Review of Ghostwire: Tokyo | Gamers Field

Story:

The story unfolds in Tokyo where our protagonist “Akito” lives. Everyone is surprised by a fog that erases everything in its path, and somehow Akito gains powers that protect his body from fading away, as all city residents disappear, leaving only their spirits hanging in the air. Amidst these catastrophic circumstances, Akito does not forget his sick sister who lies in a Tokyo hospital. He begins the quest to find his sister and save her with the help of “Kai Kai,” who shares the same body with Akito, against strange and terrifying beings, some of which are headless creatures called “Visitors.”

❞ The game throws you into the sea without lifebuoys ❝

Of course, I felt a great surprise after reading about the story of Ghostwire Tokyo game, this is exactly the same feeling that overwhelmed me during the first few hours of gameplay. The story starts suddenly without any introductions, leaving dozens of questions swirling in your mind. After playing for the first hour of the game, you often get a good picture of what is happening in this deserted city.

The story is not perfect, but it succeeded in conveying the required emotions at the right moments for the player to immerse more in the game, despite some gaps that can be overlooked. However, the cinematic scenes should not be neglected, as they were the salvation for the player from getting lost amidst the events of the game, explaining a lot of events with great scenes, leaving a question in your mind that the next scene answers, and so on.

❞ Happy to see my Arabic language portrayed with such mastery ❝

The game includes Arabic translation for texts, conversations, and newspapers, which made me extremely happy, not only because of the developers’ interest in adding the Arabic language to their game with a complete translation of texts, conversations, and newspapers that Akito reads, but also because they ensured a stunning translation. The translation is not literal but rather descriptive and accurately conveys the true meaning of the characters’ dialogue. The font size is a bit small.

Gameplay:

Through the official game previews before its release, we were able to take a look at the gameplay style and form a general idea about it. It was one of the most prominent aspects that caught players’ attention. Let’s first talk about Akito’s special powers. Akito has 3 essential elements that allow him to unleash Aether energy through his hand:
– Air: enables him to unleash Aether energy to damage opponents
– Fire: releases an explosive blow that often kills weak enemies with one hit
– Water: a weak blow at long distances but can kill an enemy with one hit when you get close

After learning these three powers, you can switch between them during battles, adding some diversity to combat to overcome various types of monsters with different attack and defense methods. Learning and experiencing these powers for the first few hours was one of the most enjoyable moments of the game for me. Akito’s hand movements while performing attacks of all kinds are excellent and influenced by Japanese animation graphics, especially when he draws the enemies’ souls using a luminous thread with the sound of their screams, a moment of ecstasy that cannot be missed.

The progression in the game relies on collecting experience points obtained through completing main and side tasks, and killing more Visitors. You use these powers to increase your character’s abilities or unlock a new skill added to the three essential powers you already possess, such as a critical blow or three consecutive blows in a single hit. The skill tree was comfortable and not overly complicated, I didn’t have to think much about what to develop first, but it’s still a good addition.

The variety of monsters encountered in the game world was one of the game’s strengths. Between umbrella carriers, young students, and the developers diversified their attacks, adding greater excitement to battles where you won’t anticipate how they will attack. The Bosses in the game are few, but there are what can be described as Mini Bosses, who have different abilities from the rest of the Visitors and are difficult to kill with your usual methods against regular Visitors. These fights were fantastic and extremely thrilling; adding a couple more Bosses other than the one that appeared in the first six hours of the game would have allowed for more creativity and enhancing the challenge and difficulty towards the player.

Side missions in the game were not appealing at all and were a huge gap that could not be ignored. Spirits always stand in your way asking you to complete a specific mission to free them, sometimes you find a side mission while performing a main story mission, which can be irritating to the player. When you think about experiencing them, you will feel a great deal of frustration due to their weak story and lack of meaningful incentives. I faced that during 80% of the side missions I started to experience.

The gameplay of Ghostwire Tokyo relies on two aspects: direct engagement with Visitors and stealth. Stealth is a very important part of the game, even in some parts of the story, stealth becomes a tool without which you cannot advance in the story. Stealth in the game remains primitive and does not carry any revolutionary ideas. It allows you to kill enemies and draw their souls from behind without direct conflict, or to move between places without being seen by the Visitors. The stealth style in the game is extremely basic but remains useful for the context of the game.

World Design and Graphics:

❞ Hats off to the ray tracing inventors ❝

Just stop and leave the controller for a moment and contemplate the empty streets of Tokyo. The graphics and city design in Ghostwire Tokyo are stunningly breathtaking. This is the type of game that is considered a new generation game in all respects in terms of graphics. Here, the value of ray tracing technology shines through, conveying the visual experience to an unreasonable level. Rainy Tokyo atmospheres most of the time create ample space for ray tracing to showcase its capabilities in reflecting buildings on wet grounds and smooth surfaces.

The world design is fantastical, the meticulousness in conveying the sense of emptiness to the player’s core was the most prominent advantage of the game world. The stores from which advertisements are still being heard and chaos showing you how all Tokyo residents vanished without warning.
The deadly fog covers all parts of the city, and you have to complete specific tasks to unlock new areas to explore a larger world, but since we are talking about an open-world game, was this world valuable and important?

The game world is not as vast as some developers strive for, but its only benefit is roaming through the game atmospheres and the meticulous world design. Otherwise, you will feel that the game is linear and you won’t find any other activities to do. Sometimes you might engage in jumping between buildings and flying in the Tokyo sky, yes, in Ghostwire Tokyo you can reach the top of buildings and when jumping you can fly for a few seconds that can be increased through the skill tree.

Technical:

For PC gamers, the minimum system requirements for the game are somewhat exaggerated. When the system requirements for Ghostwire Tokyo were announced, they made sense since the game is exclusive to the new generation. However, the game still runs on much lower system requirements than advertised; you can have a smooth experience on medium to high settings with mid-range specs. For example, the game requires 12GB of RAM, yet you can run it on 8GB without any problems or frame rate drops for a few moments.

As for performance on next-gen consoles, there’s no doubt it’s the best, as the game provides you with stunning graphics that take advantage of the new generation consoles’ capabilities. With the ray tracing technology and the imposed maximum frame rate limit, it is necessary for a complete visual experience.

Conclusion:

The developer did not overlook any aspect of the game. A compelling story with a unique anime touch, extremely attractive character design, and a stunning world in terms of design and graphics. The gameplay is not revolutionary but fun to the maximum and more capabilities are added as you progress further in the game.

As for whether I recommend you to buy it or not, I certainly recommend buying it and experiencing a unique and distinctive experience. Let’s not forget that “the events of the game take place in Tokyo,” a beloved city for two generations of players.

The game will be released on March 25th as an exclusive for PS5 and also on PC.