Ghost of Tsushima drew a lot of attention when Sony revealed the Guiding Wind, a feature that works as a seamless objective marker, without taking players out of the experience. It's certainly an interesting idea, and a good way to use the environment to cue in players rather than abstract icons. However, Ghost of Tsushima isn't the first game to do something like this.
The Metro games, and in particular Metro: Last Light, have used a similar system to help guide players toward objectives. The Metro games have always put a lot of emphasis on immersion, tying many of its features and UI elements into the actual world, like the clipboard Artyom uses as a map.
While Ghost of Tsushima's system is probably quite different, it's interesting to look back at the Metro games and see how similar features have been used in the past. Here's how Metro: Last Light used guiding wind.
Metro's Lighter Uses a Guiding Wind Type of Feature
The lighter plays an integral role in every Metro game. It illuminates dark areas, can be used to light torches, burn spider webs, light the fuse on grenades, and more. In Last Light, however, the lighter helps point the way toward Artyom's next objective. The wind will blow the lighter flame in whichever direction players need to head to find the next objective, creating a smart immersive tool. While the flame shows the way, it's technically the wind that's guiding players, just like in Ghost of Tsushima. A YouTube video by Arbybear shows the lighter in action.
Unfortunately, Metro Exodus didn't retain this feature as the scale and scope were much larger than Last Light. The sequel instead opted for a more standard open-world objective marker approach. Still, it's clear that Metro: Last Light was ahead of its time, and the guiding wind on the lighter is just one example of the details put into the game.
Metro: Last Light is available for PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC.