Even Ghost of Yotei Co-Directors Can’t Agree on Ghost of Tsushima Decision

Ghost of Yotei will be set 300 years after the first game; however, the game directors have one issue they have yet to hash out behind the scenes. The final battle was controversial since it had Lord Shimura, Jin’s uncle, as the final boss.

The fight has two outcomes: spare his life or honor his death wish. While most players drew the line with killing a family member, some are honor-bound; however, both creative directors have conflicting points of view about this matter.

Ghost of Yotei Co-directors Have Different Opinions About the First Game’s Ending

While the Ghost of Yotei will not feature characters from the first game, the co-creators are somewhat satisfied with how they were utilized. However, one question seemingly placed both directors on opposite ends about how they interpret the final choice in the story.

In a recent interview with Variety, co-creators Nate Fox and Jason Connell were asked about their decisions during the final battle. After defeating Lord Shimura in a duel, as Jin, you must decide whether to spare his uncle or honor him by killing him.

There is no wrong choice. However, from my point of view, if you love Uncle Shimura like I loved him, I gave him what he asked for, which was death.

According to Fox, both choices are correct, and you will not see or feel any true consequences, but he leans more towards killing Shimura since he is asking to die a warrior’s death. On the other hand, Connell claims he disagrees with his co-creator about this subject.

I might have been on the other side of the fence on this one. There’s not many times [Nate] and I differ, and I cannot believe that it’s taken this long. You’re the first person to ask us.

Connell would prefer to keep Shimura alive and lose his honor. In hindsight, both decisions have positives and negatives, but it will always boil down to player preference. Perhaps the gaming community will encounter a similar situation in Ghost of Yotei down the line.

If you have played through the story of Ghost of Tsushima, you will realize that Jin is bending backwards to save his home from the invaders while trying to appeal to Lord Shimura’s samurai code. As the player, you are forced to bend the samurai code and commit heinous acts of violence to win a war against savage barbarians at the cost of Jin’s samurai title and honor.

Ghost of Yotei releases on October 2nd, 2025, exclusively on PS5.

For more Thumb Wars coverage, check out how players reacted to the bugs in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, and how HBO is pulling heartstrings with the latest episode of The Last of Us Season 2.

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