Ghostwire Tokyo first look / We played

GhostWire: Tokyo invites us to the adventure of two partners who work together purely out of necessity, in the empty streets of Tokyo, where all the people are lost in a strange fog. GhostWire: Tokyo, developed by Tango Gameworks, founded in 2010 by Shinji Mikami, whose name we are familiar with with series such as Resident Evil and The Evil Within. play early we had the opportunity and we wanted to share our first views with you with a preview while we are a little while away from the release.

Ghostwire Tokyo preview

The game hasn’t been officially released yet, and I haven’t finished the game yet. Please note that in this preview I will only share my views and opinions about the first two episodes, and what I write here is not my final decision about the game.

Visitors Wander the Streets of Tokyo

Our adventure begins in the Shibuya region, one of the busiest places in Tokyo, with a dense fog that suddenly comes down. As the fog slowly spreads over the area, we see an unknown entity looking for a body to hide in. He somehow manages to merge with Akito, and the people in the fog at that time begin to disappear one by one. Meanwhile, faceless people with umbrellas, headless students and spiritual beings with many different appearances begin to walk in the streets. Then on the huge screens of Shibuya, a man wearing the traditional Hannya mask comes out and starts saying weird things like it’s time for the spirits to be set free.

Hannya, who closes people’s souls in a box, and Akito, who is among the spiritual beings called “Visitors”, tries to save Tokyo and find his sister with the help of the entity whose name we learn is KK. The two have some disagreements over control of the body, but this is quickly resolved when encountering enemies. We begin to wander the streets of Tokyo with Akito, who gradually begins to control KK’s forces.

I liked the starting point of the story, I always liked the concept of two partners, one young and the other old, who do not get along with each other. The conversations between the two, their comments about what happened to them and the progression of the story are interesting until the point I played. I would like to leave more comments about the story to the review of the game in order not to give spoilers and to comment on the events that will happen in the future.

Let’s not forget to mention the side missions. The inhabitants of Tokyo are lost under the strange fog, and the spirits that do not pass are trapped in boxes and abducted by the Visitors. But some souls have not been able to make the transition because of their unfinished business in the world. We help them and get them to complete their work. Along with side quests such as the man who couldn’t reach his house because of the black hole near his house, the teenager who died due to the cursed baby, the boy who tried to play with a Kappa and had his essence stolen, we also have to do some investigation tasks given by the person who helped us after the phone call throughout our adventure. I came across some interesting quests, I wonder what kind of side quests we will see as the game progresses.

Need to Send Visitors Where They Come From

In GhostWire: Tokyo, our main characters Akito and KK will face many different types of Visitors, and we have no chance to use normal weapons against them. It is necessary to use supernatural methods against the supernatural.

Using the powers of elements such as wind, fire and water thanks to the KK, which he shares his body with, Akito can reveal his weak point, which is his essence, and expel them from this world thanks to the magical nets. The adventure, which we started by throwing little winds in our hands, is cheered up with cutting water waves and fireballs exploding at the point it touches in a short time. Each ability has two different uses, throwing it directly or charging it to make more powerful shots. The number of opponents you face and the power ratio you have affect your fighting style.

An ordinary human being, Akito has a special bow and magical talismans, as well as the powers he wields with the help of KK. Of course, you might think, “I’m shooting fire from my hand, what’s the point of shooting arrows”, but there are places where they also work. You inevitably get used to using it.

At the beginning of this year, we were attacked by games set in the open world, the majority of which attract attention as successful productions. GhostWire: Tokyo, on the other hand, is an action / adventure game that has adopted the sandbox logic. Although the first episode, which is focused on the story, has a more linear structure, we start to wander the streets of Tokyo as of the second episode. There are places to explore, temples to clean, side quests to complete and animals to love. The idea of ​​loving the cats and dogs in the game and being able to read their thoughts was a small but fun detail. Sometimes it is also possible to just wander around and enjoy Tokyo, which is cleared of human noise.

The City Without People

GhostWire: Tokyo has worked hard to design a city without people. Bustling with people most of the day, the Shibuya district is completely deserted except for the clothes of the disappeared people and the sounds of advertisements rising from the environment. The lights are on, the stalls are open, the advertisements keep playing loudly, but the vendors you can find will be the merchant cats of the spiritual world. I adore the Nekomata type cats, which remind me of members of the Khajjit breed.

Talking about the first two episodes, the game looks very good. Lights and reflections are used very well in the open areas that allow us to experience the atmosphere of Tokyo, the character designs look very good, it is a pleasure to experience the changes in the spaces that remind us of Control. We can see the detailed hand gestures Akito makes while using his abilities.

GhostWire: Tokyo, which will be released exclusively for PlayStation 5 on consoles, also uses Dualsense features. Both adaptive triggers and haptic return support are available. We can also do some sealing work ourselves via the touchpad. It is also a very nice detail that KK’s speeches come from both the game and the controller. I love these little details since the time of the Nintendo Wii, and it’s nice to hear the good voice of Kazuhiko Inoue, who also voiced Hatake Kakashi (Naruto).

Conclusion

I didn’t have many expectations for GhostWire: Tokyo, nothing that caught my attention apart from the world that it takes place in Tokyo and is based on the supernatural events that are mentioned a lot in Japanese folk tales. As of the first two episodes I played, I think the story is not bad but somewhat predictable. Of course, I will see the accuracy of these predictions when I play the whole game and fully experience the story. We’ll talk about it in the review.

I also played Deathloop, another Playstation 5 special game published by Bethesda, without any expectations and had more fun than I thought. In this game, as of the first two episodes, it managed to entertain me with a pleasant gameplay and a very nice atmosphere. I expect more in the remaining episodes, both in terms of gameplay and story.

GhostWire: Tokyo will be released on March 25 for PC and Playstation 5. I can’t wait to experience and share the rest of the game with you.