It's been almost a month since we last did a super detailed review, and this time we're putting pen to paper to tell you about Ghost of Yōtei. As proof of the great confidence placed in Sucker Punch studio (known for the Sly Raccoon and inFamous series, but also, of course, for the excellent Ghost of Tsushima), Sony sent us our version of the game almost three weeks ago. Needless to say, we've had plenty of time to complete the adventure and even take care of most of the side content. Ghost of Yōtei is the team's first real game on PS5 because, apart from the DLC added to Tsushima for the release of its Director's Cut version, the developers hadn't yet been able to show what they were capable of on this generation of consoles. It's hard to believe that the PS5 has already been available for five years, and apart from Insomniac Games, there haven't been any major PlayStation Studios new games developed exclusively for Sony's latest console. This lack of in-house exclusives is one of the reasons why some gamers have been relatively disappointed with this generation, and in a way, we can understand why, even though there have still been plenty of good games. As a result, the release of the long-awaited sequel to Ghost of Tsushima is quite an event, especially for those who enjoyed Jin Sakai's original adventure.
On PlayStation 5 Pro, the game doesn't just offer a single mode dedicated to Sony's premium console, as was recently the case for Metal Gear Solid Delta Snake Eater or, this week, Silent Hill f. As on base PS5, it is therefore possible to choose between Quality and Ray Tracing modes at 30 frames per second, or opt for Performance mode if you prefer to play at 60 fps. However, there is an additional option that combines the best of both worlds if you play Ghost of Yōtei on PS5 Pro, with a specific Ray Tracing mode capable of running at 60 fps, thanks to the implementation of PSSR. The game does indicate that there is a difference in resolution between the different modes, but honestly, when switching between them on your TV, there is nothing particularly striking that pops out. In short, if you're playing on PS5 Pro, you'll have a choice between four ways to play, and if you only have a base PS5, you won't be too disadvantaged as you'll still have three different options. We're not going to lie to you, we played almost exclusively in RT/60 mode, but we'll still quickly mention what we saw in terms of performance in the other three. As for the two modes locked at 30 fps, we found the results very convincing in our testing. We didn't notice any slowdowns or frame pacing issues, although it's important to note that we didn't test these two modes extensively. That said, the frame rate may seem to remain stable, but you'll have to accept a loss of fluidity and image clarity compared to Performance mode and its higher refresh rate. In our experience, the latter also performs almost flawlessly, although we did notice some slight slowdowns on a few occasions. However, this is not a major issue, especially since Sucker Punch has promised us that these problems should be fixed for the game's official release. The same goes for the Ray Tracing Pro mode, which also offers excellent overall smoothness in lmost all circumstances. Be aware, however, that we did notice a few instances where brief but noticeable stuttering could occur. This only happened in one of the six regions, and only in certain visually busy scenes. Again, this is one of the things that should be fixed for the game's release in early October. Even so, for a game with such a detailed open world, the technical performance in terms of frame rate remains truly excellent. There are no issues with camera movement fluidity to report either, contrary to what Death Stranding 2 players noticed when it was released a few months ago, and since image quality remains excellent in both 60 fps modes, there's really nothing to complain about. We would also like to reassure those who fear a PSSR debacle on the scale of Silent Hill f, as the omnipresent foliage of Yōtei does not suffer from any flickering or shimmering. The cherry on the cake is that image quality is top notch.
