As time goes by, more and more open world games love to give us pastime in the form of mini games. I mean not just to go too little karaoke in as a dragon: infinite fortune or by picking up some insurance fraud in Saints Row 2, I talk about sitting down and playing a real table game in a virtual environment.
These enclosures will often be a way for your character to play money, or can bind to a larger overall line of mission. Think Queen's Blood in Final Fantasy 7, or Gwent in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Hell, Gwent even became his own game.
Sucker Punch's Ghost of Yotei is the latest open world title that includes a mini -game in the table top, in the form of Zeni Hajiki. You will be introduced to the game in a side mission, as you help a lonely Ronin to take back their sake house and play it from Saito's bandits. After that, you will learn how to play through a memory with ATSU and her mother before she really plays.
Accepting playing the game also offers a little more insight into Atsus's family, and winning will reward you with a special charm.
For starters, it seemed extremely easy. And honestly it is. But that didn't stop me from being connected immediately.
Zeni Hajiki uses both phsyics and strategy
In this game there are many identical coins that sit on a table. There will also often be pots placed around the table, form obstacles or enable strategic traits.
A starting player must choose a coin to flip along the table and aim to meet one of the other coins to assert it. But if either coin ends up with a third coin, you will come over to the next player. You also have to skip if you fail to hit any coins, or if a coin you hit falls from the table, in which case the other player will now also own that coin and get a point. The game ends when a player owns enough coins.
Okay, so there is any strategy there, but it sounds pretty simple as far as the rules and depth go, right? But the strategy feels much more engaging to play with when you are actually at the table, and it is mostly thanks to the physics involved.
Beat the coin in another coin, but don't beat it too hard or too little. Also beat at the right angle for what you want, but there is no magical line showing you the track. Do you want to avoid another coin? Bounce one coin in another? Maybe even bounce a coin from a pot to redirect it in more difficult scenarios? All it is about predicting the angle and how hard you pull the trigger on your controller.
Happiness has nothing to do with it. Many of these games come down to Chance or RNG, but every game in Zeni Hajiki can be won before your opponent even has a chance to play if you plan your strategy properly. It gives an incredibly refreshing experience, and despite its simplicity, I just want to play every chance I get when I travel over the EZO.
There is something with games within games
When I start a new game with an open world and get stuck, there is something so exciting about finding a small board game or symbols set on a table before the inevitable “Let me teach you how to play!” From the friendly local who may or may not try to swindle you.
Last year was the Final Fantasy 7 Rebirths Queen's Blood that got me in its grip. I didn't stop playing until I had beaten every opponent in the game and become a champion for the whole questline. Earlier this year it was Farkle in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, after starting to lose the little coin I had tried to play for a decent meal. It does not matter how deep the game is or how much focus that the assignments put on it; If it's good I'm inside.
Now, as I continue on my long journey for revenge in Ghost of Yotei, I'm sure I will make many stops along the way to play a game or two. Or three. Or maybe just stay there forever. Vengeance is not always healthy, do you know? But games are.
Ghost of Yotei
4.0/5
- Published
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October 2, 2025
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / blood and gore, drug reference, intense violence, language, partial nudity, use of alcohol
- Publisher
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Sony Interactive Entertainment
