Coins On The Table
Sucker Punch balanced Zeni Hajiki PvP by literally flicking real coins across a table. Not mockups. Not a graybox test. Actual coins from Ghost of Yotei’s Collector’s Edition.
“PvP Zeni Hajiki was always an idea we were interested in,” 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!”
Asked why the team went analog for a digital feature, Bridges said the group is always chasing the “absolute fastest way” to validate ideas. “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!”
Conveniently, there was no need to fabricate prototypes. “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,” said Bridges.
Why PvP Lives In The Lobby
Legends, the newly added free co-op mode for the PS5-exclusive RPG, puts social downtime front and center. Between missions, players can hang out in a lobby, chop bamboo for bragging rights, or challenge a friend to a few rounds of Zeni Hajiki. Actual combat duels, though? That’s where Sucker Punch drew a line.
Bridges said Yotei’s swordplay wasn’t built for player-versus-player. The combat system is designed “specifically for PvE,” he told Kotaku, which made co-op the natural fit. That decision also reflects the studio’s experience watching how people used Ghost of Tsushima’s Legends: there’s always downtime with friends, so a lobby full of side activities gives you something to do besides tweak gear.
Building Legends Alongside The Campaign
Legends wasn’t an afterthought. “Yes, we started very early in the development of Ghost of Yotei,” Bridges said. “Ghost 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 Yōtei Six.”
Production ran in parallel with the main game. A smaller core team built the online mode while the campaign took shape, then developers rolled over to Legends as their single-player tasks wrapped. As with Tsushima, Sucker Punch never planned to charge for it. “Just like with Ghost of Tsushima, we were happy to offer Legends as a free DLC for all Ghost of Yotei owners, with no microtransactions,” Bridges said.
A Mythic Break From Yotei’s Realism
Shifting from Yotei’s grounded aesthetic to a mythic co-op spin also recharged the team. “We all love the beauty in the grounded world of Yotei, but it’s creatively refreshing for the designers and artists to tackle the Legends locations and characters,” Bridges explained. “The fantastical setting provides a great foundation for building co-op-focused mechanics, and enemies that are worthy challenges for multiple players.”
That appetite for post-launch experimentation tracks with Sucker Punch’s history, from Infamous: Festival of Blood to First Light and now two iterations of Legends. “When we started building Ghost of Tsushima a decade ago,” Bridges said, “we 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’s journey in the single-player campaign.”
As for what comes next, Sony and Sucker Punch aren’t discussing future multiplayer plans. Still, the studio’s scrappy, coin-on-the-table approach says a lot about how it iterates: quickly, playfully, and with a clear read on what players latch onto. If fan demand keeps growing, don’t be surprised if the lobby expands again—maybe with a formal dueling minigame to go alongside those flicked coins.
