Ghost of Tsushima is officially getting a sequel titled Ghost of Yotei, it was confirmed today during Sony’s State of Play presentation. It’s set to release sometime in 2025.

It was the big announcement to close out the State of Play, and one of the biggest surprises. Developer Sucker Punch also showed off a major look at the game’s visuals, including some gorgeous cinematics. And if you couldn’t tell from the title, it’ll focus on a different setting and a brand new protagonist, Atsu, stepping away from Ghost of Tsushima’s Jin Sakai.

Sucker Puncher didn’t reveal much during its presentation, but we did get a little more insight thanks to a PlayStation blog post shortly after. It’s set in 1603, 300 years after the events of Ghost of Tsushima, in the areas surrounding Mount Yōtei, now known as Hokkaido. Sucker Punch calls it “a far cry from the organized samurai clans that once lived in Tsushima, and it’s the setting for an original story we can’t wait to tell.”

According to the post, the developer wanted to “preserve the core pillars of Ghost of Tsushima: playing as a wandering warrior in feudal Japan, offering the freedom to explore at your own pace, and emphasizing the beauty of the world.”

“We also wanted to continue innovating. To create something fresh but familiar, we looked beyond Jin Sakai’s story and the island of Tsushima to the idea of ​​the Ghost,” the post continued. “At Sucker Punch, we love origin stories, and we wanted to explore what it could mean to have a new hero don a Ghost mask and reveal a new legend. This led us to Ghost of Yōtei: a new protagonist, a new story to unfold, and a new region of Japan to explore.”

As “Sucker Punch’s first game rebuilt from the ground up for PlayStation 5,” it also features new mechanics, gameplay improvements, and new weapons.

Unashamedly inspired by the works of Akira Kurosawa (to the point that the game even included a “Kurosawa Mode”) and other samurai films, Ghost of Tsushima followed a samurai on a mission to protect Tsushima Island during the first Mongol invasion of Japan. It released for PlayStation 4 in July 2020, followed by a multiplayer mode, Ghost of Tsushima: Legends, that October. A Director’s Cut was released for PS4 and PS5 in 2021, and a PC port finally arrived last year.

Sony Pictures and PlayStation Productions are also developing a Ghost of Tsushima film, with John Wick director Chad Stahelski attached to direct.

IGN gave Ghost of Tsushima a 9/10 in 2020, calling it “an absolutely gorgeous adventure through some of the most stunningly beautiful landscapes in history, and that beauty is only enhanced by one of the best blade-to-blade combat systems the open-world action genre has ever seen.”

Ghost of Yotei Screenshots – Status September 2024