Normally getting to tour the backstreets of Tokyo is a privilege. I’ve not been back to the neon-filled megalopolis in years, so when Bethesda invited us to take a tour of Ghostwire: Tokyo, we jumped straight in for a preview of Ghostwire: Tokyo.
Developed by Tango Gameworks, Ghostwire: Tokyo is a supernatural adventure RPG that drops players right into the middle of a city under siege. Players who pick up this tale when it launches later this year will find themselves in cahoots playing ghost hunter against a malevolent force determined to bring the iconic city and its citizens to its knees. Battling things that go bump in the night using an unexpected array of weapons and straying far from the tropes of western fantasy, Ghostwire: Tokyo is already an interesting proposition.
A Foggy Entrance
Those of you that have already had an opportunity to catch a glimpse of an abandoned Tokyo in Bethesda’s recent Showcase might be familiar with our first impressions of Ghostwire: Tokyo. While we were not lucky enough to get hands on with this new title we were given a peek by the development team and it proved the perfect way to show off the bustling metropolis that plays host to protagonist Akito.
With the streets of Tokyo bereft life, and its millions of citizens just whisked away without warning, the scene we stepped into was an eerie snapshot of a normally vibrant Shibuya. Creeping around the side streets of this local prefecture, a mix of oddly inconsistent multistoried constructions squeezed together quite accurately reflect Japan’s unique urban sprawl, while advertising signs overhang the streets like a neon coated orchard.
Without NPCs to district players’ attention, Tango Gameworks has poured an impressive amount of effort into crafting a detailed recreation of Tokyo. Signage is vibrant and diverse, shops don’t simply look like cut and paste facades, environmental objects are strewn around that fit the surroundings, and you’ll even spot the odd TV commercial still looping incessantly for the empty streets. Despite the lack of nighttime commuters and shopkeepers to staff the ramyen-ya and empty combini, the soundscape still remains noticeably lively. That TV commercial, the continuous hum of fluorescent signs, nightclub noise, background air conditioning, police sirens simply abandoned, and the odd animal call all come colliding together in an exquisitely orchestrated mix that tells its own tale of chaos and confusion. The result is an environment that initially feels busy even without its human population. This leaves an uneasy feeling that can creep towards claustrophobia with the addition of a dark fog that hangs in the air, trapping unfortunate souls and seemingly dispatching any fleshy mortal presence from this concrete jungle.
An Illusion of Scale
As we crept forward under the eye of Ghostwire: Tokyo Game Director, Kenji Kimura we were introduced to the strange intertwining influences of old and new Japan. Alongside the array of oblong artificial dwellings, stone shrines, Tori gates, gods, and the supernatural come dotted across game world. This is something that, while slightly exaggerated, is quite common in real world Tokyo and leans into the narrative elements of this upcoming title.
Ghostwire: Tokyo plunges players into an unlikely partnership with a ghost hunter, named KK, who isn’t quite all there. This ethereal entity shares your physical presence and is wielding your own desire to save the people you love for his own ends. Whether that is simple revenge or redemption, it’s a much more relatable drive than the demons that roam this ghastly fog seem to share. Between KK and our central protagonist’s final stand with the figure at the top of this supernatural invasion, a cavalcade or twisted monsters await, skulking across the paved streets and decorated shrines. In order to banish them and lift the haze from Tokyo, players have a range of weapons to hand.
Ghostwire implements a first-person perspective that doesn’t jsut add to the oppressing aesthetic, and that traps players in an open world with barely an illusion of freedom, but also slips nicely into a mystical combat. While there’s a little stealth action available here, largely you’ll be slicing your way through a range of horrors with some very cool-looking magical weapons. This includes a cast ability that can take down enemies at range, as well as more traditional weapons of the physical world. The primary form of attack you’ll use to quash malevolent spirits, seem to be hand seals of a sort, something Anime use plenty and isn’t too much a leap from marvel’s own Sorcerer Supreme either.
