Crawling Through ‘Ghost of Yotei’ as Life Changes
▼ Summary
– The author’s gaming habits have changed significantly due to family life, making console gaming difficult to schedule despite it being part of their job.
– Ghost of Yotei is a PS5 exclusive requiring console play, which drastically reduces available gaming time compared to PC games.
– The author is progressing very slowly through the game, having only defeated one story target after a week of play.
– The game’s immersive world constantly distracts with side activities, making the experience feel different from previous playthroughs of similar games.
– The author disputes official game length estimates, believing Ghost of Yotei will take at least a month to complete while appreciating it as a worthy sequel.
My life looks completely different now. I’m older, married, and navigating the chaos of raising a toddler alongside a newborn. Finding time for gaming has become a genuine challenge, though I’m fortunate that playing games remains part of my professional responsibilities. Ghost of Yotei has become a fascinating experiment during this new chapter, forcing me to engage with a game in a way I haven’t in years.
My progress through the game is painstakingly slow. The primary reason is its status as a PS5 exclusive, locking me into console play. While my job allows for some afternoon sessions, my evenings are reserved for PC gaming after the kids are asleep, while my wife claims the living room television. Weekends offer almost no opportunity for console time anymore, effectively cutting my available hours for Yotei by more than half compared to my pre-parent life.
This has created a unique experience. The combination of mandatory console access, severely limited playtime, and Yotei’s own design has me taking my time in a way I never do with my usual live-service PC grinds. I’m not rushing; I’m absorbing.
The result speaks for itself. After an entire week with the game, I have managed to defeat precisely one member of the Yotei Six, the central antagonists you’re sworn to hunt down. To put that in perspective, that particular target is eliminated during the game’s prologue mission. My revenge tour is moving at a glacial pace, to say the least.
Surprisingly, I’m loving it. I find myself distracted by everything the world offers. A villager’s cry for help, the distant plume of smoke from a campfire, a map fragment hinting at a hidden shrine, all of it pulls me away from the critical path. Foxes, birds, and now wolves guide me to secrets. While these mechanics will feel familiar to veterans of Ghost of Tsushima, my current life situation makes this feel like a brand new genre. Back then, I had endless hours; now, every minute is precious and deliberate.
I have no idea what the “how long to beat” websites are measuring. They claim around 20 hours for the main story and 40-50 for the Platinum trophy. From my vantage point, those numbers seem wildly optimistic. Even though my own progress is slow, I’m observing many other players logging at least double those estimates. Unless you are deliberately speedrunning and ignoring the world, I cannot fathom how anyone finishes that quickly.
At my current rate, it will take me no less than a month to see the credits roll on Ghost of Yotei. I can’t recall the last time a single-player game occupied me for that long, outside of multiple playthroughs of something like Cyberpunk 2077. I strategically saved this game to play after major releases like Borderlands 4 and Hades 2. With limited interest in most other titles for the remainder of the year, I finally have the breathing room to give Yotei the deep, thoughtful attention its rich world clearly demands.
So, is it shaping up to be my personal Game of the Year? I’m afraid not; that crown is still firmly held by Expedition 33. But not everything needs to be a competition. Ghost of Yotei stands powerfully on its own merits, serving as a fantastic follow-up to what was my GOTY years ago, Ghost of Tsushima. Based on what I’ve experienced so far, I truly could not ask for anything more. And it seems I’ll be enjoying this particular journey for many weeks to come.
(Source: Forbes)
