Sucker Punch’s six-year-long hiatus between the Infamous series closure and the launch of their new stealth adventure, Ghost of Tsushima, was marked by a stack of precariousness. A viral post on the PlayStation blog by Sucker Punch co-founder Brian Fleming reveals that the prodigious studio’s recent open-world game could have looked much different. Before going for a 13th-century feudal Japan storyline, Sucker Punch pondered over several possibilities for its new video game. There were proposals for a maraud-centric pirate game, which would have looked somewhat like One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4; A Rob Roy concept was also tabled. There was even a fascinating theme in contemplation that involved The Three Musketeers!
In his blog, Fleming details that after Sucker Punch had pulled the plug off Infamous, all it knew was that it needed to come up with an open-world close combat game that would help rebrand the studio. Beyond that, there was nothing on the table to direct developers towards a final product. Abstract themes including a pirate setting, a Three Musketeers story, and Scottish folktale-inspired Rob Roy motif were thrown around. But due to creative disinterest, none of them eventually made the cut.
Fleming admits; however, that a story of a samurai warrior against a feudal Japan backdrop repeatedly caught his eye. After repeated discussions, a plot was pitched that appealed to everyone. This narrative revolved around the historical Mongol invasion of Tsushima in 1274 – and it strongly conformed to the vision of the studio.
The story had scored unanimous nods, yet there were numerous challenges ahead that the team had to deal with. For one, Sucker Punch was adept at making contemporary, futuristic games with modern locales. But their new project required them to roll back 700 years into the past, rendering the glitzy, modish assets and technology of Sucker Punch’s other games obsolete. Concept artwork and frequent game testing gave the production some direction for conceiving the end-product, yet there were plenty of obstacles in piecing the game together.
What helped the Ghost of Tsushima in the end, was that the original vision of the game remained unchanged. “In the end, what pulled us through this six (!!!) year project? I think the key was the clarity of the original vision. Unlike any project I’ve previously worked on, Ghost of Tsushima’s topline vision stayed almost entirely unchanged throughout years of development,” wrote Fleming. This was a first for any Sucker Punch game, and therefore, it helped the company’s long-term project succeed.
Besides an open-world fatigue, everything seems to work in favor of Ghost of Tsushima. The strikingly beautiful landscapes, the gradually-blossoming combats, and the undeniably stunning visuals all constitute a highly-enjoyable game. An alternate Three Musketeers concept may have worked too, perhaps, but the archaic essence of an of-yore Japan sets Ghost of Tsushima apart from all other Sucker Punch games. There are some familiar beats, but they have been muted enough to allow for the positive new identity Sucker Punch was aiming for.
Source: PlayStation.Blog
