The Whole of Tsushima Island Is There to Discover
Viewers were surprised by the first-ever showcase of Ghost of Tsushima this past E3, where we caught a snippet of lustrious Japan in a demo jam-packed full of foliage. Naturally, this leaves fan to wonder how much of the world is traversable. Despite its categorization as an open world game, such games have had invisible walls in the past. Well, according to Suckerpunch, the whole island is at the player’s disposal.
In an interview with Geoff Keighley at E3 Coliseum, creative director Nate Fox spoke at length about the nature of Ghost of Tsushima’s open world. He mentioned that part of the studio’s goal was to let players interact with Tsushima island however they wanted. While there is a “golden road” to complete the story, the historical island is populated by different paths and questlines. There was a unique, memorable moment in the E3 demo, where the player character stood on the precipice of grassland and exposed viewers to an entire swathe of land as far as the eye could see. “This is absolutely on purpose,” said Fox.
“We’re trying to let everyone know that—that pagoda on the hill, those rivers leading to the mountains, the land behind the mountains, the Mongol boats in the bay—those are all places that you can go to and find stories in. And we wanted to make a game that, you’d see something, it would draw you to it, and you’d discover it on your own. It (Ghost of Tsushima) is open world for that reason, so we’re not telling you: now go here, now do this, then do this, then do that – we want it to be your adventure as this wandering Samurai.”
As a nice tidbit, the developers also said that the island in the game is shaped almost exactly like its real-life counterpart. From our E3 preview, we also learned that Ghost of Tsushima has a dynamic weather system. We’ll be rolling out additional news as more details become available.
Happy gaming.