Earlier this week, Sucker Punch confirmed that Ghost of Yotei would last roughly as long as Ghost of Tsushima. Now, in another pre-release interview, the Seattle-based development studio has discussed the map size.
Speaking with Automaton Media, Sucker Punch revealed to have adopted the same vision. They didn't want to have to produce filler content for a much larger map. However, they did make sure to make the map feel grander, which is appropriate since this setting is much larger in real life than that of the previous game.
Jason Connell, Co-Director of Ghost of Yotei, explained:
Even though the map is roughly the same size, Hokkaido is obviously much larger than Tsushima in real life, so we concentrated our efforts on making the world appear larger than it actually is. You’ll see vast plains and massive mountain ranges towering in the background. This is all scenery that wasn’t as present in Tsushima, and it’s designed to help players feel the scale of things.
If we did that [doubled the size of the map], we’d have to fill the map with twice the content, and that content would need to be meaningful so as to not tire the player. Ghost of Tsushima was already a big enough game, so rather than upscaling just for the sake of it, we chose to focus on delivering more variety and higher quality while maintaining a similar scale.
The development team also improved exploration gameplay in various ways:
Ghost of Yotei includes various systems and details aimed at making exploration feel free and rewarding. For example, running through flowers increases your movement speed, and if you follow these flower trails, you might discover hidden secrets. We’ve also added new items like telescopes and binoculars to allow players to enjoy the scenery. All these details work together to ensure that players won’t get bored even on a large map.
Ghost of Yotei launches on October 2 for Sony's PlayStation 5 console.
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