Ghost of Yōtei is undoubtedly an impressive game thanks to its large open world and gripping story. When it comes to the former, however, Sucker Punch Productions used interesting trickery to make players think that the world is actually larger than Ghost of Tsushima without it actually being the case. As caught by GamesRadar, art director Joanna Wang spoke about the world’s design during a GDC 2026 panel, noting that the studio focused more on how big the game’s world should feel, rather than how big it actually is.
“Instead of asking how big it is, we started thinking about how big it should feel,” she said. “We’re not making a one-to-one copy, we are building a fictional version of Ezo. So we studied the island shape, mountains, coastline, ocean, and the horizon. We use a lot of them as the backdrop to help sell the scale.”
Sucker Punch Productions made use of clever tricks, like narrow paths connecting the large open fields that make up its six regions. Through this “contrast between openness and confinement,” the studio was able to make players’ exploration feel more impactful. “In the end, the actual playable space wasn’t larger than Ghost of Tsushima, but it feels larger.”
Interestingly, co-directors Nate Fox and Jason Connell had spoken about how initial prototypes for Ghost of Yōtei even included rock-climbing mechanics in the vein of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. During a panel, they revealed that the team often works on prototyping small ideas before making final decisions on whether or not they make sense for the full game. Rock climbing, unfortunately, didn’t fit the “wandering ronin” fantasy that Sucker Punch Productions was aiming for.
“If something is not going well, we can be like ‘does that make you feel like a wandering ronin?’ And if the answer is no and it’s a sucky feature, then why are you working on it? Just move on,” said Connell.
Fox, on the other hand, noted that Ghost of Yōtei would have featured too many unclimbable surfaces, which would run counter to the rock climbing system and the feeling of freedom the studio wanted to promote. “We got right in there and started prototyping,” he said, before noting that “if we gave you a tool that said you can climb anywhere, and you started using it and you found bupkiss, it pretty much trains you to stop climbing, because exploration wasn’t worth it.”
Back in November, Connell had also spoken about wanting to expand the environmental storytelling of Ghost of Yōtei through a system that would allow players to get flashbacks for Atsu’s story anywhere in the world. However, the idea was ultimately scrapped since it would involve the studio having to essentially double the amount of art it needed to make.
Ghost of Yōtei was released exclusively on PS5 back in October 2025. The title has seen positive reception from critics as well as players. For more details, check out our review. Also take a look at its co-op multiplayer Legends mode, which was released as a free update earlier this week. Sucker Punch Productions has also confirmed that it will be getting a raid as part of another free update in April.
