Ghost of Yotei Fans Draw the Line: Stop Measuring Every Open-World Against Red Dead Redemption 2

Red Dead Redemption 2 is seven years old. It is also still the internet’s favorite measuring stick for every open-world game under the sun. Ghost of Yotei fans would like to file a polite request: can we please move on.

The latest dust-up: ice physics and a side-by-side

Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Yotei, the new Ghost of Tsushima sequel, is catching heat online over animations. I am not going to relitigate every nitpick, but the argument of the week is an Oct 4, 2025 side-by-side clip on X/Twitter comparing how characters walk on ice in Yotei versus Red Dead Redemption 2. The caption’s vibe was basically: Rockstar still runs this town.

That line of thinking is familiar. RDR2 is a technical flex, built by a studio famous for obsessive detail and, depending on which estimate you go with, a half-billion-plus budget. But a lot of players are tired of treating it like the only standard that matters.

"Red Dead Redemption 2 is my favorite game ever, but we need to stop comparing everything to it... What Rockstar did was extraordinary but it had a $500M budget and 8 years of development. It’s okay for games to be 70% as detailed if they’re made in half the time, Yotei is great."

The money, the time, the context

Here is the part that gets lost when people freeze-frame ankle animations:

• RDR2 launched in 2018 after roughly 8 years of development, with widely cited budgets in the $500M–$540M range.
• Ghost of Yotei is the 2025 sequel to Ghost of Tsushima from Sucker Punch, reportedly made for about $60M.
• The comparison clip that sparked this round of discourse hit X/Twitter on Oct 4, 2025 and framed Rockstar as the open-world gold standard.
• One viral post weighing in on the debate pulled about 132,000 likes as of writing; another got nearly 6,000 likes while arguing Sucker Punch achieved its results with about 5x fewer developers.

"Red dead is a beautiful game, but is also probably the worst thing to ever happen to video game discourse in history."

Is that a little dramatic? Sure. But the sentiment tracks: endlessly comparing brand-new open worlds to Rockstar’s eight-year build with blockbuster money is not exactly apples to apples. That is the inside baseball here.

"Sometimes im reminded how annoying this community is. The fact sucker punch achieved it with 60 million and 5x less developers is absolutely remarkable."

Perspective check

Rockstar’s crown is not in question; RDR2 is a marvel. But not every game needs to chase the same level of microscopic detail to be worth your time. You cannot expect every studio to walk on water — or in this case, ice.

For what it is worth: I had more fun exploring Ghost of Yotei than I have in any other open-world game — not just this year, but ever.