It may have taken me longer than I anticipated, both to finish this game and post on here, but I am happy to say that I finally achieved the platinum trophy in Ghostwire Tokyo. So why not start as I mean to go on and talk to you all about the noble tradition of trophy hunting… and I’ll throw in some opinions on the game while I’m at it.
My initial thoughts after the first couple of hours in the game were overwhelmingly positive, I must say. While there was clearly a long way to go on my journey, I was immediately dropped into a fascinating world in the aftermath of what appeared to be some sort of apocalyptic event – the streets where empty as people had simply vanished into the ether and a dense fog had enveloped the city. This is essentially all the set up you need before you are suddenly thrown into the shoes of Akito and KK, a somewhat dynamic duo comprised of a young man looking for his sister and a ghost-hunting spirit trying to fix whatever is happening to Tokyo. Now of course I am not going to go into any story beats here because that’s not what this article is about, but I do have to mention that unfortunately in my pursuit of the Platinum trophy the story does begin to fall by the wayside. Whether that’s because I insisted on trying to clear as much of the map as possible as I went or if that’s just the way it falls into place is beyond me – but it really does feel at times like they shot themselves in the foot by making this game an open world.
What did stick with me though, is the gameplay. While it is not particularly ground-breaking or complex, it has a way about it that makes everything feel immensely satisfying – from the ability to glide across buildings to the hand movements accompanying every movement it all just clicks.
One of the main aspects of the combat is exposing the cores of the spectral entities you’re fighting (similar to a posture system, do enough damage and they enter a vulnerable state) when you do this the rumble in the Dual-sense combined with Akito visibly straining on screen really does add a whole new level. And the Dual-sense in general is utilised rather well, raindrops abound in this game trust me, but unfortunately when it comes to the triggers I got the feeling that they were under a little too much strain. This might be specific to my controllers, but I feel like it’s something you should definitely keep an eye on throughout your playthrough. Before I get into the trophies though I really do want to mention just how much I love the world that Tango Gameworks have made here. Everything about it adds to the atmosphere of tension and unease, with cars strewn about the streets and very few sounds outside of you and the various animals dotted around, you really do feel like you’re in a place where moments ago there were 1000’s of people. Couple this with the times where the main villain Hannya decides to preach his own personal brand of insanity across the empty space around you and you really do have a setting that is worthy of the title. Even if the rest of it doesn’t quite get there.
So now we come to the trophies and this is unfortunately where things start to fall apart for me. The list for Ghostwire isn’t the best by any metric as you will find out soon, but there are definitely parts of it that are enjoyable and worthwhile so let’s start there.
As you would expect, there are story-based trophies for finishing each chapter, as well as the usual assortment of level and skill related trophies – you will need to unlock all the skills and this does rely on one of the collectible types which is unfortunate, but we’ll get to that. There’s also a bunch of miscellaneous ones for spending a boatload of money, using photo mode for the first time and petting your first animal (of many, believe me) as well as a rather entertaining one for staring at the moon for 30 seconds… yes, that’s a trophy!
Oh and one of the trophies actually appears to be a rather funny reference to those old piracy ads (you know the “You Wouldn’t Steal A so-and-so” ones), protect 3 of the containment cubes in one go and you’ll be awarded the “You Wouldn’t Steal a Spirit” trophy!
The majority of the remaining list can be divided between 2 camps – combat and collectibles… you can probably guess which one I prefer. For the combat trophies you’ll be required to complete some rather specific actions or combinations that all feel really satisfying to pull off and therefore make these the most fun trophies on the list by a country mile! Using each of the talismans to their full effect or head-shotting an enemy from over 40m away add that extra little bit of challenge that helps keep things interesting. By far the most satisfying trophy of the lot thought is the “One Fell Swoop” trophy for destroying the core of 5 enemies in one go – literally the most badass moment of my entire playthrough!
One the opposite end of the scale though we have the collectibles… so many collectibles! Honestly, of my 45 hours of playtime I want to say at least half of it was spent running around the map looking for them. Between useful items like the statues and Magatama (special upgrade materials) and the less-than-useful things like the voice notes, music tracks or outfits, there are roughly 520 different items that need collecting! And that isn’t even counting all of the spirits that you need to collect for not one but two trophies! Believe me when I tell you that these things are EVERYWHERE! Now I will admit it didn’t take too much grinding at the end of the game – for one there are items that make it easier – but it has to be one of the most tedious collect-a-thons that I have every taken part in (which says a lot). The devs could have easily halved the amount and it would have made no difference to the game except I would’ve enjoyed the endgame that little bit more.
Sure they aren’t useless, they provide money and XP, but the amounts just don’t stack up enough when compared to everything else in the game –
the relics give you way more money and you get XP from basically everything you do. Seriously if anyone from Tango Gameworks accidentally stumbles across this, I love your games but please cool it with this stuff!
The only trophy left that is worse than all of this is the wonderful little RNG treasure that they snuck in there – the aptly titled “Don’t Worry About It”. I actually set aside some time one afternoon and said to myself “I’m not stopping until I have unlocked this thing”. And I didn’t. I sat there reloading a save after every attempt, shaking a little wooden box, praying for the right blessing then hating myself when it wasn’t… for a little over an hour before it finally popped. Yet for some people it might take a mere 30 seconds. Seriously, how are these trophies still a thing? So I think it’s clear from the rest of the video that my opinions on Ghostwire Tokyo are mixed. One the one hand, it is a game that I found thoroughly enjoyable, with some seriously fun gameplay that makes you feel like some badass sorcerer akin to a certain Marvel hero. While on the other is a platinum that kind of soured the experience through an abundance of pointless collectibles that in 2022 really shouldn’t be a thing anymore. Still, I am going to recommend this game. Because while it is flawed and its story does boy under the weight of its open world, it is still fun to play and – provided you’re pretty thorough in your main playthrough – the post-game grind really isn’t bad enough to overshadow all of the good.
(Written By Pete.F)
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