Our Most Wanted Games of 2025 – #1 Ghost of Yōtei

There’s an unbelievable trying yr of video games forward of us, each by way of what we already learn about with the likes of Monster Hunter Wilds, GTA 6, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Doom: The Dark Ages and so, a lot extra… however just one sport can prime our listing of most wished video games of 2025. That sport is Ghost of Yōtei.

In anticipation of a Ghost of Tsushima sequel’s nearly inevitable announcement, we had been all questioning the identical factor. How can Sly Cooper and inFamous creators, Sucker Punch Productions, presumably observe up on one of the celebrated PlayStation exclusives of the previous decade? By sacking off the primary character, after all, leaping the sport some 300 years sooner or later, and taking us to a totally completely different a part of Japan. It’s so apparent!

Jokes apart, the change of setting makes excellent sense for Ghost of Yōtei. As a lot as we loved Jin Sakai’s Mongol-murdering revenge quest, he wasn’t probably the most compelling of characters, the mantle of “Ghost” now free to cross onto one other protagonist. There’s lots we don’t learn about newcomer warrior, Atsu, or what motivates her however we love the thought of telling completely different sagas all through historical past, as a substitute of clinging to a single storyline and its solid of characters.

That mentioned, we anticipate Ghost of Yotei to hit most of the similar beats as its predecessor by way of gameplay, visuals, and the sequel’s method to open world sport design. The brand new Hokkaido setting will give us one more beautiful slice of feudal Japan to discover, whereas the seventeenth century timeline permitting for a brand new arsenal of weapons and applied sciences. The place the Mongols primarily fought with swords, bows, and low cost methods, Atsu will doubtless encounter an array of newfangled gunpowder arms.

The Edo interval of the seventeenth century contrasted with the chaotic Sengoku interval that preceded it. Set in 1603, Ghost of Yōtei might be proper on the time that Tokugawa Ieyasu was given the title of Shogun by Emperor Go-Yōzei, settling the now unified nation right into a interval of relative peace and stability, albeit with rising restrictions on social heirarchy and, by 1639, a strict isolationist coverage that booted nearly all foreigners in a foreign country. Ghost of Yōtei might be simply on the tipping level of this period, and it is going to be fascinating to see the story that Sucker Punch inform on this backdrop – of explicit notice, Atsu’s standing as an onna-musha, a feminine warrior, naturally clashes with the neo-Confucianism and the lessening and altering roles that ladies had extra typically on this world.

The place Ghost of Tsushima, together with The Last of Us Part II, helped push the PS4 to its limits simply month earlier than the PS5’s arrival, we’re fascinated to see how Sucker Punch makes use of Sony’s newer console, particularly the PS5 Pro. We’re hoping to see bigger, extra cinematic battles, with Hokkaido’s many stunning vistas dropped at life with beautiful constancy.

For now, we nonetheless know little or no concerning the sport aside from its 2025 launch window. If there’s one request we’d like to spotlight on our wishlist, it’s the return of Legends, the unbelievable on-line co-op mode that stored us coming again to Ghost of Tsushima lengthy after the unique credit rolled.