A year removed from our original review of Ghostwire: Tokyo and it has finally made it to the Xbox. So, how did opinions change since last year? I’m glad you asked because that’s why I’m typing this review.
Anyway, while the game still has some issues with pacing and content, the overwhelming feeling of dread and a city filled with unnerving creepiness still dominate the gameplay. While those attributes may not suit everyone’s fancy, and understandably so, it’s enough for me when it comes to revisiting this world and getting back into the ghostly groove of things.
Let’s give this ghost a go again.
The crazy-good atmosphere for the story
Around 100,000 people have vanished without a trace in Tokyo. People’s clothes lie everywhere in the streets. It’s eerily creepy to see the severe lack of commotion on the streets of the biggest city in the world. It’s like the ‘next day’ in the film Night of the Comet. Big cities shouldn’t be that quiet. Anyway, the only survivor appears to be our hero Akito, who wakes with a glowing mist over his right eye and a talkative voice in his head giving him instructions to go find a being that knows what happened (and could be the catalyst). The only beings outside of Akito are faceless suited demons that feed on the souls that haven’t quite left, and a varying degree of disgusting and disjointed nightmares that plague the city streets. Akito’s job is to hunt down the main antagonist that caused this mayhem, or at least who knows what is going on, and put trapped souls to rest along the way by taking out creatures that feed on them. Either way, it’s nightmare fuel for certain.
Even after a year, I found myself still feeling uneasy in this empty Tokyo atmosphere because of the story that is built for the game. This end-of-the-world type of scenario leads the main story and does it masterfully when mixed with creepy side stories. The folks who worked on the narrative for this game truly captured the ambiance of Akito’s situation. There is little hope during the bulk of the story, and you feel that as the player. You feel alone, you feel like something is going to get you around the corner, and that is something that never really lets up during the entire gameplay experience. Ghostwire is very story-centric and this is where the game’s strengths work the best. Even after a year, I can still feel that emptiness and it’s so effective when trying to connect with the player.
While the story drives this machine, the gameplay is a bit more unbalanced when compared to the story’s solidarity.
Gameplay on and off
Ghostwire: Tokyo’s gameplay is like Akrane’s Dishonored. There is quite a bit of hopping around in first-person. As you progress in the game, you gain abilities to scale structures and float around from rooftop to rooftop, which is more useful than you might think. You truly get a sense of the game’s scale and the girth of Tokyo when you reach about the midway point of the game which compliments the story. And that’s great for the gameplay, as it opens more and more and makes you feel like maybe you have this large world to traverse.
As awesome as the world gets when it starts opening and you start to scale skyscrapers and whatnot, the game doesn’t necessarily fill that openness with good content. I think that is the rub with more people playing this game, as the sandbox has all this space but only the occasional new enemy and new ways to play. Don’t get me wrong, any good game should hold back unique content until the player reaches a certain point, but the world here in Ghostwire: Tokyo is so positively huge that those unique moments are just small blips on the map. That minimizes the impact these moments have, and players will find themselves wanting more as soon as they complete those moments. The gameplay mostly consists of here because of the girth and the payoff is the player will run around searching out those unique parts and mainly run into wash-rinse-repeat of enemies. I know this is the reason why most reviewers were lukewarm on this game, to begin with, and I can see their point. There are a lot of repeated moments with enemies which give off the perception that there was more world than content to fill it.
Now, having said that occasionally you will find hidden gem side quests that are horror-driven or humor-driven. This game depends on those side quests to keep the content fresh, and they don’t disappoint for the most part. While one side quest revolves around finding toilet paper for a spirit, which is just hilarious (can you spare a square?), the majority of what you see are tragedy-driven quests that help to put a spirit to rest. The first big one that you happen upon is trying to find a kidnapped child’s spirit. Notes and clues put together a story about a landlord fully intent on kidnapping the kid. Thankfully, the horror blanks for that mission aren’t filled in, but as Alfred Hitchcock once said, what you don’t see sometimes is worse thanks to the imagination (paraphrasing, but you get the gist). You will find moments in the bevy of side quests that give you enough to understand a spirit’s situation while also filling in the blanks to make the story even worse (but in a good way). The side quests work well and helps to fill in that emptiness the game perpetuates at times.
