PlayStation maker Sony is set to launch katana-wielding samurai epic "Ghost of Yotei" next week, a highly anticipated sequel with the makings of an end-of-year blockbuster.
However, some web users have called for a boycott of the game, scheduled for release on Oct. 2, after an artist working on the title made a joke on social media about the killing of U.S. right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
Sony-owned developer Sucker Punch said the employee no longer worked there, adding that making light of murder was a "deal breaker."
The firm is instead determined to get positive publicity for the follow-up to 2020's "Ghost of Tsushima," stressing it has taken five years of hard work by a 180-strong team.
The game is reportedly at the less expensive end of the spectrum in an industry where the biggest "AAA" titles can cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
Sucker Punch said the cost was similar to "Tsushima," which notched up over 13 million sales.
October's follow-up game tracks heroine Atsu's quest for revenge in 17th-century Japan, a plot "based on classic samurai movies," creative director Nate Fox told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"We're trying to make a love letter to this genre that we really adore," he added - joking that the US-developed samurai game genre could be dubbed "cheeseburger samurai," riffing on the "spaghetti Westerns" film genre.
Like "Tsushima," "Yotei" leans heavily on the artfully staged, tense duel scenes of samurai movies.
Players can customize the game with visual styles inspired by Japanese film directors, such as black-and-white in the vein of Akira Kurosawa or the sprays of blood used by Takashi Miike.
Although more compact than rival feudal Japan adventure "Assassin's Creed Shadows" released by French giant Ubisoft in March, the open world in "Ghost of Yotei" allows players to explore several areas in Hokkaido, Japan's northern island.
"The scale of the world, the length of the adventure and play time is similar to 'Tsushima,'" Fox said.
Players will see the return of well-liked game features, such as the wind guiding them along the story path rather than on-screen arrows or a map.
Developers called on historians and specialists in the culture of Japan's Indigenous Ainu people to ensure an accurate portrayal of their chosen period, although they've allowed themselves to "take liberties."
"My No. 1 concern ... was inadvertently being offensive to Japanese gamers," Fox said.
Heroine Atsu and the game's title were both inspired by the Japanese myth of the Onryo – "ghosts that would come back from the dead to seek vengeance," he explained.
"These are traditionally female characters."
With the game scheduled to hit stores in the busy autumn period, Fox said he had been relieved to hear that the release of "Grand Theft Auto VI" – a behemoth widely expected to monopolise gamers' attention – had been delayed from this autumn to May next year.
However, the timing turned out to be not entirely auspicious for the company, owing to employee Drew Harrison's ill-judged post about Kirk's killing.
"I hope the shooter's name is Mario so that Luigi knows his bro got his back," Harrison wrote on social network Bluesky, a reference to suspected killer Luigi Mangione and the lead characters from Nintendo games.
Her post drew an avalanche of anger toward her personally, as well as calls to boycott the game.
Sucker Punch director Brian Fleming told U.S. outlet Game File last week she was "no longer an employee here."
"Celebrating or making light of someone's murder is a deal breaker for us, and we condemn that... in no uncertain terms," he said.
Fox declined to comment on the affair when asked by AFP.
