Ghostwire: Tokyo preview – an intriguing look into a ghostly world
With a near-effortless twist and turn of the hand, you form a sigil that soars through the air and catches on the expressionless face of a mannequin-like yokai – a supernatural figure that barrels towards you, malevolent in their intent. A creature that you’ll come across many times in Ghostwire: Tokyo.
We recently received the opportunity to look at Ghostwire: Tokyo from Tango Gameworks, an action-adventure game that puts you in the shoes of protagonist Akito, a seemingly regular man who gains supernatural powers soon after the residents of Tokyo disappear into thin air. This is all thanks to KK, a spirit who becomes part of Akito. Not so regular after all, eh?
Our preview of the game takes place in the early stages of the game, though it wasn’t specified by Bethesda when exactly. Regardless, we follow Akito and KK through the desolate streets of Tokyo, where they deal with an abundance of different spirits: school girls with no heads, faceless businessmen that look like off-shoot cousins of Slenderman, as well as demonic entities that are more than happy to put an end to you. Thankfully, you’ve got experience with Weaving, a technique that lets Akito call on different essence from the creatures you meet in order to deal with them.
Weaving is a key part of combat, something which the preview showed was actually quite versatile in their approach. One moment it can feel quite chunky with your slashes and hits, but when you parry back an attack it feels very fluid, as though you’re weaving and pushing back wind with your hands. It’s very satisfying to watch, though I’m unsure if it will keep us entertained throughout the entirety of Ghostwire: Tokyo. In a game like this though, we suspect that there will be more than a few different abilities that will enhance Akito’s combat prowess – just to keep things fresh. It isn’t just martial combat that you can expect, though. Akito will also have the ability to draw upon different elemental abilities, such as fire, to launch at his foes. What we really liked about this is how these elements can affect the enemies you go up against, making them stagger and stumble and eventually fall to the ground, defeated.
Instead of having to rely on health bars over their heads, which would absolutely be detrimental to the realism that Ghostwire: Tokyo is obviously going for, the yokai’s appearance will change in a way that shows they’ve weakened, such as their clothing getting rips and/or tears. It’s a fun way to help you navigate what you’ll do next during combat, especially when participating in big boss battles.
Another thing we got the chance to look at is ghosts, residents from Tokyo who – we assume, as this wasn’t clearly stated within the preview – have died following the fog that spread through the city. These ghosts are often good-natured and need your help in some way, asking you to take on a quest that’ll grant them peace. Akito then uses katashiro (paper dolls shaped to look human) to take on these spirits and free them back into their earthly bodies, which sounds very nice but now we’re wondering what this means considering there are still demonic entities walking around…
Even so, these side quests unwittingly let us have a quick glance at the scale of Ghostwire: Tokyo, and well, we can safely say that if you’re a completionist then you’re going to have more than enough to do in order to get that all-important platinum trophy. There seem to be optional boss battles, as well as different shrines that you’ll need to cleanse of the evil entities surrounding them, and of course, collectibles for those interested.
As for the environments you’ll be exploring, it seems like a mix of things. There’s a lot of buildings, expected of a concrete jungle of a city like Tokyo, with winding alleyways and intriguing offshoots of greenery, and even a few parks. Our only worry is that the narrative keypoint of the fog makes the environments you encounter feel a little repetitive at times. It works for the story and even the dark, murky surroundings are lovingly detailed and beautiful, but considering the small glimpse we got to see of the world map, we’re concerned that too much of a good thing with very little change is…well, too much.
Speaking of narrative, what we saw didn’t quite give us the answer on why a group of individuals in Kabuki and Haanya masks are following Akito, but did set the scene on what feel Ghostwire: Tokyo wants to give off. When it was first announced we felt that it was more of a traditional horror game in a setting similar to that of Silent Hill. While there is plenty of mystery, the scope of the game’s combat and how the game presented itself in the preview is that this really is just an action-adventure thriller steeped in the supernatural. That’s not a criticism either, as even though there’s a lot more action than we first expected, it only enhances the mysterious circumstances that the protagonist finds themself involved in.
Overall we’re really intrigued by Ghostwire: Tokyo and feel that, if done right, it can easily become a game that’s just as iconic as Tango Gameworks’ other IP, The Evil Within. It has the right mood, inventive and chunky combat, and a premise that makes it appealing to anyone who is enthusiastic about the mysterious and supernatural.
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