'Ghost Of Yotei' Directors Respond To Accusations That The Game Is Woke

Ghost of Yotei directors Jason Connell and Nate Fox responded to accusations that the game is woke specifically due to their choice to have a female protagonist succeed Jin Sakai from Ghost of Tsushima.

In an interview with Variety, the two directors were asked, “Some accused the game of being ‘woke’ when Atsu was revealed as the main character. Why was a female protagonist the right choice for this story?”

Connell answered, “We knew we had all these fans who love Tsushima. We want to carry all of those fans forward into an exciting new adventure. We’re creatives. We like to make new things. We like to make exciting, new pieces of art and move people in new ways. We want to make a sequel that’s fresh but familiar.”

“Nate and I are pretty enamored with making origin stories, and certainly one that we could find a way to make them feel like a bit of an underdog in this landscape,” he continued. “This is a pretty dangerous landscape, which positions her to be an excellent person for that. This is somebody that people would not expect to be so powerful, yet here she is on this romp of a vengeance quest, which is probably pretty unexpected for some people.”

“Over time, she’ll get this name of The Onryō, because this Japanese folk legend is an unkillable, vengeance-seeking ghost. And that’s just an awesome fit. Onryō are typically stories of vengeance from females. So that seems like a really nice package for this,” he concluded.

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Earlier in the interview Fox explained the motives of Atsu, the game’s main female protagonist. He said, “Our new hero, Atsu, is somebody you meet early in her life, and this is her origin story, and it’s one of heartbreak. She suffers a horrible loss in her youth, and then sets off on a quest for revenge. Revenge is a classic samurai cinema trope, and we love samurai cinema.”