Kitsune

As mentioned earlier this week, the current video game I'm playing is Ghost of Yotei. For those unfamiliar, it takes place in Japan in 1603 and is a revenge tale involving the female protagonist Atsu as she attempts to track down and kill the Yotei Six: a group that killed her family and left her for dead.

Since I loved the previous title, Ghost of Tsushima (as well as Japanese culture in general), I've been really enjoying this game so far. In fact, I fell in love with one character who wasn't even the main protagonist (although I think Atsu is an awesome ass kicker).

Now, if you're planning to play this game or haven't gotten this far yet, I will be discussing some spoilers. You've been warned lol.

At this point in the story, I've defeated both the Snake and the Oni (you're required to kill the Snake at the beginning but can then jump around any way you wish). I decided to progress to the north and take on the Kitsune (Fox) before progressing to take on main baddie Lord Saito and his two sons.

Heading north, I'm ambushed by the Kitsune and first experience his poison. Thankfully, I'm able to escape and begin befriending the friendly characters in the northern part of Ezo called Teshio Ridge.

One of those characters is Oyuki, the musician at the Red Crane Inn. While friendly to our cause, it becomes obvious that she's hiding something. At first, I thought that she might be some long lost relative of Atsu. The truth was way more interesting.

Eventually, you confront the Kitsune and his Nine Tails clan of Shinobi (ninja). As you confront him with the reasons on why you're trying to end him, he mentions how he doesn't recognize you or remember any of this. I expect a Street Fighter movie line next ("the day Bison visited your village was the most important day of your life. But for me, it was Tuesday"). 

Instead, you're poisoned again and saved by Oyuki...who not only seems capable in a fight now but also has the antidote to the poison...and seems to have a history with the Kitsune.

Atsu soon figures out the truth: Oyuki was the Kitsune present the day Atsu's parents were killed by the Yotei Six. We see in a flashback that Oyuki was forced to hold a young Atsu while Saito killed her mother; Oyuki trying to shield the young girl's eyes from the act before freeing her from her binding and telling her to run.

Oyuki explains that her clan had been loyal to Saito's clan for many years and she'd continued that tradition as well. However, she lost faith in him as she witnessed what he was doing to Atsu's family.

For her betrayal, Saito branded Oyuki's arm. Since the other members of the Yotei Six were unaware that she was a woman, she had to keep her screams silent. Otherwise, she would've been met "with horrible results" by the other Yotei Six members.

During her explanation and her future interactions with Atsu, I had tears in my eyes listening and watching every cutscene involving Oyuki.

While she is always assumed to be a cisgender female, her having to hide her gender and true nature from her compatriots hit me hard. Everyday, I have to hide parts of who I truly am or else I might be met with "horrible results" as well.

Also, we all have a past in which we're not happy with ourselves. Granted, it doesn't usually involve murder and torture like with Oyuki. But we all have a past. The idea that she's trying to redeem herself by aiding the girl she couldn't save from suffering years earlier is a wonderful part of this story.

So, between the hiding behind a mask so the others won't find out your true gender status as well as making up for your dark past, I immediately fell in love with the Oyuki character. I knew that Atsu's anger would make it tough to both forgive Oyuki and to also let her live.

While I won't reveal what ultimately becomes of Oyuki (don't want to spoil EVERYTHING), I will say that it does lead to one last beautiful comment from Atsu before she decides on whether or not to kill Oyuki as well as a very touching cutscene involving Atsu and her mother.

Yeah, I cried a lot during this section.

Such a wonderful game.







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Half the Person I Used to Be

People can have lots of different vices to help when they're stressed. Some drink, some smoke, some even do drugs (I don't judge anyone enjoying a little bit of Mother Earth's great green herb. I mean the harder stuff). My vice was always food. Whenever I was stressed or sad or even just bored, I'd immediately go straight for the kitchen or pantry to find something to eat. Any good feelings from doing so would quickly evaporate whenever I would next step onto the scale. Stress eating became a big habit at one point in my life due to working in a hospital at the time and my continuing issues in my marriage. Even after I left that job and the divorce was finalized, I still used food as a coping mechanism. By the time 2023 rolled around and I was actually ready to do something about it (or so I thought), the scales read 336.5 pounds. I was up to wearing size 5XL shirts that had to be specially ordered because no local stores carried them. I talked to my doctor and they sug...
Read more

Voting Day

While it's not one of the "big ones," such as the midterms or the Presidential elections, today is still voting day. You could say that elections like this are even more important since they cover local offices that can affect you everyday. I was born and raised as a Republican because of my parents and their background. However, I became more and more liberal in my thinking once I got to college and beyond. In fact, it became clear to me that my thought process growing up had usually been socially liberal anyway. I officially changed parties to Democrat in 2016. I refused to be associated with Drumpf and the way in which he'd bastardized my idea of the Grand Old Party. I don't have to tell you how upset I was over the results from last year. That orange faced goon won lots of support by actively campaigning against LGBTQ causes, especially the trans community. Not only did his base just lap it up but it felt like Democratic leadership wasn't doing nearly enou...
Read more

Thanks Dad

 My dad was born to a hardworking father and stay-at-home mother in a tough neighborhood. Not only my father but all of his siblings served as living PSAs on what NOT to do in life. I had a family member for each issue raised: drinking, smoking, drugs, infidelity, raising children, racism. Everything they did seemed wrong to me. In fact, I could've made this blog entirely about them and would never run out of material. However, for brevity, I'll focus on my father.  He married his highschool sweetheart and had my sister. It wasn't long before that marriage ended on divorce and my father moved away. While my sister will never admit it, I've always believed that she secretly resented him for leaving her. My father eventually met my mother but it would be ten years before they married. One reason was because her family didn't really like him. They were all very straight laced while he was an alcoholic biker (I guess my mom was into bad boys). Another reason was, at one...
Read more