Ghost of Tsushima Has Multiple Difficulty Settings, Isn't Afraid To Challenge The Player

After years of hand-holding, over-stuffed tutorials, and lack of challenge, grueling difficulty in video games is making a comeback, in fact, thanks to the likes of Dark Souls and Bloodborne, it's a bit in vogue at the moment.

After its gameplay reveal last month, many have wondered whether Ghost of Tsushima would have difficulty options, and whether or not it would stay true to Samurai by exacting precision and patience. The answer to all of this, in short, is yes. Yes, Ghost of Tsushima will have multiple difficulty options, and yes it won't be afraid to challenge players.

Speaking of challenge in the game, Sucker Punch studio head Chris Zimmerman explained that there's a range of difficulty to suit the styles of all players. Whether you're a tourist just looking to take things easy and enjoy the game's narrative and world, or a glutton for punishment, Sucker Punch has taken you into consideration.

"There's a range [of challenge], because different people play games for different reasons," said Zimmerman. "Especially when you're talking about open-world games, which are big games, so you have players who are basically just tourists, there people who are really story-driven, there are people who are really action-driven. For us to be successful, we kind of need to appeal to all those groups, and one of those groups are the people who are really, really into the action and really want a challenge. That's part of the experience for them."

In the game, Jin, the protagonist, is up against overwhelming odds in the form of the Mongol hordes, and if you choose so, you can "feel that" in the gameplay. According to Zimmerman, Ghost of Tsushima "will wreck you if that's what you want."

"The story is about Jin being forced to change and being challenged by these overwhelming numbers of Mongols — I want to feel that," said the developer "And the game will absolutely give that to you, if that's what you want. We will wreck you if that's what you want. At the same point, if you're playing to be a tourist, you still need to feel like you're challenged, you don't just want a cakewalk. The game needs to scale down to provide the right challenge, but still make your choices feel meaningful. If you can just cakewalk through every fight, then the parts where Jin is sneaking around don't make sense anymore. Why would I do that? No matter who you are as a player, if your experience doesn't match Jin's, the story won't land. There does need to be challenge for everyone, but what that's going to mean is going to depend on who you are as a player."

Zimmerman confirms that multiple difficultly settings will be present, however, for the time, he didn't provide any more information on the range of said options. What he did reveal was that you'll be able to adjust difficulty on the fly, or at least that is the plan at the moment, because said feature hasn't actually been finalized yet.

Ghost of Tsushima is in development exclusively for the PlayStation 4. It currently doesn't have a release date nor release window.

Thanks, Wccftech.