Sucker Punch have developed some pretty large games over the past decade with multiple inFamous entries, but apparently, their next game, the upcoming Ghost of Tsushima, is going to be even larger. In the words of the game’s creative director Jason Connell, it is by far the largest game Sucker Punch have ever made.
“It’s a lot bigger [than InFamous: Second Son],” Connell said to IGN. “It’s definitely Sucker Punch’s biggest game we’ve ever made by a landslide, both in the amount of stuff that’s in it and also just sheer landscape, square footage-wise.”
Talking more about the game’s size and its length – which co-director Nate Fox recently said can go up to 40-50 hours with side content – Connell said that giving a concrete answer to that question can be hard, considering that different players might approach it differently. Some might prefer to stick to the story, while others might be more into exploring the world and seeing everything it has to offer. What Connell did say that while designing Ghost of Tsushima, Sucker Punch made sure to create a game that catered to both kinds of players.
Clearly, the game’s world is a large one- but what about environmental diversity? According to Connell, that was something else that Sucker Punch focused on quite a bit. “We try really hard from an art direction perspective to make [each area] feel distinctly different and try not to muddy things up,” he said. “And while that may feel a little bit loud, when you approach it, it feels very memorable. I can remember where it is, I can see it from everywhere on the island. And that’s important to us because the island’s big and so, and we’re not putting markers all over the place, so you have to come up with other visual anchors to keep your directionality intact.”
Finally, Connell stated that given the story-centric nature of the game, its introduction is a very guided experience, as it sets up its story, Jin’s personal arc, the world, and more. Following that, however, the game opens up.
“As a story as big as ours and a game as big as ours, it is incredibly important to us that people understand Jin’s journey first,” Connell said. “It’s a lot to take in. So the first part, we want to make sure that you understand who he is, what’s happened to this island. So there’s a little bit of setup. It’s really important to do that before we just open the flood gates. But then once you get to that point, then it’s pretty open.”
Something else that the developers recently confirmed is that unlike the inFamous games, Ghost of Tsushima does not have karma system, and instead chooses to tell a set, focused story. Meanwhile, new details on its combat, side activities, and more were also recently released- read more on that through here.
Ghost of Tsushima releases for the PS4 on July 17.