Ghost of Yōtei It is now available on PS5, and players take their first steps in the lavish, perilous world of EZO, joining the ATS in her pursuit of the search for Yōtei Six and discovering life outside of revenge. To select the launch and delve into the process so vividly to revive this novel hero, we were joined by the PlayStation podcast by the voice actor of ATS Erika Ishii, who also gives its similarity to the character.
Note: condensed interview for clarity and conciseness. You can listen to a full interview in the latest episode of PlayStation, available now.
PlayStation blog: Before this interview is released, players will eventually have to enter ATS shoes. But for you, the character has been part of your life for a long time. What was it and what did these initial conversations with the band at Sucker Punch Productions looked like?
Erika Ishiri: Almost three years of my life have passed. I was a gigantic fan of Tsushima, so it was both a huge pressure I exerted on myself, and very, very electrifying. I think that the first conversations we had, we shared how much we are playing about samurai films and video games.
PSB: One of the great things was when you discovered COSPLAY guideAnd I remember that I saw how I had fun, I believe that it was Ellie (from the last of us), which you cosmed, and now there is a cosplay guide with your face, and your character goes out to the audience PlayStation. It must be really electrifying.
Erika Ishiri: Yes, it’s so wild because I feel like Cinderella’s story. I was a fan, I was a cosplayer and, you know, I went to parties and you know, now I can be part of it. And who knows, maybe someone will be Cosplay ATS or played in the game, and years later they point to the spirit of Yōtei as something that inspired them to tell their own stories. I mean, this is a dream.
PSB: Speaking of cosplay, there was also a great Kamea Astro Bot. Did you have some ATS bot in Astro, as it was, seeing it for the first time?
Erika Ishiri: Of course, there was a sense of triumph, from which you will get Astro bots, and then in addition … I think I feel like a broken album, but I am really stunned and honored that I can have all this. I played throughout the entire Astro Bot and I am 100% bots until this DLC fell. It’s so sweet. The wolf is cute. And yes, it just seems to have a dream of surreal fever.
PSB: So, of course, ATSu not only looks like you and sounds like you, but which parts of the ATS are, in terms of value, relationships, vulnerabilities, what things seemed the most personal to you and how did you protect this authenticity in your performance?
Erika Ishiri: From our first conversations, discussing characters, our love and tribute, which we wanted to pay for classic samurai films and classic videos of revenge. It is very much from this heritage. And when he refers to me, I think that ATS is still a bit adolescent in many ways, definitely emotionally. At that time they did not have therapy and I think that ATS is what is happening if I, or really any of us, give in to this really livid and terrifying desire. And I think that on her most effectively, like most emotional core, ATS, she is scared and defenseless. I think, of course, he is this amazing warrior and we can play a kind of samurai fantasy with double katanas, muskets and yari. But I think that what really resonated for me in ATS was simply her harsh, emotional core.
PSB: What do you hope players can break away from her meeting?
Erika Ishiri: I really want them to have fun in this game. Because although the story is convincing and really, really – Sucker Punch does a narrative like few games – I think there is something really humorous in the real realization of this fantasy. Yes, you know, emotional character, but I just want people to feel bad. I think that I am also a gigantic fan of westerns and we talked to this: he is a kind of Saleria’s film hybrid in Western Samurai – a feeling like a lonely wanderer, hitting a cold pose, a silhouette in the frame of the living room. And I want people to live this film fantasy.
PSB: You have lived in many characters for years, both in video games and others, but from the Improv/TTRPG background has helped you shape and find the figure of ATS?
Erika Ishiri: One thing in improvisation is a lot in listening and making a robust choice in response to something you hear. And I think it was extremely instrumental from the ATS, because the script I have an amazing scenario of great writers who are written for me for ATS, while in a key role or like you must be a writer, actor and in some miniature way of the manufacturer of your character. So a script was written from ATS, but the opportunity to hear it – and hear how other characters react to it and reacting to them authentically – I think it is where there are many improvisations and spontaneity. Because you can remember the lines, but how do you somehow say them, in some way, it must be a surprise for you. So I think it has always been very helpful.
PSB: It seems that even from the first readings it was sometimes quite intense in terms of these scenes in terms of levels of emotion. Were there any moments when you can remember where your experience in improvisation and in a real game helps to nail these intense scenes?
Erika Ishiri: It’s very terrifying. But I still say that such a duality of excitement and fear. You are literally, you know, in a very sensitive suit. You know, the STRAP suit is a spandex unit and you are in a white padded room. And sometimes it’s only you. If you are with other actors, you can be with other actors. But there were a few scenes that were only me and my horse, or only I had an emotional moment, an emotional rhythm, and when you know this, you must create all these circumstances yourself. There is something in improvisation and on a tabletopie called Scene Painting, where usually DM, and sometimes a player, will describe the stage, set the stage, will have all the details of this landscape and maybe some items. It is like the Black Box theater for the theater visitors, in which you are really in a room with a group of people who look at you. And you know that every minute that the cameras are rolling is all you.
PSB: Did you have a chance to look at conceptual art? Was it any visual assist during the idea of these scenes?
I had a fortune to see some photos that were completed, which is again very unusual in the case of voice, because you usually do your work and that’s all. But for this purpose, because I was there for the whole production. I have to see progress. I have to see the game. And so it is, so the most crucial as a contractor, because the more data we have to build this miniature database in our head of this world, the more addictive it can be for us. Yes, yes, they just made a great immersion of me.
PSB: So the game starts on October 2. Where on October 2 finds Erika, how do you mean the premiere?
Erika Ishiri: I intend to meet a part of the cast and we will have our own miniature holiday. Our director, our fearless leader who directed the entire LEKTOVER, collects us together. And this is again an unusual project because I could work with most people. I have to be at the stand or in the volume of Mocap with many people. And so is the camaraderie that we do not always get in games. This cast is something really special. Everyone is incredibly talented. Many of them are only Veterans of Video Games, as well as Kujon from video games, but it is mostly Asian and Asian cast, and it just doesn’t really happen. There is something like a common feeling “in the trenches”. So we will celebrate it and this weekend.
And for me I will be “sick” this week, playing the game. It’s strange: I’ve never played intensively with me Like meYes. I don’t know how it will be. I don’t know how I will react. I think that apart from launching and outside the world, meeting with ATS is a bit of fog for me. I think I just have to move about it for a while.
