On the surface, it might not seem like Rockstar's original Red Dead Redemption has much in common with the world of Ghost of Tsushima, but according to developer Sucker Punch, the expansive cowboy game was "the number one inspiration" behind the upcoming samurai adventure.
Earlier this week, we finally got a good look at Sucker Punch's Ghost of Tsushima. As we summarised at the time, the open-world samurai game - which is set in 13th-century Feudal Japan - was the focus of a 20-minute State of Play, during which we finally got a chance to check out the game's windswept world, stripped-back UI, and violent, unforgiving combat.
But while the team creating the game have talked about taking inspiration from samurai comics and films after "[falling] in love" with the setting and tropes of samurai media, it seems inspiration has come from other, less obvious places, too, including Nintendo's Breath of the Wild and Rockstar's inaugural Red Dead Redemption.
"I would say the number one inspiration for the title was Red Dead Redemption - not Red Dead 2 but Red Dead Redemption, - because they did such a fantastic job bringing the fantasy of being an outlaw cowboy to life," Ghost of Tsushima's game director, Nate Fox, told GAMINGbible.
"Landscape, the way that people talk to you, the way that you move - all have it brought you into that identity," Fox added. "And for us, I used to say like, 'hey,' when I would try and get people excited about the game, 'think of it like as the same format as that'."
That's not all, though. During Ghost of Tsushima's considerable development period, the team was also inspired by newer releases, too.
"When we're building the game, and a game like Breath of the Wild comes out - that does such an amazing job of showing how the power of curiosity can be stoked in all these many ways," Fox continued. "While we always wanted you [to] be transported to Tsushima Island and not butter things up, I think that that game really inspired us to try even harder, to go deeper, to just clear out the decks so that you could be just as present as possible in Tsushima."
What other games do you think might have been inspired by Red Dead Redemption? Let us know - join our community and talk to us via Facebook and Twitter.
Featured Image Credit: Credit: Sucker Punch, RockstarTopics: Sucker Punch, Ghost of Tsushima, Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar