Lord Nariaki Saito is the main antagonist of 2025 videogame Ghost of Yotei. He is the Lord of the fallen Saito clan and the Yotei Six.
He is responsible for the death of the parents of the sibling Atsu and Jubei, setting up their quest for vengeance against him.
Background[]
At some point prior to 1587, Saito was the lord of Clan Saito, and was friends (at least, from his perspective) with a man named Kengo, who was a talented blacksmith and retainer of the clan, and who had personally forged Saito's katana.
Saito participated in the Battle of Nagashino and fought on the losing side (historically, the Takeda clan), where his horse and several of his generals were killed and left unrecognizable and he came to realize that firearms were the future of warfare.
After the clan's defeat at Nagashino, Kengo decided to cut his losses and leave, unknowingly triggering a series of mass desertions and betrayals, during which all of the clan's allies abandoned them one by one. As a result, Saito's clan found itself heavily in debt and struck by a famine, with his youngest daughter Fumi dying of starvation when she was just learning to walk, while his wife killed herself rather than live without her daughter; following their deaths, he tried everything to feel close to them again, such as singing songs, writing poetry and painting their portraits to remember their faces, although his efforts failed. The remaining members of the clan were forced into exile, traveling to Ezo to rebuild their lives and engaging in banditry to survive, leading to the formation of the Yōtei Six, a group of bandits who were the former members of Clan Saito and comprising his two sons the Spider and the Dragon, a slimy thug and opium addict known as the Snake, a former samurai known as the Oni, and a female shinobi warrior named Oyuki, who was known as the Kitsune. At an unknown time following the deaths of his wife and daughter, he encountered Hanbei, a dual katana master and the greatest bounty hunter in all of Ezo, who challenged him to a duel; Saito came out victorious, taking Hanbei's left arm to permanently cripple him and ensure his bounty hunting days were over.
At some point in 1587, Saito encountered young twins Atsu and Jubei in the woods during a hunting trip. Apparently saving them from a wolf by scaring it off with his pistol, he helped them find mushrooms before the girl explained that her father was a blacksmith, attracting his attention because his katana apparently needed repairs. At the time, he was unaware that the children were actually Kengo's, so he was kind to them, giving them advice on where to find mushrooms and walking them home. Alas, he then recognized Kengo and his wife and came back at night with his men to make an example out of them, finally taking his revenge over his friend's betrayal.
Despite claiming that the massacre was only in the name of making an example out of those who betrayed him, Saito would needlessly draw out the entire ordeal, so long in fact that by the time the massacre was over, it was already night time; the Oni began by killing Kengo with his katana after savagely beating him at the cost of getting slashed across the face and having his mask broken by Atsu, while Saito himself personally hanged Yone from the family's sacred ginkgo tree while forcing Atsu to watch, ordering Oyuki to take the child to him. However, Oyuki couldn't stomach the idea of harming a helpless child, so she cut her loose and ordered her to run, much to Saito's disappointment; however, the comfort wouldn't last for long, as the Spider and Dragon arrived not long after and shot Jubei in the chest, sending him tumbling off a cliff before dragging Atsu away with them.
