Developer Sucker Punch Productions confirms that Ghost of Tsushima will have several difficulty options when it releases in July. Sucker Punch Productions first spoke about Ghost of Tsushima's difficulty settings when the game was announced in June 2018, but very little has been heard about them since.
Speaking to The Washington Post, Ghost of Tsushima creative director Jason Connell teased a number of difficulty modes in the game. Players "can take it up a notch" if they're finding the game too easy, or they can take it down if it's too hard, which seems simple enough. It's unclear how many difficulty modes the game will have and if there will be some sort of ultra-hard setting for sadists, or players who really want a challenge.
Connell says that this is "an effort to try to get as many players as possible," which are strong comments as easier modes in games led to huge controversy last year. Some gamers argued that games like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice should have an easy mode so that all players could enjoy them while others suggested it would somehow dilute the experience.
The Ghost of Tsushima development team seems to be in the former camp though and Connell adds that a game that's too hard "would be very frustrating for a lot of people who have a lot to gain from playing the game" while one that's too easy would alienate the developer's fans. Sucker Punch Productions has confirmed that the game's battles can be incredibly hard which should also restore confidence in the developer's fans.
While the full list of Ghost of Tsushima difficulties hasn't been revealed, it seems unlikely that the game will shame or punish players for choosing the easiest setting. Games like Streets of Rage 3 and Wolfenstein: The New Order famously embarrassed players for choosing easy mode. That would put the wind in the sails of some, but other players are likely to stop playing them because of it.
Offering difficulty modes also gives players more ways to enjoy the game and more reasons to replay it. Sucker Punch Productions has also suggested that the Ghost of Tsushima play time is over 50 hours if players manage to see everything on the island of Tsushima, but that could potentially be much higher if they play it again, this time on a higher difficulty.
Ghost of Tsushima is set to release on July 17 for PS4.
Source: The Washington Post