Atsu is the protagonist and player character of Ghost of Yōtei. The game follows her story, as she avenges the deaths of her parents at the hands of a band of outlaws seeking to establish themselves in her home region of Ezo.
She is portrayed and motion-captured by Erika Ishii (English), and voiced by Ai Farouz (Japanese).
Biography[]
Sixteen years before the events of the game, Atsu was a normal girl living with her family in a small homestead in Ezo (what is now Hokkaido, the northernmost part of Japan), alongside her parents Kengo and Yone and her brother Jubei. There, she learned to play the shamisen with her mother (which was a family heirloom from her grandmother), forge swords with her father, and play and forage for mushrooms with her brother.
At some point, Yone would tell her daughter stories of onryō, wandering Japanese spirits and ghosts who sought vengeance on those who wronged them in life.
One day, however, everything changed; she and Jubei went to look for mushrooms in the woods outside their home and ran into a wild wolf, which was scared off by a samurai in red. This samurai was friendly to the siblings and helped them find more mushrooms before personally walking them back to their house, but what they didn't know was that this samurai was actually Lord Saito, an old friend of their father, who was a former vassal of Clan Saito who'd abandoned him following the Battle of Nagashino, which resulted in Clan Saito's destruction. As the three returned to the house, Atsu and Jubei informed their parents of their journey, which Yone found amusing as she wondered why they'd stopped picking mushrooms to frolic with wolves and samurai. Saito seemingly calmed the husband and wife down by telling them that their children hadn't forgotten to find plenty of food, but they quickly became suspicious upon hearing his voice, recognizing him immediately. After informing Atsu and Jubei about his friendship with their father and Kengo's apparent betrayal of his clan, Saito decided that he had to make an example out of the family, calling for the Yōtei Six to join him as Kengo desperately attempted to appease him by offering him his head, while the siblings hid behind their mother.
Thus began the fateful night Atsu lost everything.
Despite claiming he was only going to make an example out of the family for their betrayal, Saito's actual orchestrating of what became known as the "Night of the Burning Tree" was nothing but a sadistic massacre caused by what was, in hindsight, a petty slight and feelings of misguided anger.
One by one, Atsu lost everything, first having to watch the Oni beat her father before stabbing him to death after she slashed the man across the face to save him and her brother, then being forced by the Kitsune to watch as Saito hanged her mother from the family's sacred ginkgo tree. After Yone was dead, Saito ordered the Kitsune to bring Atsu to him, but the Kitsune wasn't able to stomach the idea of hurting a child, so she decided to cut her bindings and let her go, much to Saito's disappointment. Atsu eventually ran into Jubei and informed him of their mother's death, much to his frustration and grief, but the reunion didn't last long, as the Spider and the Dragon arrived not long after and threatened the two with their pistols. Atsu demanded to know why the Yōtei Six were killing her family, much to the Spider's annoyance as he claimed her screaming was giving him a headache and sadistically toyed with the siblings, much to his brother's chagrin as he ordered him to get it over with immediately before shooting Jubei in the chest and sending him tumbling off a hill to his death. The two brothers then dragged Atsu away with them back to the family tree as she called for her brother, but unbeknownst to anyone, Jubei somehow survived both the gunshot and the fall, and was found and rescued by samurai from Clan Matsumae.
Sometime after Yone was hanged (but presumably before the Spider and Dragon shot Jubei), the Yōtei Six cut down her corpse and threw both it and Kengo's body at the foot of the tree, where they successfully cornered Atsu as she grieved the deaths of her parents and attempted to defend herself with her wooden sword. Following a mocking question from the Snake about what the outlaws would do with her, Saito decided to again make an example out of Atsu, apologizing to her for the situation having come to this before pinning her to the tree with Kengo's masterpiece of a katana dubbed "the Wolf Blade," stabbing her in the shoulder with it. After this was done, Saito had the Oni burn the child alive before he left with his sons and the Kitsune, with the Oni and Snake following shortly after.
Pinned to the burning tree and having lost everything, Atsu screamed in frustration and anguish, eventually freeing herself from the tree and burying her parents under it before desperately searching for her brother, who, as far as Atsu was aware, was dead. She came to remember her mother's stories of onryō, believing she became such a vengeful ghost the night her family was murdered.
Sometime following the massacre of her family, Atsu took her mother's shamisen and her father's katana with her before fleeing to the south by herself, starving and terrified, before eventually working as a mercenary. She also found work under various samurai lords and came to serve in the peasant infantry, killing an untold number of nameless warriors and bathing her father's katana in their blood, unable to envision anything but the faces of the six men who murdered her family.
Atsu would eventually come to participate in the Battle of Sekigahara, where she fought for the losing side (historically, the Western armies under Ishida Mitsunari), although she never shared many details beyond that.
Personality[]
At first glance, Atsu appears to be a cold, bitter, and sarcastic lone wolf, bent on death. Suffering from both survivor's guilt and possible post-traumatic stress disorder, she also displays deep guilt over accidentally leading Lord Saito to her family as a child, resulting in their deaths. Even after Hanbei, an old friend of her parents, tried to make her understand that she was just a young girl, unaware of what was about to happen and therefore blameless, this guilt persisted. It was only after she was reunited with her brother that this feeling started to fade. Even then, she was initially hesitant to collaborate with him, convinced that after sixteen years, they no longer knew each other. Indeed, when Jubei tried to convince her to collaborate with him to kill the Oni, she initially refused, fearing that her brother would be disappointed by what she had become.
