“Ghost of Yotei,” out Thursday, has players take the role of a vengeful mercenary out for blood in the pristine wilderness of 1600s Hokkaido, Japan.
The sequel to the popular “Ghost of Tsushima,” this PlayStation game doesn’t just offer a glimpse into a historical past.
It also comes with optional modes that change the way the game looks and sounds, based on the three Japanese film directors who influenced the game’s development.
“In the [Akira] Kurosawa mode that we have created and partnered with the Kurosawa estate, it really tries to embody some of those earlier films,” said Jason Connell, creative director for Sucker Punch Productions, the studio that made “Ghost of Yotei.”
That mode doesn’t just cast the game in a grainy black-and-white. “There’s always movement in the frames — like wind and rain and hair and cloth,” Connell said. “So there’s an accelerated and accentuated amount of wind inside this mode, and it tries to pay homage to this classical samurai cinematographer and director, Akira Kurosawa.”
Sucker Punch also collaborated with two living filmmakers, Takashi Miike, director of historical movies like “13 Assassins,” and Shinichirō Watanabe, famous for anime series like “Cowboy Bebop” and “Samurai Champloo.”
“People can come in and say, ‘Hey, I’ve seen some of these films when I was a kid,’ or maybe ‘I love these films,’” Connell said. “You can play the game through that lens, and it sort of changes the experience.”
5 questions with Jason Connell
What is distinctive about Takashi Miike’s movies, and what about them did you want to bring into this game?
“[It’s] really inspired by a film called ‘13 Assassins’ that he made, especially the latter half of that movie. It’s 40 minutes of interesting action move sets inside of combat. As a video game, you’re looking for classy ways to bring combat a fresh take, and especially a game that’s inspired by samurai cinema. So we are honored that we get to celebrate him as a filmmaker inside of our game with this mode.
“If you turn it on, it presents the combat in a more intimate way. You get a bit closer in the combat experience. It gets a little bit muddier, and it’s a little bit bloodier. It feels very personal, and that story deserves that.”
Your word is intimate. Do you think for some players, their word might be, ‘it’s too gory, it’s too much’?
“We try very hard to have a balance. We actually started this on the very beginnings of making this samurai game. We weren’t trying to have heads roll all over the place and make it incredibly gory. It takes serious subject matters like war or vengeance in a much different time. It’s not trying to be grotesque. It’s not trying to be over the top. And that is an important distinction.”
The last option you can choose is from a director you worked with, famous for animated shows like ‘Cowboy Bebop,’ Shinichirō Watanabe. And there it changes the soundtrack. What’s different about this Watanabe audio mode, and what’s important about it?
“Shinichirō Watanabe is a legendary filmmaker, especially in the anime space. In ‘Samurai Shampoo,’ he’s one of the first people that married this samurai-adjacent anime experience with lo-fi beats. And that is something that has stood the test of time since that has come out.
“And it’s funny, you know, like we’ve watched people play ‘Ghost of Tsushima’ after our game was done, which is a very classical sort of samurai cinematic video game, and people would take videos of it and they would put lo-fi music over the top. So we asked him, ‘Hey, you started this, we’d be honored if you would create five or six tracks, maybe a remix or two of our current score, and place that into the experience for our players.’
“Some people might not use it because they just love the orchestral, beautiful music that we have for the score. But the people that are going to like it, I think that they’re fans like myself. I would be very ecstatic to see a mode like this in a game.”
Speaking of the score, you have mentioned that your team was also influenced by Westerns. Do I hear some of that in the music there?
“Yes, you do. Our composer, Toma Otowa, orchestrated this amazing score where it really is based and rooted in Japanese instrumentation. But he does bring in a tiny Western influence from time to time. Sometimes it’s with a stringed instrument and sometimes with a way that a melody might play.
“It’s really interesting because the place this game takes place is in the far, far northern edges of Japan, deep in Hokkaido. Back then it was called Ezo. And it’s a wild landscape. Even to this day, it is a very distinct and interesting feeling. And I think it really captures that essence a little bit.”
Now we have to acknowledge you’re not Japanese. Your studio is based here in the United States, not in Japan. How do you make sure to approach all this with the appropriate cultural sensitivity and accuracy?
“We’ve been making games for a while now, going on over 25 years as a studio, and for a decade now, we’ve been making games that have been set in Japan. You kind of have to look beyond the necessary disciplines in order to make your game. Usually have artists, animators and engineers and producers and coders. All of these types of people help make great games. But when we set out to make ‘Ghost of Tsushima,’ we realized we had to expand our idea of what a team is.
“Suddenly, we found ourselves surrounded by Japanese religion experts and mannerism advisors, reading our scripts and giving us feedback about the culture in general. And it’s extended into people like the Ainu, the indigenous people of Hokkaido, and that northern area of Japan. This helps us make a thoughtful and respectful game experience.”
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James Perkins Mastromarino produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Todd Mundt. Perkins Mastromarino also produced it for the web.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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