Birthed Anew: Going back in time in gaming isn’t always easy but combining a well-crafted story with action and a well segmented sequence of events makes the game and experience as a whole, digestible and one that will stick with you and carry you through a memorizing nightmare. Ghosts that look like slenderman, shadows that cast through the hallways of a never-ending song, we can say that classic horror is back and it’s here to stay.
Life and Death: While this game does deal with some pretty heavy topics, it also throws in modern action and faced paced sequences that will keep you on your feet. With easy to maneuver controls that act like a ballet, and creative sequences that utilize your partner in crime KK, this game quickly turns into gaming acrobatics. When Shinji Mikami and his team create something there are three possible reactions: awe, confusion and fear of what's to come. Since Mikami San, and the director Kimura San create a world that, like a sink hole trap you, you don’t realize how far you’ve gone until it’s too late and you’re in it for the long haul.
Experiencing this game was like having a tidal wave of emotions hit me all at once, and some questions that needed answered lingered in the air for too long at points. Whether that was the build of tension or not it made me feel like I was running a race I could never win. Much like some parts of Silent Hill, The Evil Within and Resident Evil, this game managed to create an immersive atmosphere that kept up with the times and made both the story and game play addicting.
While there are parts of the game that felt repetitive, this game managed to pull me in with a wonderful story. All games now a days have repetitive game play, there’s no way around that since there is a form of predictability that is needed. Since Ghostwire Tokyo makes the trite parts of the game fun it's in a sense easier to see past the “mundane” or “boring parts” because there is so much happening within those parts that can seem to drag on.
When first going into the game I saw instantly the psychological concept of dissociating. As humans we disassociate all the time, there are other forms of disassociation that are more harmful and are created as a coping mechanism at a young age. The concept of disassociating in this game is linked to KK and Akito. While KK is a spirit that has possessed Akito, there will be segments where Akito is on his own (out of disassociation) and have to fend for himself in this demonic world. Being on your own without any powers shows us just how much we need that other part of us (KK) to survive.
Somewhere In-between:
With all of the classic horror themes, creating old-school vibes, and telling us a story of acceptance in death, Ghostwire Tokyo does something that not a lot of horror games do, and that’s creating a sense of purgatory within a game. Looping, and doing the same thing over and over and over again (could be why the game play is so repetitive) having Akito in a place emotionally where his mourning his sister but knows she’s alive and needs to get to her. but he's also seeing death around him, constantly being able to set other spirits free while he’s stuck in a never-ending limbo and cycle of hating himself, fighting, and anger for the things he couldn’t control.
Acceptance: We have some pretty heavy questions that Akito has to answer. Akito being unable to accept his parents passing is trying to save his sister so he can mentally rest in peace as it were. He is unable to forgive how he acted so through stubborn will and all he creates a must-act-now attitude where he must not fail, and he must save Mari. This mentality breaks him later on in the game and creates this tension of where he’s saving someone that may not want to be saved.
Another question that I had, which I’m not sure could even be linked to this game is the concept of the rapture. (According to some millenarian teaching the transporting of believers to heaven at the Second Coming of Christ.) I’m not sure if this plays into the game whatsoever, but it's interesting to think about none the less. A demon parade whisking you off into the sunset, leaving your belongings behind and showing you that the rapture wasn’t Christ, it was demons.
With Akito saying his farewells to his sister, and finally accepting reality so he can live to the fullest he and the player I think have learned that making the most of life while you’re still on this earth is priority #1. At some points of the game this concept (the whole point of the story) I think gets lost, and/or muddled in the action, and running away from monsters and the cheesy antics. But overall, when you look at this game from the psychological and classic horror standpoint this game holds its own. Ghostwire Tokyo, is horror in a modern world and creates a sense of urgency, unease and emotions that will have you grabbing the nearest tissue box.
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