Despite her initial coldness, she is perfectly capable or mercy and charity, showing a sisterly bond with the young Taro (in whom she possibly sees her younger self's own trials) and always allowing surendering enemies to leave. She is also acutely aware of her faults, easily seeing them in her niece, with said girl actually being identical to her younger self, both physically and mentally, much to Atsu's shock. That shock later turns to horror when the girl start to follow the same path than her, with Atsu actually attempting to stop her.
During her journey, she gradually begins to change, her death-seeking tendencies gradually being replaced by doubt. Whenever someone asks her what she will do after her revenge, she either evades the question or is simply unable to answer.
Atsu is also puzzled by her Onryo's persona (and the stories her mother once read to her about them), expressing her concern to her brother because, as she herself puts it, she does not understand why the oppressed had to wait until they were dead before seeking revenge. She is also troubled after seeing people building shrines and leaving offerings to her, only accepting them after Taro explains the reason.
Her greatest flaw is also the source of her ghostly personality: her grudge against the Yotei Six. A grudge so absurd that the moment she confronts one of her targets, she becomes literally obsessed with killing them at all costs and by any means necessary. In this state, even Jubei can neither calm nor convince her (and even points out that he doesn't even recognize her as his sister in this state), and she is even willing to give up helping those who need it most, even among her own flesh and blood. Besides Oyuki and Jubei, at least six other people, allies, enemies, and casual encounters, try to divert her from her revenge, to no avail. It is only after nearly losing what remains of her family and seeing her niece follow the same path as her that Atsu finally understands how much her revenge deprives her without giving anything in return and is finally able to free herself from it. Before that, her hatred faded once, causing her to spare and then befriend Oyuki after dueling her and seeing how sincere the kunoichi was about her regret and desire to help her.
Atsu's nickname, Situnayru, given to her by Huci of the Ainu, literally means "she who loses herself in her hunt." This nickname is appropriate, as Atsu is virtually blind to what she still have and could still obtain, choosing to lose herself in her revenge. Thus, this is yet another attempt to divert her from her revenge, an attempt that is unfortunately misunderstood. She is also compared to the kamuy of tempests, whose dances are so beautiful that mortals cannot see them, hidden behind thunderstorms. Storms that sow such destruction around her that the other kamuy end up punishing her.
Another one of her flaws (though normal for her way of life) is the fact that she almost never do anything for free, always asking for monetary compensation (or any kind of compensation) for her help, though she can sometimes decide to refuse payment if something goes wrong during her task.
At the end of her journey, Atsu has become a kind and gentle aunt, peacefully raising her niece in the old family home, finally free of the hatred that has eaten away at her for so long.
Gameplay[]
Atsu is a lethal and vicious warrior, able to quickly adapt to different weapons and enemies. Unlike Jin who only used his katana (but multiple styles with it), yumi and ghost tools, Atsu can learn to use different weapons at a ludicrous speed, most of them taking between two or three days of teaching to get right. She quickly become a weapon mistress, mastering the Katana, Dual Katanas, Odachi, Yari, Kusarigama, and kunai at a frankly terrifying speed. She is also a good archer and learns instantly to use a tanegashima (and later, a pistol) with ease. Originally adequate at stealth, but far from the level of even the lowest rank of ninja, she quickly learns the basics under multiple teachers, allowing her to use her earing to detect hiding targets and animals and to throw multiple kunais and smoke bombs.
In term of fighting style, her main weapon is her katana, with which she's using a self taught, but effective and quick style. She can also use iaijutsu to draw quickly, breaking her opponent's guard. Contrary to Jin, she isn't a samurai and thus, doesn't have the same creed about honor. Because of this, she can use everything around her to win her fights, such as taking dropped or exposed weapons to use as projectiles to severely wound a target.
One of her main moves is the "onryō's howl". A stance that terrifies a single target when used, it allows Atsu to instantly kill them while they are cowering at her feet while also scaring others to submission for roughly ten seconds. During that time, she slowly walks toward her target with her arms spread, while the screen takes on a sepia color scheme. Later in the story, She can learn the Dance of Wrath, instantly slicing through three to four targets with ease. At some point in the story, she will automatically learn the Ghost Stance out of sheer hatred, using it to easily kill three targets while terrifying the others around her. Against a boss however, the Dance of Wrath and the stance are less effective, just dealing major damages instead of instantly killing.
She can also heal her wounds, or get back up by sheer willpower after taking what should have been a fatal blow. Although she must first learn how to do it at a shrine, she is seen doing it in the prologue after being stabbed by the Snake, which was witnessed by terrified villagers. It was this specific incident that earned Atsu her title of "Onryō".
Trivia[]
Videos[]
To be added
Gallery[]
.png "Atsu (2).png (1.78 MB)")
References[]
- ↑ In the wanted poster she is described as this age