{"id":562543,"date":"2026-04-03T17:20:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T17:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/562543\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T17:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T17:20:13","slug":"ghost-of-yotei-devs-used-coins-from-the-games-collectors-edition-to-test-zeni-hajiki-multiplayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/562543\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghost Of Yotei Devs Used Coins From The Game’s Collector’s Edition To Test Zeni Hajiki Multiplayer"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the best parts of Ghost of Yotei\u2018s recently added free multiplayer co-op mode, Legends,<\/a> is the ability to play the coin-flicking Zeni Hajiki game against a friend.\u00a0 However, the devs at Sucker Punch needed to create a new set of rules for competitive PvP-focused coin-flicking. Thankfully, Yotei\u2018s collector\u2019s edition included everything they needed for prototyping.<\/p>\n

Sucker Punch senior staff designer and Legends lead Darren Bridges told Kotaku that while the studio had always planned to add the multiplayer co-op mode to the open-world PS5 exclusive RPG, fan response to the coin-flicking game<\/a> helped convince the team it was worth including in the mode\u2019s lobby, where players chill out between missions.<\/p>\n

\u201cPvP Zeni Hajiki was always an idea we were interested in,\u201d Bridges told Kotaku. \u201cBut based on the fan response after the game launched, we knew it was a good investment. There was also strong advocacy within the studio \u2013 we did our PvP rule playtesting using real coins on a real table!\u201d<\/p>\n

When I asked why the team decided to prototype online Zeni Hajiki using real coins on a real table, Bridges explained that the team is always looking for the \u201cabsolute fastest way\u201d to figure out if an idea works or not.<\/p>\n

\u201cGenerally, this means creating simple, unpolished content to test it out in-game,\u201d explained Bridges. \u201cBut Zeni Hajiki is one of the few examples where we could try out new rules without writing a single line of code!\u201d<\/p>\n

And funnily enough, they didn\u2019t even need to make the coins or anything like that. Instead, Yotei\u2018s Collector\u2019s Edition offered a fast and already available option.<\/p>\n

\u201cGhost of Yotei\u2019s Collector\u2019s Edition includes a bag of coins that are made for playing the game, so it was probably the most efficient prototyping experience in the company\u2019s history,\u201d said Bridges.<\/p>\n

No fighting in the lobby, okay? <\/p>\n

All this talk of PVP elements in the lobby of Yotei\u2019s online mode, where you can compete in bamboo chopping as well as play a few rounds of Zeni Hajiki, got me thinking about another PvP feature I wanted: The ability to fight my brother one-on-one in a duel. The two of us work great together, but we can also be very competitive, and we both wanted to fight each other after a few missions.<\/p>\n

Sadly for my brother and me and our dreams of seeing who is the better online samurai warrior, Bridges told Kotaku that Ghost of Yotei\u2019s<\/a> combat system is built \u201cspecifically for PvE,\u201d so co-op was the natural and only real option for Legends.<\/p>\n

But maybe something like that will be added in a future, not-yet-announced sequel featuring an expanded lobby? The online mode of\u00a0Yotei\u2018s predecessor Ghost of Tsushima, also titled Legends, didn\u2019t include a lobby with side activities. The impulse to add the lobby in Yotei\u2018s version of the mode came from the studio\u2019s experience watching players engage with Tsushima\u2019s multiplayer. The studio learned that playing co-op games like this with friends always includes \u201cdowntime.\u201d So the lobby was created to offer people more to do between missions beyond tweaking gear and loadouts.<\/p>\n

Sony and Sucker Punch declined to talk about multiplayer modes being a part of future games from the studio.<\/p>\n

Making an online game and a single-player RPG at the same time <\/p>\n

When I asked Bridges if the plan was always to add a multiplayer mode to Yotei as Sucker Punch had with Tsushima, the developer confirmed that indeed it was.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, we started very early in the development of Ghost of Yotei,\u201d said Bridges. \u201cGhost of Tsushima: Legends was our first real online co-op project as a studio, and the fan response was very positive, so we wanted to do it again! Ghost of Yotei brought new opportunities for Legends adaptation, including the new weapon systems and massive monstrous versions of the Y\u014dtei Six.\u201d<\/p>\n

Balancing that seemed tricky to me, but Sucker Punch had a system that sounds simple and logical. According to Bridges, a smaller core team of devs worked on Legends early on while Yotei was in full development. As team members finished up their work on the main game, they\u2019d shift over to Legends to help get it completed. And Bridges tells me that there was never a plan to charge money for this update.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust like with Ghost of Tsushima, we were happy to offer Legends as a free DLC for all Ghost of Yotei owners, with no microtransactions,\u201d said Bridges.<\/p>\n

A break from realism <\/p>\n

Another bonus of this system was that as devs finished up work on Yotei and shifted to Legends and its mythologically inspired setting, they got to work on more fantastical locations, powers, and enemies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all love the beauty in the grounded world of Yotei, but it\u2019s creatively refreshing for the designers and artists to tackle the Legends locations and characters,\u201d explained Bridges. \u201cThe fantastical setting provides a great foundation for building co-op-focused mechanics, and enemies that are worthy challenges for multiple players.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a9Sucker Punch \/ Sony <\/p>\n

For my last question, I asked Bridges about Sucker Punch\u2019s history of updating and expanding on its games. We saw it with Infamous: Festival of Blood, Infamous 2\u2032<\/a>s user-created mission feature<\/a>, the standalone spin-off Infamous: First Light,<\/a> and now two different online co-op modes added to its recent samurai games. According to Bridges, every game is different, but Sucker Punch always tries to \u201cfind an approach\u201d for developing and supporting a game that works with the studio.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we started building Ghost of Tsushima a decade ago,\u201d said Bridges, \u201cwe knew we wanted to include cooperative content. Fighting side by side with your friends is a natural fit for the core fantasy of being a samurai. Developing Legends allowed us to expand our skillset as a studio, and to offer players a fantastical cooperative experience as a complement to Atsu\u2019s journey in the single-player campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the best parts of Ghost of Yotei\u2018s recently added free multiplayer co-op mode, Legends, is the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[1016,232705,3381,1015,108795,74],"class_list":["post-562543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ghost-of-yotei","tag-ghost-of-yotei-legends","tag-interview","tag-ps5","tag-sucker-punch","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}