Ghost Of Tsushima Director's Cut Lets You Pet More Animals Than Ever

In case you needed another reason to play Sucker Punch Productions' Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut, the developer has just confirmed you'll be able to pet a whole menagerie of animals in the Iki Island expansion.

Although Ghost of Tsushima only released last year, the arrival of the PlayStation 5 led to rumours the game would be getting a beefed-up rerelease for the next-gen console.

Offering up much more than just a graphical boost, Jin Sakai is setting sail to the massive Iki Island. With a tropical new locale to explore, there are even more animals to discover.

What animals can you pet in Ghost of Tsushima?

Posting on Twitter, the official Sucker Punch account showed off footage from Iki Island and confirmed there are new furry friends to be made out there. When touring Iki, Jin can pull out his flute and play a tuneful melody to tame some cats. Returning at a later date, these same friendly felines will be there to pet.

More than just these purrfect companions, the thread continued to explain how deer and monkey sanctuaries are dotted around the island and waiting for Jin's visit. It's a big change from the first release of Ghost, where Jin could only tame foxes as pettable friends.

Is the ability to pet animals important for Ghost of Tsushima?

To celebrate the one-year anniversary of Ghost, Sucker Punch released a number of stats that revealed what we'd been up to in the 365 days. As well as spending a collective 4,241 years spend on horseback, we'd petted a whopping 55.63 million foxes. We imagine petting numbers will go through the roof now we have cats, deer, and monkeys to use as therapy animals. 

Petting animals in a game might seem like a relatively minor thing, but there's a whole Twitter account called "Can you pet the Dog?". Here, you can see if your favourite video game will let you pet the animals inside. It's a trend that's taken off in recent years, with horses in Red Dead Redemption 2 and dogs in Fallout 4 becoming major talking points. Only recently, a RDR2 mod that allows Arthur Morgan to have a dog companion.

Even if you still can't pet dogs in Breath of the Wild, and it takes a mod to do so in Skyrim, at least Sucker Punch Productions is paving the way for animal rights in video games.