As one of the biggest upcoming games of the year, Ghost of Tsushima’s release is something a lot of people are looking forward to, so it makes sense that developers Sucker Punch are trying to ensure that it can be enjoyed by as many people as possible. One of the ways they’re doing that is with their approach to difficulty.
During an interview with The Washington Post, Ghost of Tsushima’s creative director and art director Jason Connell said that the game will have multiple difficulty levels for players to choose from.
“So, first of all, we do have difficulty,” Connell said. “If the game is too easy and you want it to be a much more challenging experience, you can take it up a notch. If you find the game is a little too hard, you can take it down. Again, this is an effort to try to get as many players as possible.”
Connell also said that Sucker Punch have tried to strike the right balance between the game being too easy and too challenging, because in either of those two cases, they could easily turn away a lot of players very quickly.
“t can’t be so hard that you give up in the first 15 minutes,” he said. “That would be very frustrating for a lot of people who have a lot to gain from playing the game because they love this medium or this genre. But it also can’t be so easy that there’s no challenge to some of our biggest, most hardcore fans.”
The developers have gone on record saying that the game’s combat in particular is going to be very challenging, so it should be interesting to see how they handle that. Either way, a game being more accessible is always a good thing, so it’s great to know that Ghost of Tsushima will have difficulty options (but not really surprising, considering Sony’s track record).
Ghost of Tsushima is out for the PS4 on July 17.