Discussing Ghost of Yōtei’s Lord Saito with Actor Feodor Chin: ‘He and Atsu Are Really Two Sides of the Same Coin’

Ghost of Yōtei is undoubtedly the biggest PlayStation exclusive of 2025. Sure, there was also Death Stranding 2, but Kojima's franchise is quite a bit more niche, despite the Hollywood stars, compared to the mainstream appeal attained by Ghost of Yōtei's predecessor, Ghost of Tsushima, which set new PS4 first-party sales records when it launched in 2020.

It's early days still, but the new open-world action/adventure game developed by Sucker Punch Productions seems to be selling almost as quickly as the previous franchise entry, according to the first sales estimates, despite an unfavorable comparison with the PS4 install base and the COVID-19-induced stay-at-home mandates. The game is also just as great as Tsushima. I dove deeply into my 60-hour experience with it in Wccftech's official review, which rated the game 8.8 out of 10.

That was all the more reason to be excited when we learned about the opportunity to interview the actor behind Lord Saito, the iconic main villain of Ghost of Yōtei and leader of the Yōtei Six: Feodor Chin. The American actor has a long track record with videogames (his credits in the industry started all the way with the original World of Warcraft) and was also featured as Lord Adachi in Ghost of Tsushima. Furthermore, Chin has appeared on recent TV shows like Secret Level, Love, Death & Robots, and Marvel Zombies.

First of all, Feodor, thank you for being here with us. I've noticed that you have done a lot of work for television as well, TV series and stuff like that, so I wanted to ask you if you'd like to tell us a bit about the differences in your work when you're voicing a character for a game compared to voicing a character for a TV show, for example.

Well, I believe that, regardless of the medium, you know, the approach is always the same, how you approach a character. I think your job as an actor is to serve the writer and to serve the story, and so that's always going to be the same, but I think to me the major difference is that for television or film, the viewer is a largely passive kind of audience, but for video games, the player is an active participant. Because of that, for you as the actor, I think at times it means your performance, while still always grounded in reality, I think it can and even needs to be made dialed up a little bit, because you want to engage the player, and so that to me would be the major difference between acting for television and film and as opposed to a video.

Okay, so gaming characters need to be more intense, is that it?

Maybe. I guess intensity might be one way to put it, but I think it's just maybe more actively engaged. Sometimes, you're actually instructing or commanding the player to do something, and so that requires a little more than you might ordinarily put in the delivery.

Interesting. Are you a gamer?

Definitely. I don't know if I'd call myself a gamer, but I do enjoy video games like just about anybody. I think it's mostly because I'm not great at them. You know, my hand-eye coordination has never been fantastic, but I certainly enjoy playing a game or two, but usually on easy difficulty. To me, it's supposed to be a relaxing, enjoyable experience. I just don't understand why you would want to have frustration in your relaxing times, but yeah, I do enjoy playing video games for sure.

Specifically regarding the Ghost series, I know that before Ghost of Yōtei, you were also in Ghost of Tsushima, right?

Yes, that's right.

Did you play either of these games?

I did. Well, Sony was kind enough to give the cast a free download. If you recall, I think that Ghost of Tsushima really came out at maybe the perfect time. It was kind of right at the start of COVID-19, and so everyone was at home. I had nothing but time on my hands, and I must admit that for about a month, I made my wife a Tsushima widow, because I was just playing just all day long for about a month there until I finally finished it. I remember getting to the end and not wanting to kill Khotun Khan because I didn't want the game to end.

It was just a terrific game, and I'm not just saying that cause I was in it. I think it's actually just a really fun game and perfect for the kind of player that I am. Like I said, on easy mode, I just, you know, went around. I really enjoyed the stealth kills, like coming up behind somebody and just slitting their throat.

Yeah, they're great games for sure. With Ghost of Yōtei, you'll have an extra motivation not to finish the game because then you'd have to kill yourself, right?

That's right! *laughs*

Seriously, though, compared to the first game where you played Lord Adachi, Lord Saito is obviously a very different character. Can you go into how you played these roles in the two games?

Yeah. Well, certainly with Lord Adachi, he had this great reputation of being the finest swordsman in all of Japan. He was presented as this real badass, and then, you know, no spoilers because it happens immediately, and it's been about five years, but yeah, he just gets killed immediately, and it may be in the most disgraceful way possible.

Certainly, the big difference is that Lord Saito lives for a while longer and has a lot more to do, that's for sure. Aside from that, it's always a great time to play a bad guy, the villain and final boss. As far as acting, you never want to judge a character. True villains never think of themselves as the bad guys. Their motivations and their actions are perfectly justified in their minds, and you just have to figure out what those are for you so you can play them honestly.

For the whole game, Atsu is like, I need to kill Lord Saito, I have to kill this kind of demon that killed my family, but as you say, of course, from his perspective, he was just doing what was right after Atsu's father had left his retinue.

Absolutely. I think they really are, Lord Saito and Atsu, kind of two sides of the same coin, because they have similar motivations. They're kind of motivated by revenge and so it's an interesting dichotomy between the two characters.

During the final battle in Ghost of Yotei, Lord Saito - you - even said something like, we are the same.

Yeah.

I guess the difference is that in the end, Atsu lets go of all that rage.

She does, and I think that's an important lesson. You don't want to be consumed by your need for revenge.

Well said. I also wanted to ask: what was the process for your work like? Did you work remotely or in a studio?

No, that was all in the studio, certainly. We did the cinematics at the Santa Monica studio, a full motion capture session, which is always fun. You get in the suit and you have the props and whatnot, you get to run around. We didn't do any real sword fighting, but there was certainly a little bit of stage fighting kind of stuff, and that's always a good time. And then the video sessions, those were all done in the studio as well.

Was it the same for Ghost of Tsushima before COVID?

Yeah, that was also all in person. I wasn't involved with the Ghost of Tsushima DLC (Iki Island). I think maybe that one might have been remote.

Fair enough. I see that you also have credits for many other games, such as Overwatch 2 and others. Are you looking forward to working on more videogame characters in the future after Ghost of Yōtei?

Yeah, always. In particular, I've really grown to enjoy doing motion capture. It's certainly challenging at first, but I think now I really, really enjoy it. Motion capture stretches you as an actor, but yeah, I am always open to more games, especially now that they're so cinematic. They're the new movies, really.

I just have a final question. I guess this is a bit more of a controversial topic, but also very interesting. What do you think about the usage of AI in your line of work? Can it be used somehow, or should it be banned outright?

I think, like with any technology, there is a place for AI as a tool, but I don't think it should ever be a replacement for human beings. I certainly don't know enough about the technology to say for certain, but to me, when it comes to games or movies or television or any kind of media, I think what audiences and what gamers want, what they are reacting to is this human connection that they feel either with the voice actors or other players, and that's something that I don't think AI could ever replace because it's other human beings looking for a human connection. That's what it's all about.

AI can mimic a voice pretty well these days, but it definitely doesn't have the range of expressions.

It doesn't have the humanity for sure, and I think that's what really affects people in these performances.

Absolutely. Congratulations on your outstanding performance as Lord Saito and thank you for your time.

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