It was inevitable: from the moment the spectacular trailer for Ghost of Yotei, the sequel to Ghost of Tsushima, was shown, a small but very vocal subgroup of gamers started warming up their keyboards to complain about the same old thing: that the protagonist is a girl, why isn’t it a man, and “I’m tired of the strong woman narrative.” Fortunately, the industry itself has started to respond to those who suffer when girls enter their treehouse.
Well, don’t buy it
In this case, it was Shawn Layden, who was President and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment America (in other words: a big shot), who on Twitter provided the two key points of the supposed controversy created by Ghost of Yotei. The first, “It’s a game. An entertainment. A story that a team of creators believes in. They want to make this“. The second, and more defining, “It’s a game. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it. In fact, why don’t you make the game you want yourself?”.
Of course, anti-woke fans have already started comparing Ghost of Yotei with Concord despite the fact that, obviously, they are two completely different situations: the failure of that game had very little to do with having diverse characters and much more to do with there being no room for another Fortnite in the current landscape. However, for a sequel to Ghost of Tsushima? The market is craving this type of proposal, no matter how much a few people dislike it – as ridiculous as it sounds – that instead of a man, this time it is a woman who wields the sword.
Fortunately, for every mindless criticism, there is someone eager to play and provide historical context to the female samurai (who did exist) and the gameplay possibilities of this sequel. Time will tell if Layden is right or if, on the contrary, the world has completely gone to hell.