The Art of Combat in Ghost of Yōtei

Guest post by Nicolas Logue! In addition to his work with Dueling Arts, Nick is an accomplished martial artist and a double Fulbright scholar. He is the head of the theatre department at Windward Community College and the founder of the Hawai’i Conservatory of Performing Arts (he and his wife Taurie recently received the Pierre Bowman Award for their contributions to theatre in Hawai’i). Nick also some serious chops as a (tabletop) game designer. As a professional fight director with 28 years of experience and over 100 productions under my belt, a Senior Instructor with Dueling Arts International, and a lifelong player of video games, I can honestly state in my professional opinion, Ghost of Yotei has the most interesting and artistically satisfying combat experience of any game I’ve ever played. It does many things well. Some are obvious, others are quite nuanced and profound. Let’s start with the obvious… 1. They did their research. Even the slightly more esoteric or difficult to…