest title scheduled for the end of 2025, and it looks set to be one of PlayStation’s biggest games all year.
