Overall: 7/10

Story:

Ghostwire: Tokyo is an open world action-adventure game that blends horror, mystery, and drama. The narrative revolves around Akito, a man sharing his body with the spirit of a detective who possessed him, named KK. Together they must uncover the truth behind the disappearance of Tokyo's population and confront a sinister force that threatens the world. Their evolving dynamic is one of the strongest aspects of the plot, adding layers of depth and humor through moments of tension and eventual camaraderie. The central mystery of Tokyo's population vanishing keeps the story engaging; However, The main antagonist feels underdeveloped, serving more as a symbol of menace than a compelling villain. Regardless, the game's true narrative strength lies in its exploration of grief, loss, and letting go.
Despite that the emotional undertones are handled well, the pacing sometimes feels uneven. While the opening hooks you, the plot's middle drags along with repetitive objectives and underdeveloped plot points and although the ending ties up loose ends, it leaves some character arcs less resolved than expected. However, the real strength of this game lies more in its world-building and the atmosphere than in its narrative.

Gameplay:

The combat gameplay revolves around Ethereal Weaving, where Akito uses elemental powers like wind, water, and fire to fight enemies. Initially, the combat is visually striking and engaging, especially because each elemental attack servers a different purpose, and performing cinematic finishing moves to extract enemy cores is satisfying. However, as the game progresses, the combat can start to feel repetitive due to limited enemy variety and a lack of meaningful upgrades. The animations of these attacks are actually very beautiful and fluid, and while they mildly dampen the repetitiveness of the combat, it is not enough to make you not realize this nature after enough time playing.
The open-world activities in in this game make the exploration of its supernatural Tokyo a somewhat mixed experience. On the positive side, Tokyo itself is incredibly atmospheric and encourages exploration in an immersive environment. Activities like cleansing torii gates or freeing trapped spirits feel thematic and tie into the overarching story, providing a sense of progress as you work to cleanse Tokyo. However, these activities become VERY repetitive over time, and extremely so if you're a completionist. While the initial thrill of exploring a ghost-ridden Tokyo is strong, the game suffers from "open-world fatigue," where many of the side objectives follow the same basic pattern without much variation or depth. After a while, the gameplay loop feels monotonous, as these activities offer little in terms of challenge and begin to feel like just another task on a checklist. Despite the world’s visual allure and engaging atmosphere, the open-world content doesn't evolve enough as the game progresses, leaving a strong yearning for more variety and complexity in the side activities.

World:

In regard to the world, Ghostwire: Tokyo's world-building is a satisfactory feature, offering a hauntingly beautiful and immersive version of Tokyo that blends the familiar with the supernatural. The city's fog-covered streets, neon-lit storefronts, and abandoned urban spaces create an atmosphere that draws you into its mysterious setting. Tokyo feels authentic and even more captivating when discovering rich elements of Japanese folklore and spiritual traditions. I also believe not giving access to the entire map immediately not only makes sense from a narrative perspective, but also from a gameplay perspective, as it does help keep the world fresh by being able to explore new areas as you progress through the story. The verticality of the environment initially makes exploration feel dynamic and rewarding, with hidden areas and lore scattered throughout the city, but quickly aligns itself with the gameplay in the sense of repetition. The world is packed with collectibles and optional tasks, but many lack narrative depth, leading to the feeling that you're just part of another collectathon with cool scenery. Nonetheless, the constant presence of ghostly apparitions, reality-warping phenomena, and the seamless blend of modern Tokyo with ancient spiritual elements makes the world feel unique, even if its shine is notably dimmed by the end of the game.

Music/Sound Design:

I absolutely love good sound design, and this game certainly excels in its music and sound design, using audio to enhance its atmosphere and supernatural setting previously mentioned. The soundtrack seamlessly blends traditional Japanese instruments with modern, electronic beats to create a soundscape that feels both ancient and contemporary. This fusion complements the game’s themes of folklore meeting urban life, heightening the sense of mysticism as you explore.
During combat, the music swells with intensity, adding urgency and tension to battles, while quieter moments are filled with ambient sounds that build suspense. The eerie whispers of spirits, the sudden clang of a torii gate being cleansed, or the unsettling chime of your spiritual radar all serve to immerse you deeper into the game's world.
The sound effects are particularly sharp, with each element contributing to a constantly ominous atmosphere. The careful use of silence in certain moments also plays a key role, making you feel uneasy as you explore abandoned streets or darkened alleyways. Overall, the sound design not only supports the gameplay but also deepens your emotional experience, expertly marking itself as a standout feature.

