This review contains spoilers
Ghostwire Tokyo is a unique experience in terms of the bridging between life and death.
The characters of Akito and KK have a buddy cop dynamic that is really nice to hear and playthrough, as well as having emotional moments and heart to hearts.
The story is very basic in the sense of "sibling of protagonist is used as a vessel to unleash a God/ open a portal or something", with Akito mainly having to go through the empty of humans streets of Tokyo. Tokyo being a huge area to explore, having different collectibles to collect such as audio logs, tanukis, and artifacts scattered throughout.
The game is very good at being a blend between action, Adventure, open world and horror.
The horror aspect comes in the form of the vistors including:
• Rain Walkers
•Rugged Walkers
•Rage Walkers
•Students of Misery
•Students of Pain
• Shrine Doll
• Kuchisake (her especially)
And many others.
The game features japanese yokai as another part of collecting/leveling up, such as kappas, onis, kodamas, etc.
I have to give the game props for making this a game that uses elemental abilities of Fire, Water, and Air in order to defeat your enemies, along with a bow and talismans, instead of standard weapons like guns.
The story is ok, not amazing cause it's very quick, the ending can leave those feeling happy for KK in a way, but it can absolutely wreck the experience of the entire game, making it feel like a pointless journey, the ending sort of feels like the end of Pixar's Soul but worse.
I hate that video games that aren't cartoony always need to end in bad/ok endings where there has to be something bad/sad that happens because nowadays game companies seem to have obsessions with bad/sad endings.
Essentially the entire point of the game is trying to traverse the ravaged city of Tokyo, fighting the visitors and the masked man Hannya, all in order to save Mari, Akitos sister.
After going through the entire Game, Akito faces the truth of his families death, and finally gets to reunite with his sister... only for her to die shortly after. (Ffs really?!?) Like the ending is beautiful, but it's very abrupt, like after defeating the main bad guy, you get teleported back to the land of the living, where Akito meets with his Ghost Parents and leaves Mari to them saying "when we reunite I will have lived a full life." And walks up the shrine gates and has a final comedic word with KK only for KK to drift off into peace, him as well moving on to the after life. Akito looks at the picture of KK's family from KK's wallet, sees that there's a second side with KK with his wife and son, smirks looks happy and goes off presumably to fulfill KK's wish of his family knowing what happened to him and that he loves them. And the game ends, it's a beautiful ending. However having Mari die, wrecks the point of the game, regardless if you think "its about acknowledging the death of your love one's and letting go so you can live your life happy, but still remembering them," but why the hell does Mari have to die to make that happen.
I had a great experience with the game, and was able to platnium it, so I experience all of what this game has to offer. If they are ever going to do a sequel to Ghostwire, a different location that isn't Japan would be cool to see, like Rome, or Paris, or Berlin, or Seoul Korea, a new location so it doesn't seem only bound to Japan. Would be cool to see demons and visitors from other countries and the aspect a sequel would take based on the country.
Still I did have a great time. But the story's ending is what brings this down to a 4/5 for me.
Recommend it though 😁🙏🏻
The characters of Akito and KK have a buddy cop dynamic that is really nice to hear and playthrough, as well as having emotional moments and heart to hearts.
The story is very basic in the sense of "sibling of protagonist is used as a vessel to unleash a God/ open a portal or something", with Akito mainly having to go through the empty of humans streets of Tokyo. Tokyo being a huge area to explore, having different collectibles to collect such as audio logs, tanukis, and artifacts scattered throughout.
The game is very good at being a blend between action, Adventure, open world and horror.
The horror aspect comes in the form of the vistors including:
• Rain Walkers
•Rugged Walkers
•Rage Walkers
•Students of Misery
•Students of Pain
• Shrine Doll
• Kuchisake (her especially)
And many others.
The game features japanese yokai as another part of collecting/leveling up, such as kappas, onis, kodamas, etc.
I have to give the game props for making this a game that uses elemental abilities of Fire, Water, and Air in order to defeat your enemies, along with a bow and talismans, instead of standard weapons like guns.
The story is ok, not amazing cause it's very quick, the ending can leave those feeling happy for KK in a way, but it can absolutely wreck the experience of the entire game, making it feel like a pointless journey, the ending sort of feels like the end of Pixar's Soul but worse.
I hate that video games that aren't cartoony always need to end in bad/ok endings where there has to be something bad/sad that happens because nowadays game companies seem to have obsessions with bad/sad endings.
Essentially the entire point of the game is trying to traverse the ravaged city of Tokyo, fighting the visitors and the masked man Hannya, all in order to save Mari, Akitos sister.
After going through the entire Game, Akito faces the truth of his families death, and finally gets to reunite with his sister... only for her to die shortly after. (Ffs really?!?) Like the ending is beautiful, but it's very abrupt, like after defeating the main bad guy, you get teleported back to the land of the living, where Akito meets with his Ghost Parents and leaves Mari to them saying "when we reunite I will have lived a full life." And walks up the shrine gates and has a final comedic word with KK only for KK to drift off into peace, him as well moving on to the after life. Akito looks at the picture of KK's family from KK's wallet, sees that there's a second side with KK with his wife and son, smirks looks happy and goes off presumably to fulfill KK's wish of his family knowing what happened to him and that he loves them. And the game ends, it's a beautiful ending. However having Mari die, wrecks the point of the game, regardless if you think "its about acknowledging the death of your love one's and letting go so you can live your life happy, but still remembering them," but why the hell does Mari have to die to make that happen.
I had a great experience with the game, and was able to platnium it, so I experience all of what this game has to offer. If they are ever going to do a sequel to Ghostwire, a different location that isn't Japan would be cool to see, like Rome, or Paris, or Berlin, or Seoul Korea, a new location so it doesn't seem only bound to Japan. Would be cool to see demons and visitors from other countries and the aspect a sequel would take based on the country.
Still I did have a great time. But the story's ending is what brings this down to a 4/5 for me.
Recommend it though 😁🙏🏻