The news that Suckerpunch have announced Ghost of Yotei, follow up to Ghost of Tsushima, has brought a lot of hate in the last few weeks. If you’ve followed the story on any TikTok, Facebook or Instagram you only have to check the comments section on any related article to find that there are a lot of people outraged at Ghost of Yotei supposedly being too woke.

Better still, some Youtube gaming commentators (or weirdos) have created full on videos calling out Suckerpunch for going woke and ‘ruining’ the series completely.

Why is Ghost of Yotei woke? Apparently it’s because the protagonist will be a woman and because the voice actor, Erika Ishii, will be voicing this main character. If you haven’t heard of Erika they have voice acted in a lot of games, from Apex Legends to Call of Duty Warzone. Oh, and they identify as non-binary.

As crazy as that sounds it’s the very reason fans of the previous game are now up in arms. Now the first thing I thought when I heard this is “surely people aren’t THAT angry about this”?

Well, apparently they are. They loved the male character so much in the first game that they felt let down by woke culture and the next game focused on a female character. In other words – there are a lot of whiney crybabies in the gaming scene that think every game was made especially for them.

There are several reasons why Ghost of Yotei should not even be considered “woke”. The most obvious reason is that changing to female protagonist is hardly woke. Why? Because female protagonists have been a part of games for a very, very long time.

You liked the male character a lot? Cool – he’s gone now though. Simple. He’s not even being replaced, the setting is just moving on a few hundred years or so. If you like the first one so much then replay it. No one is stopping you.

The term woke is getting thrown around with the news on this game because there are a lot of people who believe that games are solely created for political purposes. That somehow the fictional character and Eriki Ishii are the same person. People with A LOT of time on their hands.

I never want to step on anyone’s opinion, and I’m glad we’re in an age where people want to speak their minds – but this is Grade A manure.

The same people who are so outraged that the character has changed are probably the same ones who wanted a refund for The Last of Us Part 2 because they felt they were lied to about the plot. They didn’t like that you played as Abby, they felt mislead, and so on. Look around the internet, that opinion was sadly all too common.

The fact is some people don’t like change and don’t like when things aren’t tailored specifically to them. This spoiled attitude is exactly what is wrong with the gaming scene these days, where people are ready to judge without even seeing the end product.

Have you seen the trailer for Ghost of Yotei? Personally, I think the main character could be a duck voiced by Nicolas Cage and I’d still think it looks incredible.

Changing to a female character is not a stroke of genius from Suckerpunch, and it’s certainly not a disaster. It’s just a change. Something that at the end of it will have very little affect in how the game will play.

Ghost of Yotei will follow in the footsteps of many other female protagonist-led games, including Tomb Raider, Horizon, The Last of Us Part 2 to name a few.

It must also be remembered that the game is mostly fiction, the character does not and did not really exist. I know I said in my last post about the adult gamer stigma and how we can get attached to a good story and character like any book or movie, but we do have to draw the line when it comes to judging something on a so-called political level when it comes to games. That’s just me.

If you’re still really upset about the “politics” of Ghost of Yotei please just think about this. GTA 6 will (hopefully) be released on time next year, and we know full well that one of the characters is female. So – will you avoid GTA 6 because it’s too “woke” for you?

Of course not, you’ll probably pre-order it.

All the best,

Noob Republic