Why Ghost of Yōtei Cut Its Breath of the Wild-Style Climbing

Open-world games often borrow ideas from one another, especially when a landmark release introduces a system that reshapes player expectations. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is one of those landmark titles, and its free-form climbing system has become a touchstone for designers and fans alike. Sucker Punch Productions, the studio behind Ghost of Yōtei (the working title used publicly for the sequel to Ghost of Tsushima), experimented with a similar rock-climbing mechanic during early development. Yet, despite the obvious appeal, they ultimately scrapped it.

This decision reveals a lot about how modern open-world games are built: every feature must serve a clear fantasy, respect production constraints, and fit within a coherent set of design pillars. Using public reporting on the game and broader industry examples as context, this article explores why the ambitious climbing prototype didn’t survive and what it teaches about focus in game design.

The Influence of Breath of the Wild’s Climbing

When Breath of the Wild launched in 2017, its climbing system instantly stood out. Link could scale almost any surface, limited primarily by a visible stamina meter rather than by arbitrary ledges. This structure interacted deeply with exploration, survival, and physics-based systems across Hyrule, driving players to experiment in nearly every direction.

Industry analysis often emphasizes that this approach reduced the number of invisible walls and designer-imposed routes in favor of systemic traversal, which in turn increased players’ sense of agency and discovery.¹ Climbing wasn’t just a movement option; it was central to how players approached puzzles, combat positioning, and exploration.

It’s no surprise that developers at Sucker Punch, like many designers, were inspired by this. According to coverage of a Game Developers Conference (GDC) session, members of the team openly admired the idea of being able to climb almost anything and explored how a similar mechanic might benefit Ghost of Yōtei.²

• Key appeal of the BotW-style system:
  • Supports free-form exploration across vertical terrain.
  • Converts environmental obstacles into solvable stamina puzzles.
  • Makes traversal itself a core gameplay loop rather than filler.

Bringing that same magic into a samurai stealth-action open world, however, posed challenges that went beyond simply copying a stamina bar.

Ghost of Yōtei’s Early Vision and the Ronin Fantasy

Ghost of Tsushima and its sequel-in-development are fundamentally about inhabiting the role of a wandering warrior in historical Japan. That fantasy is built from a blend of cinematic combat, horseback travel, duels, and the tension between stealth and honor, rather than from survivalist climbing or improvisational physics.

Sucker Punch has described the core identity of the sequel’s protagonist using the phrase “wandering ronin,” emphasizing a lone swordsman traveling through a dangerous world, taking on contracts, dueling rivals, and interacting with a landscape shaped as much by human conflict as by nature. In this fantasy, the weapon you draw and the stories you uncover matter more than your ability to scale every cliff face.

At GDC, the studio’s co-directors discussed how they used the question “Does this make you feel like a wandering ronin?” as a litmus test during development.² Any system that failed this test—especially one that demanded large investments in animation, level design, and art—had to be reconsidered.

This contrast is crucial. While both are open-world action-adventure games, the fantasies they foreground are different—and that shapes which mechanics belong at the center.

Inside the Rock-Climbing Prototype

Reports of the GDC talk describe a small internal team experimenting with a rock-climbing system reminiscent of Breath of the Wild. The goal was to see whether allowing players to scale much more of the environment could enhance exploration and heighten the sense of freedom in the world of Ghost of Yōtei.^2,3

From the outside, we can infer that this prototype likely involved:

• A stamina or resource-based limitation to prevent infinite ascent.
• Tech changes to support attaching the character to diverse surfaces.
• New animation states for clinging, climbing, and transitioning to ledges.
• Level-design experiments around cliffs, castles, and shrines.

Crucially, the team was in a phase where they were identifying “pillars” for the sequel—the handful of big ideas that would define the experience. A climbing prototype made sense as part of that exploration. Early in development, many studios deliberately pursue features they aren’t sure will survive, just to see how they feel in practice.

Why the Feature Didn’t Fit the Wandering Ronin

As the prototype matured, the developers realized that rock climbing clashed with other aspects of the game’s design. Several overlapping factors contributed to the decision to remove it.

