All Ghost of Yotei Director Modes Explained

Ghost of Yotei is an engrossing story of Atsu and her quest to avenge her family after the Yotei Six killed them and left her for dead as a child 16 years ago. It’s a plot similar to Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, where a young woman goes after the people who have wronged her and takes their names as stepping stones to the big boss.

While Ghost of Yotei may not sport a Quentin Tarantino mode, it does provide three unique modes that add immersive cinematic experiences to your gameplay based on the filmmaking styles of famous Japanese directors. Here’s what you need to know about each of them.

Kurosawa Mode

Carried over from Ghost of Tsushima, Kurosawa Mode provides a grainy black and white cinematic filter inspired by movies directed by Akira Kurosawa, such as Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Throne of Blood, and Ikiru. Whether you’ve seen any of Kurosawa’s films or not, playing Ghost of Yotei in this mode will make you feel like you’re in a Kurosawa film and develop an appreciation for his cinematic artistry. Bonus points if you play this mode in the Japanese dub.

Miike Mode

Graphically speaking, Miike Mode is the same as the regular gameplay mode except there’s more mud and blood than usual, and the cinematic camera is tighter to represent films directed by Takashi Miike. Because the camera is a little more widescreen during combat, off-screen attacks will be more difficult to see, so you might want to time your attacks and dodges wisely.

Watanabe Mode

In Watanabe Mode, there are no special filters or graphical enhancements — just calming lo-fi music. Composers for Ghost of Yotei created original lo-fi music for this mode to replace the game’s ambient music during exploration and combat under the direction of Shinichiro Watanabe, the director of the acclaimed 2004 anime Samurai Champloo. The music itself blends ambient sounds with hip-hop elements, taking notes from the late Nujabes, who composed the music for Samurai Champloo, earning him the nickname the “Godfather of Lo-fi.”

Ghost of Yotei is available now exclusively on PlayStation 5.