The creators did say they are fans of both spaghetti westerns and kurosawa, and they aim for the ghost series to be like a "cheeseburger samurai" series
That's amazing. Well, it might take some getting used to but I'm here for it. One of my goals is to make the similarities between early samurai and cowboys more widely known and it seems Sucker Punch are working to that end as well.
@TalesofDawnandDusk well they were talking more from the film making perspective, but they might go that route with this. I'm there for it either way. With Ghost of Tsushima, they brought attention to an under-represented part of japanese history, and I hope they do the same with the new one. Or just have everything made up, I am looking forward to exploring Hokkaido with the game 😄
Probably playing to the Yojimbo and A Fistful of Dollars connection. I feel they are doubling down on the Samurai Cinema influence. As a fan of both styles , I'm very excited for this game.
Mount Yotei is also called Ezo Fuji because of its resemblance to Mount Fuji. Sucker Punch apparently chose it as the setting because of this and how good its reflection looked on the lake surface. People confusing Mount Yotei with Mount Fuji is likely within Sucker Punch's expectations. This game is likely to boost tourism in the area as the first game did for Tsushima. Hope the tourists behave, though.
@@graycap111b5 Knowing all that I'm with you in thinking that that was indeed SP's goal, and I further agree that I would love to see other parts of Japan made known to the wider world so long as foreigners mind their manners and engage respectfully.
A lot of skiers and snowboarders would already be familiar with Mt Yotei, because it is visible in all its glory from the slopes of Niseko Hirafu, a very popular ski resort with foreigners, so that would likely increase its appeal.
They were using western spaghetti rhythm with Asian melodies and they used shamisen (period appropriate) for the string This harken back to the many cultural crossover between old samurai movies and old cowboy movies
7:31 手配書（てはいしょ） 一、弐拾八 九歳 （ひとつ、にじゅうはち くさい） 一、羊蹄山に於いて目睹の噂（ひとつ、ようていざんにおいてもくとのうわさ） 此の女の首に褒美百両（このおんなのくびにほうびひゃくりょう） Wanted 28, 29 years old Rumors of a sighting at Mt. Yotei Reward of 100 ryo for this woman's head One hundred ryo would be roughly 10 million yen or about 70,000 dollars in today's currency. Correct me if I'm wrong.
@@へいきち-p2o Thank you for expounding on that. I managed to parcel it out afterwards and I'm ashamed I didn't recognize the old 拾 for ten despite having spent a good time trying to learn the old way of writing numbers lol. Much appreciated.
@@TalesofDawnandDusk "拾" as ten is still used because ordinary ten, "十" can easily be rewrited to "千" which means thousand. For similar reasons, we use "壱" "弍" "参" instead of "一" "二" "三."
@@TalesofDawnandDusk I really wouldn't expect someone who didn't grow up with Chinese characters to be so sensitive! Handwriting is especially difficult for a second language learner, so don't beat yourself up over it :) In Japanese, those numbers are called 大字(だいじ). In Chinese they're called 大寫/大写(da xie), which is coincidentally what is used to translate "uppercase". They're not considered old, just the formal version. Thus you see them on banknotes and cheques.
Westerns took influence from Kurosawa's movies, so I think it's only fitting it's come full circle now that a Kurosawa-esque work references Ennio Morricone (who created the distinct style of music we associate with westerns).
The sound of the western, and the music we`ve come to asociate with it spawns not from the american western films, but from spaghetti westerns, from italy, a sound largely coined by Morricone and others (Ortolani Riz comes to mind) and those films themselves owe their existance in part to the samurai films of Akira Kurosawa, if i remember correctly, when Kurosawa was asked on his opinion on "for a fistful of dollars" he said that it was so good, because it essentially was Yojimbo remade. so in mainstream media, the western and the period japanese films about samurai or ronin are culturaly intertwined in pop culture, Sucker Punch just brought it back full circle, and i think it works superbly.
@@nicolaslabra2225 It does indeed work wonderfully. Though again, it's not just post war films that unite samurai and cowboy culture. There are very clear similarities between the two and I suppose it's only natural that they eventually came together first through film and now video games.
Kanji on the fabric (from top to bottom), Hope it helps 鬼 (おに Oni): Demon/Ghost 狐 (きつね kitsune): Fox 龍 (りゅう Ryu): Dragon 蜘蛛 (クモ Kumo): Spider 蛇 (へび Hebi): Snake *斎藤 or 斉藤 (さいとう Saitō): Popular surname in Japan especially up north, Saito Clan is also a major noble house/Samurai clan. Notably Dosan Saito (斎藤道三), ruthless samurai lord, and Oda Nobuna's God-Father, later became Nobuna's father-in-law. Nohime Nobuna's confidant and wife.
@@jackywchen That is extremely helpful. Very much appreciated. With that in mind, I wonder if they're representative of people we'll meet in the game. Maybe it's a list of targets Atsu has and these are the codenames she's given for them?
The use of guitar in the music is also meaningful. As was said in an interview with Sucker Punch about Ghost of Tsushima, they described Ghost of Tsushima as being like Cheeseburger Samurai. They respect Kurosawa films, and there is a connection between westerns and Kurosawa films. For example, Seven Samurai and Seven in the Wilderness. So the guitar is probably used as a reflection of that history. Sucker Punch values its DNA.
I concur with you about the Sengoku era being SO overrepresented in video games, but the game being set in Ezo/Hokkaido making up for it because that's SUCH an under-represented area (both for media set during the Sengoku era and in general).
Sucker Punch is great doing a research about history of Japan,I can't wait for this game.. Especially Atsu, female protagonist...what her story? Becoming a Ghost as a title is definitely must strong stories, background. Like Jin Sakai. Her vibe as a lead character is feels like from a movie Female Prison 701.
@@HassNeesan Indeed, I was skeptical but Sucker Punch has proven they are willing to do their homework and I'm looking forward to see how things unfold.
@@uservl7di9ti5y oh okay 👍 thank you so much for explaining. I thought 'Sakai' mean anything at that time,like ' Stranger ',or name that people at that time use etc 😅 thanks again 👍👍
You were right at 11:53. The youtubers DashBlue translated the Kanji to be (if I recall correctly) "Dragon, Spider, and Snake", which seems to be a list of nicknames. This plus the scene where the protagonist crosses one of the names out in blood with her sword led them to theorize that this is a hitless of targets you have to kill.
I just love seeing the analyses of various Japanese history buffs from around the world when it comes to the "Ghost Of..." series. I can't wait to see what I learn about Japanese history from this game and people like you who can extrapolate upon it!
The Chanbara genre is equivalent to the Spaghetti Western genre. Ronin (Samurai) and Gunslingers (Cowboys). Having a Shamisen and a Guitar playing back to back is a way of paralleling the similarities yet differences of these two styles of story telling, characters, locations and music. I can understand why you would be tired of that Edo period, but 1603 was the very beginning right after the purges, so the story of an outcast who escapes from Nippon (Japan) to the closest yet farthest place away, Ezo (Hokkaido), speaks volumes for anyone who’s had to run away from their home.
I bet the kanji talisman/scroll thing is like a list of 'targets'. She has it on her belt and she crosses one of the kanji names out with the blood from her katana, I assume she just killed a target and crosses the name out with the victims blood. The Spider like you pointed out seems an apt nickname for an enemy in a video game too lol.
Sucker Punch saw Assassin's Creed: Shadows and went *“Aight, hold my sake (Japanese rice wine for those who didn't know) and my katana”* before developing Ghost of Yōtei
You’ve got a new subscriber! Your channel is so fascinating. 日本の歴史や文学やビデオゲームに興味がありますから、このTH-camチャンネルは私の好みにぴったりです！ You said that your main area of study is focused about 500 years before the Sengoku period, so I guess you research the Heian period? 私の一番好きな文学は平安時代の物語や詩で、文語体を学ぶ予定です！ Ghost of Tsushima was one of the first games that introduced me to Japan’s history, so I’m really glad I found your channel. 😁
Yes, I mostly focus on the Heian Period and am currently translating a collection of stories from that time called 今昔物語集。なんでけ、平安時代のほうは面白いと思いますね。登録してくださって誠にありがとうございます
I think the theme here is Kurosawa, John Ford (my namesake), and Kill Bill. Kurosawa was influenced by John Ford westerns for his film-making. Those Kurosawa samurai classics were subsequently imported into the western genre as the Magnificent Seven (Seven Samurai) and Last Man Standing among others (Yojimbo). Tarantino loved both genres and produced Kill Bill as a result. I think the people of Sucker Punch, like all of this and combined it in this game. I heard an interview whereas the called it a cheeseburger western (like spaghetti western). So I guess it is possibly less serious and more like a revenge plot?
It would be so cool if it's a story about Taira clan , though I would also want Meiji Restoration/Boshin War period too , I mean I really love Shinsengumi . I went to Goryokaku Fort in Hakodate to see the memorial of Hijikata . Spider kanji during that period , probably would associate with a Thief or Rival Clan ? was thinking of Tsuchigumo .
@@Koyuki_Yukihime Well, if they plan on making this a whole series they could very well visit all sorts of Japanese historical settings. We may yet see stories about the Taira and Shinsengumi. As far as the symbols on the scarf/strip of cloth, we can only speculate, though connecting "spider" with "tsuchigumo" is an interesting proposition. I suppose we will just have to wait and see.
@@TalesofDawnandDusk What do you think that Atsu character is inspired by ? Onna-Bugeisha ? or maybe Kunoichi ? a mix between Tomoe Gozen + Mochizuki Chiyome ? or maybe just Miyamoto Musashi . The western theme I see in this is how story seems to hint at hunting Ronin , like a bounty hunter . That's also why I associate the spider kanji with tsuchigumo . Also would be fun if we will see someone like Sakamoto Ryoma , Takasugi Shinsaku or Katsura Kougorou in the future . Shuten-doji and Miyamoto no Yorimitsu story would be fun too .
@@Koyuki_Yukihime I couldn't say. It very well could be Tomoe Gozen as she's perhaps the most famous warrior woman of Japan. But then, given that it's set in Hokkaido, and apparently Mount Yotei has strong ties to the concept of women in Ainu culture, it could also come from an Ainu legend. Again, all we can really do is wait and see.
@@TalesofDawnandDusk There's a channel from Japanese people analyse the Kumo Kanji , seems like it's a nickname on the hitlist , someone she hunt . DashBlue is the name of the channel .
