After having wrapped up work on Ghost of Yōtei, Sucker Punch Productions has revealed quite a few details about the narrative of the open-world title. In an interview with Game Informer, lead writer Ian Ryan spoke about the ending for the title, and how it’s different from preceding title Ghost of Tsushima. As you might expect, there are going to be spoilers in the rest of this story, so if you haven’t yet played Ghost of Yōtei, we’d recommend not going further.
When it comes to the ending of Ghost of Yōtei, Ryan noted that Sucker Punch Productions had considered just about every idea it could come up with, including mimicking Ghost of Tsushima’s multiple endings. However, the studio ultimately decided to go for a singular ending to Atsu’s story, particularly in how it handled some of the choices that the protagonist had to make over the course of the game.
“I would say we considered everything for that ending,” said Ryan. “And we definitely looked to what worked and what we wanted to carry forward from Ghost [of Tsushima]. But ultimately, just really looking at the classic ending of where we wanted Atsu’s story to go, I felt like the true ending and the culmination of everything because of what she’s been through on this journey of revenge and healing.”
“We considered that she had to get to the end of this journey, and, we saw versions of the story that were a little happier. They were less happier ones that were more and more tragic. But, it was important to us to really talk about and show Atsu having to sacrifice some things and having to lose some things out of her control as much as she might try to.”
Ryan also acknowledged the fact that a single ending with no choices might go against the general ethos presented in the rest of Ghost of Yōtei, especially when it comes to player agency. However, with the ending, the studio wanted to make sure that some core themes of the story are touched upon, including the fact that Atsu can’t move ahead alongside her brother.
“So much of the game is about freedom and giving the player agency over their actions, and we really embraced that everywhere we could in the game,” he said. “But we wanted to, at the very end, show that ultimately the choices along the way led to this place where with Atsu, as much as she would love to carry her brother forward and help him, she can’t. And really, she’s in a way brought back to where she was at the very beginning, where she thought she had lost her brother.”
“We wanted to show her where she’d really had a moment to connect with him and have that emotional connection rebuild something that she thought she’d lost and was never going to find. And then also just putting Atsu in that position where she now is with her niece, who she never knew existed until recently. And having to carry that forward and having to also think about Jubei’s ‘fight for the living’ mantra, how she’s going to live up to her brother’s standards and carry his spirit with her even as she is not with him anymore.”
As much as the studio would have liked to offer player more choices, and even see some of the other characters making it through the story of Ghost of Yōtei, including Jubei, Ryan acknowledged that “ultimately, the story didn’t lead us there.” Along with this, the studio didn’t want to just give players a choice to make “just for choice’s sake in that moment of all moments.”
Ghost of Yōtei is available on PS5. Check out our review for more details.
