2025 Preview: Ghost of Yotei’s open world map will define its success
Players are getting bored of maps with endless icons: will Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima sequel adapt accordingly?
Ghost of Yotei has the potential to be the flagship exclusive of the PS5’s second chapter.
While the PS5 was quick out of the traps with the likes of Demons Souls, Miles Morales, Returnal, and Ratchet, it’s impossible to argue that things haven’t slowed down on Sony’s side. While Astro Bot was a Game of the Year winner, the less said about Concord, the better.
That’s why it was so exciting for PlayStation fans when Sony revealed that Sucker Punch was working on a follow-up to its late PS4 hit Ghost of Tsushima. However, few likely guessed that the second game in the series would depart from the story of Jin Sakai and travel several hundred years in the future to a brand new story.
Despite selling well, Ghost of Tsushima was a somewhat divisive game. It was released right at the end of the PlayStation 4 generation, a generation filled with open-world action games with endless maps to explore.
Understandably, many players are burned out on the Ubisoftication of all open-world games, which is something we believe the sequel will have to account for. How Yotei decides to address that issue is what makes the game so exciting.
While some open-world games like Red Dead Redemption 2 avoid it by focusing on vast, detailed worlds and intricate gameplay systems rather than an avalanche of icons, would Tsushima fans be disappointed by a game that doesn’t have foxes to track down and bamboo to cut?
We imagine that while the game will retain some of the open-world side missions that some would describe as ‘filler’, they’ll be deprioritised, reflecting a gaming audience that seems to be moving away from that style of play.
What won’t change, at least from the limited footage that has been released of the game, is Sucker Punch’s commitment to out-of-this-world production value. The game’s PC version and director’s cut are still an absolute feast for the eyes, to the point where we wonder how much better the game could look from a technical perspective.
There will likely be some attention paid to Sony’s PS5 Pro, a console that’s still crying out for a reason to exist. Ghost of Yotei could be that reason.
It will be interesting to see if the game goes for a sheer graphical power approach when it comes to wowing players with the increased engine on the PS5, or if more advanced systems and AI could be introduced rather than the diminished returns of cranking the ray tracing up as high as possible.
“There will likely be some attention paid to Sony’s PS5 Pro, a console that’s still crying out for a reason to exist. Ghost of Yotei could be that reason.”
Personally, we’d love to see the world of Yotei be far more interactive, rather than the simple beehives to distract enemies and similar traps.
The first game’s writing and performances were also a huge reason that the game was so well-loved by players, even if review scores weren’t stellar. Excellent performance capture and a killer score mean that Ghost of Yotei has a lot to live up to in that department.
Ghost of Tsushima is one of PlayStation’s newest franchises, but it’s clearly one that Sony holds up as one of great importance. Tsushima is regularly featured in PlayStation marketing and the PlayStation Studios opening crawl.
Ghost of Yotei has the opportunity to solidify the brand as one of PlayStation’s iconic series, such as God of War or The Last of Us, rather than as a one-and-done series.
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