Star Wars Outlaws director was inspired by a samurai action game more than Red Dead or Assassin's Creed: 'My biggest reference was Ghost of Tsushima'

A shootout between stormtrooper, droid, and hero
(Image credit: Ubisoft)

It took a few hours, but Star Wars Outlaws eventually began winning over our staff scoundrel Morgan Park when he got his hands on a preview build earlier this month. Despite an "unmistakable sluggishness to the action," Morgan eventually found that as in previous Ubisoft games, "no one aspect is exceptional, but when it all comes together, I'm having a really good time."

Apart from the obvious reason Star Wars Outlaws feels similar to other open world Ubisoft games—because it's another open world Ubisoft game—there's an even more direct connection. Speaking to GamesRadar, Star Wars Outlaws creative director Julian Gerighty said Assassin's Creed Odyssey was one of his favorite AC games "without a doubt."

Praising its "freedom of approach in a very large environment" and the "curiosity at its heart," Gerighty told GR he would "pick up the phone" and ask members of Odyssey's development team specific questions while making Outlaws. "Okay, how did you do this? What was too big for you? What was too long a distance for traversal?" 

Odyssey wasn't the only influence on Outlaws. Gerighty also told GamesRadar that "my biggest reference was Ghost of Tsushima, which is more on the Kurosawa side of inspiration than the Western, the John Ford side of the inspiration for George Lucas."

Red Dead Redemption was another influence, because it treats "the world as a world, not as a checklist of activities that are repeated often," Gerighty said. "But I think that Ghost of Tsushima, what I loved about it was this purity of having a player fantasy and really leaning into it.

"This is the story, the world, the character, everything fits together with the gameplay guiding everything," he said. "That's the fantasy of 'you are a samurai ninja in Japan.' That was one of the guiding lights for [Star Wars Outlaws]."

It's not quite the same theme in Outlaws—as Morgan points out, Ubisoft and LucasArts have repeatedly called it a "scoundrel fantasy." As far as its inspirations like AC Odyssey, RDR, and Ghost of Tsushima, we don't have much longer to wait to see if their influence can really be felt in Gerighty's open world. Star Wars Outlaws releases on August 30.

Christopher Livingston
Senior Editor

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.

Read more
Image of Yasuke striking an enemy in Assassin's Creed Shadows
I played 6 hours of Assassin's Creed Shadows, and folks, I think this one was worth the wait
Assassin's Creed Shadows promo image
Assassin's Creed Shadows started with a single Ghost of Tsushima-like protagonist, but 'it's not representing what the samurai and shinobi are if it's the same character'
assassin's creed shadow naoe
Despite everything, Assassin's Creed Shadows preorders are 'tracking solidly,' Ubisoft says, 'in line with those of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, the second most successful entry of the franchise'
Image of Yasuke striking an enemy in Assassin's Creed Shadows
Assassin's Creed Shadows has convinced me that Ubisoft will never make a good RPG
Obi Wan Kenobi and Mace Windu fighting B1 battle droids in Jedi Power Battles.
Jedi Power Battles is old-fashioned, weird, and frustrating—but God, I wish they still made Star Wars games like this
assassin's creed shadows review
Assassin's Creed Shadows review
Latest in Action
The First Berserker: Khazan review - Blade Phantom
How to claim The First Berserker: Khazan pre-order bonus and deluxe edition DLC
gta 6 trailer
Publishers 'don't want to be anywhere near' Grand Theft Auto 6 when it launches: 'It's proving to be very stressful'
An image of a Helldiver from Helldivers 2 shooting at a red dragon from Dungeons & Dragons.
'Ok, so dragon builds are a thing now': galaxy-brained Helldivers 2 player incinerates a bile titan with a hover pack and a flamethrower
Assassin's Creed Shadows promo image
Ubisoft scores a legendary ratio against Elon Musk on his own platform—which hopefully marks a final end to all the Assassin's Creed Shadows' culture war nonsense
Assassin's Creed Shadows immersive mode - Naoe holding a tanto in her hand as two guards fall to the ground behind her.
Assassin's Creed Shadows' first hotfix addresses stability issues and a photo mode crash
A plastic duck dressed like a circus weightlifter
The 5th highest-rated game on Steam in 2022 is back with a multiplayer sequel
Latest in News
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
The new Prime Asset featured in the upcoming update for the Outlast Trials.
The Outlast Trials puts its already paranoid players under surveillance for a time-limited story event
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'
Starfield: Shattered Space
By the time Bethesda was on Starfield, you'd 'basically get in trouble' for breaking schedule, says former dev: 'A lot of the great stuff within Skyrim came from having the freedom to do what you want'