You May Have Already Played Ghost of Yotei Before in 2025, and I Don’t Mean Assassin’s Creed Shadows

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Like many others, I’ve eagerly awaited a sequel to Ghost of Tsushima for over 5 years. The original game resonated deeply with me and countless players during a difficult time, and I was excited to see what Sucker Punch would create next. Now, Ghost of Yotei is finally here, and after about 15 hours of exploring Ezo on horseback with my horse, Homura, I can say it features one of the most stunning open worlds I’ve ever seen. However, while I’d love to tell you everything feels completely new, I can’t help but feel like I’ve played Ghost of Yotei before – and I’m not referring to Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

From the initial announcement, and as more information became available, Ghost of Yotei was frequently compared to Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Because Ghost of Tsushima, the game it builds upon, had previously drawn comparisons to the Assassin’s Creed series due to its focus on stealth, it was natural for those parallels to extend to Ghost of Yotei as well. However, the similarities between Ghost of Yotei and Assassin’s Creed Shadows weren’t limited to gameplay; both games feature a story where a young woman seeks revenge for her parents’ murder. But after playing Ghost of Yotei, I’ve realized it actually shares more in common with another highly anticipated game this year: Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.

Ghost of Yotei Is Basically Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 in Japan

Both Games Share a Premise and Some Unique Mechanics

The clearest thing Ghost of Yotei and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 have in common is what their stories are about. Both main characters – Atsu from Ghost of Yotei and Henry from Kingdom Come: Deliverance – begin a journey of revenge after a raid destroys their homes and kills their parents. Although Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 doesn’t focus on revenge as heavily as the first game, it still continues the story and finally lets Henry face the person who burned down his home and killed his parents.

But the connections go way beyond just wanting revenge. It turns out both Henry and Atsu had dads who were swordsmiths, and they both taught us the trade! And honestly, when I started playing, Ghost of Yotei and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 had some surprisingly similar blacksmithing stuff going on. I almost thought Ghost of Yotei was straight-up copying Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2! It’s definitely just a crazy coincidence, though. Still, Ghost of Yotei’s blacksmithing mini-game is way easier to pick up and play – it’s much more forgiving than the super-realistic blacksmithing in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.

Both Games Have Similar Open-World Design and Environmental Storytelling Methods

Another similarity between Ghost of Yotei and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is how they’re designed as open worlds. First, both games are heavily inspired by historical events, which naturally influences how their open worlds are created. While Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 may be even more focused on historical accuracy than Ghost of Yotei, both still use real events from the past to build their game worlds. Second, both titles offer open worlds that don’t guide players too much, instead responding to their actions with unpredictable events and a flexible, non-linear structure that gives players a lot of freedom.

Ghost of Yotei and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 both use comparable techniques to tell stories through their environments. In Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2’s open world, players can discover many optional areas that don’t affect gameplay but simply exist to share a narrative-for instance, the remains of two archers who had a final, drawn-out duel. Ghost of Yotei’s open world is much the same; players often come across small locations that, while they may contain items to collect, aren’t connected to quests or events. I, for example, found a scene in Ghost of Yotei’s Ezo region where someone was killed near a cart of goods, leading me to believe they were robbed.

I’m experiencing a strong sense of familiarity while playing Ghost of Yotei, as it borrows heavily from what made Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, one of 2025’s top titles, so successful. I’ve spent about 250 hours in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, and another 200 in the original, so the parallels in Ghost of Yotei are immediately noticeable to me. However, I’m not alone in recognizing just how similar Ghost of Yotei‘s blacksmithing system is to Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, especially considering they also share a revenge-driven story. Simply put, if you enjoyed Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 in 2025, playing Ghost of Yotei on your PS5 will feel remarkably similar.

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2025-10-03 23:07