STACK #189 Jul 2020

GAMING FEATURE

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When we last caught up with Sucker Punch Productions it was in Seattle, with Infamous: First Light . For their next game, the long-gestating Ghost of Tsushima , we’re being transported back to feudal Japan. Creative director Nate Fox tells us more. Words Adam Colby B ack In 1274, the Mongol army invaded Japan, first hitting Tsushima Island. In Ghost of Tsushima , we step into the sandals of a samurai named Jin, who’s desperately fighting back against crushing odds. But before the game could exist, Sucker Punch had to hit on the formula. THE GHOST WITH THE MOST

“When we were looking at our next project, we wanted to stay open world because we’re giving authority and power to the player, and we didn’t want to walk away from that. We think it’s integral to modern gaming that players are in charge,” says Nate Fox. “We thought a lot about open world games and what makes some just beautiful and great, then we settled on wanting to have a clear fantasy as the player. Like, ‘Who are you?’, ‘What are you going to be doing in the game?’ Then we came upon this idea which is awesomely simple – to hear about it is to want to play it. Who doesn’t want to go to feudal Japan? Who doesn’t want to be a samurai, with a katana on their hip?” From there, the Sucker Punch team worked on focusing their idea. “When we hit upon the Mongol invasion of Tsushima of 1274, it all clicked,” Fox says.

THE ORIGINAL JIN Ghost of Tsushima ’s main protagonist, Jin Sakai, is portrayed digitally by actor Daisuke Tsuji. He’s no stranger to games, with his

voice having appeared in Prey , Call of Duty: Black

Ops 4 and, most recently, Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding .

JULY 2020

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