There are a few details that might temper our enthusiasm a little bit, like for example when it comes to ray tracing. Here, the technology is limited to global illumination, but when compared to its use in Assassin's Creed Shadows, it's still a long way from what Ubisoft has achieved from a visual and technical standpoint. In short, this means that while there are some differences when switching from Pro RT mode to Performance mode, they are much less significant than when comparing the Performance mode of Shadows on PS5 Pro, which benefited from RTGI, and the way the game looked I the same mode on base PS5, which didn't feature RT at all. We even think that most players won't be able to spot the differences without comparing screenshots of the game or watching side-by-side comparison videos. The good news is that the lighting in the game doesn't suffer that much from the absence of ray tracing, and Sucker Punch's work on the usual rasterization methods is very solid. For PS5 owners, it then won't be too difficult to choose Performance mode over the one that includes ray tracing. However, we find it a bit of a shame that the two RT modes available rely solely on reflections using SSR and cubemaps (usually necessary when the scenery is no longer visible on screen). This is certainly a fairly standard choice, but these cubemaps can sometimes be a bit rough, and we even came across a few scenes where their presence seemed unjustified, partly because the scenery that was supposed to appear in the water was clearly visible on screen, but mainly because the trees that appeared in the reflection were overly pixelated. It's not something you'll notice often, but we prefer to warn you that it may occur occasionally. When you consider that AC Shadows offered ray-traced reflections on certain surfaces in its Quality and Balanced modes, it's inevitably a little disappointing. However, it should be noted that in the case of Ubisoft's game, this came at the expense of frame rate, which remained limited to 30 and 40 fps respectively in these two graphics modes. We suspect that the implementation of ray tracing in Ghost of Yōtei didn't allow for shadows and reflections to be included, even with a few concessions, but we would still have liked to see it included in the PS5 Pro version. Equally disappointing at times is the way shadows look, using the old-fashioned cascade method in combination with shadow maps, which can result in a few jarring scenes. For example, since the transition from one level of detail to another is done too close to the main character, it really sicks out, and not in a very good way. This is especially noticeable when the ambient lighting casts very pronounced shadows, on a rock formation in front of the player, for example. If you didn't like the way shadows were handled in the latest Naughty Dog games, it won't necessarily be much better here, in some instances at least. Now of course, the main difference is that Yōtei is an open world game.
It may seem that we criticize Ghost of Yōtei a lot, but don't think that we don't appreciate the impressive visual feat accomplished by Sucker Punch. Even if the artistic direction, which is inevitably very similar to that of the first installment, might lead you to believe that the game has not evolved much graphically, this is not the case. The draw distance is much greater, with impressive LOD (level of detail) and pop-in management, the textures are much more detailed too, including for ground surfaces, the richness of the environments is undeniable, and believe us, you'll be amazed and will spend time in photo mode to capture many of the landscapes. Even the rendering of the water has been improved. It's still far from perfect, especially up close, but our screenshots can attest to the improvement. We just wish Atsu's swimming animation wasn't taken directly from Jin Sakai's. Sure, you don't spend much time swimming in the game, but we still wonder how the heroine and her ancestor can move through water with most of their backs above the surface... Also noteworthy is the instantaneous shift from the present to the past when you start a flashback sequence. It is quite impressive to say the least, and the game even makes good use of it during certain face-offs, for even more striking staging. Quite logically, fast travel is also done at lighting speed thanks to the console's SSD. Sucker Punch had already managed to make loading times particularly short on the PS4 version of Ghost of Tsushima, so imagine what they've been able to do on this generation. The game also includes several special modes paying tribute to some of the big names in the Japanese movie/anime industry. Of course, there's the black-and-white mode dedicated to Akira Kurosawa (Seven Samurai, Rashōmon), but Sucker Punch also wanted to pay tribute to the work of Takashi Miike (Dead or Alive, 13 Assassins, Ichi The Killer), with a tighter camera viewpoint during fights and accentuated blood and mud effects, and Shin'ichirō Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo), with the addition of a lo-fi soundtrack composed under his direction. Add to all this some very high-quality French, English, and Japanese dubbing (we were less impressed with the French version than the first installment, but it's still good quality, and on the English side, only Atsu's voice as a child left us a little perplexed, Erika Ishii's tone not really suiting such a young age in our opinion), which once again shows all the love and respect that the developers at Sucker Punch have shown in recreating this fictional and romanticized Japan.
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Commented on 2025-09-25 19:47:06
Commented on 2025-09-25 21:31:51 In reply to unknownuser0001