Coins on the Table
Sucker Punch balanced Ghost of Yotei’s competitive coin-flicking by putting the game’s own coins on a real table. The studio used the bag of coins from the Collector’s Edition to prototype rules for Zeni Hajiki PvP in Legends, the new free co-op mode.
“PvP Zeni Hajiki was always an idea we were interested in,” senior staff designer and Legends lead Darren Bridges told Kotaku. “But based on the fan response after the game launched, we knew it was a good investment. There was also strong advocacy within the studio – we did our PvP rule playtesting using real coins on a real table!”
When asked why the team went analog, Bridges said they chase the “absolute fastest way” to validate an idea. “Generally, this means creating simple, unpolished content to test it out in-game,” he explained. “But Zeni Hajiki is one of the few examples where we could try out new rules without writing a single line of code!”
Convenience helped. “Ghost of Yotei’s Collector’s 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’s history,” Bridges said.
Why Zeni Hajiki Made the Cut
Legends was always on the roadmap for the open-world PS5 exclusive RPG, but the studio pushed coin-flicking into the lobby after seeing how much players latched onto it in single-player. The mode’s hub isn’t just a gear pit stop; it’s a place to cool down between missions with quick competitions. Alongside Zeni Hajiki, you can, for example, race through bamboo chopping.