Ghost of Yotei is a good game, as its many TGA nominations prove, and while it doesn't do much to separate itself from its predecessor – Ghost of Tsushima – it has one or two interesting mechanics that were added to spice up the game's world and story. One of those mechanics was a pretty neat time travel system, which allowed players to travel back to when main character 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 featured the ghost of Yotei Creative Director Jason Connell (thanks MP1st). In fact, the original and intended implementation of this mechanic was very ambitious.
Yotei was scaled back during the ghost development of the time travel system
In the video, Connell explains that the whole reason behind the time travel mechanic was to act as a narrative device, allowing players to quickly return to Atsu's past to remind them of what they're fighting for in the present. He eventually goes on to reveal that Sucker Punch originally envisioned this mechanic to work anywhere in the game world, allowing the player to switch between time periods with the touch of a single button. Unfortunately, the work was a bit too much.
Despite Yotei's exorcism efforts, one as big, if not bigger, than Tsushima is on track
Yotei sold 3.3 million units in the first month.
“It started with let's do it in as many places as possible, maybe everywhere. Can we do it as a stake in the ground game feature?” Connell says. “What we've found after a year of working and testing it and trying to understand how it can be a game mechanic and be a worthwhile feature, you double your art… it's an awesome feature, it made me sad the day I had to kill it.”
Connell isn't too worried about having to shrink the mechanic, ultimately explaining that he still thinks scaling things back was “the right choice”, as he still believes that Sucker Punch managed to make it a powerful story tool even though it was limited in certain areas within the game. It's an interesting insight into game development, giving us a good idea of the sacrifices developers sometimes have to make to get their games out the door.
- issued
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October 2, 2025
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Blood and gore, drug references, intense violence, language, partial nudity, use of alcohol
- publisher(s)
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Sony Interactive Entertainment
