Ghost of Tsushima: "We wanted players not only focus on the interface"

[Bread Pitt]

After a generation devoted to the inFamous series, Sucker Punch launched a new challenge several years ago: launch a new license taking place in the heart of feudal Japan. While Ghost of Tsushima will be released in less than two months in our countries, we were able to meet with its game director, Nate Fox, who returned for us on what we can expect from the next title of the American studio.

If the pre-production of the project dates back to the arrival of Infamous Second Son, its true origins prove to be much older according to Nate Fox, since they are directly linked to his previous work and a series of Comics highlighting scene of anthropomorphic characters:

When I was working on Sly Racoon, I wrote the dialogues for the characters and I tried to better understand how to give personality to “animals”. I was reading in parallel a Comic about the samurai named Usagi Yojimbo (whose hero is a Samurai rabbit, editor's note) and I fell in love with Samurai stories and genre films. So I thought it would be a fantastic space for an open world video game. When we were done with the inFamous series and were looking for something new, it seemed like a good choice and we were excited to make this dream come true.

When it comes to talking about the works that inspired him and his team to develop Ghost of Tsushima, Nate Fox is not stingy with words: in addition to Usagi Yojimbo and Lone Wolf and Cub, the classic “The Seven Samurais ”or the most recent“ 13 Assassins ”thus served as a visual reference to create this new universe. The reference goes even further for the first city, since the creator of Usagi Yojimbo, Stan Sakai, saw his last name here taken over by the hero of the game, Jin Sakai. A way like any other for Nate Fox to "take his hat off to this Comics who had an important influence" .

EXPLORATION AND CREATION OF TSUSHIMA ISLAND
If these references were visible during the State of Play only during the last part, devoted to the photo mode and the option allowing to pass the title in black and white, another point was much more during all the sequences previous gameplay: the sleek character of the interface. A point that did not necessarily emerge from their previous experience in the open world, but on which the team has focused here:

We really wanted the players to get lost in Tsushima Island and look at the world, not the interface, and realize that they are really at the top of a hill with their horse behind them. All of that means you have to get rid of interface elements, and instead look for things that are natural in this world, like the guiding wind that gives us a destination or a bird that catches your eye to take you to a new place.

This decision could, he hopes, “transport you to feudal Japan” . The island of Tsushima itself has been the subject of very special attention, and obviously takes up the “form” as well as the “names of different localities” from its real version, like Izuhara, which we pointed out in our latest video on the 7 details you may have missed from Ghost of Tsushima . Despite a certain fidelity to the original material, Nate Fox recognizes, however, that the team has allowed itself some freedoms in order to offer players elements little present in the original landscape:

We wanted to capture the essence of the place, but it is not a stone-by-stone remodeling of the island. In fact, we have even taken landscapes from the main Japanese territories to create a lot of diversity. We see waterfalls, thick bamboo forests, old mountain peaks, all this to bring diversity to the player and bring him this experience of Japan of the time.

Ghost of Tsushima
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Beyond the landscapes, animals will also be an important part of the adventure, which was particularly emphasized by the last State of Play by honoring birds or foxes. But if a part of the fauna is harmless, even likely to guide the player, another will obviously be more aggressive, like the Bear briefly seen in the last gameplay video. Asked about the possibility of using animal behavior against the Mongol invader, Nate Fox did not want to expand, but still signaled that if we are “smart enough to find out how to do it, the bear will be able to totally attack the mongols for us ”. Animal attacks will obviously not be scripted, and it is not the only “moving” element of the island, which will also benefit from a day / night cycle and dynamic weather.

JIN SAKAI, FROM THE SAMURAI TO THE GHOST
By detailing various points of the scenario and the game mechanics of Ghost of Tsushima, Sucker Punch brought an interesting clarification concerning the character of Jin Sakai: trained as a Samurai, he will have to adapt his behavior with the arrival of the Mongols on his island and adopt here the status of “ghost”, linked to the fear it arouses among the Mongols. We wanted to know if this script element was also taken into account controller in hand with the gradual arrival of infiltration mechanics , which Nate Fox confirmed to us:

Jin begins the game as a Samurai and has no undercover abilities, as he considers it to be disreputable. Then he learns new skills of discretion, new weapons, new ways of moving, which is an integral part of his transformation as a ghost.

Ghost of Tsushima​

While confirming that Jin would learn to become a “ghost” in terms of gameplay, the game director of Ghost of Tsushima nevertheless wanted to clarify a specific point: despite this scriptural twist offering a new point of view to the character, the player remains free to approach once in play.

We never force the player to play one way or another, you may very well have a player who is focused on mastering the sword, and who continues to play that way. I personally like to step back and kill enemies with my bow, but if a player chooses a more discreet approach, he can spend skill points on a traditional skill tree while improving his armor in parallel. The story focuses on transforming Jin into a ghost, and being a ghost is not just hitting people in the back, it is a status related to the people of Tsushima, being their savior and arousing fear among the Mongols.

This fear is also materialized by a gauge reflecting the reputation of Jin Sakai, which you can fill by gradually liberating the island. Asked about the usefulness of the secondary objectives seen at the top left of the screen on certain phases of the last State of Play, Nate Fox also taught us that “if we can complete bonus objectives, the legend of Jin as that ghost will grow faster ” .