These precise hand gestures seem to be pulling at the threads of reality as glowing orbs fly across the screen and enemies that might look familiar are cut down, only for Akito to clutch the ties that bind these entities to our world and rip them asunder. This mechanic doesn’t just look incredible and might be a nod to the red string of fate, but it mimics the DOOM glory kill in its own distinct fashion. This isn’t the only way to take down enemies, and Tango Gameworks also provide a custom bow and arrow that provides the option of using precise headshots, although ammunition might not be entirely plentiful. In both cases, every weapon used has a cost, be it energy or ammunition, and choosing when to act and how makes combat somewhat considered, so don’t entirely discount the stealth option in this open air dungeon.
Here Be Monsters
Mingling among the magazine racks and commuter hubs of Shibuya, we found interlopers that obviously draw on modern and ancient eastern themes. Faceless slender men stalked the corners, draped in uniform black suits and sheltering from the inclement weather. Filling the dormant city like the swarms of salarymen that buzz through Tokyo on a normal day, it’s an almost perfect fit for this title. That isn’t the only enemy you’ll face, other monsters, like silent hill styled nurses, seem like twisted versions of the city’s human population. These undead trawl the streets, forcing players to pick if they want to go head first into battle or take a more considered approach and use more stealthy takedowns. Whatever we end up facing in Ghostwire: Tokyo, these featureless creatures are likely to be early icons of the series and present a satisfying mix of East and West.
Not all supernatural entities are to be dispatched with malice, however. While you’ll learn plenty of ways to wield your power, I can’t hide my delight that the local Yokai and more benign deities are out in force too. Our tour of Tokyo pulled us through a local NPC store, where a talking cat was busy doing whatever cats do, and probably lamenting our attempts to bring back the human population. More importantly, the souls of lost citizens still linger when the aforementioned fog rolls through Tokyo, and the visitors to this city seem set on capturing them. Saving these individuals from an uncertain fate is one of the core gameplay elements of Ghostwire: Toyko. While there’s a gorgeous world to drink in, you’ll likely spend a bunch of time trying to ward away creatures trying to capture souls. Katashiro, little paper talisman that look like people, are used to safely pick up and transport these individuals while out in the winder world. These paper pick ups are one of the items you can acquire from finding and cleansing shrines, something you’ll be doing to drive the fog out of Tokyo. Hopefully, this will result in players reaching a telephone box, and much like the Matrix, this is the means used to transport saved souls away from danger.
As you’ll have worked out by now. This gameplay loop ties together exploration, combat, collection, and safe zones in a fairly direct way. While side quests exist, the slice of the game we saw only seems to give a limited amount of freedom. the imposing city and constricting streets aren’t jsut atmospheric. They definitely kept our own experience lean. Much like Resident Evil’s Racoon City. Ghostwire gives the impression of a vast world beyond what we see. It’s an ingenious bit of stage trickery that I hope the final game manages to pull off, keeping the narrative direct and free of extraneous nonsense. Even when we did whip out our bow and go vaulting up into the rooftops and used Akito’s Spectral Vision to tail an intruder indoors, the linear nature of the narrative and simple puzzles kept our attention. The setting here continued to be an interesting twist on horror tropes, with rooms warped in all directions, furniture levitated, and gravity making no real sense. I wouldn’t have been surprised if something crawled out the TV at that stage.
Ghostwire: Tokyo looks likely to be an impressive piece of work. It seems to borrow plenty of elements from other titles and horror cinema that we’ve already seen, yet provides plenty of trappings to make us wonder what exactly is going on. The core gameplay loop we saw of collect, capture, and fight isn’t as innovative as we’d maybe hope and the combat certainly sits somewhere near to stealth action FPS. e don’t have a problem with that, however. In a game with a vibrant city Tengu, Shopkeeping Nekomata, and a nod to modern horror, Ghostwire: Tokyo might have more to say about the world’s largest metropolis than you expect. Check out more on the official Ghostwire: Tokyo website before this PlayStation exclusive launches.
