You are walking quietly through the Shibuya downtown, taking photos, hallucinating how Tokyo looks and suddenly you find yourself submerged in a fog that invades everything. Without eating or drinking it, Ghostwire: Tokyo begins with what is a true apocalypse for the capital of Japan. A disturbing reception by Visitors.
That has been the letter of introduction to the work of Tango Gameworks during my first hours of play. Bethesda, already in the hands of Microsoft, still maintains a contract that guarantees exclusivity on consoles for PS5, beyond its release on PC. We have passed the first wave of candidates for GOTY of 2022, but the duo between KK and Akito wanted to vindicate themselves by the end of this month.
welcome to Tokyo
Even though this is my first time at the controls of the ghostly adventure, I feel like I’ve actually always been here. The structure of Ghostwire: Tokyo is very similar which we can find in any Ubisoft work. Once we unfold the map we find a bunch of icons, missions and incentives to move through the streets of the city.
The truth is that it is really entertaining to do it and for several reasons. The first is that the movement and configuration of the city itself is impeccable. I’ve never been to Tokyo, but it certainly looks like a 1:1 scale recreation of the Shibuya district, with shops, neon, sounds and very typical elements of the capital.
In fact, we can slip through unexpected corners. Buildings in Japan are usually spaced a few centimeters apart to facilitate construction and to prevent further damage in the event of earthquakes. For Akito, they are corridors to take advantage of to cut across and reach a distant street in no time. That is if we don’t take the opportunity to climb on some clueless tengu that is on the roofs of the buildings. They are creatures from Japanese folklore to which we can throw a spiritual rope and they take us to the top.
The verticality in Ghostwire: Tokyo also plays a key role. Torii gates are structures scattered throughout the map that allow an entire area to be purified of the mist’s corruption. In turn, a large sanctuary cleans up the land even more. Finding them is our goal and they can be in the middle of a park, behind a building, on the roof of a shopping center or underground through the subway. The depth of the stage is much more than what we can see with the naked eye.
And not only from the perspective of above or below I mean, but inside. It is very conspicuous number of buildings or structures we can enter. They are very well recreated, be it hospitals, dilapidated blocks of houses or warehouses. It is noted that they are not repetitions of the same place, but rather that each box, frame and door have been put by hand. Furthermore, it is on these occasions that the work tries to be scary or at least create some uneasiness.
It does not succeed -although I do not think it is a main objective either- since the general tone of Ghostwire: Tokyo is much more casual than that of any horror work and knowing that we have a good amalgam of powers at our disposal distances it miles from any survival horror. Despite this, there are moments of genuine originality playing with the scenery, twisting it and creating a slight scare.
deepest fears
If we are novices in esoteric subjects, the protagonist Akito is no less so. The young boy falls under the influence of the mist caused by Hannya, a villain escorted by bodyguards who is determined to deprive the Japanese population of their physical bodies. Meat prisons, according to him.
However, KK shows up to bring Akito back to life and merges with him. An expert in kicking spirits who does not agree very much when it comes to taking orders from anyone. The unexpected couple will have to learn to collaborate to put an end to Hannya’s plans, which has ended up kidnapping Mari, Akito’s sister.
In the midst of a scene reminiscent of a Dragon Ball Cell visit to a city to absorb energy, the Visitors spring into action. They are one of the highlights of Ghostwire: Tokyo, either for its designs or because of how dangerous they can be. We have everything from lanky office workers with umbrellas, through schoolgirls to ghosts and women with huge scissors.
Each of them represents some kind of negative feeling of the Japanese community, manifesting itself in the worst possible way. They are everywhere, replicating human behavior and attacking without mercy. Ripping the core of their body will strip them of strength and for this we can make use of the powers of ether.
You have already seen it in the different previews. Akito launches tornadoes, fireballs, and waves of water through his hands, with devastating effects on Visitors. We can even further expand the range of possibilities with the use of paralyzing or distracting lures, a bow, and classic skill tree upgrades. Each of the elements is also displayed in the PS5 DualSense, which is perfectly optimized. We can feel the blows, the rain falling, the resistance of the triggers when extracting a core and a multitude of other details through the streets of Tokyo.
no time to get bored
I already warned at the beginning and I insist on it again. Ghostwire: Tokyo is full of things to do, all bathed in the most traditional Japanese culture. Since humans have disappeared, animals roam freely on the sidewalks, and we can find dogs, cats and nekomata, floating cats that act as shop assistants and street vendors.
They sell us food of all kinds that we can use in battle to recover health, at the same time that we receive temporary bonuses. If we choose to give man’s best friend dog food, we will be rewarded with money, as long as we are not listening to the thoughts of the abandoned cat in the corner.
All in all, what we are going to repeat the most is going to be the absorption of spirits with katashiros. There are more than 200,000 of them scattered around the city, although we collect them by the hundreds. Once we have obtained a sufficient quantity, we will have to go to any of the many cabins that there are to send the spirits out of Hannya’s zone of influence. We can find them in all possible ways, whether it’s being harassed by Visitors, offering us supernatural commissions or locked up by a seal.
Of course, beyond insignificant loading times and impeccable performance, the truth is that graphically Ghostwire: Tokyo is far from looking like a next-gen game. It is surprising that it does not come out on PS4, because by all accounts it seems that it could perform well on the Sony console.
I’m still chewing on the new Tango Gameworks bait, but of course I’m going to get to the end with great pleasure. It doesn’t smell like one of the great jewels of the year, but I do think we have one of the titles in hand that you won’t regret having on the shelf.