Sucker Punch Productions’ Ghost of Yotei is already an ambitious open-world adventure that builds on its predecessor in several ways, but the team had a number of other ideas that never made the final game. At GDC, the studio’s two creative directors discussed both the features that made it into the game and some ambitious concepts that didn’t.
From mechanics that would have let players climb anywhere to dual-timelines and a fully diegetic map system, Ghost of Yotei began as a game full of possibilities. Some ideas proved too large to implement fully, but they still influenced the final experience, leaving traces of that ambition in the game’s narrative and design.
One of the most ambitious features was the ability to switch between young and old Atsu at any point in the game. This would have created two versions of the world simultaneously, meaning the entire map would need to have versions in spring and winter.
“The idea was fascinating on paper,” Sucker Punch creative director Nate Fox said. “But it quickly became clear that building two fully realized worlds on the same map was far too big.”
The full mechanic was scaled back but remained in the game as a narrative element. Players see glimpses of young Atsu in flashbacks, and some environmental puzzles reference her past self.
Sucker Punch also experimented with vertical traversal inspired by Breath of the Wild, allowing players to climb cliffs, walls, and nearly anything they could walk up to.
“There were a lot of chokepoints and walls you weren’t supposed to climb,” Fox said. The feature was eventually limited to areas with white rocks. If you see those rocks, you know you can climb there. Everyone loves Breath of the Wild, but that level of freedom isn’t suitable for every open world.
The team also wanted to immerse players in historical Hokkaido with diegetic mechanics, including an in-world map Atsu would carry. The idea was that as players turned, the map would turn with her while she was looking at it, showing other parts of the world in that direction.
“It would probably make you throw up,” creative director Jason Connell said. The rotating map didn’t work out, but the team made other adjustments. The map menu looks hand-drawn, as if Atsu drew it herself. Map pieces collected in the game have to be placed manually, unveiling hidden locations. Weather elements like rain are also shown on the map via droplets occasionally falling.
Sucker Punch also experimented with a wider range of weapons during development, though several were cut or changed before release. Early versions of the game included two hatchets as a dual-weapon option, along with a shield that would have altered the game’s combat flow. The team also tested fans as a weapon, expanding Atsu’s toolkit with lighter attacks.
Some weapons evolved into different forms as development continued. The Odachi that appears in the final game was originally a Kanabo, a heavy club more closely associated with brute force than the sweeping sword attacks players see now. As the combat system took shape, the team refined the weapon roster to better fit the pacing and style of the feared Onryo.
Those changes were part of a larger process of narrowing the game’s scope. The same balance between ambition and practicality also shaped the world players explore. Originally, Sucker Punch planned for Atsu to explore two additional areas, but the team didn’t have time to add content. Unlike Ghost of Tsushima, Ghost of Yotei’s map contains quite a bit of inaccessible space. Some of those areas were originally intended to be explorable.
Throughout the talk, Sucker Punch made it clear that cutting ideas is a central part of its development process. Fox said the team regularly removes features that do not fit the game’s direction, even if they were promising concepts early on.
The studio even tried to make those moments feel positive. Fox said the team would sometimes hold meetings where developers talked about the ideas they cut and celebrated the decisions together, reinforcing that removing features is a necessary step in shaping the final game.
Despite the scale of its games, Sucker Punch has remained a relatively small studio of around 150 developers, relying on years of institutional knowledge to guide its open-world design. That experience includes knowing when to scale ideas back, as the team regularly cuts mechanics, weapons, and even sections of the map that do not fit the final vision. By refining its approach with each project and embracing that editing process, the studio has continued to turn ambitious concepts into focused, high-quality open-world games.