A piece of paper attached to the board with a sword reads, "Wanted poster: Anyone who presents her head will receive 100 ryo." She is a wanted person. Hokkaido may have been an uncivilized land for Japan at the time, a place where criminals could escape. In 1603, when Hokkaido was an uncivilized land for Japan and the Ainu people lived there, the Sengoku period came to an end in Japan, and the Edo period began, when the Tokugawa Shogunate unified the country. The following year, in 1604, the Edo Shogunate ordered the Matsumae Domain, whose territory was in the northern area, to monopolize trade with the Ainu. This was the beginning of a difficult road for the Ainu. Until then, the Ainu had gained wealth through trade with various places, but not only was their free trade hindered, the Matsumae Domain only offered unfavorable trade terms to the Ainu, and the Ainu people's lives gradually became poorer and they were forced to work in harsh conditions. Perhaps she is depicting a person who rebels against the Shogunate's cruelty.
Sucker Punch loved Kurosawa, and Seven Samurai is set in 1586, based on a family tree stolen by Kikuchiyo. Maybe some characters from Seven Samurai are still alive and appear in the game.
“Why? Guitar?” It’s okay. Famous Japanese 時代劇(samurai drama),”鬼平犯科帳” Onihei’s Chronicles end theme was “Inspiration,” performed by the world famous flamenco band Gipsy Kings. Japanese people got used it Jidaigeki and guitar
11:45 i seen from DashBlue’s video where they translate it to “Dragon on top, Spider and Snake” but they couldn’t read the last bottom one. Theyre nicknames for a Hit List And since this story is supposed to be a revenge, Kill Bill type of story. Especially with the prominent yellow imagery it, makes sense she’s wiping blood off on one.
Wolves of Ezo (Hokkaido) are a different species from Japanese wolves and are Ezo wolves. As far as I remember, Ezo wolves were bigger than Japanese wolves. Wolves are special animals for the Ainu race, so I have a feeling that the relationship with the Ainu race will appear in the story. Originally, there were no horses in Hokkaido, but it is possible that samurai who fled to Ezo in the 1400s arranged for them from Tsugaru and the southern part before the Matsumae domain carried southern horses from Honshu to Ezo in the early 1600s.
Indeed, the Ezo wolves of Hokkaido were totally unrelated to those of the rest of Japan. Genetic testing in the past decade has revealed that the Japanese wolf is related to the Pleistocene Siberian wolves, but NOT Eurasian wolves. They also show admixture with domestic Japanese dogs. They were about the size of an Akita. The testing on the Hokkaido wolves shows the are directly descended from the wolves of North America (not Siberia or Asia), and were morphologically almost identical - same size as Grey wolves. The Hokkaido wolves didn't arrive in the area until the last Ice Age, somewhere around 10000 years ago.
I think one thing to note about the setting is that this is the early Edo period, and if I recall correctly the south of Hokkaido, then called Ezo was controlled by a single Japanese clan at the time. So we may see something related to that in the plot.
Yoshihiro Kakizaki, who might be the Antagonist in GoY, met Tokugawa leyasu in Osaka in 1599. Around that time, he changed his surname from Kakizaki to Matsumae. In 1604, he was presented with the Kokuinjo, or Black Seal, an official letter from a feudal lord. It granted him a monopoly on trade in Ezo. The new Ghost, in addition to having to deal with being ‘Wanted’, might take up the cause of the Ainu in the conflict over trade.
Classic Italian made Westerns were highly inspired by even earlier Japanese Samurai movies. Makes sense for an American-made Samurai game to use Italian style guitair music elements.
You are the only reactor who recognizes dual wielding style (Niten Ichi-ryū) on the trailer. When I saw that, I was like "Are we gonna meet Musashi in the game?" .
As far as I know, they did not include any historical figures in their previous work. If I had to say, the name of Genghis Khan was mentioned, but all the characters were fictional. I believe this is part of their aesthetic and a way to show respect for Japan. I would be happy if they included Musashi in this game, but I feel they are unlikely to do so. If a swordsman were to appear, I think it would be a fictional disciple of a real swordsman, such as Tsukahara Bokuden, Kamizumi Nobutsuna, or Ito Ittosai.
As far as I can tell Atsu seems to use two katanas, rather than Musashi's katana and wakizashi. While slightly less versatile, it shouldn't pose too much of a problem since a katana is a blade of perfect length (it's as long as possible while still being short enough that you can stab someone you are grappling). Since Musashi was still in his formative years it's likely a case of convergent ideas rather than a direct influence - although I'm sure Atsu would agree with Musashi's philosophy of "victory by any means".
@@robertchristiansilva280 So I have since heard. Unfortunately I'm not as familiar with this era of Japanese history but it does seem like they deliberately set the story at the very beginning of the Edo Period and I'm interested to see how that fact factors into the story.
That's partly why I decided to torture myself with trying to learn Classical Japanese; so I can just read the originals and never have to worry about tracking down English translations, or even modern Japanese translations, ever again.
弐拾八 九歳 28〜9 years old 羊蹄山に於いて目睹の噂 Rumors of sightings around Mt. Yotei 此の女の首に褒美百両 The bounty on this woman is 100 ryo (100 ryo at that time was estimated to be 8 million yen at a low estimate.)
Nice to get an explanation on the music because that threw me off when I first saw the trailer since it sounded like music from an old Clint Eastwood movie.
You Sir got one more Subscriber, because of you knowing of Ancient Japanese History. I just thought they just took some Italo Western Music and mixed Japan/Nippon Typical Instruments. But that older Samurai was like Cowboys, i did not know. Thanks to you, i know now more. good work subscribe +1
The influences are circular. The developers were influenced by spaghetti westerns and samurai cinema. The spaghetti westerns were directly influenced by Kurosawa. Kurosawa was influenced heavily by John Ford.
@@HistoryofKatana Thank you sir. I'll have you know, I am subscribed to you and think everyone else here ought to as well. A great channel with lots of history and culture about Japan.
Sucker punch treats Japanese history with love and respect in their games but they are intended to reference Jidaigeki more than pure history. In the first game they collected cool things from many periods and beautiful topography from all over Japan and combined them into a fictional Tsushima that was like a love letter to Japanese history and cinema. I think they are going deeper into the "Cheeseburger Chanbara" feel with this one which explains the western guitar music. The "talisman" I believe is a list of names and it looks like she crosses one off at one point. So some kind of tale of vengeance?
There are a few pattern of matchlocks created by Japanese gunsmiths. Tanegashima is one of the many, but also the first to make matchlocks in Japan and are widely used.
12:03 could be like a hitlist of people she's hunting cuz they said she was getting hunted by every ronin and somone wants her dead very badly maybe they are on her list?
The Japanese wolf is just a subspecies, not its own species. It was still technically a Grey Wolf. Most regions that have wolves are going to be some kind of distinct subspecies (or multiple subspecies). Wolves in Russia, for example are a different subspecies to wolves in Alaska. The Japanese wolves were no different. They're all just Grey Wolves.
As the trailer says people go north to desapear is fare to presume that Atsu is NOT AINU but EMISHI, she is from Japan (Honsu) and has 28 or 29 eyers old. The best bet I saw is she is from Honshu (a bit South)... 1603 is the exact year of the transition of the rule from Toyotomi Hideoshi to Tokugawa Ieasu. And the best bet for the historic origin of this plot was around the Kunohe Rebellion (1591) where Toyotomi win the rebellion backing one side of the clan Nonbu BUT violate the surrender agreement and butcher the entire part of clan Nonbu rebelled (a Honshu clan) and burn women and children. And this is the begginin of the end of it's ruling. (and PRESUMLY with 16 or 17 years old at that time Atsu may be a SURVIVOR of Kunohe Rebellion!) 1) the crest of the Yotei game is similar (and inverted upside down) to the Toyodami crest and the slash on it in japanese culture is a break or a Rage against the crest clan... And the revenge Atsu seeks may be against Toyotami clan OR to the part of her own clan that campaign with him! 2) as the END of Ghost of Tsushima story, Jin AND Yuna are both outlaws by decree of the Xogum and trough the entire game Yuna said she wants to exit Tsushima. I THINK both exit and IS OBVIOUS they can not stay anywhere near the Xogum domain. SO they might to go north (to Honshu?) area and faithful of the PERSONAL code of honor of Jin Sakai (to protect those could not protect themselves), he and Yuna may end to join the Nonbu clan. If so, Atso MAY be a direct descendant of Jin Sakai or Yuna OR BOTH (if my SHIPPER DREAMS be attended by Sucher Punch and some time after Jin and Yuna marry each other and had some children of their own)!!! ; )
Many people are upset over the female main character and the English voice actor being a little crazy, but they're missing the point-the only thing we really know about the game so far is what's shown in the trailer, and so far I am very impressed.
@@Peasham Based on my personal bias, she does seem a bit crazy, but in the end, it’s not really relevant to the game. People can think what they want; as long as the game is good, that’s what matters to me.
@@Peasham It doesn’t matter what I think. My point is that people should focus on the game itself, not the opinions of specific individuals, as those are and should be irrelevant in this case.
@@kongthemayor5481 You say it doesn't matter, but the people insisting that it does matter center their "critique" on the actress being "crazy" while refusing to elaborate on why they're crazy.
Dude I want your job. The culture is fascinating to me because it’s different yknow? I was forced to learn European history, but I learn this by choice. TL:DR Shits cool
The similarity in music with Westerns has nothing to do with the history of the cultures, but rather the history of Spagetti Western cinema and the Chanbara Samurai cinema. When Japan's film (and other entertainment) industry was growing, they borrowed heavily from the American entertainment industries. The Samurai cinema or "Chanbara" was directly copying Spagetti westerns and giving them a Japanese spin. Eventually directors like Akira Kurosawa set the bar so high that Westerns started copying from Chanbara. The first game was very heavily inspired by Kurosawa style movies, as such incorporates music that is reminiscent of its spagetti roots.
The Spanish guitar is OMNIPRESENT in Samurai series and films from the 70ies to about the end of 80ies or so. Together with jazzy music. I always found that so irritating but I guess the Spanish music has the dramatic nature the filmmakers loved for their stuff. I still don't understand the jazz. This seems to have changed, though 😁. Arquebuses were used the moment the Westerners brought them along. I don't like them but I have never engaged in battle, so... The female protagonist doesn't surprise me. Couldn't possibly be a man and a woman to choose from now, can it?!