1. Thematic Mismatch

First and foremost, climbing every surface didn’t align with the story fantasy. The wandering ronin is characterized by mastery of the blade, tactical movement through villages and forts, and emotional choices amid war and duty. Spending long stretches of time clinging to cliff walls drew focus away from duels and stealth encounters that define the series.

In other words, the climbing system pulled attention toward survival-platforming rather than cinematic samurai action. When the team asked their core question—“Does this make you feel like a wandering ronin?”—the answer wasn’t strong enough to justify the trade-offs.

2. World Design and Invisible Boundaries

Another practical concern was that Ghost of Yōtei wasn’t built around the assumption that players could climb absolutely everything. Open-world level design research notes that when a game promises full freedom in movement, any break in that promise—such as a wall that arbitrarily can’t be scaled—feels jarring and undermines immersion.¹

Developers reportedly noted that their world still required certain walls that players weren’t meant to climb: boundaries for story pacing, streaming constraints, or encounter design. Layering a near-universal climbing system on top of that would create an inconsistent experience that frustrated players.

3. Art and Production Costs

Climbing systems are expensive. Environments need to be shaped, textured, and collision-tuned to look and feel believable when viewed from every angle, including from halfway up a sheer rock face. Nintendo has discussed the extensive work required to make surfaces in Breath of the Wild readable and climbable, from careful collision meshes to visual cues that communicate what can be scaled.¹

For Ghost of Yōtei, adding robust climbing meant:

• Significant additional animation work for varied slopes and transitions.
• Environment art adjustments so cliffs and man-made structures work from all approach vectors.
• More QA passes to handle edge cases, exploits, and soft-lock scenarios.

Developers at GDC reportedly framed this as “doubling” art responsibilities across the world: every surface that could be reached had to be polished and tested for climbing interactions. For a studio balancing cinematic storytelling, combat, and open-world activities, that cost was substantial.

4. Design Focus and Feature Creep

The climbing system also risked feature creep—the tendency for a project to accumulate enticing ideas until it loses focus or becomes unmanageable. The International Game Developers Association and industry postmortems frequently warn that adding complex systems late or without clear integration can derail schedules and dilute a game’s identity.⁴

By this point, Sucker Punch already had strong traversal options: horseback riding, contextual parkour, and tools like the grappling hook. These supported stealth infiltration and dramatic duels without requiring full-surface climbing. Adding a stamina-based system on top of that would overlap with existing mechanics while demanding major resources, making it a classic candidate for removal.

The Value of a Clear Design North Star

If the climbing prototype “failed,” it did so in a productive way. Testing it clarified what Ghost of Yōtei should and should not be. The wandering ronin fantasy became a lens that helped the team prioritize features with the strongest thematic payoff.

From a game-design standpoint, this is an example of how defining a north star—a concise vision statement—can streamline decision-making. Once it’s clear that the protagonist is not a survival climber but a drifting swordsman, questions like “Should we support free climbing?” become much easier to answer.

This approach mirrors best practices in creative industries more broadly. Creative leadership research and GDC talks often recommend that large teams rely on vision statements or pillars to keep hundreds of contributors aligned across years of production.⁴ The walking ronin test served precisely that function.

Comparing Traversal Philosophies: BotW vs Ghost of Yōtei

Looking at the broader design philosophies of Breath of the Wild and Ghost of Yōtei highlights why one leans heavily into climbing while the other pulled back.

Breath of the Wild’s Systemic Freedom

Nintendo structured Breath of the Wild around systemic interactions: physics, chemistry, weather, and open traversal. Players are encouraged to solve problems creatively by stacking systems in unexpected ways. Climbing supports this by turning every mountain, ruin, or tower into a potential route, often combined with paraglider drops, environmental manipulation, and combat ambushes.

In this context:

• Vertical freedom is central to how players explore.
• Stamina manages pacing and risk-reward decisions.
• The world is deliberately sculpted to reward curiosity in any direction.

