Ghost of Yotei is a very cool game, as evidenced by its many TGA nominations, and while it doesn't offer a lot of features to set it apart from its predecessor, Ghost of Tsushima, there are one or two interesting mechanics added to make the game's world and story stand out. One of those mechanics was a very neat time travel system that allowed players to go back to when the protagonist Atsu was still a child.
Unfortunately, this can only be done at certain moments and in predetermined areas, but a recent episode of Creator to Creator featuring Ghost of Yotei creative director Jason Connell (thanks to MP1st) revealed that this isn't always the case. In fact, the original and desired implementation of this mechanism was much more ambitious.
Ghost Of Yotei's time travel system was scaled back during development.
In the video, Connell explains that the whole reason for the time travel mechanic is to serve as a narrative tool that allows players to quickly travel back to Atsu's past and remind themselves of what they're fighting for in the present. He eventually revealed that Sucker Punch originally envisioned this mechanic to work almost anywhere in the game world, allowing players to switch periods with the touch of a button. Unfortunately, it was a bit too much work.
Despite boycott attempts, the specter of Yotei will be no greater than that of Tsushima.
Yotei sold 3.3 million units in its first month of launch.
“It started with the idea of doing that in as many places as possible, maybe everywhere. Can we do this in the interests of the land game function?” Cornell says: “After a year of working and testing and trying to understand how this could become a game mechanic and a valuable feature, what we discovered is that it doubles your art… It's an amazing feature, but it saddened me the day I had to kill it.”
Connell wasn't too upset about having to narrow down the scope of the mechanism, explaining that in the end, he still thought scaling back was “the right choice.” Because he still believes Sucker Punch was able to make it a powerful narrative tool despite being limited to certain areas within the game. This is an interesting insight into game development, and gives a good idea of what sacrifices developers sometimes have to make to get their game to market.
- released
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October 2, 2025
- ESRB
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Ages 17 and older / Blood and gore, drug-related, high-intensity violence, profane language, partial nudity, drinking
- publisher
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sony interactive entertainment
