🎮 An Ode to Ghostwire: Tokyo
Blog note: Some links may contain spoilers, swoop and glide to each link at your own risk. Also, I may come back to this post and update it once I've gotten to that sweet 100% completion rate.
It's time to say good-bye, for now...
During the holidays I decided to get caught up on things I enjoy. I restarted my blog, did some writing, cleaning and organizing, plant care and of course, gaming.
For most of the year, my gaming time is minimal and I've understood why the older I get. My brain can only focus on one enjoyable media at a time, because once I find something I really, really like it’s hard to put it down. This goes for books, games, a TV series. These days it's mainly books or games, not much TV. For the holidays, I went back to Ghostwire: Tokyo, a game I’ve been playing on and off since its release in 2022.
This break, I managed to get 61 out 66 achievements which has me at a 92% completion rate - not to shabby. The remaining achievements are going to be a pain because I've tried the Spider's Thread Update which came out in 2023 and this rogue-like dungeon gameplay does not work well with my sticky fingers and slow reaction time. And, alas, the remaining achievements are based on random chance :-/!
Why I stopped (temporarily)
Apart from work and school obligations, there was one in-game reason why I paused my gameplay. Okay, let's be honest, it was the Fear for the Children side mission and those who've played the update know what I’m talking about. If you ever watched Japanese horror films or are familiar with school-based urban legends you know one of the scariest backdrops is a middle or high school. This side mission (really there's two) is arguably the scariest, particularly when you meet a friendly fellow name Gutsy
So, for this play through, I went about the map leveling up as much as I could and left to complete that mission for the very end. I did cheese it a little (is that how the saying goes?) by watching a few video tutorials, but I get easily spooked so this was to help me prepare for the inevitable. I also was pleasantly surprised with being able to finally beat it, even if I got a surprise visitor midway between the missions. Heads up!
My goal was to complete as many achievements as possible and I didn't quite get to 💯%, but I got fairly close. Anyway, here's my take on a game I've really enjoyed these last few years.
What I enjoyed
- Learning about Japan’s vast collection of urban legends, landmarks, culture and spiritual traditions. This game was made my a Japanese developer, Tango Gameworks, and their love of Japan shows (also glad you're back!).
- There's so much to collect and find around every corner, alley way, and mission. For those who like to collect items in open-world settings, this is the perfect game.
- Walking around a virtual Tokyo. I have no idea when I’ll be in the city IRL, hope to one day, but for now this will do.
- Reading KK’s Notes, and the relic descriptions and learning about story and overall world-building.
- The ending and the dichotomy between two families grieving in different ways.
What I didn't enjoy or more like 😢
- When Ikumi Nakamura left the project. I was super excited when she announced this game back in 2019, she made the game sound fun and accessible and scary all at the same time. Plus, I was too scared for Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and The Evil Within. This entry seemed like a good intro into horror-esque gaming.
- I’m happy that she made her own path as a developer and founder of her own studio, Unseen.
- That school mission! I did it, it’s done now I can move on, except when I had to go back to the Nekomata stand for those last two magamatas, ughh!
Near Misses During Gameplay
- Lots of the collectibles I was missing where at the Nekomata stands. It was right there! I was so focused on finding relics and completing requests that I forgot the “Shop” tab each time I visited and where I could buy KK Notes, outfits, musical tracks, and magamatas (note this if you’re trying to get achievements). The Sleuth prayer beads will not point you to their stands so get your meika up and buy, buy, buy.
- The voice logs, again, I was so focused on collecting them around the environment and completing spirit retrievals that I missed them right in front of me sitting near the phone each time I sent a batch of spirits back to the earthly realm.
I did complete some things...
- 100% Spirits
- 100% Cube events (3K spirits)
- 100% Hyakki Yako (Demon Parade) (15k spirits)
- 100% KK Notes
- 100% Voice logs
- 100% Magamata
- 100% Skills tree
Ghostwire: Tokyo will be one of my all-time favorite games. I'm glad I got sometime to go back and wander the streets while completing the main campaign. At first, I was scared to even make myself visible to a visitor. By the time I finished and helped save the spirits, and close the story on Akito, Mari, KK, Erika, Ed, and Dale (he's an elusive one!), I was ready to glide, run, jump and scare any visitor that stood in my way (except whenever she showed up, watch out for those "red-stained walls"!). Like any good book or game, it'll go back on the "shelf", until next time.
AW