Ghost of Yotei is preparing to be a serious answer to one of Ghost of Tsushima‘s biggest complaints: repetitive exploration. Sucker Punch, the devs behind both games, say they’re shaking things up so players won’t feel like they’re stuck doing the same tasks over and over again. That sounds like a breath of fresh air, right?
The new game will be just as big as Tsushima, with a main story around 25 hours and full completion hitting about 60 hours. But, the key difference? Ghost of Yotei will ditch the copy-paste side quests and instead offer a variety of outcomes and surprises across the map. I mean, who wants to chase foxes to shrines on repeat? Not me.
Creative directors Nate Fox and Jason Connell spoke with Automaton about what they learned from Tsushima’s open-world design. Fox admitted that while the original game had charm, many of the exploration activities became tedious by the end. The shrine-tracking fox minigames were called out specifically as something players found monotonous.
For Ghost of Yotei, the team is rethinking how secrets and side content are discovered. Instead of repeating the same activities, every encounter is designed to feel fresh and unpredictable. Players might stumble upon something new each time, with different outcomes that go beyond what they’d expect. This approach might actually keep the exploration interesting and prevent that fatigue so many felt before.
Set in a beautiful new Hokkaido backdrop, Ghost of Yotei is scheduled for release on October 2. I’m curious if it’ll really deliver on the promise of a world filled with surprises, because that’s exactly what the original needed. Why wander through copy-pasted objectives when you can have a world that keeps you guessing?
