Players were given a lot of freedom.
When creating Ghost of Yotei, the developers prepared several options for completing the game, which players are free to choose on their own.
The creative director explained the vision in a conversation with GamesRadar. The studio "doesn't really" object to what fans do in Ghost of Yotei (follow the plot or clear other content first) — the main thing is that they really enjoy playing.
«If [players] don’t want to do something, we just say: "Okay, that’s your choice.“ The main thing is that you have fun, we don’t care».
Nevertheless, the authors left "many hooks" to try to keep the player in the main plot, giving him "enough weapons at an acceptable speed".
The creator explained that the team's philosophy regarding Ghost of Yotei was to "give you more freedom than in any other game we've ever made".
According to the developer, this is not an easy task:
«It’s very difficult, and the pace [for different types of play] is a little different. The story pace is a little easier to understand, but the pace of playing in the open world is quite difficult. We resort to all sorts of little tricks to make everything work».