Was that really the music they went with? I've seen Seven Samurai, Yojimbo and Kagemusha, all of which are Kurosawa films but that's about the extent of my classic samurai film experience.
@@phantomarceus6387 - Idk why I don't like them. It's probably the shape. They're aesthetically unpleasing 😂. But maybe it's because I just like sharp blades so much. However, I was never in war like a situation. The Ashigaru would have begged to differ 😅...
Truly glad to see people discussing the game without being weird, the amount of people i saw making videos about how the game is ruined without giving proper reasons and just say the protagonist is a woman so it’s bad 😂 i'm really interested to see the story, if they’re going to treat the new character like Jin and give her a good story. I think this game will be amazing. I would’ve loved to see more of Jin Sakai but his story ended perfectly so i don’t mind the series being an anthology with new Ghosts every game.
It's 2024 and the actress is a screaming LGBT activist. They are right to be concerned. If the game comes out and it defies their expectations, they're more likely to buy it. I am one such person.
@@TheFreakazoid777 Inferring people are crying whilst crying. Classic lgtb stereotype. No one cries louder than the woke crowd. Cope with the fact that people are rejecting your propaganda en mass.
I feel that they are creating works of "Zidaigeki" rather than historical pieces. Zidaigeki features female ninjas known as kunoichi, ninjas throwing shuriken, and Akudaikan hiring a bodyguard sword master, which are all far removed from historical facts. Zidaigeki is a fictional work with many unique contexts, leaning more towards a genre adjacent to Kabuki or popular novels written in Edo era rather than historical novels. It may also resemble a Western. Therefore, I think it is more appropriate to judge whether this depiction is correct or incorrect based on the standards of period dramas rather than historical facts. Considering everything, this game contains many elements of Zidaigeki. While we still don't know who Atsu is, for example, if Atsu is on a journey for revenge against the person who killed her parent, it would be a very typical Zidaigeki-like story.
As long as the character is written well and the game respect the Japanese culture which they did with ghost of tsushima i will have no issue playing with a female ronin.
Lmfao no they didn't, Tsushima was a rejection of samurai and the stereotypical idea of samurai honor, alongside whitewashing Mongol atrocities and many other historical inaccuracies.
@@Peashamyes they did, they paid respects to Japanese movie culture and never claimed to be accurate about anything, they made a romanticised love letter to Kurosawas fans and his legacy
@@ximantuss Tsushima featured a rich privileged Japanese noble inventing ninja techniques, which wouldn't have been invented until centuries after the game takes place specifically by poor farmers who had to learn them. Jin himself is the embodiment of a storm that denied the Mongols entry into mainland Japan. The game marketed itself on its accuracy and reverence for Japanese culture.
@@Peasham it never did, I don’t know why you’re saying it was, the only problems Japanese people have with it is the fact that yuna isn’t conventionally attractive and that the gameplay isn’t as good as sekiro, the BIGGEST criticism from Japan was literally because it wasn’t as good as sekiro, they literally care about nothing else and actually think the game is cool, if sucker punch advertised the game as a historical piece of education they would have, but they didn’t.. they advertised it as a power fantasy, romanticised samurai/ninja blockbuster, which as far as I’m concerned, people from Japan thinks is pretty neat
@@Peasham it was never sucker punches plan to make a historical game, because if it was then it would be hated, Nate foxes main focus was for it to be a successor to kurosawas film making
Funny, foreign none Far East game developers NEVER chose Nara or Heian era as game setting. Why? Too Chinese to them. Without Samurai in Japan is Identical to fry fish without tartar sauce, fries without ketchup.
Very far from Japan outlaws a mercenaries it feels very Western even the way the trailer runs feels very Western that scene of her standing in the doorway of like a tavern almost look straight out of a western movie in fact I'm pretty sure almost every cowboy movie has a scene exactly like that. . .
You watch… The Ghost of Yotei is going to be about Strong Female Character protecting the marginalized Ainu inhabitants of Hokkaido from the evil Japanese colonizers.
Só, what about the japanese opression over the Ainu people in the game períod and location? Dont u think that suckerpunch may have tô face Very contraditóry reactions when the media know that an foreing studio Will explore an verei sensitive part of japanese history?
In the North the were powerful clans like the Abe and Nanbu who fortified the North against the control of the central government in Kyoto. Also Hiraizumi was in the North too. This would have been a great a game but the female protagonist is a huge woke red flag.
@@mutsuzawa Indeed. I used to live in Ichi no Seki and would go to Hiraizumi and Chusonji all the time. I was hoping that if they made a sequel it would feature some of the lesser known wars in the north like the Former Nine Year's War that I'm currently working on making videos for, or that they would feature the Northern Fujiwara in some way but alas, it wasn't to be. Oh well, Hokkaido before it was Hokkaido is, while not my favorite, still a very interesting choice. As far as the choice of main character goes, I am a bit concerned but given how the trailer doesn't seem to center itself on her being a woman I feel a sense of cautious optimism about this game. We'll see how it turns out.
@@Nekotaku_TV It's quite frankly, an extremely minor detail that's liable to confuse people who don't know what it represents rather than make things clear. My whole goal with TH-cam is to make Japanese culture more accessible to people, not find excuses to stoke my ego and call the normies stupid.
@@TalesofDawnandDusk I have no idea what the last part had to do with it. Just found it ironic. But the official material uses that spelling. And if you wanna make it easier to understand you ought to spell it as it should be pronounced, and if you don't wanna use the ō then use "oo"... I think stuff like this is very important so I'm surprised you wouldn't correct it, as it is literally wrong and doesn't represent Japanese. It's not like it's a word like shogun or Tokyo that would exist in English on its own. What I'm wondering though is if it's tee or tei, cause as I'm sure you know ei = ee often in Japanese.
@@Nekotaku_TV I understand that they use ō in the official spelling, but again, that has a higher chance of confusing people than typing just a singular "o." Romanization of Japanese is complicated and there are several ways of doing it. Technically, the most accurate way of romanizing 羊蹄山 (ようていさん) would be Youteisan, but that 6 lane pileup of vowels is going to get all sorts of weird pronunciations and we'll end up in a similar situation to Street Fighter where a sizable portion of the player base says "ha doo ken" instead of "ha doh ken." Plus, I've lived in Japan altogether for nearly four years and I've only seen "おう" romanized as "ō" a handful of times and even then I can't remember specifics. It's almost always either just an "o" or, for those using standard Japanese romanization, "ou." But I'm not going to use standard Japanese romanization because then we'd be writing the protagonist's name as "Aturu" who fires her fancy new "zyuu" and playing her "syamisen." Which is all to say, there is no real consensus on romanization so I'm going to use what makes the most sense to me: Latin vowels and simply not worrying about expressing elongated sounds as it's likely to throw unnecessary confusion into the mix. If I find myself in a scenario where I need to explain the おう vowel elongation, then I will do so at that time. But for the vast majority of people playing this game who aren't going to care about an in depth explanation of the Japanese writing system, I'll spare them the details and get to the more interesting bits and if they really want to know more, then we can go into more detail.
@@TalesofDawnandDusk You ought to add some space to such big pieces of text for easier reading. Using the horrible romanization that makes word look like in your three examples is not relevant. I hate it and it's stupid and has nothing to do with this. I don't agree that it would be a higher chance of confusing nor do I understand how. If anything it will make them say it wrong, maybe your spelling is close enough and you're right with some people. But obviously I'm not suggesting that it would be spelled Youtei... Yotei is better than that but optimal would be Yōtei or Yōtē. (And now I realized if it is pronounced ē they probably would have used that since they used ō, would be weird to mix). In Japan they aren't good at romanization, can't use that as an example. Also has nothing to do with this. We're talking about non-Japanese people reading this for starters. What do you mean "ha doh ken"? It IS "hadooken". Maybe you think I read it wrong, hard to communicate this with letters between us if we aren't thinking of it the same way but I too know how Japanese works so we should be able to use that like a basis. And one of the best/easiest parts about Japanese is that most of the time you say what you read... But again, I don't agree and I find it ironic. And regardless of how you wanna romanize it it's wrong according to the official material for the game. I think you're adding confusion when you have people see different spellings, but you're far from the only one so it's not gonna be your fault and if you fixed it it wouldn't change that part haha.
As hyped as i am i feel like people cannot enjoy games anymore. I just hope they ignore the reactions and just focus on the game. Too many people want to call sometnkng woke. Maybe a female samurai isnt historically accurate. Idgaf because its a fucking game. I didn't give a fuck about the histocal accuracy of the first game. So why the fuck would i care now. But im actually a fan of the game. Not some culture war nut who probably never played the first game. Which btw. By yall standards there was "woke shit in yhe first game. The wife of the the guy who is killed in the into. She has a gay history thats implied in a side story. Also if you called jin boring or just a bad character. Do not do a 180 and argue he should have been the MC. Im willing to bet that some people are only on this video to see if you mentioned the "woke" aspect. Basically they just want to use you as a shield for their illogical hate for this game.
You took the words out of my mouth. Just enjoy the game for god's sake! I already saw some people commenting they're not gone play it, because of a female protagonist. Well, it's their loss.
What’s your knowledge of the Ainu people? Like did men and women both hunt/fight? Was it common for women to be warriors? From what I know, the Ainu are indigenous people who were separate from the Japanese, and even the Japanese decreased their militarisation of women in the 1600s and especially at the end of 1500s when Japan was briefly unified. Considering that female warriors were already not common, how realistic would you say this depiction is in that aspect? Doesn’t mean they can’t have a female protagonist but in this regard does their representation start to reach into fantasy? Cause Jin was a male Samurai, something that was normal and therefore the believability of his skill set was believable. So are they right on the edge of a female warrior like this being likely to exist in Ainu? Curious what facts you know regarding this.
