How Ghost of Yōtei foreshadows a dark period in Japanese history

After the stellar reception that Ghost of Tsushima received, you might have expected that the team at Sucker Punch Productions were ready to wade into the nation-spanning conflict that was the Sengoku Jidai. Instead, the developers chose a timeline and setting for Ghost of Yōtei that would skip the Warring States period, and it’s a choice that really worked to their advantage.

Ghost of Yōtei transports players to Ezo, the northern island region of Japan which we now know as Hokkaido. Set three hundred years after the original game, the year is 1603: the same year that Tokugawa Ieyasu is appointed shogun, ushering in an era of peace and stability after centuries of infighting between powerful warlords. Dubbed the Edo period, this golden age in Japanese history would last for more than 250 years, prior to The Meiji Restoration of 1868 and the end to the isolationism that kept Western influences at bay that this brought.

In 1603, our protagonist, Atsu, returns to her homeland in the shadow of the towering Mount Yōtei. At this time in history, Ezo wasn’t formally a part of Japan, and existed as a wild frontier beyond the reach of the emerging Tokugawa shogunate. It’s been sixteen years since Atsu was last here. Sixteen years since she was left for dead after a band of ronin slew her family forcing her to flee south where she became a sword for hire, fighting in the peasant infantry that lost the Battle of Sekigahara.

Left unchallenged, the rogue samurai known as The Yōtei Six have now established themselves as a formidable faction in Ezo, exploiting the native people and crushing any who oppose them. That’s until Atsu shows up of course, vowing to hunt down the outlaws who slew her parents and brother. She’s not the only one who has these ronin in her crosshairs: among the rebellious cast of companions that accompany Atsu, there is also the Matsumae clan.

Descendants of the Takeda, one of the big players during the Sengoku period, the Matsumae were considered the northern gatekeepers of Japan, establishing a stronghold in southern Ezo. From here, they began to exert their influence by forging political alliances with the indigenous Ainu people, whose descendants had occupied the land for many centuries.

With their own language, societal structure, and deeply spiritual beliefs, there was always going to be a culture clash between the semi-nomadic Ainu and their Matsumae neighbours. In Ghost of Yōtei, players are presented with a thoughtful insight into Ainu life when Atsu visits the many kotans (villages) spread across Ezo, learning more about their way of life. From their rituals and crafts to their gathering-focused economy, every aspect of Ainu life is conducted in a way that harmonises with the natural world, which they believe is governed by spirits known as the Kamuy. During her time with the Ainu, Atsu tracks a band of thieves who turn out to be a family stealing clothes and food for their newborn. Instead of punishing them, the villagers welcome them into their egalitarian community with open arms. Atsu also rescues an orphaned bear cub which the kotan raises as their own, promising to later kill the animal in an “iomante” ritual, honouring the bear by releasing its divine spirit back to the kamuy world.

Not all Ainu practices are compatible with our own sensibilities, yet there’s a wholesome spirituality there – something that the growing number of southern settlers would soon exploit. Over time, the native peoples of Ezo would become more reliant on trade with the Matsumae, exchanging natural goods such as fish and furs for sake, tools, and cloth. Predictably, as their reliance on this trade deepened, the Matsumae took the opportunity to drive up prices, unfairly tipping the scales in what was once a mutually balanced relationship. Those colonising tendrils continued to unfurl and squeeze the Ainu when the mainlanders began to eye Ezo’s rich natural resources, competing with their fisheries, and descending on the region’s lucrative gold mines.

In Ghost of Yōtei, we don’t get to see the full extent of this exploitation, though it’s clear that many of the Ainu are concerned about losing their autonomy and way of life as the shadow of the shogunate spreads further across their ancestral lands. One interesting example of this comes early on in-game when the Matsumae employ Atsu to guard the construction of a bridge. She discovers that the seemingly peaceful Ainu are responsible, not a group of marauding bandits. Despite the progress that infrastructure such as roads and bridges will bring to Ezo, not all of its inhabitants are willing to let the samurai extend their foothold.

Even when the disparate Ainu tribes united, they ultimately couldn’t prevent the steady advance of their occupiers. The Matsumae didn’t relent in squeezing them further, even driving some tribes to the brink of starvation, until they had no other option but to revolt. In 1669 the Ainu chieftain, Shakushain, led an armed rebellion that initially succeeded in driving back the Matsumae, who were severely outnumbered even if they were more technologically advanced.

This rebellion threatened the shogunate’s rule over Ezo. In response, several neighbouring samurai clans swiftly attacked and snuffed out the resistance, executing Shakushain and accelerating the subjugation of the Ainu. Forced to sign a peace treaty, tribe leaders were truly powerless as the Matsumae freely established more trading posts, inflating prices and tightening their economic chokehold.

Much later, during the Meiji Restoration (which saw Japan return to imperial rule after dissolving the shogunate) Ezo would be formally annexed, thereafter known as Hokkaido. This was part of Japan’s modern movement towards shedding dogmatic isolationist policies and fully embracing industrialisation. Needless to say, this didn’t improve the Ainu’s standing in Japanese society. Adopting a similar approach to the United States, the native Ainu were forcibly expelled from their homeland to make way for settlers, with those who remained forced to assimilate and denied the right to speak their ancestral language.

Again, we only see the seeds of this travesty begin to take root in Ghost of Yōtei. But behind Atsu’s katana-waving quest for revenge there’s plenty of foreshadowing that makes the game’s setting far more interesting than another spin on the Sengoku Jidai. Much like its predecessor, the sequel hones in on a fascinating historical flashpoint where the setting becomes the main character, portraying the samurai as complex and nuanced instead of idly romanticising them.

This article forms part of our ongoing Playing With History series. An upcoming book – featuring over 100 games, 200 pages, and 10,000,000 years of history –has been successfully funded on Kickstarter. You can find out more by visiting our crowdfunding campaign page.