Sucker Punch Productions made waves across the world with Ghost of Tshushima, a samurai game that consulted with a real-world samurai, sold five million copies, the production of a film led by Chad Stahelski, an anime adaptation, and in many ways lived up to the quality PlayStation exclusives had at the time, if not elevated above them. Obviously, though, Sucker Punch isn't through with the IP, having revealed Ghost of Yotei late last year and its release earlier this week, there's still a lot more to uncover.
It seems Sucker Punch, which previously tinkered with other iconic PlayStation IPs, namely Sly Cooper and InFamous, before setting sights on the samurai game, is dubbing Ghost of Yotei as the studio's "most open world" game it's made. Creative director Nate Fox states that getting lost and letting the landscape and curiosity guide you, especially considering the game's Ezo period setting is this "holy moment."
“One of the greatest joys is just getting lost. You let your curiosity guide you through the landscape. We view that as this holy moment that we want to uplift players so they can feel very present inside Hokkaido or Ezo, as it was called back when our game takes place. Ezo is a character in and of itself, filled with hidden secrets and an anthology of stories.”
Piggybacking off of that, fellow creative director Jason Connell noted that it's "so wild and nature-filled" and that the team had to cherry-pick the best locations to feature and bring them alive for players to enjoy.
“It’s just so wild and nature-filled. There’s an opportunity to tell a slightly more wild and rural version of this story than if it was in a major city. There are so many biomes to bring to life and so many majestic and beautiful locations to take inspiration from. There’s no way we could take it all, so we get to cherry-pick some of the most beautiful locations and bring them alive to our players.”
Ghost of Yotei eyes an October 2 release with plans to support the PlayStation 5 Pro staple features on launch. Various goodies are available to those who pre-order, including PSN avatar sets and armors. There's also the Collector's Edition, which comes with physical memorabilia like an Atsu mask, sash, and a replica Tsuba. You'll also get a pouch of coins and instructions on how to play Zeni Hajiki, and more nice-to-have stuff for the inner collector out there.