This game just sold me on the PS5 Pro

Following PlayStation’s latest State of Play presentation, Ghost of Yotei quickly became my reason for preordering the PlayStation 5 Pro. Developer Sucker Punch Productions already has a phenomenal track record with Ghost of Tsushima, showing an advanced capability of extracting power and performance from a console. Ghost of Yotei looks to be stylish, whimsical, and another premium AAA experience made to be played on PS5 Pro when it launches in 2025.

Ghost of Tsushima was, far in a way, a surprise smash hit for PlayStation. Releasing at the tail-end of the PlayStation 4 console cycle, the new IP was well received. Flash forward to now, and Ghost of Yotei follows the PS5 Pro’s reveal. As PlayStation revealed the $699 price tag, many began wondering if the cost would be worth it. The PS5 Pro features some new bells and whistles like the improved GPU, advanced ray tracing, and PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR). Ghost of Yotei is the first new AAA game from a first-party studio which can take advantage of the new hardware, setting the stage for everything else that’ll come after it.

Ghost of Yotei is an important successor Sucker Punch’s catalogue

Following the commercial success of the original, Ghost of Yotei has a lot of ground to cover

In July 2020, Sucker Punch released Ghost of Tsushima on PS4. Only months before the launch of the PS5 later that year, Ghost of Tsushima became the swan song for the last-gen console. The game was a brand-new IP for the studio which categorically built a name for itself through the Sly Cooper and Infamous franchises. To pivot so deeply and design a thoughtful Kurosawa-inspired open-world stealth/action game, critics and fans agreed Ghost of Tsushima is a game worth applauding. The game went on to live on the PlayStation 5 thanks to the Director’s Cut and Iki Island expansion. By 2022, Ghost of Tsushima has sold 9.73 million copies, becoming one of Sony’s fastest-selling original games. All of this is to say that the Ghost series made its mark on the PlayStation in one fell swoop.

This leaves Ghost of Yotei with big shoes to fill. And based on the reveal trailer, its taking the challenge head-on. The sequel entry leaves the island of Tsushima and instead takes place around Yotei, an active stratovolcano located in Hokkaidō, Japan. Set in 1603, hundreds of years following Jin Sakai’s story, players are introduced to Atsu (played by Erika Ishii), a female ronin who adopts The Ghost person. Jin was already a beloved PlayStation mascot. Even though he only had one game in the spotlight, fans adored his character. He was also featured as a cameo bot in Astro Bot. Ghost of Yotei springboards off the expectations established by its predecessor but, from a content perspective, is a blank slate for players to explore. It’ll be important that far removed from the location, characters, and story, once established, Sucker Punch can outdo itself.

Ghost of Yotei could be the PS5 Pro benchmark in 2025

Sucker Punch is the first PlayStation-owned studio to launch a new game on PS5 Pro

PlayStation

Anyone who’s played Ghost of Tsushima on PS4 or the base PS5 knows it’s a visual delight. Sucker Punch took inspiration from Shadow of the Colossus, designing wide-spread landscapes and a minimalist approach to its art style. The game had a smattering of gorgeous bright pink cherry blossoms, orange sunsets, and vast green fields. Playing on an OLED TV, Ghost of Tsushima remains one of the most impressive-looking games of the last generation. That’s not even adding in the enhancements on PS5, including 60fps support.

Already from the reveal trailer, Ghost of Yotei appears to be a bonafide looker. The sense of scale and beauty is apparent in many of the frames. Yotei appears to have many wide-open areas for players to explore within the final game. The immense size of what appears to be the Yotei volcano is something to gaze at even for a brief moment during the footage. It also seems as though Sucker Punch is moving away from the pinks and oranges and instead leaning on brighter blues and yellows. This makes for an interesting change in visual pallets. Heck, even the darker red hues and contrast of blood in the snow popped in a way the was visually impressive. What’s astounding is all the footage seen in the State of Play was in-game cinematics and gameplay captured on PS5. This leaves my mind to race at the possibilities of how Ghost of Yotei will take advantage of PS5 Pro.

PlayStation

As the PS5 Pro announcement revealed, Ghost of Yotei will be able to tap into the new GPU, offering 67 percent more compute units than the current base PS5 console. Additionally, Ghost of Yotei may take advantage of the 28 percent faster memory, decreasing loading times. If Ghost of Yotei can tap into the advanced ray tracing, seeing the sun rise over the horizon, or running through enemy encampments in the rain will be a visual delight. Ghost of Tsushima already looked shockingly realistic, but with improved reflections and lighting, the sequel could stun us all. Adding to this, PSSR can boost visuals and performance without either taking a drastic hit. AI upscaling can target individual pixels, adding depth to the visuals of the game. Seeing as though Sucker Punch is a first-party PlayStation studio, there is plenty of incentive to take full advantage of what the new hardware provides.

f, in the end, Ghost of Yotei can establish a benchmark for PS5 Pro, think of the other games and experiences that’ll chase the ceiling raised by Sucker Punch in the coming years.