Ghost of Tsushima is one of the best-looking games on the PS4, thanks to both the developers’ full mastery of the PS4 and some absolutely beautiful art direction. Now, the game’s lead concept artist has given fans a breakdown of some of the art behind the game, and how the team at Sucker Punch realized some of these concepts in-game.
In a post on the PlayStation Blog, lead concept artist Ian Jun Wei Chiew has shared many of the images created during the development of Ghost of Tsushima, and talked through its inspirations and how it translated into the game. “We began by exposing ourselves to as much research and content as we could on the Kamakura era, Japanese culture, old samurai films and the Invasion of Tsushima, which led to the final designs of our characters, outfits, landscape, architecture, etc.,” he writes.
“A lot of the references we gathered were from museum exhibits and photos taken by teams that the studio sent out to Tsushima as well as the main island of JapanThe artist digs into the design processes around each character, too. For Jin, he writes, “we needed someone that can fulfill the fantasy of hiding in the shadows, but still having a look that feels like it was inspired by some of his samurai armor and aesthetic.”
The environments, meanwhile, are a mix of realistic and stylized: “we always had to think about what to keep historically accurate, and when to break away.”
We’ve rounded up some of our favorites from the blog below, but it’s worth reading over the full thing to see more and read Ian Jun Wei Chiew’s thoughts on each part of the process.
Gallery
An artbook for the game, The Art of Ghost of Tsushima, releases on December 1. You can preorder on Amazon.
Ghost of Tsushima recently received a major update, which added a co-op mode to the game. Sucker Punch is currently seeking writers with an interest in Japan, so it’s likely that we’ll see more from Tsushima.
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