Ghost of Tsushima looks like of the most interesting PlayStation 4 exclusives on the horizon. The open world game by Sucker Punch (Sly Cooper, inFamous) features the last samurai on the background of Tsushima island, during the first Mongol invasion of Japan (1274).

　　In the latest GamesTM magazine (issue 202), Art Director Jason Connell shared a brief statement on the team's effort to create a living, breathing world.

　　Having everything move, if it can move make it move, was a very ambitious goal for us from the very beginning. and we’re achieving it! you walk around the game world and you’ll be like 'Oh my god, everything around me is moving!'

　　It is unclear right now if that means the AI will be particularly reactive or dynamic, though. We may learn more about this feature later.

　　At E3 2018, Nathan was able to chat about Ghost of Tsushima with Sucker Punch co-founder Chis Zimmerman, who confirmed that there will be difficulty settings so that both players looking for a challenge and more casual fans will be able to tweak difficulty to their liking.

　　The story is about Jin being forced to change and being challenged by these overwhelming numbers of Mongols — I want to feel that. And the game will absolutely give that to you if that’s what you want. We will wreck you if that’s what you want. At the same point, if you’re playing to be a tourist, you still need to feel like you’re challenged, you don’t just want a cakewalk. The game needs to scale down to provide the right challenge, but still make your choice feel meaningful. If you can just cakewalk through every fight, then the parts where Jin is sneaking around just don’t make sense anymore. Why would I do that? The story is about how the Mongols are forcing you to change, so they need to force you to change. No matter who you are as a player, if your experience doesn’t match Jin’s, the story won’t land. So, there does need to be challenge for everyone, but what that’s going to mean is going to depend on who you are as a player.

　　Oh, there’ll absolutely be a difficulty setting. We can try to auto-detect it, but it’s difficult to do that. But, I think the point is, it’s not a masocore game. It’s not about killing the player, it’s about the time machine. If you don’t die, it doesn’t feel like a time machine, and if you die too much, you don’t care anymore. We have to hit the right balance between those extremes.

　　Ghost of Tsushima doesn't currently have a release date but is expected to hit PlayStation 4 next year. More news and gameplay footage could be shared between Gamescom, Paris Games Week, Tokyo Game Show and PlayStation Experience in the upcoming months.