Ghostwire: Tokyo

[HandsomeDead]

I'm surprised there's no thread for this.

 

Ghostwire: Tokyo is an open world first person action adventure game.  Obviously set in Tokyo, I think all in the Shibuya region.  It means that it's not so oversized and it's a relatively interesting place to explore and pretty detailed.  It's nice.  Some kind of supernatural event has happened which has "killed" everyone but one of the things you do is harvest souls of the population to keep them safe while this event gets sorted out.  But anyone who is roaming the streets are ghostly figures who need to be busted.  You do this with elemental spells that have a number of different properties and are fun to use.  "Ammo" for the spells is pretty limited and you can only carry so much but you can get a little amount back from enemies.  It does mean extended fights require you to switch it up and try to use optimally.  There are some stealth mechanics as well that help thin out a group if you can manage being a bit sneaky.  This part of the game is pretty well done.

 

You're able to do this stuff because you are possessed by the ghost of a guy who's history is kept secret so far.  He does have knowledge of the supernatural and how to fight it so you share your body with him to help bust some ghosts.  He's pretty entertaining in a gruff way as well so he's good company.

 

Tokyo is really well realised, it looks great and the various ghosts, yokai and ghouls are really well designed so it has a unique look.  Exploring is well rewarded but its weakest part is probably when you go high to the rooftops and the jumping around isn't great.  You have a glide ability but what you can grab onto and mount is hard to judge and jankily implemented. It is the time the game looks and feels a bit rough.

 

I've been enjoying it quite a lot so far.  Unless it all goes wrong I'm happy to certify it a Cool Game.

[DisturbedSwan]

Surprised there's no thread too, I have always wanted to play it but it has always been too much of a time sink to play in-between planned releases unfortunately, maybe one day.

[HandsomeDead]

So maybe it doesn't keep up the pacing to well.  I feel like it front loads some of the better side quests which are neat little story vignettes (except the one that was weird about sex work, that was an eyebrow raiser) which are very folklore like, I liked them, but others are just go here and do a simple activity or have a fight for a simple reason.  It also backloads the main plot, to the point at the end which is pretty well done (trope-y in a questionable way but executed well is all I mean) I was wondering where all this was in the 20 hours or so I'd just played.  

 

The combat peaks pretty early so you're doing the same thing a lot.  There's a skill tree for tweaking and focusing power in certain skills but it doesn't really open up different ways of playing.  I'll just say focus on increasing your casting speed and that will help more than anything else.

 

Overall I'd say it's slightly better than the sum of its parts and there is lots to do but whether you want to do all of it will vary but I think I come away from it generally positive.

[mfnick]

How was the performance? I’ve been waiting for this to hit GP since the original PS release. But then read a few things saying the frame rate was really all over the place on Xbox so decided I’d now hold off for a patch.

[HandsomeDead]

It's just not something I get bothered by too much unless it's really bad and it didn't reach that threshold.

 

General movement is fairly smooth except for weird animation and movement when climbing but it's not a performance thing.  Combat is mostly slow paced and about spacing and I never felt screwed over if things got spotty during a big fight.

 

I've played a lot worse and it just never occurred to me.  I'm probably the wrong person to ask.  To me it never drifted into unacceptable. 

[DisturbedSwan]

 

If you've got both current-gen consoles and Sony Pass & Game Pass Subs it might be worth playing on the former. 

[mfnick]

Recently started playing this, just reached chapter 3, I’m enjoying it a lot. I’m fully into the style though, gameplay wise it’s not doing anything particularly new or great but due to the setting, style and aesthetics it’s raising it into a much higher positive place for me. So if that side does nothing for you I’d probably not bother.

 

The open world is more like a Yakuza, much smaller and more condensed than other games but much better for it IMO. 
 

Recently got a new patch too which has improved performance on SX considerably during my experience. Still a bit framey at times but a lot better. 

[Snaggletooth]

Ive had this at home for a couple of months, keep meaning to start it but get caugjt up in other games