Unfortunately I know next to nothing of the Ainu. I heard somewhere that Ainu women would tattoo their upper lip and around their mouth to make it seem like they had facial hair because their culture found it appealing and so I wouldn't be surprised if, also given they live a more hunter-gatherer lifestyle than the Japanese, their women were more "masculine" and war-like. I also have experience in my extended family of women having to step up and use violence and the threat of it to protect themselves and their children, so the idea of a fighting woman, while rare, is not unheard of. There's mention of a legendary warrior woman from the Eastern Provinces in the Tale of the Heike named Tomoe Gozen who was purported to be a very capable warrior, but there isn't much outside of this story that corroborates her existence so it could be completely made up, but I would point out that if ever there was to be a warrior woman found it likely would have been somewhere out on the frontier where both men and women have to have a high level of grit to even survive, and the Eastern and Northern parts of Japan were long considered as such frontier lands. Which is all to say, I could certainly be welcoming to a female protagonist provided that she's well written and properly contextualized for the story. However I would be lying if I said I wasn't at least a little concerned that it might turn into one big hollow virtue signal that forgoes impactful storytelling in order to push an agenda. Though given how the trailer doesn't seem to be focusing in on the fact that she's a woman, I'm going to remain cautiously optimistic about it. Sorry I can't be of more help. I'm just kind of spitballing ideas and hoping something ends up proving useful for you.
@@TalesofDawnandDusk my thoughts exactly, from what I’ve read about the Ainu, is that they were organised pretty much like any other tribe/indigenous people around the world. With men doing the hunting and women doing the resource management. For instance men would fish using spears, nets and baskets, whereas women would gather shellfish and kelp. Some people have already started to declare that it’s an objective fact that women were just as capable as the men and that apparently women made up the majority of hunters. Which strikes me as odd because that would go against 99% of all cultures around the world. We’ve simply evolved in this way that’s well optimised for this kind of split of responsibilities where both sexes do better in their own fields for obvious evolutionary reasons. And since human beings have more in common than not, I don’t see how the Ainu would’ve split so far away from everyone else. I’m also not a fan of the anecdotal arguments of “there’s a warrior cited somewhere in history” because thats all that is. Exceptions. I’m more interested with what was common. Otherwise you get companies that weaponise said exceptions as a shield from criticism when they clearly go way too far into fantasy land compared to their inspiration. Like with Yasuke who Ubisoft based their research on the now infamous Lockley book of nonsense. And while Sucker Punch has a better track record, due to how long game dev cycles are, I think it’s much more rational to treat every new game as a clean slate for the studio. Because by the end of one game a lot of the staff leave, new ones come in, the culture changes internally and the world is quite different. For example, the Ghost of Tsushima would’ve started development in the early 2010s. That was a very different world compared to post 2020. So that alone raises multiple factors that could’ve changed Sucker Punch drastically. The actress they hired as the protagonist is an activist first and foremost, she was political before she got into acting and in todays time having an activist that high up can influence/“inspire” a lot terrible things. Not to mention that the hiring decision could’ve been made by someone else internally that’s also an activist. Many devs already fit the DEI/ESG hire agenda, so it’s difficult to place an exact % of how much of the company has been influence by that. My take is to be cautiously optimistic at best. Definitely hold them to the high standard the previous team set themselves on Tsushima but maybe don’t give them the benefit of the doubt because the same brand made that, because internally, different people were involved who are likely no longer there. Also, they’re owned by PlayStation/Sony, who most certainly adhere to the ESG scores to please Blackrock/Vanguard for money. And so everyone under them will be pressured to do the same by default. That’s part of being owned you get managed by the company that owns you. At the end of the day, they make the final call. But hey thank you for the swift reply, I will curiously await more of the game to be shown. For now, cautiously optimistic.
@@bradkirchhoff5703 I'm pretty sure it is a guitar and then they switch to a shamisen after. Frankly, I think they should have used a biwa as there's a stronger association of the biwa and warrior culture from the Buddhist monks that would recite 平家物語 while playing the biwa and the biwa has a deeper, more mysterious sound that makes a much more stirring atmosphere imo.
dude the guitar hes referring to started playing at 2:26. its clearly a guitar and not a shamisen sound. you think he doesn't know a thing about Japanese music instrument when he clearly cited it in the video?
ghost of tsushima is quite an overrated game, it's ok and fun for a little while but it's pretty much a Western stereotype of what samurais are supposed to be.
What about a female samurai warrior though? Too sensitive of a topic or did I miss it? Sure there were women of the samurai class and they learned the naginata in order to be able to defend the house(hold). But women actually going to battle? There's only one legend-like story that vaguely comes to mind but that would be about 400 or 500 years prior. I have no problems with a female protagonist but I'd hate this series being historically unrealistic.
lmao its heavily movie inspired, just like the also very historically inaccurate Ghost of Tsushima. The female killer with a shamisen is a staple in old japanese samurai movies
The entire point of Ghost of Tsushima was Jin no longer being a samurai and going against rules and tradition to the point of being hunted. She's a ghost, she's gone to a place people go to disappear, she has a bounty on her head and they connect her with a wolf. What makes you think what she's doing is considered normal by those around her and that she's adhering to the rules or tradition? She's an outlier, the understanding that women didn't go out and fight like that doesn't mean anything, I don't get this concern of this fictional story being historically unrealistic.
The MC bieng a woman is kinda putting me off but i can get past it BUT the woman voicing the MC is what has me worried about this game with her 34 pronouns and all
Weird comment. How the fuck would their pronouns affect their voice acting abilities?? The VA has plenty of experience in video games like MK1, Apex, Rogue Company, Call of Duty, the list goes on and on. How would someones personal life effect voice acting lmao
@@justacuteonigiri Well still more realistic loosely based on tsushima defenders with historicall combat with horse archery as an option. Even tho moust defenders died and there are more unhistoricall stuff like equipment and armour but hell better than female ronin.
What are you talking about? Who said she is a ronin? The only ronin mentioned are all after her! Just because she has swords ? She is here for revenge.. and lets say her samurai father taught her to fight for self defense and then her familiy is killed by someone on this island. So she picks up his swords and comes here to kill them.. That dosnt make her a ronin.
12:26 I'm very curious about samurai and cattle herding. Did they use cattle for the meat, dairy or both? I always heard they were lactose intolerant and tended to not eat cows cause they were useful work animals/Buddhism. But was this not the case? Did they have herding dogs?
That's a great question that I don't know super well but I do know the Heian nobility typically used ox drawn carriages to get around. I'm assuming that's what they were mostly used for as I haven't found anything to suggest they consumed the meat or the milk, and while I can't remember exactly where I learned that they raised cattle out in the eastern part of Japan, I do distinctly remember that I read that somewhere.
@@Jim58223 Just a cursory glance at a Japanese source I found, it seems that really really early in Japanese history, cattle were originally brought over by immigrants from the Korean peninsula. Cattle may have been eaten up until the 600's as there was a decree by Emperor Tenmu that on certain days people were forbidden from eating various meats. After that cattle are used pretty much exclusively for transportation, farm work and manure until the Meiji Period when Japan adopted many aspects of Western culture and Hokkaido specifically was turned into a place for raising cattle for meat and dairy products. Hope that helps.
![JAPANESE PLAYS GHOST OF TSUSHIMA #1 | DIRECTOR’S CUT [PROLOGUE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/1I_dhDoK0jk/mqdefault.jpg)
![JAPANESE PLAYS GHOST OF TSUSHIMA #1 | DIRECTOR’S CUT [PROLOGUE]](/img/tr.png)
The creators did say they are fans of both spaghetti westerns and kurosawa, and they aim for the ghost series to be like a "cheeseburger samurai" series
That's amazing. Well, it might take some getting used to but I'm here for it. One of my goals is to make the similarities between early samurai and cowboys more widely known and it seems Sucker Punch are working to that end as well.
@TalesofDawnandDusk well they were talking more from the film making perspective, but they might go that route with this. I'm there for it either way. With Ghost of Tsushima, they brought attention to an under-represented part of japanese history, and I hope they do the same with the new one. Or just have everything made up, I am looking forward to exploring Hokkaido with the game 😄
Probably playing to the Yojimbo and A Fistful of Dollars connection. I feel they are doubling down on the Samurai Cinema influence. As a fan of both styles , I'm very excited for this game.
“Apple pie Samurai” sounds better.
@@sanjayraju988 I love that name. That's amazing.
Mount Yotei is also called Ezo Fuji because of its resemblance to Mount Fuji. Sucker Punch apparently chose it as the setting because of this and how good its reflection looked on the lake surface. People confusing Mount Yotei with Mount Fuji is likely within Sucker Punch's expectations. This game is likely to boost tourism in the area as the first game did for Tsushima. Hope the tourists behave, though.
@@graycap111b5 Knowing all that I'm with you in thinking that that was indeed SP's goal, and I further agree that I would love to see other parts of Japan made known to the wider world so long as foreigners mind their manners and engage respectfully.
A lot of skiers and snowboarders would already be familiar with Mt Yotei, because it is visible in all its glory from the slopes of Niseko Hirafu, a very popular ski resort with foreigners, so that would likely increase its appeal.
"The connection between the samurai and cowboys isn- LOOK AT THE HORSES!"
They were using western spaghetti rhythm with Asian melodies and they used shamisen (period appropriate) for the string
This harken back to the many cultural crossover between old samurai movies and old cowboy movies
7:31
手配書（てはいしょ）
一、弐拾八 九歳 （ひとつ、にじゅうはち くさい）
一、羊蹄山に於いて目睹の噂（ひとつ、ようていざんにおいてもくとのうわさ）
此の女の首に褒美百両（このおんなのくびにほうびひゃくりょう）
Wanted
28, 29 years old
Rumors of a sighting at Mt. Yotei
Reward of 100 ryo for this woman's head
One hundred ryo would be roughly 10 million yen or about 70,000 dollars in today's currency. Correct me if I'm wrong.
@@へいきち-p2o Thank you for expounding on that. I managed to parcel it out afterwards and I'm ashamed I didn't recognize the old 拾 for ten despite having spent a good time trying to learn the old way of writing numbers lol. Much appreciated.
@@TalesofDawnandDusk
"拾" as ten is still used because ordinary ten, "十" can easily be rewrited to "千" which means thousand. For similar reasons, we use "壱" "弍" "参" instead of "一" "二" "三."
@@TalesofDawnandDusk I really wouldn't expect someone who didn't grow up with Chinese characters to be so sensitive! Handwriting is especially difficult for a second language learner, so don't beat yourself up over it :)
In Japanese, those numbers are called 大字(だいじ). In Chinese they're called 大寫/大写(da xie), which is coincidentally what is used to translate "uppercase". They're not considered old, just the formal version. Thus you see them on banknotes and cheques.
Oh shit, Ainu? God, Golden Kamuy has prepared me for this! This made me much more excited.
@@gluttonyfang6674 Oh yeah. This was probably the Ainu heyday. They should be all over the place in this game.
