New Ghost of Tsushima gameplay footage reveals exciting change to open-world design

New Ghost of Tsushima gameplay was revealed yesterday. The game looked as stunning as ever as gamers were shown exploration mechanics, a cinematic black-and-white mode and new areas of the game. 

“Exploration has been at the heart of our open world design since the very beginning,” said developer, Jason Connell, from Sucker Punch. Meanwhile the game’s central character, Jin, stood on a cliff, looking out over the game’s huge open world.

One subtle touch particularly stood out – if you mark a destination on your map, there’s none of the usual glowing trails, or guiding lines on a mini-map, instead you’ll follow a ‘guiding wind’. Literally, a gust of wind, pointing you in the right direction. It’s a innovative approach for navigation and shows how eager Sucker Punch is to maintain the stunning aesthetics on the titular island of Tsushima.

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The developers will use environmental queues elsewhere too, as the developer explained that smokestacks, oddly shaped trees and wildlife behaving unusually can all point you in the right direction – towards quests, collectibles and more.

Birds will lead the player to hidden locations and new quests, while finding a fox den and following a fox can lead players to the shrines dotted across the island.

Nate Fox, from Sucker Punch, walked players through the game’s combat. “As you can see the Mongols are everywhere on this island,” he said, “for Jin to succeed he has to use real, skilful precision.”

Jin goes on to precisely mow down a camp of Mongols and, it has to be said, the game’s combat looks to have a unique rhythm and appeal. While so many games have claimed to do completely new things with in-game combat, this one looks like it actually might. There are a range of combat stances and the way Jin moves from enemy to enemy looks silky smooth and cinematic. It will be interesting to see how easily players can master the game’s samurai skills.

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An alternative playthrough of the same base shows Jin sneak through as a “dishonourable ghost”, eliminating enemies from the shadows and using distractions and tricks to defeat his Mongol enemies. The small stealth section on display looked a little more by the book when compared to the game’s uniquely paced combat system though.

If you’re looking forward the Ghost of Tsushima then you definitely need to see the new footage. Take a look below.