You might have read that headline above and thought “here we go again. More ranting about games we’ve already torn into, and another pan coming our way!”

Not so fast, my friend. While I tried to love 2020’s “Ghost of Tsushima,” I only ended up liking it okay. But thankfully, Sucker Punch and Sony opted to not make a direct sequel ,and instead did a spiritual successor which was the right move. “Ghost of Yotei” is better in every single way, and it accomplishes that by abandoning Jin Sakai and Tsushima.

This clearly shows, to me at least, that Sony needs to stop publishing and developing regular sequels to their games because they haven’t been as good.

“God of War” from Santa Monica was maybe the most successful reinvention of a franchise I’ve ever witnessed. “Ragnarok” was an alright follow-up that didn’t do anything better. In fact, the puzzles got worse, the game got more tedious, and the story went off the rails.

“Spider-Man” from Insomniac is the most successful superhero video game adaptation of all time. It’s perfect. It has a stunner of an ending, a Sinister Six battle that’s built up beautifully, and it gave the player the exact number of tools to embody the iconic Web-Slinger in the ways we always dreamed of. The sequel is bloated, dumber, and doesn’t add much to its core mechanics.

“Horizon: Zero Dawn” is an exceptional first effort from Guerilla Games coming off of countless dreary “Killzone” titles. It had an intriguing story, made laying traps and planning the primary way to engage in combat, and gave the world robot dinosaurs finally. The sequel? An overwhelming barrage of excess — an extra helping of too many things we’ve already seen and it ended up being boring somehow?

And do not get me started on the decline in quality from “The Last of Us” to “Part II” in every way except the boost in graphical fidelity.

There hasn’t been a single sequel that’s worked in years — not since the “Uncharted” games. “Ghost of Yotei” is able to establish itself on its own terms. Discarding what didn’t work in “Tsushima,” and doubling down on what does. It might seem like a rehash on paper, but it doesn’t feel like it. Its pacing is a razor-sharp progression of side quests, unexpected moments, upgrades, and dynamic storytelling.

“Tsushima” got bogged down in trying to set up its whatever tale of revenge, but it didn’t nail anything in particular except the colorful leaves. It didn’t come fully formed — confident in what it was. Was it a mediocre stealth game with one-on-one duels or a mediocre action game with good stealth? What was it trying to be? Jin’s father gave you shit about honor, and it felt like the game was yelling at you for playing your way.

“Yotei” figures out all of this. It’s what the first game wishes it was. Whereas all of the other series mentioned above came out basically perfect on the first go. And the sequels were worse because I think they struggled to justify themselves, or what they added was not worth the price of admission. Venom and Kraven aren’t as interesting. Ellie turned into a horrible person. I don’t believe we needed more of Kratos ushering his son off to be a man while being bamboozled by Odin. It was more of the same, and not enough of a unique idea or big shift.

But “Yotei” is a triumph in every way. It’s hard to put down, it’s full of surprises, and even the stealth is better (Hello, kusarigama). The stances being replaced with new weapons kicks ass, the roaming company of merchants who visit your campfire rules, and I like Atsu so much more than Jin.

I cannot more highly recommend this if you didn’t think “Tsushima” was all that great. Like me! But I gave “Yotei” a chance and it turns out to be one of the best of the year.

Sony can easily shut me up by making a new “Bloodborne,” “Ape Escape,” or “Ratchet & Clank.”

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“Ghost of Yotei” is available now on PS5.

Image Credit: “Ghost of Yotei,” Sucker Punch Games