NO MORE SIDE QUESTS

It took me quite a while to get used to horror movies as a kid. I was probably the biggest chicken that ever lived, scared of his own shadow. Thankfully I grew out of that phase and with the help of Clive Barker and the Hellraiser series was soon cured of my extreme fear. While there are still some topics that give me pause, one that I have always found more fascinating than horrifying is things rooted in Japanese folklore. Immediately when I saw the announcement trailer for Ghostwire Tokyo I was interested, the flashes of ghost, the visage of various yokai and what looked like fast paced action all had me ready to book my flight to Tokyo, until I realized it was exclusive to the PS.

Finally free of Sony’s bonds, Tango Gameworks’ latest horror gem arrives on Xbox and Game Pass. Things start off quickly in Ghostwire as a spirit is frantically searching for a body to possess after a traffic accident, finally finding a boy named Akito who is unconscious. When Akito awakes, he finds that he is not in control of his right hand as a fog roll through Shibuya which turns everyone into a spirit except Akito. The spirit who is later identified as KK explains that because he has possessed Akito he will be spared.

MSRP: $59.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, PC
Price I’d Pay: $59.99

The big bad of the game who is known as Hannya starts to show up on the digital billboards spouting the usual crazy person nonsense about a new world order as he unleashes evil visitors (ie GHOSTS) on the land who is collecting up the population who are now spirits. I am not going to spoil the story here, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. There is a little of everything throughout the adventure, some laughs and tears and lots of jump scares but the relationship and characters of Akito and KK are laid bare and both men are changed by the end.

Ghostwire Tokyo is dripping with atmosphere, from the highly detailed streets of Shibuya to the large ominous spectral Tori gates that must be purged to clear away fog, the cats and dogs littering the streets and peoples’ clothes in piles where they vanished. The sights in this game are something to be sure, trying to get finished for this review I went down a lot of streets that I didn’t have to just because I was so enamored in the visuals of the city.

Combat is also visually pleasing as the developers described it, “magic meets karate” both can be felt when punishing the ghostly visitors. Players have access to elemental magic, Wind which is basically a pistol or once upgraded can be a machine gun firing green wind bullets. Water works like a shotgun with a short-range blast, and fire is an explosive when charged that can damage a large area and multiple enemies. Once players have damaged the spooky visitors enough, they will reveal a core that is pulled (ripped) from their chest with some dope wire work on behalf of Akito and KK. I had a lot of fun just busting the ghosts around Shibiya, each of them a path forward to more power by providing xp and other level up materials.

What I didn’t like about Ghostwire Tokyo is the fact that it is an open world ass, open world game. That means that when you clear away the fog by cleansing tori gates the game will bombard you with no less than 7,643 new icons worth of side missions, collectibles, dog food, cats, pet monsters, and coffee shops for you to visit. I do not understand why we need to do this with every single open world game that releases but here we are in the year of our Lord 2023 and still going strong. I stopped caring about them after about 3 and just mainlined the story missions. Unless you are achievement chasing, I would suggest the same. All those extras just add padding to an already padded game, the first 3 or 4 chapters took about 10-12 hours to finish while the last few just flew by. Perhaps if we focused on the story and made it flow, we wouldn’t need the crutch of all these superfluous side missions to add play time.

Listen, I really liked Ghostwire Tokyo quite a bit; the story of Akito trying to save his sister and KK’s need for revenge made a good pairing. As I said above both men grew over the course of the adventure and ended it differently than they began and that is what I love to see from any story…. growth. The spooky bits here aren’t as intense as Tango is usually known for and that may be due to the FPS nature of the action in the game but nonetheless Ghostwire Tokyo is a game that should be played and since its finally come home to Xbox the barrier of entry is even lower and if you like ghosts and things this one won’t disappoint.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.