Ghostwire Tokyo

[Leisher]

This was a different gaming experience, and there are really two games here. (I'll cover The Spider's Thread later.)

First, this game is gorgeous and possibly the most detailed world I've ever seen in a game. Visually this game takes a back seat to no other. The city feels "right" and the absence of its inhabitants are properly explained in the story. The ones still around are possibly the best ever, although there is a very telling lack of variety. (That will make sense once you play.) The enemies are also very, very cool and oddly innocent, yet sinister. I was discussing this game with DictionaryDave recently and he suggested the way I described one of the foot soldiers was like guys from Buffy. Dudes in suits with no faces outside of a mouth. The difference being that here they hold umbrellas. (The umbrellas can deflect your attacks and are a visual representation of how much damage you've done to them.)

I guess since we're on the villains, I may as well continue. The guys in suits come in several flavors and each has a different style of attack/HPs. Some of them are downright assholes. There are also well dressed female counterparts. The meeker versions have ranged attacks and can be quite a pain in the ass. There are larger, far more aggressive, creepy, and dangerous ones that you'll be able to identify by their large hedge trimmers. The ones that make the world dirty or bleed are awesome. There are also ones that seem to lack legs, but whose arms are those of a large bird like an emu. I didn't even get into the headless male and female students. The creepiest ones, however, are the Forlorn (Might be called something else...). Little girls in raincoats that you won't want to encounter head on. Pretty sure I encountered a red one of them (I did), which was very unexpected. Those are the humanoids. There are also several non-humanoid baddies waiting to stop you.

So yeah, there's a horror theme going on here, but really the theme is Japanese cultural legends. If you play this game, you can learn a LOT about Japan. In fact, if you're working on learning Japanese or studying Japanese culture, this game would be ideal. There is an absolute mountain of information here and it's presented in an easily consumed way. The default language is also Japanese with subtitles. I didn't mess with anything so I don't know if that can be changed.

The story puts you as Akito and you are rushing to your sister's hospital bedside when you get into an accident that happens due to a heavy, unnatural fog. This leads to you being possessed by a paranormal investigator/fighter named KK. One thing leads to another and now you're a two man-one body team trying to stop what's happening in this city. Does the story get a bit odd? Of course, it's based heavily on Japanese mythology and legends, so a couple monsters get odd and the story is slightly non-sensical at moments...maybe? There's bound to be gaps in the translation. I assure you that it's a good story, and might even give you a couple of minor feels depending on your immersion or how well you relate to the characters. (I don't see how any decent father can't relate to KK.)

The gameplay is FPS and while you will get a bow and arrows, your main offense comes from mystic attacks. These are typically fire/water/wind based. There is a heavy RPG element of character/skill progression that turns you into a killing machine late, again, depending how much of an explorer/completionist you are... I did not find the campaign particularly difficult, but there were challenging fights. The powers you wield and develop also make this play much differently than your average shooter.

I enjoyed this story a lot, and someone focusing only on it could probably rip through the game decently quickly. However, there are a ton of additionally things to find, collect, and do that they've made part of the story.

The best part of the story happens at the school. The settings alone is creepy AF, and I will never forget Gutsy. Very simple, but very effective. Also, there's a secret at the school that involves certain collectibles...That was cute and gave me "The cake is a lie" vibes.

I do recommend this game, but know what you're getting into. This is story heavy and VERY Japanese culture focused.

Side note: If you're an achievement chaser, I was able to get 65 of 66 without much effort and I am not an achievement chaser. I was just interested in the content. It's nice when games make the achievements part of natural progression and exploring rather than weird churning that has nothing to do with the actual game.

The additional mode, The Spider's Thread, is something anyone here would enjoy. It's basically a very striped down, all action version of the main game. Basically, it's a roguelike version of the game where you face incredibly fun and creative levels with all the mechanics of the main game, plus some added whackiness at times, developing skills, collecting bracelets/threads to build bracelets (gives you added stats/powers), and whatnot. The "story" ends at level 30, but you can play forever theoretically. If you ever see Ghostwire Tokyo for $5 or less and the main game didn't encourage a purchase, The Spider's Thread is worth that price alone and would give you a few days worth of action fun.