| Ghostwire: Tokyo | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Tango Gameworks |
| Publisher(s) | Bethesda Softworks |
| Director(s) | Kenji Kimura |
| Producer(s) |
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| Designer(s) | Suguru Murakoshi |
| Programmer(s) | Yuji Nakayama |
| Writer(s) |
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| Composer(s) | Masatoshi Yanagi |
| Engine | Unreal Engine 4[1] |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release |
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| Genre(s) | Action-adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Ghostwire: Tokyo[a] is a 2022 action-adventure game developed by Tango Gameworks and published by Bethesda Softworks. The game is directed by Kenji Kimura, who also co-wrote the narrative with Syoji Ishimine and Seiji Ebihara. The story is set in a fictionalized interpretation of Tokyo, Japan that has been overrun by supernatural entities unleashed on the city by an occultist. The player character, a boy named Akito who was fatally injured in a car crash, is found and possessed by a spirit who imbues him with several abilities, allowing him to fight against the specters, investigate the disappearances of Tokyo's population, and save his family.
The game is played from a first-person perspective, with the player primarily navigating through a set of linear, narrative-driven environments around Tokyo in a mission-based structure. The player has access to several elemental abilities as a result of Akito's spiritual possession, granting him combat-based skills that are able to be utilized offensively against the specter-based standard enemies and larger boss encounters, as well as melee attacks and a physical parry that are likewise able to be upgraded in a skill tree by generating enough experience from combat. The game additionally boasts several side-missions off the main story path that reward the player with various collectibles and items that can augment Akito's abilities while providing further context on the game's world and characters.
The game was announced during Bethesda's E3 2019 press conference by its executive producer Shinji Mikami and Ikumi Nakamura, who originally served as the game's creative director before departing Tango Gameworks that September, by which point Kimura took over said role. The game's action combat, a departure from the survival horror gameplay of the studio's prior The Evil Within series, was designed by Shinichirō Hara, drawing primary inspiration from martial arts disciplines and the ritualistic mantras of Kuji-kiri.
Ghostwire: Tokyo was released on March 25, 2022 for Windows and PlayStation 5, where it remained a timed console-exclusive for one year. A version of the game for Xbox Series X/S was later released on April 12, 2023 alongside the "Spider's Thread" content update, which introduced new enemy types, unlockable skills, side-missions, story cinematics and areas within Tokyo to explore. The game received favorable reviews upon launch, with praise directed towards the game design, presentation and narrative, while the lack of technical polish, limited depth of combat and repetitive game content drew divisive reactions.
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