Ghost of Yotei Team Had to Cut a Big Part of the Game, But Says It Was the Right Choice
Ghost of Yotei includes a special feature that allows you to press and hold the touchpad to travel back in time to when the main character, Atsu, was just a child.
This can only be done in specific, predetermined areas, but the original plan was to make it possible in many more locations, if not everywhere.
Ghost of Yotei’s Time-Travel Mechanic Was Reduced
Speaking with Vince Gilligan, the creator of Breaking Bad, the creative director of Ghost of Yotei, Jason Connell, said that this feature excited him greatly when it was first proposed years ago.
He explained that the idea’s charm came from how players could see Atsu’s world as an adult — a sad, lonely journey driven by revenge — and then, with the press of a button, step back into “the warmth of her past” to remember what she was fighting for.
However, after working on it for years, the team realized that it essentially meant creating double the graphical content, so they decided to limit time travel to certain parts of the game. Connell said, “It saddened me the day I had to cut it — to say, okay, it can’t be the whole thing anymore, we have to narrow it down. But in the end, it was the right choice.”
He also noted that if the feature were always available, it might have felt uninteresting unless Sucker Punch added enough narrative depth to make time travel meaningful everywhere.
In other news, Ghost of Yotei is getting a free, co-op multiplayer DLC called “Legends,” which will be released in 2026. The DLC will feature two-player story missions and four-player survival matches in a supernatural setting.
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GoT was my favorite game that year. GoY was just a slog. The constant cutscenes, the slowing of the progress every 5 minutes for stupid chit chat, the boring boss fights, the boring open world. It took everything I loved about Tsushima and ruined it.
Couldn’t disagree more.
Although I did enjoy Tsushima more and it’s my favourite of the two, Yotei was still an amazing experience and definitely lived up to the Ghost name.
Goy is very good and I am ready for legends already!