Back at the start of 2021, Ubisoft announced that one of its studios, Ubisoft Massive, would be working with Lucasfilm to create a new open-worldStar Warsgame. This came as a surprise to many fans of the franchise. EA had held the exclusive rights to develop any games set within the a galaxy far, far away for years. Not only that, but whileKnights of the Old Republichad breached the RPG world andFallen Orderthe action-adventure genre, an open-world game opens up a whole new world of possibilities.
If Ubisoft’s Massive’s open-worldStar Warsgame is going to reach its full potential, there are good reasons why it should look atRed Dead Redemption 2andGhost of Tsushima. The two games both boast excellent combat, compelling characters, and impressive open worlds. More importantly, the games specifically created worlds which drew on the films which had a huge influence on theStar Warsmovies, especiallyA New Hope. Here’s why that connection is important, and just some of the thingsRed Dead 2andGhost of Tsushimamight be able to teach Ubisoft Massive’s upcoming game.
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Westerns, Samurai, and Space Operas
Star Warsmay seem like it’s almost a genre in and of itself at this point, butA New Hopewas deeply influenced by Westerns and Samurai films. In one of the originalStar Wars' opening scenes,C3POand R2D2 squabble as they wander lost through the deserts of Tatooine. This early moment is heavily influenced by a scene in Akira Kurosawa’s 1958 movieThe Hidden Fortress,where two peasants named Matashichi and Tahei wander haplessly across a war-torn part of Feudal Japan, having arrived too late to participate in a battle between warring clans.
Like the droids, their quarrelling leads them to split up for a time, and when they reunite they come across a man named Rokurota Makabe, who is secretly a member of the defeated clan. Makabe is played by Toshiro Mifune, whose stoic, morally ambiguous, and sharp-tongued characters were also a huge influence onRoger Clark’s performance as Arthur Morgan inRed Dead Redemption 2.
The character of the general in hiding was a big influence onObi-Wan Kenobi. There’s even a scene where Mifune’s character does his own version of a Jedi mind trick. Makabe fools the guards at a border checkpoint by making such a scene in his undercover persona that the soldiers can’t believe that a man drawing so much attention to himself could be the general they’re looking for and send him on his way. George Lucas even wanted Toshiro Mifune for the role of Obi-Wan.
There’s even a direct shout-out to the title of Kurosawa’s movie inA New Hope. In the famous “I find your lack of faith disturbing” scene, the Imperial officerDarth Vaderbegins to force choke is one syllable away from finishing the line “the rebel’s hidden fortress.” The influence ofThe Hidden FortressonA New Hopeis well-documented, and Kurosawa movies are one of the biggest influences onStar Warsas a whole - even the series' famous wipe transitions are a Kurosawa trademark.
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Kurosawa’s impact can be felt acrossStar Wars,Red Dead Redemption 2, andGhost of Tsushima. InRed Dead 2, the archetype established by Mifune is central to Arthur’s character. In Kurosawa movies likeYojimbo- itself remade asA Fistful of Dollars- Mifune’s character is morally ambiguous, and viewers are left wondering whether he will do the right thing or not right up until the movie’s climax. InRed Dead 2, playing into that same archetype made both the High and Low honor versions of Arthur Morgan totally believable, despite them sharing much of the same dialogue.
The influence of Kurosawa onGhost of Tsushimaalso runs deep, but was made explicit when the developers added a “Kurosawa mode.” It allowed players to play through the game in black and white, with the same high contrast levels that made many Kurosawa shots particularly memorable. TheGhost of Tsushimacharacter Shino is likely named after the love interest in Kurosawa’sSeven Samurai- remade asThe Magnificent Sevenwith Kurosawa’s approval - and keen-eyed fans will likely find many more references to Kurosawa’s films throughout the campaign in everything from the costume designs to the fight choreography.
Red Dead Redemption 2andGhost of Tsushimatake many of the tropes found in Kurosawa movies and demonstrate how they can be applied to an open-world action-adventure game. Those same tropes had a huge influence onA New Hope, and if an open-worldStar Warsgame is going to capture the feel of the best the franchise has to offer, it likely can’t go wrong taking influence from the games that share the firstStar Wars' movie’s greatest inspiration.
Ubisoft Massive’s Star Wars
Mechanically, there are a few things that an open-worldStar Warsgame could learn fromRed Dead 2andGhost of Tsushima. The latter would be a great reference for lightsaber fights. The introduction ofGhost of Tsushima’s Lethal Modeput great emphasis on blocking, with a single strike being lethal to both enemies and the player. A similar feature could make Ubisoft Massive’s lightsaber fights feel particularly cinematic and immersive. Looking at the size of the world and the diversity of environments inRed Dead 2could help an open-worldStar Warsgame overcome one potential problem: the series' penchant for planets with single biomes.
WhileGhost of Tsushimadoesn’t present the player with many choices, the use of the Mifune archetype inRed Dead 2’s Arthur Morgan shows how an open-worldStar Warsgame’s protagonist could be believable if the player has the option to take them tothe dark sideor the light side in the story. Overall, looking at these two relatively recent open-world games could ironically be a great way for Ubisoft Massive to take its game back toStar Wars' roots. The game could capture something particularly cinematic as it takes the series into a genre EA left largely untouched throughout its reign as the franchise’s sole video game publisher.
