“Now we’ve reached the section I call FUN.”
Yes, the way I ended article 2 is how we’ve picked back up with this final part of my interview with Sucker Punch Creative Directors, Nate Fox and Jason Connell. Getting time to talk about their upcoming game, Ghost of Yōtei, we’ve covered story and design. But today, as Aotearoa’s loveliest man in gaming, I wanted to zhuzh it up a bit. And how do you do that? Well you ask a community of Extremely Casual Gamers what they’d like to know.
Extremely Casual Gamers, on in this case their Facebook group, is a collaborative space for the everyday gamer. And thankfully, most of the questions they provided were around their excitement for the game, and how it may connect to Jin Sakai’s journey in Ghost of Tsushima. Group member Tim Riccio asked “do we still get to write haikus? I may be in the minority here, but I love(d) that part and I’m a little biased as I love to read and write poetry.”
Nate Fox responded; “I love poetry in Ghost of Tsushima, especially because Jin Sakai is such a cultured individual, right? He’s a master with the blade. He’ll kill his enemies. And he’ll take time to appreciate nature and the scholarly art of poetry. Atsu is not from a noble family who spent time writing history.”
So it’s not a part of her character. So I am here to let you know, here to let you down easy.
Nate Fox, Co-Creative Director (Sucker Punch Productions)
Haiku is not in the game.”
No doubt a devastating blow to Tim, but Nate continues. “There are other things that reflect her spirit and the way that she gets involved with nature. You’ll notice there’s this shamisen on her back. She’ll play music or do sumi-e paintings to really look at nature and drink it in through an interactive medium where you get to be involved yourself.”
“We do this because we wanna embrace our hero and the kinds of things that she would be interested in.”
As Fox finished, a wave of joy came over me. “I got a little bit excited when you mentioned the sumi-e, because it just reminded me of Delsin doing his grafitti in inFAMOUS: Second Son. So it’s nice to see that kinda come back in a way.”
JORDAN! You are the most beautiful man in gaming! Hauling out Second Son graffiti? Alright man!”
Nate Fox, Co-Creative Director (Sucker Punch Productions)
You’re damn right I had to make that a pull quote. I often times don’t know if I’m cut out for this stuff, so that really sent me. Understanding I had to keep moving forward, I raised a question from Paora Hampton. “Will the story be guilt tripping us again for using the stealth mechanics in the game?”. I asked Paora to elaborate, and this question was around honor. Would the honor system that Jin had placed on him by his Uncle, be something of a burden to Atsu too?
“Atsu is not a samurai who’s bound by a code of conduct.”
“She is a sellsword who will do anything to win the fight. So no one is going to be guilt tripping her about sneaking up on an enemy and stabbing them in the back at all. She’s free to fight and the player is free to fight however they want. Be it through stealth or ranged attacks or melee.” adds Fox. “These are all options that you can use to solve the problem at your discretion.”
This made me think of what Connell had said during the State of Play. They mentioned that Atsu is very much about that dirty work. She uses what she needs to use to get the job done. And I wondered if this is why the line of morality doesn’t really apply to them.
“Yeah. And, you know, to really express their individuality I think they nailed it. We have these play types that some people navigate towards, where it’s one or the other.”
“Some people like to play really sneaky. Others like to go at range. And others like to just go in guns blazing.”
Well I shouldn’t say guns, because we actually them now.”
Jason Connell, Co-Creative Director (Sucker Punch Productions)
“They go in swords blazing” I remark. A clever entendre on what Connell said, and how the swords could catch ablaze in Ghost of Tsushima. “They just get right up there in that melee! But, you know a lot of people bounce between them. And their story isn’t going to be the same. It’s quite different.”
“And I think that [really] this time when it talks about her grappling with her own feelings about everything, it’s really about this lone wolf character who starts off almost kinda like the wild animal;
Very chaotic. Hellbent on this revenge quest.”
Connell continues; “Nate says in the State of Play she doesn’t care whether she lives or dies. And over time, she kinda grows and fights in these myriad of ways because she’s not honor bound to fight a certain way. But over time she’ll meet new people that will let her in on, and have a bit more control of and understand a new weapon type. And she’ll be trained by these sensei who will maybe give her a new perspective.”
And over time that wolf pack will grow. And these people will become very special in her life, and on her path and journey.”
Jason Connell, Co-Creative Director (Sucker Punch Production)
Reaching the last of the questions from a group of extremely casual gamers, Podcast host Guy Mansell asked a question that no doubt many of us wondered. “Will there be any Easter Eggs or acknowledgment of Jin Sakai? I know they’d have done a great job. I don’t want spoilers, but for some reason this is the one thing I want to know.” Or to paraphrase Guy;
Jin mentioned?
“We love Easter Eggs, but this game is definitely about Atsu’s story, and her growth from that broken lone wolf to finding something better” says Fox. Which I applaud as a great answer to cover their own butts in the marketing for this game.
I noticed a message from Krister, Head of Marketing for PlayStation New Zealand, advising time was running low for our allotted time. I thanked him and went in to my own “fun” question. Which was also shared by one of my collaborators at Yeah Nah Gaming.
INFAMOUS WHEN?
“Oh my god, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Well, you know, obviously this [Yōtei] is front of mind for all of us. Sucker Punch is a one game at a time team, and we love that because we all kind of link arms and we make it at the same time. We’re extremely focused, as you might imagine, on Ghost of Yōtei.
And you know, who knows what the future holds?
I love inFAMOUS. I know Jason does too. We both worked on those games. But I can promise you nothing” says Fox.
I laughed and thanked them for answering. Krister chimes in with “I was gonna say you were so well behaved until then!”. I understand. The focus the team have put into Yōtei means the past lives they’ve created aren’t scratching at their frontal cortex like it is for the fans. But it’s nice to see how much Fox and Connell adore the inFAMOUS franchise. Still laughing that I’d got away with it, Fox remarks: “The man’s a charmer!”. And I think that means this amazing series of interviews with the Ghost of Yōtei directors can only end one way.
And I forgot to say he’s got the best beard in gaming in New Zealand too.”
Krister Robinson, Head of Marketing (PlayStation New Zealand)
