I waited a while before picking this up, I was pretty sold on the game with the style and setting piquing my interests from early footage. I did hold off awhile namely due to the reviews not coming off as the best sorta around the middle ground. I get not every game can be a God of War or Ghost of Tsushima. This didn’t stop me being pleasantly surprised by it once I eventually started playing it.
The game’s biggest accomplishment comes from the open world itself. The district of Shibuya is the main playground for this game. It’s a highlight of an open world, with the game permanently set in darkness and with onset downpours aiding in the atmosphere set in this horror light setting. The streets are littered with abandoned vehicles, bicycles, walls covered in graffiti, Yokai cat venders which are a particular highlight for me. The world isn’t completely devoid of life cats and dogs roam around still which you can in fact communicate with.
The recreation and design of everything is on point. It looks fantastic whether it’s aimless wondering, or using a Tengu to scale the heights of the buildings in search off some pour trapped souls to collect or some hidden Tanuki. Some of the many collectibles dotted around the world to be collected. They also come in audio tapes, relics, jizo statues and case files amongst other things. Most of which I’d argue isn’t worth getting unless you are going for the full platinum trophy run. Collecting the trapped souls is worth while though as it gains you easy XP and with levelling up you gain extra HP and skill points to put into your skill tree.
As you wonder the streets and alley ways of Shibuya which are now deserted from the big bad of the game Hannya. Who decides to fuck everywhere up with a spell, turning everyone into a pile of clothes from where their spirit was forcible ripped from them, all with the aim to amass 240,000 lost souls. Which coincidently is the amount you’ll have to collect for a trophy, each floating pile luckily contains on average 100 souls if not more so there isn’t actually 240k to collect.
The main characters of the game are Akito and the soul KK who gives Akito his powers. These powers are used to fight the visitors of the world. Along with the spider threads add on, there is around 30 or so different enemies to combat. Again their design is tight, they really fit in with the horror aesthetic. If anything they are the most horror part of the game, even though they look great but this leads on to one the flaws of the game. The combat is kinda basic if not uninspired, and this goes for the visitors. They all only have a few different moves so it’s easy to get use to what they are going to do. You only have basic combos, even with upgrade sit doesn’t do much, faster fire rate and slight damage boosts. Dodge and blocking is pretty wank, and clunky. It wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t such an integral part of the game. Considering everything involves shooting wind,water or fire based attacks out of your hands. The only bit that changes it up is you get a bow which one shots most enemies. Honestly i’m surprised their wasn’t a sword or something similar introduced even late into the game. The combat is easy to get to grips with but it is highly repetitive, the same can be said for many open worlds, however the animations and moves them selves with the hand sigils you use give a fluid motion and expression to them at the very least.
Something else that lets the game down is the story, and the way it’s interwoven into the 6 chapters you play though. It’s not that it’s bad, far from it, the main characters are well written and the story itself I found to be pretty decent. I find the while game and it’s themes revolve around the sense of loss, and it’s never focused on that much. This could’ve gone into the boss battles, given them more personality and reason behind it. Even in the side missions which some are slightly stranger in tone and work well as a result, especially when introducing the yokai you hunt. You don’t get to the meat of the story until around chapter 4, and for me chapter 5 as result is one of the strongest chapters. Especially how well they deal with Akito’s back story and his childhood with his sister. Considering KK is the second biggest character again focusing around loss and his family, you find out very little about him and what you do isn’t until at least half way through the game.
I did really enjoy this game, it just fell flat a bit. Even with the open world, you only unlock side quests by cleansing torii gates which only involves clearing the area out of visitors. I think if this game does get a sequel, it just needs to build upon everything here. A better skill tree/upgrades for builds. Maybe even adding another weapon or two for variety. You get talismans that can stun enemies or expose their cores for insta kill. Again though they don’t necessarily do much and can easily be forgotten. I think the story could be fleshed out more, I’d even think making files you find around the district could easily add an easier layer of depth to the game, especially story related. Even a few longer side quests that add to the lore. Add to this with some better enemy physics and greater move sets would make for a real top tier game.
If you can pick this up on sale or second hand, it’s worth a go, it really is. The story with some additional exploration and quest completion. I can’t imagine it’ll take much more then 16 hours to do. It can be easily put down and picked back up again at a whim, and if you choose to go for the platinum it’s basically just find and do everything. Nothing too tasking, maybe a bit tedious but the game does make for cataloguing what you’ve missed or collected very easy. Even using spirit vision that highlights enemies and collectibles in the immediate area. The dual sense does make a relic or jizo statue specific noise again aiding in getting everything. I think one other thing I should mention is that this is a horror based game. Another thing that could be turned up a notch or so, especially considering this comes from the studio that made the evil within games. I mean this could be more a personal preference, but considering it’s based around Japanese folklore and superstition it’s something that could aid in the overall feel of the game. Again a small addition aiding in building on top of the basic foundations already in place.
I’d give this game a very strong 7/10, Positively Tasty. A strong foundation for a new series with an interesting concept taking place in a beautifully dark vision of Tokyo, that can only be strengthened by adding to the existing base.
Released March 25th 2022 on Sony Playstation 5
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