After Yone, Kengo and Jubei were all dead, the Yōtei Six cornered Atsu against the burning ginkgo tree as she looked at the butchered remains of her parents, who lay dead on the ground in front of her. Saito stood in the middle of the group, with the Snake at his left, Oyuki next to him, the Oni flanking Saito's right with a torch in his hand, a scar across his face and the left half of his mask broken, the Dragon to the Oni's right with a tanegashima rifle in his hands, and the Spider to his brother's right with a tanzutsu pistol over his shoulder. The Snake was the only one of Saito's five subordinates to say anything, asking Saito what they would do with the child as the others stood around without saying a word; in response, Saito repeated his earlier words about making an example out of the family, approaching Atsu with Kengo's katana in his hand as she tried to defend herself with a tree branch that she'd picked up. Crouching to the child's level and frightening her enough to make her back up against the tree and freeze in terror, Saito apologized to her for the situation having come to this, taking Kengo's katana and stabbing Atsu in the left shoulder with it to pin her to the tree. As she screamed and struggled in pain, Saito held up his hand as if to comfort her, before turning around and cocking his head to the Oni, signaling him to burn her alive with the torch he was holding; the Oni wasn't comfortable with the idea of setting a child on fire, but still went along with it anyway as Saito walked off, with the Dragon sparing his father a glance as the Oni approached the tree and threw the torch to the ground. As Saito departed the burning homestead, while shedding tears of possible regret over the fact he was forced to kill someone he viewed as a friend and then torture his daughter both physically and with the knowledge that her family was dead, Oyuki quietly joined Saito in leaving, and they were joined by the Dragon, who was holding his tanegashima rifle, and the Spider who had his pistol on his shoulder, none of whom uttered a single word. After the Oni threw the torch at the tree and left, the Snake stayed behind to give Atsu a sadistic laugh under his mask before he also walked away, leaving Atsu pinned to the tree and screaming in frustration, pain and grief over losing everything; unbeknownst to any of the Yōtei Six, Atsu managed to pry herself loose from the tree before she could be set on fire, burying her parents under the tree in the immediate aftermath and spending days looking for her brother, who, unbeknownst to her, had somehow survived being shot by the Dragon and was found and then nursed back to health by samurai from the Matsumae clan.
Ghost of Yotei[]
At some point following the massacre, Saito privately punished Oyuki for her refusal to kill Atsu, branding her arm with his clan symbol; he also forced her not to scream during the process, with the implication that the other Yōtei Six members would sexually assault her if they realized she was a woman. After this, Oyuki abandoned the Yōtei Six and the identity of the Kitsune (which was soon taken by her student Dojun), becoming a traveling shamisen performer.
After the massacre, Saito and his group began to quickly take control of Ezo, attracting a massive following from all over the island, including peasantry, ronin, mercenaries, local Ainu people, bandits and even women, much to the chagrin of his noble-born followers such as his sons. Unfortunately for him and his men, Atsu survived the Night of the Burning Tree and returned sixteen years later to seek revenge on the Yōtei Six for murdering her family, starting with the assassination of the Snake. Of course, Saito immediately put a bounty on her head, but he was unaware at the time who was attacking his men. He only realized this after meeting her in person at his training fortress in the marshlands. Expressing surprise at her survival, he accepted to duel her to the death, but an attack from the Matsumae clan ended their fight before it could even be concluded.
Later, his army, commanded by his sons, attacked the coast of Oshima and inflicted heavy damage on the Matsumae clan, resulting in the destruction of their castle and the capture of Jubei and Oyuki. Unfortunately, his eldest son and heir (the Dragon) was murdered by Atsu in the chaos. In his rage and grief, Saito disowned the Spider for his incompetence, capture and inability to save his brother, daring him to drink himself to death after telling him to bury his brother. This decision unfortunately ended up biting him, as his son betrayed his castle's position to Atsu out of spite and grief, allowing her to free her brother and friend and destroy the fortress while fleeing.
Having lost everything again and with nothing left to lose, Saito decided to return to his old friend's homestead, taking Jubei's daughter Kiku hostage and forcing Atsu to fight him in a duel. Although he ended up mortally wounding Jubei in the struggle, he was ultimately defeated by Atsu, who impaled him to the same tree he had nailed her to sixteen years prior, using both his katana and her own. With his last words, the dying Saito told Atsu that she would be alone without her brother and suggested she come and join him in death; no longer caring about her vengeance, Atsu ignored him to tend to the dying Jubei, leaving Saito to die alone, forgotten and miserable.
Gallery[]
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 Villains
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Tsushima Iki Island Legends Clan Saito/Yōtei Six Oni Raiders Bounty Board Others | ||