Looking to the past to expand on a current game is a pretty common avenue for post-launch content, and developer Sucker Punch does this in more ways than one for Ghost of Yotei. Echoes of Sekigahara weaves in flashbacks from lead character Atsu's life for a brief yet effective questline woven into the middle of the base game. Alongside that is the new Most Wanted mode, which introduces grueling run-based combat challenges – a major highlight of which is that Ghost of Tsushima's Jin Sakai is a playable character, with all of his original mechanics intact. Together, these additions deliver more of what the series is so good at: lethal, precise ronin combat and beautiful landscapes for its violent drama. They're not breaking any new ground, but they distill what made Ghost of Yotei great to begin with.
First thing you need to know is that both Echoes of Sekigahara and Most Wanted are packaged together in the newly minted Ghost of Yotei: Complete Edition, and if you already own the base game, it's a $15 upgrade through the PlayStation store. You'll need to have progressed roughly 10 hours into the original story (where you've taken down a handful of the Yotei Six) in order to initiate a bounty called "Nagato, the Handsome" and access Echoes of Sekigahara, while Most Wanted is available from the main menu right off the bat. They're two very distinct things, so I'll be looking at them separately, but just know that both are worthwhile in their own right.
One of my favorite aspects of Yotei in comparison to Tsushima was the way Atsu contrasted with Jin – she's brash and fueled by vengeance, giving her revenge tale a more personal edge. Echoes of Sekigahara further emphasizes this by exploring her more intimate side, introducing an old flame named Nagato – he's known across the land of Ezo as "The Handsome" because, well, he is a good looking dude, not gonna lie. After accepting a bounty with his name on it, you're ushered into an all-new region on the map known as Ashoro Foothills with its own questline and set of open-world activities in the same vein as the base game, but condensed for a tight seven-to-eight hours of new content.
The impetus for the quest is to cut off resources to Lord Saito's army (the villain of the main story) and to take down a ravenous faction called The Vipers and multiple big-bads vying to replace The Snake – the member of the Yotei Six who Atsu kills at the very start. Atsu gradually unravels Nagato's motives for pursuing these objectives alongside her while confronting him about what happened between them three years ago. They'd been high-ranking comrades on the frontlines of the tide-turning Battle of Sekigahara, and short playable flashbacks throughout this new questline give insight into their past; a budding romance and the interpersonal struggles of mixing business and pleasure. Like Ghost of Yotei itself, the story is a bit predictable, but even when you can see what's coming, it's still captivating for how it's told. With Nagato being a sly trooper and Atsu constantly balancing her emotions and pragmatism, the way their personalities clash and harmonize is really well done.
Nagato accompanies Atsu on most of the main missions, and that comes with the perk of having him target a separate enemy whenever you aim your bow. It makes for sweet double kills from a distance and a nice tool to have in your belt during this DLC’s frequent stealth scenarios. Otherwise, he'll support you in fights without much of an effect, if only to occupy enemies and take some of the heat off you. The main addition to Atsu's arsenal are the disposable Massive Weapons – some heavier enemies drop these and you can find them on weapon racks in combat arenas. They don't really change up the already fantastic dynamic of Yotei's rock-paper-scissors weapon mechanics, but I can't deny that it's satisfying to just swing a big-ass club or axe that not even fully armored samurai twice my size can block.
There are quite a few walk-and-talk sequences combined with platforming/cliff-scaling, which I liked quite a bit because I was fairly invested in their banter. Yotei's brand of Uncharted-style climbing has a certain weight I really enjoy as well, and whether Atsu had to do this alone or with Nagato, I was treated to some of the most gorgeous vistas in all of video games. It reminded me of how impressive Ghost of Yotei looks; the Kurosawa imitation in cutscenes is still prominent, of course, but the way colors pop across landscapes, leaves get swept in the wind, and backdrops give a sense of scale are integral to this series. Your first impression of Ashoro Foothills may be that it's a desolate plains ravaged by warlords and bandits, but it's still home to beautiful views you wouldn't get from other technical powerhouses.
Sidequests fill out the new region and may seem like just your standard fare of checklist-y objectives where you fight a mob of bandits or opportunistic samurai to save villagers. But I appreciate how they at least roll into a bigger idea of rebuilding and defending a region that's mostly been forgotten about and left to fend for itself. There's one particular questline that delves into The Snake's family business – it's a small, but satisfying way to frame Atsu's version of revenge to circumvent the "you're just as bad as the bad guy" trope.
Echoes of Sekigahara as a whole is well-rounded in that it's an extension of Yotei's better parts while doing enough to make it feel like I learned something important about Atsu as a character. And it's a damn fine excuse for more of the already excellent combat, whether it be chaining assassinations or hitting a perfect parry before striking down a foe as I'm on the brink of death. It's definitely a case where more of a good thing isn't bad at all.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.ign.com/articles/ghost-of-yotei-dlc-review-echoes-of-sekigahara-and-most-wanted
