Toshihiro Nagoshi the charismatic and colourful character behind the Yakuza series, has spoken at length about his appreciation for the recently released PS4 exclusive, Ghost of Tsushima. Despite being set on the Japanese island of the same name, Ghost of Tsushima was developed by Bellevue-based studio Sucker Punch, and Nagoshi thinks that Westerners sometimes have a knack for pleasing Japanese audiences.
As part of a SEGA livestream (translated by Kotaku), Nagoshi said "Foreigners who tickle the fancy of Japanese people more than Japanese people are... rather amazing, no?" Indeed, Ghost of Tsushima has been something of a blockbuster in Japan, where it almost immediately topped the software charts and sold out in stores.
"There’s like a notion that Westerners don’t understand things (about Japan), but that hypothesis itself is mistaken," Nagoshi continues. “To be honest, we [Japan] were beaten,” the eccentric director says with a chuckle. "Yeah, of course, we’re losing. Honestly, I think that’s a game that should be made in Japan," he adds.
Nagoshi goes on the praise the amount of research and effort that was put into the game, and says that the way in which Ghost of Tsushima combines organic exploration with storytelling is "so great". Given how dramatic and story-driven the Yakuza games are, it's also no surprise to hear that Nagoshi thinks highly of the performances in Ghost: "I don’t know the actors who did the motion capture, but the care given to their expressions is impressive."
This leads to Nagoshi commenting on the potential restrictions of creating games in Japan. He points out that Ghost protagonist Jin isn't a typically handsome character -- and this is something that he thinks simply wouldn't fly in his homeland. "The protagonist [Jin] isn’t a particularly handsome lead, don’t you think? At your typical [Japanese] company, if you showed concept art for a character like him, I don’t think it would be approved," Nagoshi explains. He then says it's "amazing" that Jin exists as a lead, and that he applauds Sucker Punch for pushing such a character.
He concludes: "There are numerous things I bow my head to, like aiming at setting a game in that time period... I could go on and on. I feel an earnest sense of a job well done."
It's nice to see such a respected figure in the Japanese industry be so enthusiastic about Ghost of Tsushima -- especially after the title's got off to a blistering start in terms of sales. Japan's reaction to the game was always going to be interesting, and it's starting to look like Sucker Punch has smashed it.
[source blog.esuteru.com, via kotaku.com]
Comments 29
Maybe this will pave the way for the Yakuza spin offs to get a Western release now that the West has shown we can appreciate Japanese history.
Just finished Tsushima and the man is 100% correct. It warms my heart to see one of the key figures behind one of my favorite Japanese game series give such glowing praise to Tsushima.
@Enigk I sure hope so. They need to do a Yakuza Spinoff collection that has Kenzan, Ishin, and Dead Souls for PS4/PS5.
High praise indeed.........will we see a Yakusa edition outside of Japan maybe set in London.
Lovely comments and well deserved. The Japanese are always so nice and respectful in pretty much everything they do!
Yakuza is better than Ghost of Tsushima.
@JorbNorb Jesus, you're still here?
🤦
@JorbNorb Which one? There have been some great ones and some duds in the series. Yakuza Like a dragon looks like a dud in the making tbh, let's see.
@Juanalf @Col_McCafferty @JorbNorb Come on people, let's have some positive comments for a positive article.
Awesome to see a western developed game like Ghost of Tsushima receive this kind of praise in Japan, especially from a dev that strives for that authentic Japanese feel in the world of the Yakuza series.
It's interesting to hear Nagoshi talk about Jin's looks not flying in a Japanese dev studio.
I know what he means about looks being important in Japanese games. I’m rather sick of the whole Squeenix twinks to be perfectly honest.
@ShogunRok Red wire.
The Japanese love it, while all certain elements of Western society can do is crow about "cultural appropriation". Gotta see the funny in that. 😁
@ShogunRok Ghost is my personal goty, it's fantastic and SP should receive as much sales as possible 😁
@nessisonett My wife always mocks my jrpgs. She's like "oh you playing around with a other boy band member" etc. I think the Yakuza series is the closest to normal looking people but even then no one is fugly
It's kind of wild that there isn't ps4 AAA open world realistic (no demon, spirit, etc) samurai games made in japan.
@zimbogamer
Great to see after articles from the usual idiotic Western websites suggested people should be upset about this game.
@Gamer83 If you go looking for reasons to be outraged then they're easy to find. That's true for people of any political persuasion.
Same with a certain PS exclusive released last month.
😜
@Gamer83 I read your sentence a few times and I still don’t follow your point.
It's great that Ghost is loved in Japan and that when people remember the last of PS4 it'll always be Ghost of Tsushima.
@Col_McCafferty
I don't recall mainstream media outlets picking apart TLoU 2 at all.
I find it funny that he mentions that Jin's look wouldn't fly in Japan. I wouldn't call Kiryu a particularly handsome character. He constantly has a face like a bulldog chewing a wasp.
Strange top line in the article, no? Surely the story here is that he’s saying the game should have been made in Japan.
@Gamer83 Define mainstream? Kotaku and Polygon didn't exactly love Part II and have written many an article about the game's flaws or just their general dislike of it.
You need to.open your eyes mate!
To be fair I've noticed this with other PS exclusives that were released after God of War. Days Gone and Death Stranding both received a lot of criticism. There's a lot of bias out there in favour of Xbox and certainly Nintendo.
Seek and ye shall find!
@Col_McCafferty
My eyes are plenty open. I see trash from both sides of the extreme all over my Twitter feed. What I don't remember seeing, and to be fair, maybe I did just miss it, was writers from some of these sites tweeting dumb stuff on their own personal accounts about TLoU 2. I have, however, seen stupid tweets about how gamers should be concerned about Ghost of Tsushima's 'problematic' themes of Japanese Imperialism. I also saw plenty of dumb tweets about TLoU 2 being an 'SJW' game but that was coming from youtubers, some who got in a spat with Sony and ND over copyright.
End of the day it's all stupid. I've played both games and don't see a 'problem' with either one of them other than not liking some of the writing in TLoU 2, though it didn't hurt my experience.
Hmmm it's fairly pompous as well, isn't it? I mean, to say that when Japan sets something in America it's fine but the other way round and it's excruciatingly examined and often ridiculed? Seems a little like a back handed compliment to me. 14 year old voyeur games and detailed nudity in TV shows? It's fine, you just don't understand. Collecting tons of ears as trophies for your violence? It's fine, we were just really war fanatical and violent back then. The same criticism that is shone upon the west should be cast towards the east. No one is better than anyone and nearly every country is ran by greed.
@Enigk Maybe, huh?
@Golem25 That comment aged well. Maybe we'll get Kenzan a year or two later if Ishin sells well.
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