Visuals:

The visuals in Ghostwire: Tokyo are one of the game’s most remarkable features, contributing greatly to the experience with stunning attention to detail. The game brings Tokyo to life in a hauntingly beautiful way. Every aspect of the environment feels meticulously crafted, from the lifelike representation of Tokyo’s famous Shibuya district to the subtle, unsettling touches like floating spirits and fog-covered alleyways. The use of lighting is especially effective, with the contrast between the city's darkened corners and the vibrant hues of its neon signs amplifying the game's supernatural themes. The enemy design is equally striking, drawing inspiration from Japanese folklore, with terrifying "Visitors" like headless schoolgirls and slender, faceless men that move in unsettling ways. Despite the repetitive combat, the enemy design visually never wavers.
The game seamlessly blends modern urban landscapes with traditional supernatural elements, creating a unique visual style that constantly keeps you on edge.
The particle effects used in combat, especially when casting Ethereal Weaving spells, are also vivid and dynamic, adding a satisfying flair to every encounter. Ghostwire 100% excels in visual storytelling just like with its sound design.

TL;DR:

Ghostwire: Tokyo is an open world action adventure game that excels in creating a visually stunning and atmospheric world enriched by exceptional sound design and unique enemy designs inspired by Japanese folklore. However, the game is hindered by repetitive combat mechanics, monotonous open-world activities, underdeveloped story elements, and a shallow progression system. While it offers moments of intrigue and immersion, these negatives deeply impact the overall experience, leaving you yearning for more depth and variety. Overall, recommending this game has me torn because I do wholeheartedly believe that there are flashes of greatness within this experience, but the various negatives, along with still standing at a $60 price point, certainly leaves me with conflicting emotions. Regardless of whether your interest is at 99% or 50%, I think that best case scenario is grabbing this game on a significant sale...

Get ready to look for collectibles for 30 hours.

Really enjoyed this game. Quite emotional story in the end, loved the dynamic between Akito and KK and thought the combat was fast and fun not to mention how creepy some of the world is especially a certain school!

Thoroughly enjoyed. Good mechanics, good story, but mostly I now reckon I know more about Japan than if I'd visited the place!! Some people have called it repetitive. Yes, but I prefer to call it "zen". Relaxing, collect this, kill those, and I was entertained for 62 hours. And, sure, after twenty or thirty hours it did begin to drag, but it was worth it for all the curious little side missions. And now I am sad it's over. Sorry to see this studio get killed off. I would like to have seen more Ghostwire. This was a thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable game. Four stars.

I think Bethesda should stick to publishing, Prey and now this proves they can still put out 10 out of 10s, so long as they're not the ones making them.

The best part of this game is the map, artwork, detailed interiors/exteriors. The gameplay itself becomes quite repetitive quite fast.

Game is not bad but pretty mediocre and it goes like this:
When you love the following get the game:
- authentic Tokyo esp. Shibuya (at least for sightseeing)
- japanese culture - esp ghosts and spooks
- collecting stuff
- environmental climbing puzzles
- undemanding / relaxed combat

When you like the following DO NOT get this game
- deep, intense combat
- enemy variation
- gameplay-loop variety (you will do the same 100.000 times)
- variety in general
- intense story (game is sppoky on a PG-rated movie level, maybe less)
- good boss fights (these are downright boring, safe the first one)

• Visually - astonishing game. I've specifically started this review with the visuals, because I think this is the strongest side of this game. I can't say that other aspects are bad about it, but all those monster designs and special effects - are just unbelievable. Some level designs are simply mind blowing and are really out of this world.
  
• Gameplay wise - it's a first person shooter but instead of guns - most of the times you wield magic attacks to defeat Visitors (different incarnations of human negative emotions). There also is a level in a cursed school, which feels more like a horror game and a "Spider's Thread" mode which allows you to play a rogue-like mode.
  
• The plot is pretty interesting. It isn't very complex but it gets pretty emotional closer to the end of the game. On the surface - the plot is about saving Tokyo, but deep down below it is actually about losing loved ones and how different people handle this.
  The game also features a lot of Japanese traditional myths and legends but shows them in the modern world which is a pretty rare experience and thanks to those amazing visual - makes the game truly unforgettable.

• The main quest is pretty short. It feels like you could complete them somewhere within 5 hours. But the world is filled with other different activities that extend your gameplay experience. Such as: sidequests, hunting yokai, collecting artifacts and (probably the most tedious, next to collecting artifacts) saving souls. Exploring the city and completing all those activities will take up approximately around 40 hours of your time.
  
• That Gutsy thing in the school level... Gave me the creeps. If you can be scared easily - don't play that school level.
  
• Most of the achievements are pretty easy to get. Some of them require fighting in the certain way, some are story related and some are collectibles related. That being said - there are a few annoying achievements that purely depend on random. And one of it is related to Spider's Thread mode. If you are not ready to spend 10 or more hours playing rogue-like mode just to get that one achievement - don't even bother trying to collect all of them.

Falls behind on performance a tad bit, but makes up for it in the fantastic visuals and map detail of the city. The story is forgettable, but the combat has a good enough rhythm to keep me entertained for my playthrough. Side content wasn't the greatest, but as someone that is trying to learn Japanese, the folklore and additional environments they provided was worth exploring about half of it. Overall I'd give this a 7.5/10

A great open world game filled with all the modern japaneseness someone could want! and some extras as well.