Jason Connell explained to us why Ghost of Yotei removes question marks from the map to let players explore freely

Recently, Gamepressure’s Maciej Bogusz had the opportunity to sit down with the Creative Director of Ghost of Yotei, Jason Connell. You can read the entire interview, but one interesting moment stood out. Connell explained to us why Ghost of Yotei diverged from Ghost of Tsushima in a major way. The newest title from Sucker Punch has been out for less than a week, but anyone who’s played the first game in the series will immediately notice the lack of map markers in the game.

Ghost of Yotei Creative Director Jason Connell explains why they dropped map markers

When asked why Ghost of Yotei gave up the question marks on the map, Connell explained that the decision stemmed from Tsushima. “I love playing open-world games that don’t lead you by hand, but let you have the choice to figure out where you want to go. In Tsushima, I think we didn’t.” Connel talked about balancing an open-world game with a game that tells a story, saying it was “a very complex balance to get right.”

With Yotei, the team’s goal was “to remove anything that stops you from immersing yourself into this world…” This included not only the map markers but also the “giant journal” from Ghost of Tsushima, as Connell jokingly calls it. The decision to go this route also influenced the game's art style, and Jason Connell served as both Art Director and Creative Director on Yotei. Because the map is presented as Atsu’s drawing and her perspective, the team believes it makes what appears on the map more interesting and memorable. You’re seeing the world through the character’s eyes, not only the world itself, but also her interpretation of it in the map form.

However, as Connell mentioned, this is a delicate balance between the story and the open world. Leave too much up to interpretation, and some players may end up lost or frustrated. Thankfully, the team thought of that too: “…if you’re a golden path player – we don’t ever try to hide it from you. We try to make it very easy to track main quests down because some people are those types of players.” Ultimately, it will be up to each player to decide if the balance is right for them. If you need an interactive map to help your playthrough, Gamepressure has you covered.

Overall, the team’s goal was to make Ghost of Yotei more immersive, and removing the obvious game markers from the map was an easy way to achieve that. “Instead of question marks or the journal telling you there’s some curiosity there, maybe you just have the curiosity to go yourself.” Hopefully, this causes more players to explore the world more naturally. So far, it seems to have worked well, as reviews of Ghost of Yotei have been very positive, earning it a respectable 86 on Metacritic in a year full of great games and our reviewer likes it even more than that.

Ghost of Yotei

October 2, 2025

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