Ghost of Yotei Nearly Stole One of Breath of the Wild’s Most Distinctive Features

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Imagine an alternate version of Ghost of Yotei where it plays a lot like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, incorporating a popular feature from that critically acclaimed Nintendo game.

Ultimately, the concept was abandoned, as Sucker Punch leaders Nate Fox and Jason Connell shared during a presentation at GDC (as reported by GamesRadar).

It seems the game developers were originally planning a detailed rock-climbing system, similar to the one found in the Switch game, that would have let players climb almost any surface.

After playing Nintendo’s game, Fox realized that the way it handled climbing could improve any game.

We quickly began building a test version of the feature,” he explained, believing it would be amazing. However, it was eventually removed from the final game.

According to Fox, the reason for this was primarily that it didn’t align with the style of open-world games Sucker Punch usually creates – games where many surfaces were intentionally designed to be unclimbable.

He explained that if players were able to climb anything but consistently found no rewards, it effectively discouraged further exploration, as it simply wasn’t worth the effort.

Ultimately, Sucker Punch reused its established climbing mechanic from previous games. This system uses pre-designed routes that Atsu can scale, which lets the developers ensure players will find something worthwhile at the end of each climb.

The idea of climbing similar to the game Breath of the Wild came up when Fox and Connell discussed how aggressively the studio pushes to add new features.

Connell suggests that if a project isn’t working, ask yourself if it feels pointless. If it does feel pointless, and the feature itself isn’t good, he advises abandoning it and moving on to something else.

We’re curious about what features didn’t make it into the final game because they didn’t quite align with the overall magical theme.

It’s good to hear confirmation that developers play each other’s games and find inspiration in them. While it seems like common sense, it’s still reassuring to know this happens.

If Ghost of Yotei had included free climbing, would you have liked that? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

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2026-03-11 04:36