https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEOzBU6Rq1gA year after the original game launched, PS5 players can now dive into the Ghost of Yōtei Complete Edition. Available now on PS5, this brings together the story campaign, the Ghost of Yōtei Legends multiplayer mode, and two new major additions: the roguelike mode Most Wanted, and the narrative expansion Echoes of Sekigahara. The story is split between the present day and flashbacks to Atsu's time on the mainland.

To mark the Complete Edition's launch and celebrate the game's first anniversary, we spoke with voice actor Erika Ishii, who brings Atsu to life.

Note: The below interview is condensed for clarity and brevity. You can listen to the full chat on the latest episode of the PlayStation Podcast, available later today.

Interview with Erika Ishii

PlayStation Blog: It's been a year since the game originally launched. What has Atsu brought to your life since?

I still can't get over it, because this was my dream. I played The Last of Us and said, I want to do that. I already knew I wanted to act and loved video games, but I said specifically—that. Being on my PlayStation home screen, playing the game, getting to travel to Tokyo Game Show, which was another dream of mine, and having a beautiful professional cosplay made for me of Atsu so I could be Atsu on the Sony PlayStation stage in Japan… it really does feel like a fever dream sometimes.

I was curious to know whether your dialogue for the expansion was recorded after the fact or part of the original recording bundle. Sounds like you came back. What's the time gap between your last piece of dialogue for the main story campaign and coming back to the expansion?

There were at least a couple of months between. They had to work really hard on polish to get the game out, then take a well-deserved little break. But as we were nearing the end of production, I was inquiring constantly about DLC. Iki Island was really great and fleshed out some stuff I wanted to know about in Atsu's backstory.

I had a list of pitches for them [laughs]. They didn't go with anything I suggested. But at the launch party I was talking with Courtney Woods, the writer for Echoes of Sekigahara, and we were scheming. We thought, “Atsu needs a little romance in her life.” There's no way she didn't have any. She mentioned as much in one of the onsen scenes, so she'd had companions at least. But what about personal attachments? Is this the only time in her life she's had them? And so I got my wish.

You had that time away. Did it increase your awareness of the character, or did anything you experienced outside the role help inform your performance?

Pretty much playing the game. It's wild because most of the time voice actors don't get to play the game until after it comes out. I was fortunate enough to do so during production. Playing through the finished game and literally being hands-on in her shoes was such a gift. A lot of times, if it's been a while since you've played a character, they'll play you reference audio. But I could go directly to being Atsu and into the booth.

There are flashbacks spanning two periods of Atsu's life. How do you get into that headspace to switch between them?

A couple of things helped. We had done a lot of flashbacks with young Atsu. In acting, you have what's called a prior moment—before any scene starts, you need to know where you were and have a whole lived life experience prior to that moment. I already had to have it in my head, knowing what she had been through and what that informative point in her life felt like. You have to be able to drop in at any moment and think, well, I believe her time doing this probably informed how it's going to be in the present day.

This roguelike mode, Most Wanted. Did you record new dialogue for it?

Yes, there is some new dialogue. Because it's a new mode and non-canonical, it has a slightly different feeling—more mystical, in the way the multiplayer is more mythological. There's a heightened quality to it.

You're not the only character in Most Wanted. There are some familiar faces, but a surprise is Jin's return, and I believe Daisaku Tsuji recorded new voice lines as well. I understand you didn't crossover during recording sessions, but did you get together to talk all things Ghost and compare experiences?

I got to chat with him when he was in Los Angeles, a little before the game launched. I told him how much his work meant to me and how grateful I am to be accepting the Ghost torch. In many ways he was new to video games with Ghost of Tsushima, but since then he's appeared in many other games—almost all of which I'm also in. We joke that we're bound together forever, and one of us will follow in the other's footsteps.

Last year I asked where launch day would find you. Where does the first anniversary of Yōtei find you?

The big thing is that the Complete Edition is out. I didn't know the launch date until the rest of the world did. We all had a little betting pool as to when this would drop, and I said it'd be on the anniversary. I was one day off [laughs].

It's very bittersweet. It's been four years of my life being her face, movements, and voice, and helping develop her while working with one of the greatest teams. Atsu is going to be a part of my heart forever. When they have PlayStation logos with a picture of Atsu—my face there—I still see cosplays at conventions. This was my dream, and I accomplished it. But when you get to the top of the mountain, you have to keep going. There are more mountains to climb.

I have the privilege of having other characters and work that are part of my career. I don't have to be defined by Atsu, but she's going to always be so special to me.

Gameplay and Edition Details

Ghost of Yōtei is a standalone successor set in 1600s rural Japan, roughly 300 years after Ghost of Tsushima, rather than a direct story sequel. Its biggest gameplay change is replacing Tsushima's four-stance combat system with a weapon-based arsenal: Atsu can switch between a katana, dual swords, spear, ōdachi and kusarigama. Yōtei also adds a wolf companion, a camping system for cooking, temporary buffs and ammunition crafting, plus new Watanabe Mode music, photo-mode stamps and New Game+ cosmetics.

The Complete Edition expands the new game with two major additions: Echoes of Sekigahara, a narrative expansion, and Most Wanted, a single-player run-based combat-survival mode that includes unlockable characters and perks. The edition also includes the Ghost of Yōtei Legends multiplayer mode, Digital Deluxe content and the Charm of Hokkyokusei; unlike the predecessor's Director's Cut, its new package specifically adds these two post-launch modes and expansion.