Joanna Wang, the lead environmental artist for Sucker Punch's Ghost of Tsushima, recently wrote up a detailed PlayStation Blog post on the process behind creating the beautiful environments that can be found in the game

As it turns out Tsushima is a real place, a Japanese island located between the Japanese mainland and the Korean Peninsula:

However the game's setting isn't a 100 percent recreation of the island. Instead the developers took essential elements of the island, mixed with some inspirations from mainland Japan, and built up a more unique world. During the research trips, birds and nature sounds were recorded and photo-scanned Tsushima island, and used them in the actual game.

As the devs continued to work on the game's environments, they made a decision to make the natural spaces more memorable and unique. Tons of methods were used to limit the variety of foliage, pushing color values, increasing translucency levels, and reducing noise on textures. In the end, this bold use of color in nature became a theme for the game. By limiting the types of foliage in biomes, they were better able to bring a sense of freshness to each area and create a much more memorable world:

Below are some video clips showcasing the full range of gorgeous environments, as well as the wind effects that are vital to navigation:

https://gfycat.com/ifr/OldfashionedJitteryAntlion

https://gfycat.com/ifr/DeafeningReasonableGrayling

https://gfycat.com/ifr/ParchedNecessaryGardensnake

https://gfycat.com/ifr/LankyEasyBeaver

https://gfycat.com/ifr/PlushImpureHairstreak

https://gfycat.com/ifr/CrispShamelessAlaskanhusky

Recently a brand new Japanese gameplay trailer was released, which shows off some of the techniques detailed above:

As the launch of the game approached, it would be prudent of players to free up some space on their PS4’s hard drive. Ghost of Tsushima will require players to have a minimum of 50GB available space to start playing. There’s also the fact that it could need even more space on launch day if there’s a day one patch. You can start preloading the game now ahead of its launch.

In an interview with IGN, Game Director Nate Fox talked about the game’s difficulty and stated that “We are trying to make a grounded game in that sense, so a couple blows from the enemy will kill you,” Fox said. “We watched samurai movies and people go down with one or two strikes, and that is embedded inside of the combat. Beating the Mongols in battle will be hard, but it’s that challenge that makes it feel alive and the victory rewarding. You can’t just run into a camp and fight 5 people at the same time, you will get overwhelmed and die.” Although later, we also found out that you can change these settings to suit your own playstyle better so if you don’t enjoy getting your ass kicked hard, you can do something about it.

You can also check out Chris Hawtin who has put together an incredible Ghost of Tsushima motion poster that director Akira Kurosawa would be proud of, as well as this incredible Ghost of Tsushima inspired PlayStation 4 by XboxPope. Famed Japanese artist Takashi Okazaki, the creator of the Afro Samurai manga, recently collaborated with Ghost of Tsushima to produce some gorgeous manga-style posters.

Ghost of Tsushima is slated to launch on July 17th, 2020, and will be a PS4 exclusive. If you want to pre-order the game through Amazon, you can do so here. You can also prepare for the launch by checking out this editorial on the five Samurai movies to watch before it releases.