Welcome to another Indieventure Postcards! A little dose of the trio to tide you over till next week’s episode✨
I’m sorry, Ghost of Yōtei. I judged you too harshly.
In our last postcard, I wrote about the recently released Ghost Of Yōtei, declaring it a grim example of how smooth and unchallenging modern-day AAA games have become. I still stand by a lot of what I wrote in that piece; Yōtei is a game that gently carries the player from one bite-sized activity to the next, rarely offering anything more complex than a one-on-one duel or a camp clearing stealth section. Its puzzles are comically easy (almost insultingly so), and its side quests are tame and unmemorable.
And yet! I’ve fallen for Yōtei in a way that has genuinely surprised me. This is a vastly improved game over the original, trading uninspiring melodrama for a more refined central premise that sees new protagonist Atsu hunting down the six men who killed her family. Tsushima spent far too long lingering on Jin’s internal struggle of how to remain honourable when taking on an army that did not reciprocate such niceties, as well as its story that revolved around… uh… his uncle? Maybe? In comparison, Yōtei is as quick and to the point as a deft katana slash. See these six fuckers wearing animal masks? They stabbed your Mam. Go and kill them. It’s so much better.
That’s not to say that, from a story perspective, Yōtei has nothing interesting to say. Whereas Jin was a member of the ruling class, Atsu is both an orphaned peasant and a woman. She has no qualms about assassinating soldiers (from the safety of tall grass) or using dirty tricks to get the upper hand in a fight. She has lived her whole life being rejected and underestimated, barely scraping by. Atsu may be a badass, but she’s not necessarily presented as such. Struggle has been the defining companion of her life, and yet the way this has affected her is explored with an appreciated maturity. She’s a far richer character than I expected her to be, and her rare displays of tenderness make her a very good hang.
It helps that, from a broader design perspective, the game leans more into its abstract elements than the original. As you rode through golden forests or across lush green fields, Tsushima may have looked like a painting in motion, but Yōtei takes this one step further. Each distinct region is themed after a season, the game’s designers clearly taking great care to simulate almost idealised representations of crisp autumnal forests, damp spring plains, and frigid winter coasts. Each area is locked in these specific moments without explanation, which may sound jarring, but when paired with side missions that revolve around legends and myths that teeter on the edge of the supernatural, the result is an almost dreamlike experience that, in itself, ends up feeling like a tall tale told around a warm campfire. It’s very well executed.
So, yes. In many ways, Ghost Of Yōtei is easily digestible slop. But to disregard it at face value would be to ignore the finer details of its overall presentation. There’s something very finely crafted here, I think, despite the AAA confines. I like it a lot.
Liam
In Memoriam: all the live service games that are shutting down and that I always kinda meant to get back into, honest
MultiVersus (2022-2025): I’ll always look back fondly on that one time I battered Liam, Ed, and Hayden while playing as Velma from Scooby-Doo. I don’t think I ever actually played it again after that day, but still, I’m genuinely bummed this got cancelled before they introduced The Wicked Witch of the West as a playable fighter. That would’ve been, well, wicked.
Tribe Nine (2025-2025): Danganronpa but make it a deathmatch baseball gacha RPG? Sure, I’m not so proud as to pretend I’m not game. Unironically I would’ve played more of this if it hadn’t launched up against not only an already-stacked live-service RPG line-up from big hitters such as HoYoverse and Infold, but two other traditionally-released games from its own creators at Too Kyo. Not really sure what they were thinking with this one, but it was a brave attempt.
The Sims Mobile (2018-2026): Project Rene is seemingly targeting a 2026 launch, and thus The Sims team are apparently looking to cut down on support for the franchise’s older mobile titles in preparation for them being superseded. While The Sims Freeplay seems safe for now, TSM technically stopped receiving new content at the start of 2024, so the writing’s been on the wall anyway. Still, it was occasionally an interesting proving ground for ideas that have yet to make it into The Sims 4, and for that alone it’s worth a moment’s silence.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt (2021-2026): When your long-delayed sequel to a beloved cult hit finally makes it out the door to mixed reviews, you might as well compound the Ls you’re taking into one manageable package and announce the permanent shutdown of your battle royale spin-off as well. I’ve honestly enjoyed the kitchen-sink approach to commissioning new VTM games from multiple studios in various genres over the past few years, but Bloodhunt was yet another sad reminder that the odds of a random new venture out-Fortniting Fortnite are non-existent – and that this is a rare instance where no, adding vampires won’t fix that.
Rebecca
I have discovered Pan Dorobo, and I love them
On my travels in Japan, I discovered the character Pan Dorobo, also known as Bread Thief, and omg I LOVE THEM SO MUCH. I saw a blind box of this little creepo dressed as a loaf of bread and instantly fell in love. His whole deal is that he disguises himself as a loaf of bread and then steals more bread because he loves bread??? Which is iconic, honestly. I had no idea where he was from, but it didn’t matter. I instantly made it my mission to buy anything with his mischievous little face on, and that I did. Since returning to the UK, I’ve done my research and now know he’s a popular Japanese children’s book character who goes on adventures searching for and stealing bread. I have since spent even MORE money buying three of his books and getting them sent to my house all the way from Japan. The things I would do for Pan Dorobo.
Rachel
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