The Gender Backlash Divide: Why Ghost of Yōtei Faced Outrage While Hollow Knight: Silksong and Hades 2 Got a Free Pass

In 2025, the gaming landscape witnessed a curious phenomenon. Three highly anticipated sequels — Hollow Knight: Silksong, Hades 2, and Ghost of Yōtei — all arrived to critical and commercial success, each pivoting from a male protagonist to a female lead. Yet, only one became a lightning rod for online backlash. This divergence reveals more about the current state of gaming discourse than any review score ever could.

Hollow Knight: Silksong, the long-awaited follow-up to the 2017 indie darling, stars Hornet, a nimble warrior with a needle-thin blade. Hades 2 places players in the role of Melinoë, the underworld princess and sister of the original’s Zagreus. Both titles earned universal praise, with Metacritic aggregates hovering around 92. Ghost of Yōtei, the successor to Ghost of Tsushima, introduced Atsu, a wandering swordsman in 17th-century Hokkaido, and still managed an 88 despite a very different reception online.

When Ghost of Yōtei was first revealed during a Sony showcase in 2024, a familiar chorus of discontent erupted. High-profile streamers and their followers questioned the necessity of playing as a woman. The phrasing was often reductive — one prominent personality famously asked, “Do I have to play as a girl?” — but the sentiment echoed across forums and comment sections. The game was branded as “political,” a perceived imposition of an agenda onto a blockbuster franchise. This pattern had already repeated with titles like The Witcher 4, Star Wars Outlaws, and Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. For a vocal minority of players, a male protagonist is the unmarked default, and any deviation must justify itself against an invisible standard of neutrality.

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