Developers nowadays are very focused on making their games increasingly cinematic. They would just write some mind-blowing stories, throw in some gut-wrenching moments in those stories, and present them to the players. Sucker Punch Productions too did something similar with Ghost of Tsushima.
This game’s popularity and brilliance are not hidden from anyone. Ghost of Tsushima, a game inspired by the movies of legendary filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, did not pull any punches when it came to storytelling. It led players through a journey of hope and regret and ended it on a very dark turn. Some suggest that Sucker Punch should go a step further in its sequel, though.
Does Ghost of Tsushima 2 need to be much darker than its prequel?
As a game that was set amidst the Mongol invasion of the island of Tsushima, Ghost of Tsushima was meant to be a bloody affair. It opens up with an army consisting of a Samurai Lord and his nephew attacking the Mongols and meeting a bloody defeat.
The Samurai Lord sends one of his greatest warriors to challenge the greatest fighter in the Mongol army. As he goes there and asks them for the same, Mongol leader Khotun Khan spits oil on him and burns him to death, declaring there are no rules in this fight.
This is a shocking event, and as the game goes on, these events keep coming. Mongols torture people; they kill without mercy; they loot. The hero Jin Sakai is tasked with liberating the island by freeing his lord uncle from Khotun, but to do so, he has to adapt and attack from the shadows.
Before he does all that, though, he is given the option to choose a trustworthy companion. An NPC takes him to a stable and asks players to choose from a bunch of horses. All are named differently according to their color. Nobu, Sora, and Kage are the choices, and players are then free to explore the world.
Eventually, the time comes when this horse, whichever one the players choose, dies. It dies in a very heroic manner too, which only hurts the players more. Players remember this moment as one of the most heartbreaking moments in the game.
Inspired by this moment, players keep asking the developers to take it a step further with Ghost of Tsushima 2. Make it more heartbreaking and make it scarier; raise the stakes. This would surely put the developers in a predicament. How would one top that kind of moment?
Of course, they would not kill the horse again; it has been done. Then again, the horse is one companion that players spend a lot of time with, and that’s why it hurts more when it’s gone. Developers have to find something closer to this to make it sadder.
There are a bunch of games that have similar mechanics
While in Ghost of Tsushima, the death of the player’s horse is a cinematic event, it hardly dies while playing the game. In Red Dead Redemption 2, the horse can die anytime players take it out for a stroll. Moreover, they make players bond with the horse; hence, it hurts bad when it’s no more.
In Call of Duty: Ghosts, developers revealed Riley, a German Shepherd, as a companion. It almost dies on one of the missions but is later treated and recovers. There is no doubt that the sequence gave players quite a shock. One thing is for sure, though: going beyond all this for Ghost of Tsushima 2 would be a challenge for the developers.
