Gaming News

Ghost of Yotei Should ‘Steal’ This AC Shadows Feature

On Apr 02, 2025 8:36 pm, by NuclearCoffee

Summary

Incorporating Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ Kuji-Kiri into Ghost of Yotei could enhance meditative gameplay.
Kuji-Kiri mini-game in Assassin’s Creed Shadows immerses players in meditative practice, tying gameplay to narrative depth.
Adapting Kuji-Kiri in Ghost of Yotei could provide an emotional connection to Atsu’s character arc.

Meditation is a core practice within several Japanese traditions, so it makes sense why games like Ghost of Tsushima and Assassin’s Creed Shadows (both of which are set in feudal Japan) feature opportunities for players to meditate. Given its value to Japanese tradition, it would make sense, then, for some form of meditation to once again be implemented in the next entry in Sucker Punch’s Ghost franchise, Ghost of Yotei. However, it might benefit from looking to one of Assassin’s Creed Shadows‘ best meditative mini-games for inspiration when designing its own.

One of the first mini-games introduced in Assassin’s Creed Shadows is Kuji-Kiri, a ritual rooted in Buddhist traditions, involving sequences of hand gestures aimed at focusing the mind and spirit. It’s arguably one of the best mini-games in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, on account of how it blends gameplay with narrative depth and effectively immerses players in the core principle behind the meditative practice. In light of that, Ghost of Yotei could potentially add more depth to its meditation by adapting Assassin’s Creed Shadows‘ Kuji-Kiri to suit its own world and gameplay.

Ghost of Yotei and The Witcher 4 Could Share the Same Advantage Over Their Predecessors

Despite being two entirely different games, Ghost of Yotei and The Witcher 4’s protagonists share an advantageous similarity over their predecessors.

Ghost of Yotei Should Adapt Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ Kuji-Kiri

AC Shadows’ Kuji-Kiri Mini-Game Blends Gameplay With Narrative Depth

Assassin’s Creed Shadows‘ Kuji-Kiri mini-game is incredibly unique, not just as a mini-game, but as a meditative one. This is largely because it begins rather simply, giving players a sequence of controls or keys to enter in time with the ambient music playing in the background, but then slowly transitions to something that mimics the meditative practice as it is in real life. Kuji-Kiri in the real world is all about performing symbolic hand gestures to focus the mind. In Assassin’s Creed Shadows‘ iteration of the practice, the controls and keys players are required to place eventually disappear, forcing them to perform each action by memory.

In this way, Assassin’s Creed Shadows‘ Kuji-Kiri mini-game actually becomes somewhat of a meditative practice, as it requires players to focus their minds, just as the practice’s real-world counterpart is meant to encourage. However, Assassin’s Creed Shadows‘ Kuji-Kiri also initially serve as a way for players to experience Naoe’s backstory through flashbacks, thereby tying the fun and calming mini-game in with the narrative itself. These flashbacks are simple cutscenes either, as they require players to complete them as quests.

Once Naoe’s backstory has been told in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, each subsequent Kuji-Kiri simply grants players a Knowledge Point.

Ghost of Yotei Could Use Kuji-Kiri as an Immersive Storytelling Method

Given how immersive and engaging Assassin’s Creed Shadows‘ Kuji-Kiri mini-game is, Ghost of Yotei could benefit from adapting it. According to what is currently known about Atsu’s backstory in Ghost of Yotei, perhaps players could perform Kuji-Kiri to experience her story firsthand. Since Atsu’s journey is fueled by a desire for vengeance after her homestead and family were wiped out, this would allow players to establish an emotional connection to Atsu’s character arc, thereby adding value to the eventual outcome of the overarching narrative.

Even if a potential adaptation of Assassin’s Creed Shadows‘ Kuji-Kiri in Ghost of Yotei didn’t focus on Atsu’s backstory, it could still be one of the game’s more immersive mini-games. Many of Ghost of Tsushima‘s meditative mini-games — like its Haiku mini-game, for example — were passive and didn’t require much active participation from players. Incorporating Assassin’s Creed Shadows‘ take on the practice could potentially make finding a Kuji-Kiri area in Ghost of Yotei more worthwhile than Ghost of Tsushima‘s Haikus or Hot Springs ever were.

Given how immersive and engaging Assassin’s Creed Shadows‘ Kuji-Kiri mini-game is, Ghost of Yotei could benefit from adapting it.

If Ghost of Yotei wants to build on the meditative elements introduced by its predecessor , drawing inspiration from Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ Kuji-Kiri could be a great step forward. Not only would it enrich Ghost of Yotei‘s world and exploration, but it could also give players a deeper emotional understanding of Atsu’s character.