Westerns took influence from Kurosawa's movies, so I think it's only fitting it's come full circle now that a Kurosawa-esque work references Ennio Morricone (who created the distinct style of music we associate with westerns).
The sound of the western, and the music we`ve come to asociate with it spawns not from the american western films, but from spaghetti westerns, from italy, a sound largely coined by Morricone and others (Ortolani Riz comes to mind) and those films themselves owe their existance in part to the samurai films of Akira Kurosawa, if i remember correctly, when Kurosawa was asked on his opinion on "for a fistful of dollars" he said that it was so good, because it essentially was Yojimbo remade.
so in mainstream media, the western and the period japanese films about samurai or ronin are culturaly intertwined in pop culture, Sucker Punch just brought it back full circle, and i think it works superbly.
@@nicolaslabra2225 It does indeed work wonderfully. Though again, it's not just post war films that unite samurai and cowboy culture. There are very clear similarities between the two and I suppose it's only natural that they eventually came together first through film and now video games.
The cultural and thematic crossovers between the wild west outlaw and japanese ronin will always be so fascinating
Kanji on the fabric (from top to bottom), Hope it helps
鬼 (おに Oni): Demon/Ghost
狐 (きつね kitsune): Fox
龍 (りゅう Ryu): Dragon
蜘蛛 (クモ Kumo): Spider
蛇 (へび Hebi): Snake
*斎藤 or 斉藤 (さいとう Saitō): Popular surname in Japan especially up north, Saito Clan is also a major noble house/Samurai clan. Notably Dosan Saito (斎藤道三), ruthless samurai lord, and Oda Nobuna's God-Father, later became Nobuna's father-in-law. Nohime Nobuna's confidant and wife.
@@jackywchen That is extremely helpful. Very much appreciated. With that in mind, I wonder if they're representative of people we'll meet in the game. Maybe it's a list of targets Atsu has and these are the codenames she's given for them?
@@TalesofDawnandDusk from her mask, she is wolf theme, in GoT Jin was fox theme. I am guessing it is a hit list
@@TalesofDawnandDusk That's what I figured, especially with the scene of her crossing a name off her list.
I'm almost positive that's a kill list.
@@TalesofDawnandDusk We can see a snake on a katana (Tsuba)
Great breakdown!
@@TheShogunate Thank you sir. Can we expect more videos on this game and its history from you in the future?
@@TalesofDawnandDusk I would imagine so. But I am waiting to hear more detail.
The use of guitar in the music is also meaningful. As was said in an interview with Sucker Punch about Ghost of Tsushima, they described Ghost of Tsushima as being like Cheeseburger Samurai. They respect Kurosawa films, and there is a connection between westerns and Kurosawa films. For example, Seven Samurai and Seven in the Wilderness. So the guitar is probably used as a reflection of that history. Sucker Punch values its DNA.
I concur with you about the Sengoku era being SO overrepresented in video games, but the game being set in Ezo/Hokkaido making up for it because that's SUCH an under-represented area (both for media set during the Sengoku era and in general).
Intellect Chad: "Japanese Cowboy! Yippee!"
Rage-baiters and Click-beggars: "Woman?!!"
Great insights. I look forward to any future videos you have on the game. Ghost of Tsushima is one of my favorites, and Ghost of Yotei looks great.
Sucker Punch is great doing a research about history of Japan,I can't wait for this game.. Especially Atsu, female protagonist...what her story? Becoming a Ghost as a title is definitely must strong stories, background. Like Jin Sakai.
Her vibe as a lead character is feels like from a movie Female Prison 701.
@@HassNeesan Indeed, I was skeptical but Sucker Punch has proven they are willing to do their homework and I'm looking forward to see how things unfold.
If you watch Japanese trailer, the ronin she killed actually called her "Sakai-dono", which make her full name "Sakai Atsu"...
@@gilinf.2662 really? Ohh wow very interesting,is any word ' Sakai ' mean anything in japan that time? Or just a name?
@@HassNeesan
In this case, "Sakai" is the family name (clan name).
Remember the clan name of the main character in the previous video game.
@@uservl7di9ti5y oh okay 👍 thank you so much for explaining. I thought 'Sakai' mean anything at that time,like ' Stranger ',or name that people at that time use etc 😅 thanks again 👍👍
You were right at 11:53. The youtubers DashBlue translated the Kanji to be (if I recall correctly) "Dragon, Spider, and Snake", which seems to be a list of nicknames. This plus the scene where the protagonist crosses one of the names out in blood with her sword led them to theorize that this is a hitless of targets you have to kill.
I just love seeing the analyses of various Japanese history buffs from around the world when it comes to the "Ghost Of..." series. I can't wait to see what I learn about Japanese history from this game and people like you who can extrapolate upon it!
@@glutebrute1259 Thank you. I will do my best.
The Chanbara genre is equivalent to the Spaghetti Western genre. Ronin (Samurai) and Gunslingers (Cowboys). Having a Shamisen and a Guitar playing back to back is a way of paralleling the similarities yet differences of these two styles of story telling, characters, locations and music. I can understand why you would be tired of that Edo period, but 1603 was the very beginning right after the purges, so the story of an outcast who escapes from Nippon (Japan) to the closest yet farthest place away, Ezo (Hokkaido), speaks volumes for anyone who’s had to run away from their home.
I bet the kanji talisman/scroll thing is like a list of 'targets'. She has it on her belt and she crosses one of the kanji names out with the blood from her katana, I assume she just killed a target and crosses the name out with the victims blood. The Spider like you pointed out seems an apt nickname for an enemy in a video game too lol.
Sucker Punch saw Assassin's Creed: Shadows and went *“Aight, hold my sake (Japanese rice wine for those who didn't know) and my katana”* before developing Ghost of Yōtei
You’ve got a new subscriber! Your channel is so fascinating. 日本の歴史や文学やビデオゲームに興味がありますから、このTH-camチャンネルは私の好みにぴったりです！
You said that your main area of study is focused about 500 years before the Sengoku period, so I guess you research the Heian period? 私の一番好きな文学は平安時代の物語や詩で、文語体を学ぶ予定です！
Ghost of Tsushima was one of the first games that introduced me to Japan’s history, so I’m really glad I found your channel. 😁
Yes, I mostly focus on the Heian Period and am currently translating a collection of stories from that time called 今昔物語集。なんでけ、平安時代のほうは面白いと思いますね。登録してくださって誠にありがとうございます
I think the theme here is Kurosawa, John Ford (my namesake), and Kill Bill. Kurosawa was influenced by John Ford westerns for his film-making. Those Kurosawa samurai classics were subsequently imported into the western genre as the Magnificent Seven (Seven Samurai) and Last Man Standing among others (Yojimbo). Tarantino loved both genres and produced Kill Bill as a result. I think the people of Sucker Punch, like all of this and combined it in this game. I heard an interview whereas the called it a cheeseburger western (like spaghetti western). So I guess it is possibly less serious and more like a revenge plot?
It would be so cool if it's a story about Taira clan , though I would also want Meiji Restoration/Boshin War period too ,
I mean I really love Shinsengumi .
I went to Goryokaku Fort in Hakodate to see the memorial of Hijikata .
Spider kanji during that period , probably would associate with a Thief or Rival Clan ? was thinking of Tsuchigumo .
@@Koyuki_Yukihime Well, if they plan on making this a whole series they could very well visit all sorts of Japanese historical settings. We may yet see stories about the Taira and Shinsengumi.
As far as the symbols on the scarf/strip of cloth, we can only speculate, though connecting "spider" with "tsuchigumo" is an interesting proposition. I suppose we will just have to wait and see.
@@TalesofDawnandDusk What do you think that Atsu character is inspired by ? Onna-Bugeisha ? or maybe Kunoichi ?
a mix between Tomoe Gozen + Mochizuki Chiyome ? or maybe just Miyamoto Musashi .
The western theme I see in this is how story seems to hint at hunting Ronin , like a bounty hunter . That's also why I associate the spider kanji with tsuchigumo .
Also would be fun if we will see someone like Sakamoto Ryoma , Takasugi Shinsaku or Katsura Kougorou in the future .
Shuten-doji and Miyamoto no Yorimitsu story would be fun too .
@@Koyuki_Yukihime I couldn't say. It very well could be Tomoe Gozen as she's perhaps the most famous warrior woman of Japan. But then, given that it's set in Hokkaido, and apparently Mount Yotei has strong ties to the concept of women in Ainu culture, it could also come from an Ainu legend. Again, all we can really do is wait and see.
@@TalesofDawnandDusk There's a channel from Japanese people analyse the Kumo Kanji , seems like it's a nickname on the hitlist , someone she hunt . DashBlue is the name of the channel .
A piece of paper attached to the board with a sword reads, "Wanted poster: Anyone who presents her head will receive 100 ryo." She is a wanted person. Hokkaido may have been an uncivilized land for Japan at the time, a place where criminals could escape. In 1603, when Hokkaido was an uncivilized land for Japan and the Ainu people lived there, the Sengoku period came to an end in Japan, and the Edo period began, when the Tokugawa Shogunate unified the country. The following year, in 1604, the Edo Shogunate ordered the Matsumae Domain, whose territory was in the northern area, to monopolize trade with the Ainu. This was the beginning of a difficult road for the Ainu. Until then, the Ainu had gained wealth through trade with various places, but not only was their free trade hindered, the Matsumae Domain only offered unfavorable trade terms to the Ainu, and the Ainu people's lives gradually became poorer and they were forced to work in harsh conditions. Perhaps she is depicting a person who rebels against the Shogunate's cruelty.
I also thought it was an interesting coincidence SP chose the very beginning of the Edo period. It'll probably be significant.
That is indeed an arquebus. A matchlock long gun.
まだまだ未開の北海道のお話
アメリカの西部開拓と同じかんじなのよね
荒野の7人 The Magnificent Seven
七人の侍 even Samurai
西部劇の要素もあるという事だと主よ！
音楽イイね！ 悪い感じはしないよ！
@@ntema3475 その通りですね。私も日本史を勉強すればするほど、アメリカの西部開拓と似ているということをさらに理解しますね。コメントと視聴、ありがとうございました
Sucker Punch loved Kurosawa, and Seven Samurai is set in 1586, based on a family tree stolen by Kikuchiyo. Maybe some characters from Seven Samurai are still alive and appear in the game.
@@teyao Those would be super fun cameos.
Thank you Algorithm! You led me where I needed to go :-)
“Why? Guitar?”
