After six long years, Ghost of Tsushima has finally landed on PS4. Sucker Punch Productions has spent almost the entire generation cycle crafting its love letter to samurai cinema, so how does it feel now that the game is in the hands of the players?
Jason Connell, Ghost of Tsushima's creative and art director, tells me that he has been eagerly awaiting feedback from the press and players alike, and he's spent the last few days glued to the internet to follow the early reactions. "I mean, for me, I look at what people are saying about the game and what people are enjoying about the game – I see there's a couple of threads on Twitter that are just like, here's all my photos from photo mode..."
"I mean, for a new IP that's developed the way we develop games, and also during a pandemic and all of these other things, I'm really proud of what people seem like they are loving about the game because those are the things that I love about the game. So it feels personal and it feels gratifying, and I'm sure our team feels the same way too. I know our team was really rejoiced with it [the early reaction]."
Our very own Rachel Weber penned the GamesRadar Ghost of Tsushima review, noting that she felt it was a "a worthy swan song for the PS4" before giving it 4.5/5. Elsewhere, Ghost of Tsushima holds a 83 score on Metacritic and a 'Top Critic Average' of 85 on Opencritic.
Connell tells me that the team is embracing the feedback, both the good and the bad – it is, after all, valuable information as the team looks to evolve the types of games it is building. "There are criticisms about our game. I love criticism, it's just gonna make us better, you know? We're gonna look at it, tear it apart, and digest it – we've been talking about it."
"I think it's a healthy part of it. We put it out there and the world can judge it. But we are proudly owning it; we think Ghost of Tsushima is the best game we've ever made."
Ghost of Tsushima succeeds by finding space for quiet reflection in a world scarred by violence: Jason Connell explains how Sucker Punch built a hyper-chill open world
