The upcoming Marvel’s Wolverine game from Insomniac has a chance to showcase Wolverine’s deep relationship with Japanese culture, specifically samurai culture. Logan’s ties to Japan were briefly seen in 2013’s The Wolverine, however, the comics go a lot deeper into the uncanny Avenger’s love for the island country. In the comics, Logan goes to Japan in search of calming his uncanny nature. He quickly falls in love with the country, learning martial arts and how to wield a katana, training under a powerful sensei named Ogun. Considering how Marvel’s Wolverine game may delve deep into stories only seen in the comics, the developers may decide to use some combat and stealth-heavy mechanics seen in Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima.
Ghost of Tsushima‘s protagonist, Jin Sakai, is the final defender of his home. In the game’s story, Jin must single-handedly push back the Mongols from his home through unconventional, dishonorable means, becoming the Ghost. The game features powerful sword on sword combat, smooth stealth mechanics, and gruesome gore effects. It could be used as a perfect example of how to shape up the Marvel’s Wolverine game.
Wolverine is a powerful force of nature. Utilizing his six razor-sharp claws of Adamantium steel, the antihero is a brutal warrior who fights to kill. This is a far cry from the quip-crazy, light-hearted Spider-Man Insomniac has developed over the past few years. Insomniac will definitely have to explore a different route in terms of combat to showcase the X-Man’s savage fighting style. Ghost of Tsushima would be the perfect blueprint of beautiful brutality for a combat system the Wolverine game needs.
How Wolverine & Ghost Of Tsushima’s Jin Sakai Are Alike
In Ghost of Tsushima, Jin uses five different stances: Stone, Water, Wind, Moon, and Ghost. Each stance was used to fight against certain enemy types, with the Ghost stance being Jin’s “ultimate,” allowing him to insta-kill enemies while inciting fear into their surrounding team. A similar concept could be used for Marvel’s Wolverine. Logan could have a variety of moves and poses he can use against certain enemy types, with a “Berserk” mode used similar to Jin’s Ghost stance in Ghost of Tsushima.
Logan is also known as a prominent tracker and expert in stealth. His abilities were tested in bouts with enemies like Kraven or Sabretooth in both the various iterations of the character, and fans will most likely see these scenarios come into play in Marvel’s Wolverine. Stealth was not a very honorable way to conduct missions, yet in Ghost of Tsushima, Jin Sakai utilized these tactics to defeat the Mongol invaders. Sucker Punch focused heavily on these stealth mechanics, allowing the player to choose to infiltrate bases loud and proud or from the shadows. Considering how Wolverine can also methodically dispatch his enemies quietly with his claws, Insomniac can definitely take inspiration from Ghost of Tsushima’s stealth mechanics, allowing Logan to hide in brushes and above enemies to make way for some gruesome takedowns and executions.
Wolverine was never quite a tech-savvy person in any iteration of the character, though Insomniac could hint at ties to his fellow X-Men, by providing him with stealth tech that the player can use when battling the enemies. Ghost of Tsushima had items like smoke bombs and darts that help with stealth takedowns, so maybe Insomniac may decide to do the same with the Wolverine game. Another way the devs can implement stealth items is through an ability or skill tree. Logan is an expert climber and has super-agility, so items like a grappling hook from Ghost of Tsushima would probably be rendered useless by his supernatural abilities. There are also a variety of gameplay mechanics from Marvel’s Spider-Man and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales that Insomniac could use for Logan’s abilities.
Wolverine’s Healing Could Work Like Jin’s Resolve In Ghost Of Tsushima
Unlike Marvel’s Spider-Man and Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Marvel’s Wolverine will likely have a darker, grittier tone. Gore physics should be a must when making a game about a character whose main ability is large metal claws. Especially seeing how a new job posting at Insomniac confirms heavy violence in Marvel’s Wolverine, there will most likely be lots of blood. Insomniac could take a lot of influence from Ghost of Tsushima in this realm of combat design as well. In Ghost of Tsushima, blood is spilled often, realistically splattering off the wounds of enemies and getting all over both Jin’s and the enemies’ clothes and weapons. Blood also slowly oozes off of enemy bodies over time after a battle is finished. Insomniac could most definitely implement effects like these into the combat of Marvel’s Wolverine.
In Ghost of Tsushima, the player heals Jin by using small yellow orbs above the health meter on the HUD, which is known as resolve. Using these orbs causes Jin to pump his chest, grunt the pain away and heal himself. This mechanic could be a huge inspiration for Insomniac in implementing Wolverine’s second most iconic power: his healing factor. Logan is able to heal almost any kind of physical damage dealt to his body, with his flesh pushing out bullets almost instantaneously. A way Insomniac may be able to feature this iconic ability in the game could be through a gradual heal-over-time mechanic when out of combat or a mechanic similar to Jin’s resolve in Ghost of Tsushima.
There are a ton of mechanics Insomniac can take inspiration from Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima for Marvel’s Wolverine. From combat to stealth to gore physics, Ghost of Tsushima has set an extremely smooth and well-made blueprint Insomniac could work from. Seeing how Logan has a very close relationship with Japan and rumors that Marvel’s Wolverine could be set in Madripoor, a fictional South Asian country, it would not be too surprising if Marvel’s Wolverine utilized a good amount of features seen in the samurai epic. Insomniac has a lot of inspiration to build this game from, with both Spider-Man games and Ghost of Tsushima, so it seems like Marvel’s Wolverine will build upon the success of each game’s respective mechanics.
