Aswe all wait in anticipationfor the upcomingGhost of Yotei, many are wondering what it means in terms of new gameplay, characters, and for some, the lore.
So many are wondering what happened to Jin Sakai, and while I wouldn’t doubt it if Ghost of Yotei brought him up in passing, I actually hope they don’t.
Ghost of Tsushima: Best Mythic Tales, Ranked
Mythic Tales are some of the most epic tales in Ghost of Tsushima. We ranked them on which is best.
In fact, I hope there iszeromention of Jin Sakai in Ghost of Yotei – providing answers and canon almost feels blasphemous to the character. It would need to be done delicately and with significance, but it would be better left up to interpretation.
After all, being a ghost in history is exactly who theGhost of Tsushimais supposed to be.
Jin Renounced Everything For The Ghost
It Only Makes Sense if He Died Like A Ghost
By the end of Ghost of Tsushima, everything begins to heat up onceLord Shimurarealises that his nephew isn’t giving up his moniker of The Ghost. Just as quickly, everything boils over, leaving Lord Shimura no choice but to try and kill The Ghost in an attempt to save the Sakai name.
Yet, that doesn’t happen. Regardless of whether you kill or spare Lord Shimura, Jin is destined to live out the rest of his days as a ronin, a soldier with no title and no name. He fully embraces his identity as The Ghost – and all the consequences that come with it.
This isn’t just crucial to the story and the lore of these games, but it’s essential to Jin’s character.
Ghost of Tsushima: 10 Best Charms, Ranked
Charms help Jin in his quest against the Mongol invasion; these are the best ones.
Because of this, it only makes sense for Jin to die like The Ghost – living as a figure shrouded in mystery, with a disappearance just as opaque. He gave up his old life, and everything he knew, to live this new one.
Throughout the game, we see Jin consistently withdraw into the shadows, to where many everyday people don’t know what’s real about him or not. We end up hearing several rumours throughout the game about The Ghost, all the more snowballed than the last – which makes me hope we never get a straight answer by the time we get to Ghost of Yotei.
After all, this is going to be a new Ghost altogether, completely unrelated from Jin and the Sakais. The most that should remain from Jin isn’t his name, nor his costume, nor anything he’s done – all that should remain is the title of The Ghost itself.
It Would Make Less Sense to Fill in The Gaps
We Don’t Always Need Complete Closure
While it’s definitely understandable towantall the answers and have all the closure, that doesn’t always make the story richer. In fact, intentionally leaving things for interpretation not only extends the life of that story, but is far better than getting a potentially disappointing answer.
Because, more often than not, regardless of how writers decide to take their story, audiences who have never written a day in their life will have critiques like they’re the professionals. It’s a tough crowd that’s constantly in a lose-lose situation for writers; it’s nightmarish, honestly. I can’t even imagine the pressure of trying to write a good sequel for the game thatsingle-handedly revitalised the Samurai Genre.
To be wholly honest, we don’t always need complete closure in a story in order to have a satisfying beginning, middle, and end. At most, there should be an Easter Egg – and even then, it might be too on the nose depending on what it is.
Ghost of Tsushima: All Armor Sets, Ranked
A thorough review of Jin’s closet.
Tsushima is literally on the complete opposite side of Hokkaido in Japan, so it genuinely wouldn’t make much sense for Jin to end up there, especially since, at the times of the Mongol invasions, the land was Ainu territory.Hokkaido wasn’t colonised until after the Meiji Restoration… in 1869. Ghost of Yotei takes place in the Edo period (specifically the year 1603) which maintains this historical accuracy.
Simply put, there would need to be more explanation to explain a simple Easter Egg, or to give fans a nod. That ends up taking from Jin’s story as a whole – it removes his identity and the shadows he shrouded himself in.
The only reason he didn’t feel like a Ghost to us was because we played him and followed his story directly in the first game. To everyone else, he’s exactly that: TheGhost,and that’s if they even heard of him.
Let The Ghost of Yotei Make Her Own Legacy
Not Living in Jin’s Shadow
What I’m hopingSucker Punchdoes is let Atsu carve her own pathway, write her own legend and live out her own legacy, rather than being a copy of Jin in Hokkaido. Based on the trailers andeverything so far, it seems to be heading in that direction, and I’m all the more thrilled for it.
Of course, there are going to be people who won’t like it if there’s no mention of Jin, just as there will be people (such as myself) who might be let down if Jin’s story is wrapped up in a neat bow.
Regardless, someone is going to complain – so the smartest move for developers would be to tell the best possible story to keep those complaints to a minimum. To me, the best possible story would ensure that Atsu isn’t held up in Jin’s shadow.
Right away, Astu is a lot moredriven by vengeance and hatredthan Jin, and this is an excellent foil to the kind of character Jin was in Ghost of Tsushima – patient, understanding, and driven by context. The only genuine connection between these two characters is their moniker, and even then, that’s regional.
There is far too much that wouldn’t make sense if Sucker Punch tried to tie Jin and Atsu closer together than by title alone. Even then, it’s clear that the origins of those titles stem from vastly different circumstances.
I’m so excited to play Ghost of Yotei and experience Atsu’s story – my only hope is that it honors Jin Sakai by being as disconnected from him as it could possibly be.
Ghost of Tsushima: All Duels, Ranked
They all face Jin’s katana in the end anyway, yet they’re still endless fun.
Ghost of Yotei
WHERE TO PLAY
Discover a bold, new story of a warrior in Japan who is on a mission of vengeance all her own.Set 300 years after the critically acclaimed Ghost of Tsushima, Ghost of Yōtei is standalone experience set in 1600s rural Japan. The story follows a haunted, lone mercenary named Atsu. Thirsty for revenge, she travels through the beautiful, rugged landscapes of northern Japan, hunting those who killed her family many years earlier.
