Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi had a lot of very kind words for Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima in a recent interview.
You know you’ve done a game about ancient Japan right when Japanese gamers are not just playing your game, they’re also praising it. Japanese reviews for Ghost of Tsushima are just as high as Western reviews (and sales), and now we’ve even got the executive director for one of Sega’s most prestigious franchises handing out praise for Sucker Punch’s samurai epic.
“To be honest, we [Japan] were beaten,” said Yakuza series creator Toshihiro Nagoshi in a recent Sega livestream (courtesy of Kotaku). “Yeah, of course, we’re losing. Honestly, I think that’s a game that should be made in Japan.”
Nagoshi was asked his thoughts on Ghost of Tsushima, which has become unusually popular in Japan–unusual because it’s a game about Japan made by an American studio. Usually, when we get these cross-cultural games we wind up with something that’s a little over the top (or something that’s so over the top that it doesn’t even cross borders until a decade after its creation). But Ghost of Tsushima was the odd exception–a game that’s entirely respectful of culture.
Ghost of Tsushima doesn’t get everything perfect, mind you. Kotaku notes that the flowering of certain blossoms and sake brewing isn’t really accurate, but they’re minor quibbles for what is essentially an homage to samurai films, as noted by the game’s Kurosawa Mode.
“The Kurosawa Mode doesn’t simply change the color [to black and white], but has more of a technical approach by properly changing the number of frames to that in old movies,” Nagoshi commented.
It’s also clear that despite the few errors, Sucker Punch did a lot of work to get Ghost of Tsushima just right in the eyes of a Japanese gamer. The developer worked with Japanese consultants to ensure that Ghost of Tsushima would appeal to Japanese as well as Western audiences.
“Foreigners who tickle the fancy of Japanese people more than Japanese people are…rather amazing, no?” Nagoshi said. “There’s like a notion that Westerners don’t understand things (about Japan), but that hypothesis itself is mistaken.”
Read more on the interview over on Kotaku. Ghost of Tsushima is available now for PS4.
Source: Sega, Kotaku
