In a very un-Sony move, Ghost of Yotei’s release date (October 2) and trailer have just been unceremoniously dropped on social media, rather than with the fanfare of a PlayStation State of Play. As the biggest PlayStation exclusive coming this year, there’s a lot riding on Ghost of Yotei, but it seems set to pick up where its predecessor left off.
Set several hundred years after Ghost of Tsushima, Yotei is not a direct sequel but one that carries on the spirit of the original by making the series into an anthology. Since it’s centuries on from our time as Jin Sakai, we’ll no doubt get more technologically advanced weaponry this time around. However, the most interesting weapon in the trailer is the raw power of the natural world.
In the trailer, we see a montage of combat and traversal scenes featuring our hero Atsu. She clashes with enemies in sword combat as Jin did, and also seems adept at scaling ledges or sliding down hillsides. There may be less swinging from gates and hiding in the pampas grass this time around as Yotei gets more ambitious and tries to embrace the evolution of the open-world genre that has taken place in the five years since Tsushima arrived.
During this sequence, we also see a wolf attacking an enemy. While Atsu herself is not in this shot, the angle makes it look as though we the player are controlling the wolf. Even if we don’t actually get to directly make it attack our targets like this, it seems extremely likely that we’ll be able to at least command wolves to attack with a button command (a little like Kratos directs Atreus in God of War), or possibly by laying a trap and luring enemies close.
It’s the sort of move we usually see from Nintendo, rather than Sony. Just recently Nintendo revealed its own social media app, then proceeded to us it and it alone to reveal new details on the upcoming The Legend of Zelda movie.
There is a lot of hope that Ghost of Yotei can take the next leap on from Tsushima, providing the sort of step up we saw between Assassin’s Creed and Assassin’s Creed 2. Something that would take the series from the solid proof of concept Tsushima offered into a bold, trail-blazing modern great.
It’s not the only PS exclusive to get excited about this year, as Death Stranding 2 will be arriving June 26. However, that game is so indelibly tied to the singular force of Hideo Kojima that it feels as though Yotei is a lot more of a regular Sony game that will aim to put an end to the argument once and for all that the PS5 has no games. We’ll find out if it’s up to the task on October 2 when Ghost of Tsushima launches.
Ghost of Yotei
- Released
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October 2, 2025
- Publisher(s)
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Sony Interactive Entertainment
- Number of Players
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Single-player
- PS5 Release Date
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October 2, 2025
