There are plenty of obvious reasons why one might compareGhost of YoteitoAssassin’s Creed 2. Both are the second entry in a historical action-adventure series, both introduce new time periods and a new protagonist.Ghost of Tsushimahas always drawn comparisons to Assassin’s Creed anyway, to the point whereUbisoft’ssaga finally hitting Japan withShadowsfeelstoo little, too late. But more than just the surface level similarities, Yotei feels like Assassin’s Creed 2 on a more spiritual level too.
Assassin’s Creed 2 is the best Assassin’s Creed game. I don’t necessarily mean my favourite (it’s close, but falls behind at least Black Flag), and I understand it lacks the bells, whistles, and ray tracing of modern entries. But in terms of hitting the brief and fulfilling its potential, Assassin’s Creed 2 is the only game in the series to have perfectly nailed every single aspect of its ambition and vision.
Assassin’s Creed 2 Established Assassin’s Creed As A Blockbuster
Assassin’s Creed was a good game. It introduced a compelling gimmick in the Animus, it offered an evolution for stealth and sandbox gameplay, and had the sort of traversal you could build an empire around. It was also a little slow, with maps that often felt cramped and repetitive despite being fairly impressive for their era, and offered up a fairly flat protagonist who embodied some dull virtues but was otherwise devoid of personality.
I enjoyed Ghost of Tsushima enough, but its instant elevation to the level ofSonymasterpiece has always puzzled mewhen it feels so rough around the edges. The samurai fights being framed as mano a mano brought you into this world where a man is only as good as his blade, and while Kurosawa Mode was heavy handed, the game offered some excellent visuals. Butthe central narrative felt predictable, the maps seemed bloated with open world filler, and Jin Sakai was a fairly flat protagonist who embodied some dull virtues but was otherwise devoid of personality. Sound like anyone we know?
There were fantastic foundations laid by Tsushima. Each stance felt fluid and meaningful, offering a compromise between the reckless button mashing of action games and the laborious parry combat of Soulslikes - similar to the wedding of stealth and sandbox performed by Assassin’s Creed. And while you were often wandering the map for empty fetch quests or collectibles, it offered plenty of stylish ways to get around. It’s a series that can tell stories, too. Several of the side quests and supporting characters had far more depth than Jin, and perhaps moving away from the stoic samurai defined by his honour can inject the series with greater personality.
Ghost Of Yotei Could Transform Ghost Of Tsushima
It’s probably never going to shake off the criticism that its a Western studio anachronistically playing dress up as samurai, but even that can be improved with a little more loyalty to the time period depicted - at the time Jin would have been alive, katanas, haiku, and hwacha did not exist, yet all feature in the game seemingly because they’re cool and Japanese. Yotei jumping forward allows for more elements of history to be brought in - we see a historically accurate early firearm in the trailer - and hopefully that leads to a problem that seemed to be Japanese knotweed for the series being ripped out by the root.
It’s harder for games to establish themselves as notable series these days. Yotei is coming out five years after Tsushima, at a pace that’s fairly respectable by modern standards. Assassin’s Creed 2 came out two years after the first one, and was a little behind the rate for its day. Brotherhood and Revelations, the two direct follow-ups to 2, released on a one year cycle. Add in that 3, another time jump, also came out a year later, and that’s five Assassin’s Creed games featuring three different protagonists and one complete trilogy in the time Tsushima has taken to get its sequel out.
It’s more important than ever that each step a video game series makes is perfect, and that led Tsushima to this stick or twist precipice. Giving the people more Tsushima, which is what most would say they want, could lead to the flaws being exposed on a second go around. However, moving away from that base risks alienating fans expecting more of the same, and puts greater pressure on those improvements to be instantly apparent.
The temptation with Yotei will be to make it even bigger. Tsushima was a major hit, and these days, studios seem to think (or perhaps seemed pushed to think) that gamers just want more. But the issue was already a mild case of open world bloat, and a sequel needs to refine the approach not do it again, only bigger. The bold move of jumping forward in time and telling the story of a new hero suggestsSucker Punchis prepared to take a risk in order to help the series soar. It has me hopeful that this is a better Ghost of Tsushima, not just a bigger one.
