Ghostwire: Tokyo is a 2022 action-adventure game developed by Tango Gameworks and published by Bethesda Softworks. The game released worldwide on March 25, 2022 as a one-year timed exclusive for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 5.
Gameplay[ | ]
Ghostwire: Tokyo is an action-adventure game played from a first-person perspective. The player can use various psychic and paranormal abilities to defeat the ghosts and spirits haunting Tokyo. Combat director Shinichiro Hara described the combat as "karate meets magic", as the player character utilizes hand movements inspired by Kuji-kiri hand gestures to cast spells. When an enemy loses most of their health, its core is exposed and the player can use takedown moves to destroy it. By defeating these spirits and collecting Yokai, the character will collect spirit points and resources used to upgrade their abilities.
Plot[ | ]
The game begins with a spirit (Kazuhiko Inoue) flying over the scene of a traffic collision. The spirit is looking for a body to possess and decides on a boy named Akito (Kensuke Nishi) who was rendered unconscious from the incident. Akito wakes up still in control of his body except for his right hand which is under control of the spirit. Soon after a terrifying fog rolls in turning anyone caught in it into a spirit. Akito is spared thanks to the spirit possessing him. A man in a Hannya mask (known only as Hannya (Shunsuke Sakuya)) shows up on screens near the area and uses a spell to summon evil entities and seal the spirits away in cages all across Shibuya. Akito is told by the spirit he needs to hunt Hannya down to stop him but Akito convinces the spirit to let him go to the local hospital to check on his sister, Mari. (Asami Seto)
The spirit grants Akito spirit based powers to help him combat the evil entities summoned by Hannya. When the two reach Mari's room at the hospital they find that Hannya beat them there and wants to use Mari for some sort of ritual due to her unique condition of being in a Coma. When Akito tries to interfere, Allies of Hannya chain him up as Hannya himself stabs Akito through the chest before taking Mari away. A flashback plays showing that Mari was caught in a house fire that put her into her comatose state. Akito talks to the spirit (who tells Akito to call him KK) and agrees to help him stop Hannya. KK saves Akito's life and tells him to go to a safe house KK has set up.
At the safe house KK reveals he was part of a team of investigators who tried to stop Hannya but failed. KK tells Akito to go to the Kagerie Observation tower to scan the town for clues, locating one of Hannya's allies going into an underground train station. The two follow and find an underground shrine where Hannya and his allies are preparing for their ritual. KK reveals that Hannya plans to steal enough souls so he can destroy the barrier between the world of the living and the dead so Hannya can be with his wife and daughter forever in his twisted version of paradise. The one Akito followed stays behind to fight as Hannya and the others escape. The enemy's mask gets blown off revealing it is actually a puppet made of KK's human body. Distracted by this the puppet uses its powers to separate KK from Akito and seal him away, leaving Akito powerless.
Akito wakes back up and manages to escape to the surface and heads back to KK's safe house to figure out how to find KK. There he meets one of KK's old partners Rinko who gives him KK's commuter pass case containing a picture of KK's wife and son. Rinko also tells Akito that he's still connected to KK and uses their connection to find and reunite with him. Just as the two reunite a pillar of light appears showing that Hannya has started his ritual. The two pursue after Hannya and confront him as he starts the ritual. The other two enemy allies confront the two revealing themselves as puppets made from Hannya's wife and daughter. The daughter fights them but is defeated and KK has Akito extract the charm used to make the puppet. They are too late though as Hannya unleashes a giant spirit monster upon the town and travels deep into the toxic fog.
Hannya takes Mari away for the final steps of the ritual. Unable to follow on foot KK reveals that Rinko made a custom made motorcycle capable of passing through the fog. After collecting additional parts to complete it, the two take off into the fog. Along the way they are attacked by the KK puppet and the bike is destroyed but not before the two are able to cross. At the entrance of Tokyo Tower the two are attacked by the mother puppet but they able to defeat and free her. When they get to the top Hannya takes Mari and jumps into the mouth of giant spirit monster. The two are attacked by the KK puppet again but together they defeat and free it as well.
The two jump into the giant spirit monsters mouth to stop Hannya once and for all. Inside they pass through a series of doors showing both Akito and Mari's memories. Revealing that Akito was an emotionally closed off person, even more so after his parents' deaths. With the loss of her parents and Akito's coldness towards her, this drove Mari into an almost suicidal depression. The two heroes catch up to Hannya as he opens a direct gate to the underworld. Before he can finish the ritual though, Mari's spirit stops it and blast Hannya into the gate. As her spirit starts to fade she tells Akito that her accident wasn't his fault. She reveals that she had a chance to escape the fire but went back to grab their parents' wedding rings as they were the only thing they had left of them. As Mari dies, Hannya climbs back out and fuses himself with his daughter and wife's spirits becoming a monstrous amalgamation. The two heroes finish him off for good, freeing all the souls Hannya captured. The spirits of Akito's parents arrive to escort Mari to the afterlife as Akito promises her that he'll lead a good life from then on. As the crisis is averted Akito returns to the living world as KK's spirit leaves his body.