Ghost of Yōtei developer Sucker Punch Productions is getting ready to launch the game later this week on PlayStation 5. As part of the marketing promotion, they joined a media roundtable where the series’ setting was discussed, among other things. As reported by Filipino website Ungeek, Sucker Punch studio head and founder Brian Fleming revealed that the setting will never really change to somewhere outside Japan:
We believe the core of Ghost is someone wielding a katana, that’s part of the essence. We can’t imagine a Ghost game set in, say, feudal Europe. That doesn’t make sense. There are plenty of games set there, but that’s not what a Ghost game is. For us, the natural beauty of Japan is part of the essence of a Ghost game. I gave this answer on stage at Tokyo Game Show, and I think the fans in Japan, really appreciated that. That’s the way we see it. It will always have that core, open-world katana adventure of some kind. Now, we may change time periods, we may explore different settings, but I think there are some boundaries we probably won’t cross.
If the core of the games is a character wielding a katana, then it also follows that the series is essentially bound to the samurai era, which started in the late 12th century and ended in the late 1870s, when the Meiji government basically abolished the samurai. Ghost of Tsushima already explored the late 13th century (it’s set in 1274, the same year of the real-life Mongol invasion), while Ghost of Yōtei jumped quite far ahead, taking place in 1603. Of course, the Seattle-based developer could absolutely set a new game elsewhere in Japan even before 1603, as the series has been set up more as an anthology than a storyline that continues from installment to installment. Furthermore, both games have been set far away from central Japan, so that’s another option that a future entry will undoubtedly explore.
Still, given those constraints, it’s hard to imagine the franchise ever reaching as many entries as, say, Final Fantasy, or even just The Elder Scrolls. It’s all the more reason to savor the games we get, though, and Ghost of Yōtei is certainly well worth playing if you’re a fan of open world action/adventure games. You can find my review here:
Ghost of Yōtei is a worthy sequel to the already excellent Ghost of Tsushima, building upon that game’s foundation with an equally interesting (albeit quite different) plot and select improvements to combat and open world exploration. It may feel a little too familiar, not to mention similar to the previous game, but that sensation is quickly forgotten amidst all the fun you’ll have in Ezo.
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