Beyond side quests, the main bosses in the game are vicious and come in a variety of manners. They do have some great boss fights in Ghostwire: Tokyo and they mix it up when it comes to expectations of how you’re going to dispose of them. The scale of difficulty with the bosses correlates well with how you build up Akito. You will find yourself prepared or nearly prepared when you run into these moments. I won’t get too much into the boss fights, as I don’t want to spoil them for anyone, but they’re great shifts in action when you get there. They’re certainly far more exciting than regular enemy fights.
On that sweet note, let’s move on to mechanics.
Mechanics that are interesting and engaging
The main crux of the game is to put souls to rest and to get rid of bad beings that are crawling all over Tokyo’s landscape. Also, you do cleansing. Lots of cleansing. Anyway, to eliminate bad beings, you use the power that Akito has acquired. This involves using hand symbols (literally moving Akito’s hands to pull off a move) and pulling the cores out of enemies to kill them. When you pull the cores out, the enemies disintegrate into a TRON-like effect. You can perform this from up close or you can do battles from afar. To do this up close, you must be an expert in stealth, though it seems like the game is flexible on that execution.
Another mechanic is forming symbols with Akito to cleanse locations and open them. When you cleanse locations, you use hand motions that create symbols. The symbols release the evil spirits in said locations and clean it. There is a lot of Shinto religion going on here, which makes for a more spiritual and religious good time. The symbols aren’t tough to pull off and cleaning out the bad beings before cleansing a location is highly recommended. The symbols are certainly finite in variety but a break from monotonous action.
As mentioned before, the game also allows you to scale buildings and sometimes skyscrapers. This doesn’t get fun until about midway through the game, but nonetheless, it is entertaining to build out. The gist is that you use a spiritual grappling hook to hang onto flying spirits. Don’t worry, they don’t attack, but I’m not necessarily sure if they appreciate the grapple. Once on top of a structure, you can float from rooftop to rooftop. The backend skills tree of the game allows you to gather XP and improve the floating stat, which is far more useful when you buff it up. This mechanic is one of the more useful parts of the game because it gives you more access to parts of the gameplay that you usually cannot get to easily or at all. It gives you more content and plenty is hanging around on rooftops.
Going back to XP, there are a few ways to earn it as you progress in the game. You can collect lost and floating spirits on the streets of Tokyo by trapping them in a spirit-capturing paper figure. Once you trap them and fill up that paper figure, you can dump the spirits in a phone booth. The more spirits you capture and deliver, the more XP you gain, and that equals out to leveling up. Every time you level up in the game, it translates to skill points that can be used to buff up mechanics for Akito. This is the biggest motivation to search and hunt for common enemies in Ghostwire: Tokyo and it takes off the monotonous edge that the game perpetuates from time to time. It certainly does act as a distraction. Skills range from how you finger gun enemies (the main mechanics of disposing of enemies) to player movement mechanics. There is a large range of upgradable skills in the game, which only helps it when it comes to drudging through the gameplay repetitiveness. Players need goals to accomplish to distract from the lack of enemy variety and this helps.
Overall, the gameplay in Ghostwire: Tokyo is unbalanced. When you’re not fighting enemies or finding meaningful side quests, you’re just mainly taking down common enemies and refilling your finger guns by destroying objects that are trapped in this weird dimensional limbo (they are floating around everywhere). Upgrading skills does open the game up to a bit more variety and pushes you to explore a lot of the landscape, but for the most part, the meaningful moments are few and the repetitive moments are many.
Animals everywhere
Outside of demons, hand motions, and soul telephony, Ghostwire: Tokyo also features cats and dogs. The cats are Yokai, who are everywhere in the game, even in convenience stores. They try to help you in any way they can, plus they seem to be symbols of safe spaces for the player. They’re funny and pleasant, and in true cat fashion, couldn’t care less if you survive or not.
There are also dogs in the game who act as demon snitches. They will go with you around Tokyo and help you spot unsuspecting enemies. They seem to be loyal, and why wouldn’t they be? They’re dogs. They’re far less relaxed than the Yokai but willing to save your butt when the time comes. Big surprise. Anyway, they’re a good side feature in an otherwise unique experience.
Xbox v Playstation 5 versions
No difference. Move along. You’re too mature to get into a console war that doesn’t exist. Both versions are good and acceptable. Now, go fill your life with some other purpose than telling the other console owner how many great teraflops you have.
Conclusion
Ghostwire: Tokyo is a good game, if only for how thick and unnerving the story and world might be. While the gameplay does come up a bit empty, the story helps to pick up the slack and make the adventure worthwhile.
