Ghost of Tsushima has already set July 17, 2020 as its release date on PlayStation 4. What’s new in Sucker Punch, in addition to offering us an immense world to travel freely, and also the possibility of playing it as we want, it is seeking to offer a very close history. Despite its historical context and its location, what this title wants to do with the player is to immerse it fully in a plot full of sacrifices, in one that will connect with Jin, the protagonist.
In an interview with LEVEL UPThe game’s creative director Jason Connell has explained that the team’s primary goal with this storyline is not to offer something focused on historical fidelity, but rather a human story. “We wanted to create a human story, down to earth, and focused on a person who has to make great sacrifices to save his beloved home », explains the creative in his statements.
Those sacrifices Connell talks about are reflected in his conversion into a ghost, moving away from the path of the samurai, from Bushido. Having to choose between both paths is a decision that is left to the player, and that leads Jin to a spiral that completely absorbs him and generates a double criticism. Some motivate him, but others consider what he does to be shame on samurai including their own family.
In addition to showing that sacrifice to which its protagonist constantly submits to save his land, Ghost of Tsushima also rules out the use of fantastic items. Although it is true that we have already seen how the wind is used to orient yourself on the map, the real inspiration of this game is the samurai movies and its focus is the conflict, not the folklore: “We didn’t want to undermine it with any folklore or fantastic elements that would take it away from that human history”Connell stresses again.
Samurai cinema is a powerful influence on Ghost of Tsushima
In the last State of Play we already saw that one of the most striking features of the Sucker Punch game is a samurai film filter. A decision that has caught the attention of the fans a lot and that has as a clear reference the inspiration in the Japanese genre cinema. The team revealed that the first thing they did to prepare for development was to see samurai movies like 13 Assassins or The Seven Samurai, some of his favorites.
Sucker Punch’s love for the genre has allowed him explore the cinematographic techniques of it thoroughly and capture some of his ideas in the history of Jin, in fact, part of his demanding combat system is inspired by this cinema. Soon we will be able to verify it in our meats, as well as living the sacrifice that the protagonist will have to make to save Tsushima from the Mongol invasion.
->
