Sucker Punch even had a prototype ready.
The developers of Ghost of Yōtei talked about several ideas that were considered during the creation of the game, but ultimately did not make it into the final version. This was reported by project leaders Nate Fox and Jason Connell at the Game Developers Conference.
According to them, in the early stages of development, the team from Sucker Punch Productions experimented with a climbing system reminiscent of the mechanics from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. A small group of developers even created a working prototype that was supposed to become part of the main game mechanics.
However, it became clear in the process that climbing did not fit well into the concept of the main character, a wandering rōnin. As Connell explained, the team constantly asked themselves: "Does this mechanic help you feel like a wandering rōnin?". If the answer was negative, the idea was simply abandoned.
Fox admitted that he personally wanted to see a system that would allow climbing on almost any surface. But this turned out to be a problem for the design of the open world. In some places, players were not originally supposed to be able to climb the walls. If you allow climbing everywhere, but do not reward the player for exploration, it quickly discourages the use of the mechanic.
