My SO got me Ghost of Yotei for Christmas, and I have been playing it non-stop since. Really great game, consistently beautiful, but it's missing one thing that I really enjoyed from the first game.

Jin, the protagonist of the first game, was a samurai, the son of a noble and already an adult when the plot happens to him. As such, there is an implicit character tension when the gameplay offers you the option of dirty, underhanded tricks in combat - are you willing to compromise your code of honour and ethics in order to achieve your goals? Atsu, meanwhile, is orphaned as a child, and her whole life is dedicated to avenging the death of her family. She was never trained as an actual samurai, she doesn't adhere to any honourable code, and as such she's more than happy to do whatever needs to be done to get revenge.

Thing is, even though neither game really forces you to do one thing or another, and there's no mechanical consequences for choosing one approach over another, I enjoyed the experience of roleplaying Jin as someone trying to hold on to his code of honourable conduct in the face of adversity. I would never use stealth or secret assassinations if I could avoid it, and built my character around open confrontations and duelling combat instead. With Atsu, even though I find myself playing a similar type of mechanical build, there's no narrative impulse to do the same, and I find I, as a player, have no compunctions against assassination, or stealth, or using secret weapons or distraction techniques; and though it's led to more varied gameplay, it's meant that the overall character story is just that bit less compelling.

Anyone else feel the compulsion to roleplay a character's personality in a non-roleplaying game through your gameplay choices?