It’s okay. Famous Japanese 時代劇(samurai drama),”鬼平犯科帳” Onihei’s Chronicles end theme was “Inspiration,” performed by the world famous flamenco band Gipsy Kings. Japanese people got used it Jidaigeki and guitar
11:45 i seen from DashBlue’s video where they translate it to “Dragon on top, Spider and Snake” but they couldn’t read the last bottom one. Theyre nicknames for a Hit List And since this story is supposed to be a revenge, Kill Bill type of story. Especially with the prominent yellow imagery it, makes sense she’s wiping blood off on one.
Very interesting analysis, thanks!
Wolves of Ezo (Hokkaido) are a different species from Japanese wolves and are Ezo wolves.
As far as I remember, Ezo wolves were bigger than Japanese wolves.
Wolves are special animals for the Ainu race, so I have a feeling that the relationship with the Ainu race will appear in the story.
Originally, there were no horses in Hokkaido, but it is possible that samurai who fled to Ezo in the 1400s arranged for them from Tsugaru and the southern part before the Matsumae domain carried southern horses from Honshu to Ezo in the early 1600s.
Indeed, the Ezo wolves of Hokkaido were totally unrelated to those of the rest of Japan.
Genetic testing in the past decade has revealed that the Japanese wolf is related to the Pleistocene Siberian wolves, but NOT Eurasian wolves. They also show admixture with domestic Japanese dogs. They were about the size of an Akita.
The testing on the Hokkaido wolves shows the are directly descended from the wolves of North America (not Siberia or Asia), and were morphologically almost identical - same size as Grey wolves. The Hokkaido wolves didn't arrive in the area until the last Ice Age, somewhere around 10000 years ago.
I think one thing to note about the setting is that this is the early Edo period, and if I recall correctly the south of Hokkaido, then called Ezo was controlled by a single Japanese clan at the time. So we may see something related to that in the plot.
Yoshihiro Kakizaki, who might be the Antagonist in GoY, met Tokugawa leyasu in Osaka in 1599. Around that time, he changed his surname from Kakizaki to Matsumae. In 1604, he was presented with the Kokuinjo, or Black Seal, an official letter from a feudal lord. It granted him a monopoly on trade in Ezo. The new Ghost, in addition to having to deal with being ‘Wanted’, might take up the cause of the Ainu in the conflict over trade.
@@longago-igo Yes!!! That’s exactly what I was thinking about! Thank you for that!
Classic Italian made Westerns were highly inspired by even earlier Japanese Samurai movies. Makes sense for an American-made Samurai game to use Italian style guitair music elements.
You are the only reactor who recognizes dual wielding style
(Niten Ichi-ryū) on the trailer.
When I saw that, I was like "Are we gonna meet Musashi in the game?" .
@@tommykaung5882 You honestly probably know more about him than me. Was he around in 1603? I'm guessing yes, but I'm not sure.
@@TalesofDawnandDusk Yes, he was still alive at that time.
He was about 19 at the time
As far as I know, they did not include any historical figures in their previous work. If I had to say, the name of Genghis Khan was mentioned, but all the characters were fictional. I believe this is part of their aesthetic and a way to show respect for Japan. I would be happy if they included Musashi in this game, but I feel they are unlikely to do so. If a swordsman were to appear, I think it would be a fictional disciple of a real swordsman, such as Tsukahara Bokuden, Kamizumi Nobutsuna, or Ito Ittosai.
As far as I can tell Atsu seems to use two katanas, rather than Musashi's katana and wakizashi. While slightly less versatile, it shouldn't pose too much of a problem since a katana is a blade of perfect length (it's as long as possible while still being short enough that you can stab someone you are grappling). Since Musashi was still in his formative years it's likely a case of convergent ideas rather than a direct influence - although I'm sure Atsu would agree with Musashi's philosophy of "victory by any means".
Another thing about this period is also the start of the Tokugawa Shogunate, marks the end of Sengoku period?
@@robertchristiansilva280 So I have since heard. Unfortunately I'm not as familiar with this era of Japanese history but it does seem like they deliberately set the story at the very beginning of the Edo Period and I'm interested to see how that fact factors into the story.
The Edo shogunate began in 1603, the year in which the game is set.
This is the beginning of the Edo Period.
Cowboy: I sleep
✨Japanese✨ Cowboy: real shit
I love Heian Japan, but it’s so hard to find good books in English. Eiga monogatari was last translated into English in the 80s
That's partly why I decided to torture myself with trying to learn Classical Japanese; so I can just read the originals and never have to worry about tracking down English translations, or even modern Japanese translations, ever again.
弐拾八 九歳
28〜9 years old
羊蹄山に於いて目睹の噂
Rumors of sightings around Mt. Yotei
此の女の首に褒美百両
The bounty on this woman is 100 ryo
(100 ryo at that time was estimated to be 8 million yen at a low estimate.)
Nice to get an explanation on the music because that threw me off when I first saw the trailer since it sounded like music from an old Clint Eastwood movie.
You Sir got one more Subscriber, because of you knowing of Ancient Japanese History. I just thought they just took some Italo Western Music and mixed Japan/Nippon Typical Instruments. But that older Samurai was like Cowboys, i did not know. Thanks to you, i know now more. good work subscribe +1
@@seskalarafey9285 That's very much appreciated, friend. Welcome and thank you
Here before it gets viral 👌🏻
very nice vid and informative too!
she's wearing yellow and has a kill list. Its Kill Bill in japan
The influences are circular. The developers were influenced by spaghetti westerns and samurai cinema. The spaghetti westerns were directly influenced by Kurosawa. Kurosawa was influenced heavily by John Ford.
🔥🔥
@@HistoryofKatana Thank you sir. I'll have you know, I am subscribed to you and think everyone else here ought to as well. A great channel with lots of history and culture about Japan.
Sucker punch treats Japanese history with love and respect in their games but they are intended to reference Jidaigeki more than pure history. In the first game they collected cool things from many periods and beautiful topography from all over Japan and combined them into a fictional Tsushima that was like a love letter to Japanese history and cinema. I think they are going deeper into the "Cheeseburger Chanbara" feel with this one which explains the western guitar music. The "talisman" I believe is a list of names and it looks like she crosses one off at one point. So some kind of tale of vengeance?
I wanna play this when it comes out
Hey ToDaD is that gun at the end called a Tanegashima? Anyway thanks for the video!
There are a few pattern of matchlocks created by Japanese gunsmiths.
Tanegashima is one of the many, but also the first to make matchlocks in Japan and are widely used.
I’m pretty sure the music, at least in the trailer, is intentionally anachronistic.
12:03 could be like a hitlist of people she's hunting cuz they said she was getting hunted by every ronin and somone wants her dead very badly maybe they are on her list?
She's wiping the blood off the sword on the kanji symbols. Do those represent her targets?
@@betacrest10 I'm speculating the same thing.
I get Kill Bill vides
THATS WHAT IM SAYIN
Great Job!
The Tarantino influence is clear, she's literally wearing Kill Bill yellow.
The Japanese wolf is just a subspecies, not its own species. It was still technically a Grey Wolf.
Most regions that have wolves are going to be some kind of distinct subspecies (or multiple subspecies). Wolves in Russia, for example are a different subspecies to wolves in Alaska. The Japanese wolves were no different. They're all just Grey Wolves.
I was surprised they will add Kusarigama in the game. That weapon was not existed in Ghost Of Tsushima back then.
As the trailer says people go north to desapear is fare to presume that Atsu is NOT AINU but EMISHI, she is from Japan (Honsu) and has 28 or 29 eyers old.
The best bet I saw is she is from Honshu (a bit South)...
1603 is the exact year of the transition of the rule from Toyotomi Hideoshi to Tokugawa Ieasu.
And the best bet for the historic origin of this plot was around the Kunohe Rebellion (1591) where Toyotomi win the rebellion backing one side of the clan Nonbu BUT violate the surrender agreement and butcher the entire part of clan Nonbu rebelled (a Honshu clan) and burn women and children. And this is the begginin of the end of it's ruling. (and PRESUMLY with 16 or 17 years old at that time Atsu may be a SURVIVOR of Kunohe Rebellion!)
1) the crest of the Yotei game is similar (and inverted upside down) to the Toyodami crest and the slash on it in japanese culture is a break or a Rage against the crest clan...
And the revenge Atsu seeks may be against Toyotami clan OR to the part of her own clan that campaign with him!
2) as the END of Ghost of Tsushima story, Jin AND Yuna are both outlaws by decree of the Xogum and trough the entire game Yuna said she wants to exit Tsushima. I THINK both exit and IS OBVIOUS they can not stay anywhere near the Xogum domain. SO they might to go north (to Honshu?) area and faithful of the PERSONAL code of honor of Jin Sakai (to protect those could not protect themselves), he and Yuna may end to join the Nonbu clan. If so, Atso MAY be a direct descendant of Jin Sakai or Yuna OR BOTH (if my SHIPPER DREAMS be attended by Sucher Punch and some time after Jin and Yuna marry each other and had some children of their own)!!! ; )
What is that little shrine behind you?
I hope the 3rd game is set in the Meiji Restoration, to be the bookend of samurais.
Sound and music giving me vibes of RDR2❤
I really hope we will meet the Aïnus
So technically we're getting Red Dead Redemption 2 set in Japan! OF COURSE WE"LL PLAY IT!
i see your living in a Leo Palace. Awesome! Whereabouts in Japan are you?
@@mutsuzawa Lol, indeed. I'm currently in Ibaraki.
it is 弐拾八 九歳 translates as 28〜9 years old
Many people are upset over the female main character and the English voice actor being a little crazy, but they're missing the point-the only thing we really know about the game so far is what's shown in the trailer, and so far I am very impressed.
Lmao, "a little crazy" and it's just the most room temp takes you've ever heard in your life
@@Peasham Based on my personal bias, she does seem a bit crazy, but in the end, it’s not really relevant to the game. People can think what they want; as long as the game is good, that’s what matters to me.
@@kongthemayor5481 And why is she a "little crazy"?
@@Peasham It doesn’t matter what I think. My point is that people should focus on the game itself, not the opinions of specific individuals, as those are and should be irrelevant in this case.
@@kongthemayor5481 You say it doesn't matter, but the people insisting that it does matter center their "critique" on the actress being "crazy" while refusing to elaborate on why they're crazy.
I'm looking forwRd to it despite a possibly problematic casting. Heres hoping, sucker punch has never missed before
I wholeheartedly agree.
