Last week we attended the presentation of Ghostwire: Tokyo, a time before the trailer revealed yesterday in which it was detailed, for the first time, the gameplay of the game. This means that for us it was the first direct contact with the world of the game, in which we could see a little beyond the lovelative aesthetics, the neon lights and the monsters inspired by the Japanese folklore that the title of Tango Gameworks He had taught in the initial images. The truth is that it did not disappoint at all: In addition to a very beautiful and charismatic wrapping, the game seems to have a very defined and very particular gameplay.
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Basic information
- Developer: Gameworks Tango
- Editor: Bethesda
- Platforms: PS5, PC
- Availability: 03/25/2022
Before the presentation, the current director of the game, Kenji Kimura, gave us some words, via video pre-recorded, from the streets of Tokyo. The location is not Baladi: one of the things that the most strike care is the great care with which it has been dedicated to rebuilding the city within the game. I imagine that the one who has visited her will be able to see better differences and points in common; For someone who has not done it, like me, the surroundings is a reproduction that seems to take care of every detail to the millimeter. Kimura introduced us to the protagonist of the game: Akito, a young Japanese woman who accidentally merged, with KK, a ghost hunter with remarkable experience that has become a spirit after the tragic event that made the population of the Japanese city disappear.
The demo we saw at the event lasted about twenty minutes, and showed us what looked like the initial compasses of the game. The general dynamic of the game applies to the exploration of the Tokyo itself in search of answers on this mysterious event, and the use of the supernatural powers that we have developed after the merger to face different spirits, demons and other mythological figures that now populate this place. Those who are a little versed in the history of the Yokai will recognize enough expensive: a shopkeeper who is a Nekomata, a tengu who helps us fly through the roofs, or a Hannya that is positioned as the main antagonist of the game. In a matter of design, both the Yokai and the evil spirits – that the game calls “visitors” – are a delight of seeing: respecting their classic images, to make them recognizable, but adding contemporary elements to all of them, making them fit perfectly On the set scenario.
The protagonist, as we said, has powers: an “ethereal weaving”, in English – ethereal tissue, in Spanish? -What he uses to exorcise the different malignant forces that are put on his way. A kind of magic threads that he controls with his hands and who serve to remove the “essence” of demons and thus destroy them. We see some more mechanics: a species of remote control remote control, the option of channeling energy with buttons L2 and R2 to purify determined places on the map or hold a katashiro, a ceremonial object made of paper, to absorb the spirits. During the demo the protagonist gets an arch that, also imbued with magical powers, he can use to perform and defeat enemies. The general dynamics is to attack enemies until they are vulnerable and then eliminated their core with the ethereal threads to make them disappear; A combat system that, with a bit of variation, seems versatile enough to create a large number of different confrontations.
Of course: Even though there were battles, most of the demo focused on exploration. As I said, we are looking for clues and trying to understand what has happened, and for that we move through different places in Tokyo. The city seems extraordinarily well modeled, but at a specific time we entered a house of a building now desert, and the amount of details in the objects, furniture and rooms of this is overwhelming.
By taking out some defect, it is necessary to point out that the difference in the definition of the characters varies considerably between the kinematics and the in-Game scenes. The protagonist, so photorealistic that it is almost uncomfortable to look at the parts of CGI, shows a much more “normal” style in the in-game images. In any case, I believe that the great virtue of the technical section that is shown is what is achieved that the scenario and atmosphere is: many of the journalists who attended the event we remember the Kamurocho of the Saga Yakuza, and with good reason. The element that makes us stop proven the final version is the fact that, even though history has a very serious starting point, it does not seem that everything is drama in the Ghostwire universe: Tokyo. Combats are visually spectacular, and some interactions with the ghost hunter and demons are somewhat comic, even a little mamarrachans, said in the best of the senses.
The demo left us, yes, with the desire to carefully explore its open world structure. We see many markers of mission and secondary activities but we have no chance to deepen them. But in need of knowing exactly how its structure will work, the whole seems, a priori, quite convincing: a game with a very particular premise and an eye on almost sickly who can draw the attention of the great public, but it will be particularly interesting for Those familiar with Japanese culture and mythology.