Ghostwire Tokyo
Platform: PC
Genre: Action-Adventure, Horror
Developer: Tango Gameworks
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Director: Kenji Kimura
Designer: Suguru Murakoshi (Lead)
Writer: Kenji Kimura
Composer: Masatoshi Yanagi
Finished: 2025
Playtime: 15h 19m
Rating: 3/5
I first played this game on PlayStation 5 back near release but for whatever reason dropped it to play something else. My full playthrough ended up being through Microsoft Game Pass on PC. I finished this game near the start of the year and unfortunately took no notes so this might be a short one!
I'm a big fan of Japanese horror movies and also a big fan of folk horror so the aesthics of this game were perfect for me. I love the idea of being an exorcist and using things like talismans to fight spirits. It's just very cool.
The gameplay was good and I enjoyed the movement options to get around the city. I also appreciate that it's open world but not massive, I get very demotivated in games when I open up a huge map that has objective/quest vomit all over it. This game did have a bit of an issue with uniniteresting and repetitive side quests, I started off with a plan to 100% it but I got tired of them by the end and just pushed the main quest. That said, this is an issue with most games I play where I start off liking them so much that I want to 100% everything and then just burn myself out on them by the end so I can't really hold it against the game.
From what I do remember though this game was really carried by it's aesthetics and gameplay as the story was very forgettable (I think the big bad wanted to use the MC's sister to... destroy the world?).
What I liked
- The Japanese folk horror aesthetic, the designs of all the different spirits were fantastic and some of them were pretty creepy
- The design of the city itself was good. In general I prefer Japanese style open world games as they tend to focus on a smaller but more detailed world compared to a lot of Western games.
- Movement and control of the character felt very good, I like the "parkour" feeling of jumping across rooftops
What I didn't like
- The boss battles were pretty bland
- The overall story was fine but forgettable