Company Cross References: Being a Sucker Punch game, there are references to Sly Cooper and Infamous present, mainly in cosmetic items. Some of these items include the Crooked Kama Headband (blue headband with the shape of Sly Cooper's iconic cane on it), the Sly Tanuki sword kit (blue and yellow-hilted blade with a furry grey and black striped raccoon tail sheath), and the Band of the Second Son (a headband that resembles Delsin's beanie with the top cut off). Some of these items can only be obtained by climbing up tall buildings.
Fake Nationality: Averted with Jin Sakai, voiced and modelled by Japanese-American Daisuke Tsuji, and Kenji, voiced and modelled by half-Taiwanese and half-Japanese James Hiroyuki Liao. The majority of the characters, on the other hand, are voiced and modeled by non-Japanese Asian-American actors. More specifically:
Lord Shimura is portrayed by Eric Steinberg (half-Korean).
Yuna is portrayed by Sumalee Montano (Thai/Filipino).
Taka is portrayed by Eddie Shin (Korean-American).
Sensei Ishikawa is portrayed by François Chau (Cambodian-American of Chinese and Vietnamese descent).
Lady Masako is portrayed by Lauren Tom (Chinese-American).
Norio is portrayed by Earl T. Kim (Korean-American).
Ryuzo is portrayed by Leonard Wu (Chinese-American).
Khotun Khan is Mongolian, but portrayed by Patrick Gallagher, a Canadian of Irish and Chinese descent.
Gyozen the Storyteller is voiced by Greg Baldwin (American with no immediate Asian descent), who is affecting the voice of Japanese-American Mako, from whom he took over voice acting duties after the latter's death.
From the Iki Island expansion mode:
Ankhsar Khatun, the Eagle, is portrayed by Anzu Lawson (half-Japanese).
Tenzo is portrayed by Greg Chun (Korean-American).
Fune is portrayed by Judy Alice Lee (Korean-American)
Kazumasa Sakai is portrayed by Lee Shorten (Asian-Australian).
Funny Character, Boring Actor: Inverted by Earl T. Kim as Norio. While Norio is more "stoic" than "boring," his actor (as one can see from his twitch stream) is an utter goofball.
Ink-Suit Actor: All major characters are modeled after their English voice actors.
Tourist Bump: Due to the popularity of the game, the Nagasaki Prefecture used it to promote tourism for Tsushima island. In March 2021, creative lead Nate Fox and Jason Connell were named as tourism ambassadors for making the island's history known.
In the first trailer, Jin's Ghost Mask was more simplistic and reminiscent of a cloth mask. Later trailers and the main game have the Ghost Mask look more unique and resemble the traditional samurai mask.
Director Nate Fox has said that the writing team considered using real people as the characters in the game but upon their research and consultation with others, decided it would be more culturally sensitive to develop their own characters.
The standoff mechanic was originally implemented in a more seamless fashion, with minimal UI and the camera staying behind Jin instead of cutting away into a mini-cutscene.
Before deciding on the first Mongol invasion of Japan as the setting, the developers looked into pirates, the Scottish outlaw Rob Roy MacGregor and The Three Musketeers as potential options for an open world, melee combat game.
Miscellaneous Trivia
Ghost of Tsushima is the fourth IP developed by Sucker Punch, the third under Sony, and their first new IP since the inFAMOUS game series from 2009.
For Latin American Spanish players, this is the first game with a dub done entirely in Argentina, instead of Mexico like in most recent games, with the partial exception of The Last of Us Part II since God of War: Ascension, as Sony had stopped dubbing their games there as a result of the lackluster job of their previous attempts. Unlike Ascension and other Argentinian-dubbed games, however, the dub of the game was better received this time.
