Ghost of Yotei director says Sucker Punch didn't want to be violent for the sake of it in its open-world Japan epics, even if "in video games, you get a lot of pressure just to do it sometimes"

Blood splatters as Atsu slays an enemy in Ghost of Yotei with Takashi Miike mode on — (Image credit: Sony)

Ghost of Yotei co-director Jason Connell has spoken about the use of violence in Sucker Punch's open-world series, saying he feels like game developers get pressured into making their games even more violent.

Speaking to Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan as part of Sony's "Creator to Creator" series, Ghost of Yotei co-director Jason Connell says "With the violence for Ghost, it's something that we actually talked about very early."

Given that Sucker Punch previously worked on the cartoony Sly Cooper series and the more comic book-esque violent InFamous series, the "Ghost of" series was quite a departure. Connell explains that for Tsushima "we knew that if we're going to hit people with 4ft razor blades, like there's some expectations of violence, and that we were going to have to tonally tackle this problem/opportunity. You know, it's like core and center to the fantasy."

Creator to Creator: Vince Gilligan (Pluribus) & Jason Connell (Ghost of Yōtei) | Sony - YouTube

Watch On

Connell adds, "very early on we talked about what's the level of violence we want to go with, and because in video games there are maybe some expectations that like, 'oh, it's a video game, so because gamers like this stuff, maybe there's just heads chopping all over the place.'"

However Sucker Punch "felt strongly" that while this over the top violence can and should happen, but that it should be akin to classic films like Takashi Miike's 13 Assassins in which there is one decapitation in the entire film and its saved for a pivotal moment at the end, Connell explains it as "saving those powerful violent moments for very special occasions."

Connell then talks about Breaking Bad's most violent moments, noting that they are rare, but then, you get a moment like Gus Fring using the box cutter (which Gilligan described as making him feel faint). Connell adds that "For me, I feel like in video games, you get a lot of pressure just to do it sometimes," and that with going over the top so often, violence will then lose its impact when these big moments do happen.

Ghost of Yotei finds peace in violence and is unquestionably PS5's most relaxing revenge story