I've been sold on Ghost Of Tsushima since I saw the first trailer back in 2017. Everything I've learned about Sucker Punch's open-world samurai game since then has only gotten me more excited, to the point that I can't quite take it anymore.
Last week's massive gameplay reveal, which detailed combat, exploration, and the ability to pet foxes left me really rather giddy. I kind of figured there wasn't anything else Sucker Punch could tell us about the game that would make me want it more. But then I learned the game has a dedicated button for shaking the blood off your sword. Like a stone-cold badass.
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As reported by VG247, Sucker Punch will allow you to flex in the most unbelievable way, performing a Chiburi at the press of a button. Chiburi, if you hadn't already guessed, is the "process by which one symbolically removes blood from a sword blade," typically before putting it back in its scabbard.
Ghost Of Tsushima creative director Jason Connell confirmed to VG247 that this subtle flick - which a lot of fans spotted in earlier gameplay footage - will be available to players at the push of a button. Sheathing your sword after a kill will always cause Jin, our samurai protagonist, to perform a Chiburi. Jin will also perform this as an idle animation, but I'd imagine you'd much rather do it yourself in most cases.
"It can be done in a couple of different ways," Connell said. "There's actually a function or a button that lets you just stow and draw the sword, and if there's blood on the sword, he'll do one of the cool, flick-like actions. I believe he did that one inside the State of Play demo, where he actually just pressed the button.
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"There's also an automatic one if you're standing around for quite a while, he'll automatically stow it. So, we have kind of both. I think there's actually even in some of the flourishes of melee combat, he'll just do a quick one."
If you're after more Ghost Of Tsushima goodness, we also spoke to the game's director, Nate Fox. Head here to read all about the game's gorgeous open world, how our character fits into it, and why Sucker Punch landed on Feudal Japan as the setting for its new game.
In other Ghost Of Tsushima news, a lot of fans are already comparing it to the Japanese Assassin's Creed adventure we never got. I don't know how accurate that is, but I can't wait to find out when the game hits PS4 on July 17th.
Featured Image Credit: SonyTopics: Sucker Punch, Ghost of Tsushima