Dude I want your job. The culture is fascinating to me because it’s different yknow? I was forced to learn European history, but I learn this by choice.
TL:DR Shits cool
The similarity in music with Westerns has nothing to do with the history of the cultures, but rather the history of Spagetti Western cinema and the Chanbara Samurai cinema.
When Japan's film (and other entertainment) industry was growing, they borrowed heavily from the American entertainment industries. The Samurai cinema or "Chanbara" was directly copying Spagetti westerns and giving them a Japanese spin. Eventually directors like Akira Kurosawa set the bar so high that Westerns started copying from Chanbara.
The first game was very heavily inspired by Kurosawa style movies, as such incorporates music that is reminiscent of its spagetti roots.
The Spanish guitar is OMNIPRESENT in Samurai series and films from the 70ies to about the end of 80ies or so. Together with jazzy music.
I always found that so irritating but I guess the Spanish music has the dramatic nature the filmmakers loved for their stuff. I still don't understand the jazz. This seems to have changed, though 😁.
Arquebuses were used the moment the Westerners brought them along. I don't like them but I have never engaged in battle, so...
The female protagonist doesn't surprise me. Couldn't possibly be a man and a woman to choose from now, can it?!
Was that really the music they went with? I've seen Seven Samurai, Yojimbo and Kagemusha, all of which are Kurosawa films but that's about the extent of my classic samurai film experience.
@@TalesofDawnandDusk
Some of Zatochi's tracks/songs have that cowboy+samurai vibe from my memory.
Why don’t you like Arquebuses? lol
Oda nobunaga used guns in his army. This period in the game is just after oda nobunaga died and tokugawa ieyasu is just starting his era.
@@phantomarceus6387 - Idk why I don't like them. It's probably the shape. They're aesthetically unpleasing 😂. But maybe it's because I just like sharp blades so much. However, I was never in war like a situation. The Ashigaru would have begged to differ 😅...
Truly glad to see people discussing the game without being weird, the amount of people i saw making videos about how the game is ruined without giving proper reasons and just say the protagonist is a woman so it’s bad 😂 i'm really interested to see the story, if they’re going to treat the new character like Jin and give her a good story. I think this game will be amazing. I would’ve loved to see more of Jin Sakai but his story ended perfectly so i don’t mind the series being an anthology with new Ghosts every game.
It's 2024 and the actress is a screaming LGBT activist. They are right to be concerned. If the game comes out and it defies their expectations, they're more likely to buy it. I am one such person.
Erika Ishii is awesome. Keep crying.
@@TheFreakazoid777 Inferring people are crying whilst crying. Classic lgtb stereotype. No one cries louder than the woke crowd. Cope with the fact that people are rejecting your propaganda en mass.
here again praying 🙏🏼 that the horse gameplay is as good as the shadow of the colossus and Red dead redemption 2.
I feel that they are creating works of "Zidaigeki" rather than historical pieces.
Zidaigeki features female ninjas known as kunoichi, ninjas throwing shuriken, and Akudaikan hiring a bodyguard sword master, which are all far removed from historical facts. Zidaigeki is a fictional work with many unique contexts, leaning more towards a genre adjacent to Kabuki or popular novels written in Edo era rather than historical novels. It may also resemble a Western.
Therefore, I think it is more appropriate to judge whether this depiction is correct or incorrect based on the standards of period dramas rather than historical facts.
Considering everything, this game contains many elements of Zidaigeki. While we still don't know who Atsu is, for example, if Atsu is on a journey for revenge against the person who killed her parent, it would be a very typical Zidaigeki-like story.
As long as the character is written well and the game respect the Japanese culture which they did with ghost of tsushima i will have no issue playing with a female ronin.
Lmfao no they didn't, Tsushima was a rejection of samurai and the stereotypical idea of samurai honor, alongside whitewashing Mongol atrocities and many other historical inaccuracies.
@@Peashamyes they did, they paid respects to Japanese movie culture and never claimed to be accurate about anything, they made a romanticised love letter to Kurosawas fans and his legacy
@@ximantuss Tsushima featured a rich privileged Japanese noble inventing ninja techniques, which wouldn't have been invented until centuries after the game takes place specifically by poor farmers who had to learn them. Jin himself is the embodiment of a storm that denied the Mongols entry into mainland Japan. The game marketed itself on its accuracy and reverence for Japanese culture.
@@Peasham it never did, I don’t know why you’re saying it was, the only problems Japanese people have with it is the fact that yuna isn’t conventionally attractive and that the gameplay isn’t as good as sekiro, the BIGGEST criticism from Japan was literally because it wasn’t as good as sekiro, they literally care about nothing else and actually think the game is cool, if sucker punch advertised the game as a historical piece of education they would have, but they didn’t.. they advertised it as a power fantasy, romanticised samurai/ninja blockbuster, which as far as I’m concerned, people from Japan thinks is pretty neat
@@Peasham it was never sucker punches plan to make a historical game, because if it was then it would be hated, Nate foxes main focus was for it to be a successor to kurosawas film making
褒美を読めるんですね。さすが伊達に神棚を飾っていない。
mount yotei is kind similar
Biologists have found in the DNA of Ainu blood that they have about 20% Native American blood in their blood. 5:31
Have you check "Call of Cthulhu Today: Japan"?
@@nosotrosloslobosestamosreg4115 Negative. What's that all about?
It shows an interesting view on Japanese culture and fictional history. And "call of Cthulhu" Is more popular in Japan than dungeons and dragons.
@@nosotrosloslobosestamosreg4115 I'll have to check it out at some point then. Thanks for the suggestion.
It is like a mix of Ghost of Tsushima and Red Dead Redemption 2, especially the snowy scenes, which remind me of Mount Hagen in RDR2
誠に素晴らしいビデオでございました❤
Funny, foreign none Far East game developers NEVER chose Nara or Heian era as game setting. Why? Too Chinese to them. Without Samurai in Japan is Identical to fry fish without tartar sauce, fries without ketchup.
Its sweet baby inc'ed and the devs are mostly women and completely different from the original. So I have a feeling it won't be as good as we hoped.
False.
@@cvexreos Its okay, you'll understand in about 3-5 months.
1603 is the start of the Edo Period
Very far from Japan outlaws a mercenaries it feels very Western even the way the trailer runs feels very Western that scene of her standing in the doorway of like a tavern almost look straight out of a western movie in fact I'm pretty sure almost every cowboy movie has a scene exactly like that. . .
Lopez Daniel Thomas Jeffrey Davis Timothy
Ghost Nopei
You watch… The Ghost of Yotei is going to be about Strong Female Character protecting the marginalized Ainu inhabitants of Hokkaido from the evil Japanese colonizers.
And the problem is?
Só, what about the japanese opression over the Ainu people in the game períod and location? Dont u think that suckerpunch may have tô face Very contraditóry reactions when the media know that an foreing studio Will explore an verei sensitive part of japanese history?
In the North the were powerful clans like the Abe and Nanbu who fortified the North against the control of the central government in Kyoto. Also Hiraizumi was in the North too. This would have been a great a game but the female protagonist is a huge woke red flag.
@@mutsuzawa Indeed. I used to live in Ichi no Seki and would go to Hiraizumi and Chusonji all the time. I was hoping that if they made a sequel it would feature some of the lesser known wars in the north like the Former Nine Year's War that I'm currently working on making videos for, or that they would feature the Northern Fujiwara in some way but alas, it wasn't to be. Oh well, Hokkaido before it was Hokkaido is, while not my favorite, still a very interesting choice. As far as the choice of main character goes, I am a bit concerned but given how the trailer doesn't seem to center itself on her being a woman I feel a sense of cautious optimism about this game. We'll see how it turns out.
❤👍
Literature nerd yet you don't use the ō in the title. orz
@@Nekotaku_TV It's quite frankly, an extremely minor detail that's liable to confuse people who don't know what it represents rather than make things clear. My whole goal with TH-cam is to make Japanese culture more accessible to people, not find excuses to stoke my ego and call the normies stupid.
@@TalesofDawnandDusk I have no idea what the last part had to do with it. Just found it ironic. But the official material uses that spelling. And if you wanna make it easier to understand you ought to spell it as it should be pronounced, and if you don't wanna use the ō then use "oo"...
I think stuff like this is very important so I'm surprised you wouldn't correct it, as it is literally wrong and doesn't represent Japanese. It's not like it's a word like shogun or Tokyo that would exist in English on its own.
What I'm wondering though is if it's tee or tei, cause as I'm sure you know ei = ee often in Japanese.
@@Nekotaku_TV I understand that they use ō in the official spelling, but again, that has a higher chance of confusing people than typing just a singular "o." Romanization of Japanese is complicated and there are several ways of doing it. Technically, the most accurate way of romanizing 羊蹄山 (ようていさん) would be Youteisan, but that 6 lane pileup of vowels is going to get all sorts of weird pronunciations and we'll end up in a similar situation to Street Fighter where a sizable portion of the player base says "ha doo ken" instead of "ha doh ken." Plus, I've lived in Japan altogether for nearly four years and I've only seen "おう" romanized as "ō" a handful of times and even then I can't remember specifics. It's almost always either just an "o" or, for those using standard Japanese romanization, "ou." But I'm not going to use standard Japanese romanization because then we'd be writing the protagonist's name as "Aturu" who fires her fancy new "zyuu" and playing her "syamisen."
Which is all to say, there is no real consensus on romanization so I'm going to use what makes the most sense to me: Latin vowels and simply not worrying about expressing elongated sounds as it's likely to throw unnecessary confusion into the mix. If I find myself in a scenario where I need to explain the おう vowel elongation, then I will do so at that time. But for the vast majority of people playing this game who aren't going to care about an in depth explanation of the Japanese writing system, I'll spare them the details and get to the more interesting bits and if they really want to know more, then we can go into more detail.
@@TalesofDawnandDusk You ought to add some space to such big pieces of text for easier reading.
Using the horrible romanization that makes word look like in your three examples is not relevant. I hate it and it's stupid and has nothing to do with this.
I don't agree that it would be a higher chance of confusing nor do I understand how. If anything it will make them say it wrong, maybe your spelling is close enough and you're right with some people. But obviously I'm not suggesting that it would be spelled Youtei... Yotei is better than that but optimal would be Yōtei or Yōtē. (And now I realized if it is pronounced ē they probably would have used that since they used ō, would be weird to mix).
