Back at the start of 2021, Ubisoft announced that one of its studios, Ubisoft Massive, would be working with Lucasfilm to create a new open-world Star Wars game. This came as a surprise to many fans of the franchise. EA had held the exclusive rights to develop any games set within the a galaxy far, far away for years. Not only that, but while Knights of the Old Republic had breached the RPG world and Fallen Order the action-adventure genre, an open-world game opens up a whole new world of possibilities.
If Ubisoft's Massive's open-world Star Wars game is going to reach its full potential, there are good reasons why it should look at Red Dead Redemption 2 and Ghost of Tsushima. The two games both boast excellent combat, compelling characters, and impressive open worlds. More importantly, the games specifically created worlds which drew on the films which had a huge influence on the Star Wars movies, especially A New Hope. Here's why that connection is important, and just some of the things Red Dead 2 and Ghost of Tsushima might be able to teach Ubisoft Massive's upcoming game.
Westerns, Samurai, and Space Operas
Star Wars may seem like it's almost a genre in and of itself at this point, but A New Hope was deeply influenced by Westerns and Samurai films. In one of the original Star Wars' opening scenes, C3PO and R2D2 squabble as they wander lost through the deserts of Tatooine. This early moment is heavily influenced by a scene in Akira Kurosawa's 1958 movie The Hidden Fortress, where two peasants named Matashichi and Tahei wander haplessly across a war-torn part of Feudal Japan, having arrived too late to participate in a battle between warring clans.
Like the droids, their quarrelling leads them to split up for a time, and when they reunite they come across a man named Rokurota Makabe, who is secretly a member of the defeated clan. Makabe is played by Toshiro Mifune, whose stoic, morally ambiguous, and sharp-tongued characters were also a huge influence on Roger Clark's performance as Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 2.
The character of the general in hiding was a big influence on Obi-Wan Kenobi. There's even a scene where Mifune's character does his own version of a Jedi mind trick. Makabe fools the guards at a border checkpoint by making such a scene in his undercover persona that the soldiers can't believe that a man drawing so much attention to himself could be the general they're looking for and send him on his way. George Lucas even wanted Toshiro Mifune for the role of Obi-Wan.
There's even a direct shout-out to the title of Kurosawa's movie in A New Hope. In the famous "I find your lack of faith disturbing" scene, the Imperial officer Darth Vader begins to force choke is one syllable away from finishing the line "the rebel's hidden fortress." The influence of The Hidden Fortress on A New Hope is well-documented, and Kurosawa movies are one of the biggest influences on Star Wars as a whole - even the series' famous wipe transitions are a Kurosawa trademark.
Kurosawa In Red Dead 2 And Ghost Of Tsushima
Kurosawa's impact can be felt across Star Wars, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Ghost of Tsushima. In Red Dead 2, the archetype established by Mifune is central to Arthur's character. In Kurosawa movies like Yojimbo - itself remade as A Fistful of Dollars - Mifune's character is morally ambiguous, and viewers are left wondering whether he will do the right thing or not right up until the movie's climax. In Red Dead 2, playing into that same archetype made both the High and Low honor versions of Arthur Morgan totally believable, despite them sharing much of the same dialogue.
The influence of Kurosawa on Ghost of Tsushima also runs deep, but was made explicit when the developers added a "Kurosawa mode." It allowed players to play through the game in black and white, with the same high contrast levels that made many Kurosawa shots particularly memorable. The Ghost of Tsushima character Shino is likely named after the love interest in Kurosawa's Seven Samurai - remade as The Magnificent Seven with Kurosawa's approval - and keen-eyed fans will likely find many more references to Kurosawa's films throughout the campaign in everything from the costume designs to the fight choreography.
Red Dead Redemption 2 and Ghost of Tsushima take many of the tropes found in Kurosawa movies and demonstrate how they can be applied to an open-world action-adventure game. Those same tropes had a huge influence on A New Hope, and if an open-world Star Wars game is going to capture the feel of the best the franchise has to offer, it likely can't go wrong taking influence from the games that share the first Star Wars' movie's greatest inspiration.
Ubisoft Massive's Star Wars
Mechanically, there are a few things that an open-world Star Wars game could learn from Red Dead 2 and Ghost of Tsushima. The latter would be a great reference for lightsaber fights. The introduction of Ghost of Tsushima's Lethal Mode put great emphasis on blocking, with a single strike being lethal to both enemies and the player. A similar feature could make Ubisoft Massive's lightsaber fights feel particularly cinematic and immersive. Looking at the size of the world and the diversity of environments in Red Dead 2 could help an open-world Star Wars game overcome one potential problem: the series' penchant for planets with single biomes.
While Ghost of Tsushima doesn't present the player with many choices, the use of the Mifune archetype in Red Dead 2's Arthur Morgan shows how an open-world Star Wars game's protagonist could be believable if the player has the option to take them to the dark side or the light side in the story. Overall, looking at these two relatively recent open-world games could ironically be a great way for Ubisoft Massive to take its game back to Star Wars' roots. The game could capture something particularly cinematic as it takes the series into a genre EA left largely untouched throughout its reign as the franchise's sole video game publisher.
Ubisoft Massive's Star Wars game is currently in development.