Ghost of Yōtei’s Cinematic Direction

By contrast, Ghost of Tsushima and its sequel emphasize cinematic framing and authored encounters:

• Dramatic duels arranged in iconic locations.
• Story missions that blend stealth, open combat, and horseback movement.
• Landmarks and shrines positioned to invite specific approaches.

Traversal is still important, but it’s in service of pacing and staging rather than pure systemic experimentation. Too much freedom to bypass carefully staged fortresses or vantage points by scaling every wall could undermine dramatic setups and stealth route design.

By not centering rock climbing, Sucker Punch protects:

• The clarity of infiltration paths.
• The readability of combat arenas.
• The emotional beats tied to approaching key locations in prescribed ways.

What the Cut Climbing System Means for Players

For players, the absence of a full-surface climbing system carries trade-offs.

Benefits

• Stronger identity: The game feels less like a derivative of Breath of the Wild and more like a focused samurai epic.
• Polished core systems: Resources can be devoted to refining combat, stealth, and horse movement instead of spreading thin across an additional complex mechanic.
• Clearer world readability: When players can’t climb everything, designers can make it obvious which paths and tools are intended for progression.

Drawbacks

• Less vertical improvisation: Players accustomed to Breath of the Wild may feel constrained when confronted with non-climbable surfaces.
• More reliance on authored routes: Some will miss the sense of “breaking” the world by finding their own paths.

Ultimately, though, the decision signals that Ghost of Yōtei aims to refine what worked in Ghost of Tsushima rather than chase every trend in open-world design.

Lessons for Game Designers

The story behind this cut feature offers several practical lessons for developers working on open-world projects of their own.

1. Start Wide, Then Cut Aggressively

Prototyping ambitious mechanics—even ones inspired by other games—is valuable. The climb system helped Sucker Punch test whether expanded verticality would elevate their sequel. When it didn’t align with their vision, they let it go. Iterative design research stresses that experimentation followed by deliberate pruning is more effective than trying to design the perfect feature set on paper.⁴

2. Use a Fantasy Filter

Anchoring decisions in a clear player fantasy keeps features from drifting off-theme. When your hero is a ronin, horseback travel, duels, and stealthy infiltration naturally sit at the core. A climbing system, while cool, must justify its place in that fantasy or risk feeling bolted on.

3. Respect Production Reality

Ambitious systems touch every department: animation, level design, engineering, audio, and QA. A feature that works in isolation may become unmanageable at scale. The more systemic the mechanic, the larger its footprint on the game’s content and schedule.

4. Learn from Successes Without Cloning Them

Borrowing ideas from influential titles is normal and healthy, but direct imitation rarely yields the best result. Nintendo built Breath of the Wild from the ground up around climbing and systemic physics. Sucker Punch, working with a very different fantasy and legacy, had to selectively integrate what made sense rather than replicate everything that impressed them.

FAQ: Ghost of Yōtei’s Climbing and Open-World Design

Did Ghost of Yōtei ever actually have Breath of the Wild-style climbing?

Yes, during early development a small team prototyped a rock-climbing system inspired by Breath of the Wild, but it never became a full production feature and was removed after internal testing.^2,3

Why was the climbing system removed?

Developers concluded that near-universal rock climbing didn’t support the wandering ronin fantasy, clashed with level design that still needed unclimbable walls, and would significantly increase art and production costs.

Does this mean the game won’t have any climbing or parkour?

No. The decision concerns a broad, surface-agnostic climbing system. Contextual climbing, ledge grabs, grappling, and other traversal tools remain compatible with the ronin fantasy and can coexist with more directed level design.

Is this just about avoiding copying Nintendo?

Avoiding direct imitation is one factor, but the main reason is focus. Sucker Punch prioritized mechanics that best express a drifting swordsman’s life—combat, stealth, narrative choice, and purposeful travel—over a system that would shift emphasis toward survival-platforming.

What can other developers learn from this decision?

The key takeaway is that not every admired mechanic belongs in every game. By filtering prototypes through a clear fantasy and production reality, teams can experiment widely then cut features that don’t meaningfully support the core experience.