Ghost of Yōtei: Ezo in 1603

Ghost of Yōtei opens at Atsu's family home on the Yōtei Plain. As a girl she watches the Yōtei Six, led by Nariaki Saito, murder her family there and leave her for dead; the game's southern region, Yotei Grasslands, is modelled on the Chitose area. Sixteen years later she returns and kills the first of the Six, the drunk Snake, in a backwater village. The plain's real anchor is Lake Shikotsu, a deep caldera lake inside Shikotsu-Tōya National Park, and the story ends back at the family home, where she pins Saito to the ginkgo tree.

Location precision: The family home is invented; the pin marks Lake Shikotsu, the named real lake in the game's Yōtei Grasslands.

Visitor guidance: The lake lies in Chitose, Hokkaidō, inside Shikotsu-Tōya National Park.

The game takes its name from this cone. Mount Yōtei rises over Shikotsu-Tōya National Park, and Sucker Punch chose Hokkaido after seeing it reflected across Lake Tōya on a research trip. In the game it is one of the regions Atsu crosses, and she can actually climb to the summit. The Ainu, Hokkaido's indigenous people, have long held the mountain sacred. The real Mount Yōtei is an active stratovolcano, and its hiking trails climb to the summit.

Visitor guidance: The real Mount Yōtei is in Shikotsu-Tōya National Park; visitors can hike its trails.

Atsu's hunt for the Oni unrolls across the Ishikari Plain. She finds her brother Jubei alive here, now a Matsumae clan samurai, and the two storm the Oni's stronghold, Ishikari Castle: they free the prisoners, kill the Oni and burn the castle down. The game's plain takes its name from the real Ishikari Plain of western Hokkaido, in the area of present-day Ishikari city.

Location precision: The plain is a region rather than one site; the pin marks the area around present-day Ishikari city.

Between the Tokachi Range and Teshio Ridge lies the Nayoro Wilds, the game's Ainu country. Ainu villagers live here, and an elder named Fuchi reads Atsu at a glance and calls her a lost wanderer. Sucker Punch consulted the local Ainu people and visited cultural sites while making the game. The region takes its name from Nayoro, a city in the north of Hokkaido.

Location precision: The wilds are a region; the pin marks Nayoro, the real city the game's Nayoro Wilds is named after.

This is the game's far north: Teshio Ridge, a land of deep snow where the cold itself drains Atsu's strength. The region belongs to the Kitsune, master of the Nine-Tails shinobi, whose fortress brews a wolfsbane poison. Atsu joins the shamisen player Oyuki to break the operation. Its real counterpart is the Wakkanai area, at the northern tip of Hokkaido.

Location precision: The game's Teshio Ridge is a region; the pin marks the Wakkanai area, its real counterpart.

Saito's sons hold the Tokachi Range: the disciplined Dragon and the cruel Spider, with their men across the region. Atsu and Jubei try to ambush the Dragon at a lighthouse, and Atsu later captures the Spider as he stages a play that re-enacts the Night of the Burning Tree. The region is modelled on the Yūbari and Furano area, and it is also where Saito keeps his clan's burial grounds.

Location precision: The range is a region; the pin marks the Yūbari and Furano area, which the game's Tokachi-ga-mine corresponds to.

First built in 1606, three years after the game's story is set, Matsumae Castle is the northernmost castle in Japan and the only Edo-period castle in Hokkaido — the seat of the Matsumae clan, who rule Ezo for the Shogun and make war on Saito in the game. Jubei brings his daughter Kiku here for safety; the clan then stages the Spider's public execution to lure out the Dragon, only for Saito to counterattack. The castle is destroyed, and Jubei and Oyuki are left missing.

Visitor guidance: Matsumae Castle stands in the town of Matsumae, Hokkaido.