Last Updated on Jul 18, 2025 @ 10:19:45 AM.
Ghost of Yotei is still a few months away, but this hasn’t stopped the developers from sharing new information about the highly anticipated project. Sucker Punch Productions struck gold with the exploration system of the original game and the conservative heads-up display. Jin was told that his father would be his guiding wind in his adventures, and it would never lead him astray.
The developers made good with that feature by adding a guiding wind mechanic to point you in the right direction by swiping up on the touchpad. For this new adventure, Atsu will have a similar, but much more artistic way of being guided to new locations and points of interest through the sound of music.
The Sound of Music Will Be Atsu’s Guiding Wind in Ghost of Yotei
The gaming community fell in love with the idea of having a simple UI on the screen to take in more of the environment in the Ghost of Tsushima. Being lost in the woods with nothing but your horse and katana to take on enemies and complete quests is a feeling that is difficult to replicate. Sucker Punch Productions wanted the players to be immersed in the world and pass with flying colors.
For the sequel, Atsu will have a different kind of experience to find new areas. Players can discover new things to do in Ghost of Yotei by learning new songs for Atsu’s shamisen. It was a standout feature when the game was first revealed, and it heavily hinted that this game would be much more music-oriented than the last one. Jin was able to play songs with his flute by collecting crickets, but this takes it to a whole new level.
In a recent interview, Jason Connell, one of the game directors, revealed how bigger the open world will feel compared to Ghost of Tsushima:
Traversal is super helped with the experience versus it being linear. But on top of that we just did a whole bunch of other exploration-forward features, because wind is birthed out of the feeling that we want to create a diegetic experience where we want you to be in the game world so you can keep looking at the game world as much as you can.
The new mechanic encourages players to explore the world and better understand Atsu’s motives. The longer you play, the clearer it becomes that Atsu and Jin are two different characters for different times.
We’ve augmented that with a couple of other features like the shamisen Atsu carries on her back. You learn certain songs and those certain songs will guide you to certain things. There’s lots of things that we’ve created like that, like the wind, that are just nice additions to that diegetic exploration experience.
In the Ghost of Yotei, Atsu can play songs with a string instrument called the shamisen. Each song she learns has benefits, such as pointing to new secret areas that could be housing powerful gear and more. There is no telling how much more refined this new adventure will be than the Ghost of Tsushima.
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Rouvin Josef Quirimit is a Content Writer, an avid gamer (on his PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch), and film enthusiast. He was fortunate to grow up with the Marvel Cinematic Universe and was enamored by the storytelling of a shared universe full of heart and spectacle. His love for movies led him to great single-player games and he intends to cover major franchises for years to come!
