“A city with barely anything to do”
Feeling alone in GHOSTWIRE TOKYO
The sheer atmosphere of Ghostwire Tokyo is hard to beat. Out on the streets of the city, monsters roam by the light of neon signs and glowing phone booths; inside the buildings, eerie stillness gives way to ghostly manifestations that make walls shift and paintings bleed.
It’s all the more chilling for its emptiness. The entire populace has been turned to spirits by a dark ritual, so suddenly that their clothes and belongings are left in little piles wherever you go. As you adventure across the city, the only things that move other than you are ghosts and monsters, and even they are rare.
But… there can be such a thing as too much atmosphere, y’know? For as much as Ghostwire Tokyo’s haunting vibes are impeccable, it feels like the developers ran out of time to make a game in its empty playground. The absence of another living soul is spooky, but it also just emphasizes the sparseness of the world, a city with barely anything to do or see other than hovering collectibles and the same four enemy types repeated ad nauseam.
SPIRITED AWAY
Those surreal indoor sequences are visually sumptuous, but they’re all smoke and mirrors. Because the spaces are too small for fights, and the game has no other activities to offer, all that can happen is you walk through the haunted house and then click on a ghost to exorcise it. Beautifully crafted locations in desperate need of a purpose.
The sidequests are wonderfully conceived—full of lovely tidbits of Japanese folklore and tradition. But not only do they struggle to give you any actual tasks to perform other than walking from one spot to another, the game’s quiet artificiality makes them feel futile. What’s the point of solving problems for ghosts in an empty city? Why does it matter if this monster or that is terrorizing streets that no one lives on anymore?
Ultimately all that can matter is restoring the bustling status quo that the game can never actually let you explore. I’m left hoping for a more ambitious and complete sequel— perhaps one that confines that emptiness to the hidden places of an otherwise living city, and invites you to be a true investigator, instead of just a ghost-killer.