In Japan they aren't good at romanization, can't use that as an example. Also has nothing to do with this. We're talking about non-Japanese people reading this for starters.
What do you mean "ha doh ken"? It IS "hadooken". Maybe you think I read it wrong, hard to communicate this with letters between us if we aren't thinking of it the same way but I too know how Japanese works so we should be able to use that like a basis. And one of the best/easiest parts about Japanese is that most of the time you say what you read...
But again, I don't agree and I find it ironic. And regardless of how you wanna romanize it it's wrong according to the official material for the game. I think you're adding confusion when you have people see different spellings, but you're far from the only one so it's not gonna be your fault and if you fixed it it wouldn't change that part haha.
As hyped as i am i feel like people cannot enjoy games anymore. I just hope they ignore the reactions and just focus on the game.
Too many people want to call sometnkng woke. Maybe a female samurai isnt historically accurate. Idgaf because its a fucking game. I didn't give a fuck about the histocal accuracy of the first game. So why the fuck would i care now.
But im actually a fan of the game. Not some culture war nut who probably never played the first game. Which btw. By yall standards there was "woke shit in yhe first game. The wife of the the guy who is killed in the into. She has a gay history thats implied in a side story. Also if you called jin boring or just a bad character. Do not do a 180 and argue he should have been the MC.
Im willing to bet that some people are only on this video to see if you mentioned the "woke" aspect. Basically they just want to use you as a shield for their illogical hate for this game.
You took the words out of my mouth. Just enjoy the game for god's sake! I already saw some people commenting they're not gone play it, because of a female protagonist. Well, it's their loss.
What’s your knowledge of the Ainu people? Like did men and women both hunt/fight? Was it common for women to be warriors?
From what I know, the Ainu are indigenous people who were separate from the Japanese, and even the Japanese decreased their militarisation of women in the 1600s and especially at the end of 1500s when Japan was briefly unified.
Considering that female warriors were already not common, how realistic would you say this depiction is in that aspect?
Doesn’t mean they can’t have a female protagonist but in this regard does their representation start to reach into fantasy?
Cause Jin was a male Samurai, something that was normal and therefore the believability of his skill set was believable.
So are they right on the edge of a female warrior like this being likely to exist in Ainu? Curious what facts you know regarding this.
Unfortunately I know next to nothing of the Ainu. I heard somewhere that Ainu women would tattoo their upper lip and around their mouth to make it seem like they had facial hair because their culture found it appealing and so I wouldn't be surprised if, also given they live a more hunter-gatherer lifestyle than the Japanese, their women were more "masculine" and war-like. I also have experience in my extended family of women having to step up and use violence and the threat of it to protect themselves and their children, so the idea of a fighting woman, while rare, is not unheard of.
There's mention of a legendary warrior woman from the Eastern Provinces in the Tale of the Heike named Tomoe Gozen who was purported to be a very capable warrior, but there isn't much outside of this story that corroborates her existence so it could be completely made up, but I would point out that if ever there was to be a warrior woman found it likely would have been somewhere out on the frontier where both men and women have to have a high level of grit to even survive, and the Eastern and Northern parts of Japan were long considered as such frontier lands.
Which is all to say, I could certainly be welcoming to a female protagonist provided that she's well written and properly contextualized for the story. However I would be lying if I said I wasn't at least a little concerned that it might turn into one big hollow virtue signal that forgoes impactful storytelling in order to push an agenda. Though given how the trailer doesn't seem to be focusing in on the fact that she's a woman, I'm going to remain cautiously optimistic about it.
Sorry I can't be of more help. I'm just kind of spitballing ideas and hoping something ends up proving useful for you.
@@TalesofDawnandDusk my thoughts exactly, from what I’ve read about the Ainu, is that they were organised pretty much like any other tribe/indigenous people around the world. With men doing the hunting and women doing the resource management. For instance men would fish using spears, nets and baskets, whereas women would gather shellfish and kelp.
Some people have already started to declare that it’s an objective fact that women were just as capable as the men and that apparently women made up the majority of hunters. Which strikes me as odd because that would go against 99% of all cultures around the world.
We’ve simply evolved in this way that’s well optimised for this kind of split of responsibilities where both sexes do better in their own fields for obvious evolutionary reasons.
And since human beings have more in common than not, I don’t see how the Ainu would’ve split so far away from everyone else.
I’m also not a fan of the anecdotal arguments of “there’s a warrior cited somewhere in history” because thats all that is. Exceptions. I’m more interested with what was common.
Otherwise you get companies that weaponise said exceptions as a shield from criticism when they clearly go way too far into fantasy land compared to their inspiration. Like with Yasuke who Ubisoft based their research on the now infamous Lockley book of nonsense.
And while Sucker Punch has a better track record, due to how long game dev cycles are, I think it’s much more rational to treat every new game as a clean slate for the studio. Because by the end of one game a lot of the staff leave, new ones come in, the culture changes internally and the world is quite different.
For example, the Ghost of Tsushima would’ve started development in the early 2010s. That was a very different world compared to post 2020. So that alone raises multiple factors that could’ve changed Sucker Punch drastically.
The actress they hired as the protagonist is an activist first and foremost, she was political before she got into acting and in todays time having an activist that high up can influence/“inspire” a lot terrible things. Not to mention that the hiring decision could’ve been made by someone else internally that’s also an activist.
Many devs already fit the DEI/ESG hire agenda, so it’s difficult to place an exact % of how much of the company has been influence by that.
My take is to be cautiously optimistic at best. Definitely hold them to the high standard the previous team set themselves on Tsushima but maybe don’t give them the benefit of the doubt because the same brand made that, because internally, different people were involved who are likely no longer there.
Also, they’re owned by PlayStation/Sony, who most certainly adhere to the ESG scores to please Blackrock/Vanguard for money. And so everyone under them will be pressured to do the same by default. That’s part of being owned you get managed by the company that owns you. At the end of the day, they make the final call.
But hey thank you for the swift reply, I will curiously await more of the game to be shown. For now, cautiously optimistic.
the world is already diverse...not every places, lore, universe should resemble america...
How does it resemble america? Did I miss something he said.
DEI crap
Thats not a guitar. Lol you should know this if you truly studied Japanese culture.
@@bradkirchhoff5703 I'm pretty sure it is a guitar and then they switch to a shamisen after. Frankly, I think they should have used a biwa as there's a stronger association of the biwa and warrior culture from the Buddhist monks that would recite 平家物語 while playing the biwa and the biwa has a deeper, more mysterious sound that makes a much more stirring atmosphere imo.
dude the guitar hes referring to started playing at 2:26. its clearly a guitar and not a shamisen sound. you think he doesn't know a thing about Japanese music instrument when he clearly cited it in the video?
@bradkirchhoff5703 I think he's referring more to the guitar in the background score, not the instrument we see on her back.
ghost of tsushima is quite an overrated game, it's ok and fun for a little while but it's pretty much a Western stereotype of what samurais are supposed to be.
What about a female samurai warrior though? Too sensitive of a topic or did I miss it? Sure there were women of the samurai class and they learned the naginata in order to be able to defend the house(hold). But women actually going to battle? There's only one legend-like story that vaguely comes to mind but that would be about 400 or 500 years prior. I have no problems with a female protagonist but I'd hate this series being historically unrealistic.
lmao its heavily movie inspired, just like the also very historically inaccurate Ghost of Tsushima. The female killer with a shamisen is a staple in old japanese samurai movies
The entire point of Ghost of Tsushima was Jin no longer being a samurai and going against rules and tradition to the point of being hunted. She's a ghost, she's gone to a place people go to disappear, she has a bounty on her head and they connect her with a wolf. What makes you think what she's doing is considered normal by those around her and that she's adhering to the rules or tradition? She's an outlier, the understanding that women didn't go out and fight like that doesn't mean anything, I don't get this concern of this fictional story being historically unrealistic.
Female samurai? Nahhhh! Woke!!
Your loss.
The MC bieng a woman is kinda putting me off but i can get past it BUT the woman voicing the MC is what has me worried about this game with her 34 pronouns and all
Weird comment. How the fuck would their pronouns affect their voice acting abilities?? The VA has plenty of experience in video games like MK1, Apex, Rogue Company, Call of Duty, the list goes on and on. How would someones personal life effect voice acting lmao
Bruh female ronin. Seriously? Why do they have to butcher history. Like female side characters in ghost of tsushima wasnt enough.
Jin Sakai was not a real person tf are you talking about
The first game butchered the history pretty badly, probably because they have gone on record saying that they prioritise fun over historical accuracy.
@@justacuteonigiri Well still more realistic loosely based on tsushima defenders with historicall combat with horse archery as an option. Even tho moust defenders died and there are more unhistoricall stuff like equipment and armour but hell better than female ronin.
What are you talking about? Who said she is a ronin? The only ronin mentioned are all after her! Just because she has swords ? She is here for revenge.. and lets say her samurai father taught her to fight for self defense and then her familiy is killed by someone on this island. So she picks up his swords and comes here to kill them.. That dosnt make her a ronin.
@@radoslavkosil7450 there's literally nothing realistic about GOT
12:26 I'm very curious about samurai and cattle herding. Did they use cattle for the meat, dairy or both? I always heard they were lactose intolerant and tended to not eat cows cause they were useful work animals/Buddhism. But was this not the case? Did they have herding dogs?
That's a great question that I don't know super well but I do know the Heian nobility typically used ox drawn carriages to get around. I'm assuming that's what they were mostly used for as I haven't found anything to suggest they consumed the meat or the milk, and while I can't remember exactly where I learned that they raised cattle out in the eastern part of Japan, I do distinctly remember that I read that somewhere.
奈良時代から平安時代に貴族が蘇（so）という乳製品を食べていました。牛乳を煮詰めて作ったものです。ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%98%87
@@TalesofDawnandDusk Thanks for the reply, do let me know if you find out more if it isn't too much trouble. Thank you.
@@Jim58223 Just a cursory glance at a Japanese source I found, it seems that really really early in Japanese history, cattle were originally brought over by immigrants from the Korean peninsula. Cattle may have been eaten up until the 600's as there was a decree by Emperor Tenmu that on certain days people were forbidden from eating various meats. After that cattle are used pretty much exclusively for transportation, farm work and manure until the Meiji Period when Japan adopted many aspects of Western culture and Hokkaido specifically was turned into a place for raising cattle for meat and dairy products. Hope that helps.
Yh only europeans could drink milk