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Seeing cinematic inspiration in video games is nothing new. In 1988, Snatcher<\/em> saw a young Hideo Kojima doing the best Blade Runner<\/a><\/em> impression that the MSX2 platform would allow; even Spielberg himself got on the schtick as a writer-producer on 1999\u2019s Medal of Honor<\/em>, giving birth to a sea of military shooters aping the bloody chaos of Saving Private Ryan<\/em>.<\/p>\n More from Rolling Stone<\/strong><\/p>\n Beginning with the Uncharted<\/em> series, and later perfected in The Last of Us<\/a><\/em>, Sony Interactive Entertainment has made playable cinematic experiences its bread and butter over the last two decades. Pulling from the visual language of directors like Alfonso Cuar\u00f3n<\/a> and, again, Steven Spielberg<\/a>, PlayStation games have become synonymous with theatricality to the point where Hollywood\u2019s A-list \u2014 actors and<\/em> directors<\/a> \u2014 are lining up for their next gig to be in gaming.<\/p>\n But few recent games parade their kino inspirations as blatantly as Sucker Punch\u2019s Ghost of Tsushima<\/em> (2020). The open-world epic sees samurai Jin Sakai surviving a Mongolian invasion of his home island, symbolically resurrected as an avenging spirit to unite the lands to thwart the foreign threat. The game draws heavily from well-established samurai media tropes across film, manga, and anime, but like generations-worth of media, it all routes back to the work of Japanese auteur Akira Kurosawa. Tsushima<\/em> even has a fully dedicated \u201cKurosawa Mode\u201d that emulates the director\u2019s early work with a monochromatic filter complete with dense film grain.<\/p>\n This week, the sequel Ghost of Y\u014dtei<\/a> <\/em>arrives to continue building on Sucker Punch and Sony\u2019s cinematic aspirations. Following a young woman named Atsu, whose family is slaughtered by a gang dubbed the Y\u014dtei Six, the game\u2019s story falls into its own bucket of familiar tropes as a revenge tale destined to be solved by the art of the blade.<\/p>\n Like its predecessor, Ghost of Y\u014dtei <\/em>traffics in samurai and revenge thriller clich\u00e9s, although it manages to work in a more satisfying narrative that emphasizes the meditative beauty of its world on top of the hack and slash action. Once again, the game borrows heavily from the films of Kurosawa, bringing back the black and white mode to toggle, but also levels things up by assuming its audience might\u2019ve seen or heard of more than just one Japanese director. A second filter, inspired by more contemporary filmmaker Takashi Miike<\/a>, tightens the camera to close-ups and ratchets the gore factor by rewarding each strike with spurting geysers of blood.<\/p>\n Y\u014dtei<\/em>\u2019s design differs from the first game\u2019s by incorporating more of a spaghetti western tinge to its fated tale of vengeance, something its audio team worked heavily to incorporate into the score<\/a>. It\u2019s folksy but also trades in the dramatic buildups befitting a Mexican stand-off outside the corral.<\/p>\n Needless to say, Y\u014dtei<\/em>\u2019s aesthetic is pulling from a lot of different places. After spending dozens of hours living in its decadently violent virtual world, it\u2019s very likely that you\u2019ll want to extend the vibes to your other viewing habits.<\/p>\n To fully appreciate the many influences that made Ghost of Y\u014dtei<\/em>, these are the essential movies to watch.<\/p>\n\u2018Yojimbo\u2019<\/h2>\n