Ghost Line: Tokyo Review: Imprinting and Ghosting Are Not Interesting, Is Ghost Stories Interesting

In March of this year, Tango Games, which was founded by Shinji Sansugi, is now 12 years old. This studio has so far released two games, "Possession of Evil Spirits," a mobile game, and then the upcoming "Ghost Line: Tokyo.".

Since its debut, the official promotion of this work has been very restrained, with only one official broadcast per year for three consecutive years: a concept trailer in 2019, and a live trailer in 2020 and 2021 each. It wasn't until the eve of its release that there was more promotion for this game.

Especially the 20 year live trailer, which showed us for the first time the true gameplay of the game: the mysterious man with a left hand smartwatch and a right hand prayer bead uses ancient spells to drive away the classic Japanese ghosts that have been modernized on the streets of modern Tokyo, and the fashion value is directly increased.

But in reality, after connecting the entire game, my mood was quite complicated. It has parts that satisfy me quite well, while some parts disappoint me. Let me talk in detail below.

*This review is a media pre evaluation based on the PS5 version. The descriptions and viewpoints included in the review only represent the subjective opinions of the reviewer, and the actual game experience varies from person to person

**The localized Chinese language mentioned in this article may not be the final version, and the official promise is to optimize
in the update on March 22nd

When the streets of Shibuya are empty

The adventure of Ghost Line: Tokyo begins in the empty city of Shibuya in Tokyo. In the game, 99% of people in Shibuya, Tokyo disappear under the influence of a mysterious mist. When the player was able to control the protagonist "Iyuyoshi", the streets were empty, with only scattered clothes left.

At first glance, the streets of Shibuya in the game appear as usual: huge outdoor advertisements at intersections are still playing, recordings of Bai Qingge's and convenience stores soliciting customers are still circulating, and the escalators in the mall are also operating normally. However, due to the lack of noisy voices, being in it can create an indescribable sense of discord.

The once bustling intersection is now in chaos

If you pay close attention to the scattered clothes on the ground, you will find many things, which may be work notes of a social animal, medical insurance cards of a young mother, or game hall activity flyers distributed by working college students. All of this tells us that there were originally living people standing here.

may also be a phone that is sending WeChat messages

The experience accumulated by the development team in the Evil Spirit Possession series has also been applied to this work. You will encounter some twisted and eerie visual wonders in the game, such as the disordered and upside down space, or scenes with constantly changing structures, all of which have a very strong visual impact. Unfortunately, the number of these visual wonders is not too many.

With the support of PS5 hardware, the game graphics I experienced performed quite well. The quality mode has a higher resolution and ray tracing is enabled, resulting in better material details and lighting effects; The performance mode does not enable ray tracing and has slightly poorer detail performance, but the highest frame rate reaches 60 FPS; In addition, there are four modes to choose from: high frame rate quality/high frame rate performance, and a total of four modes with VSync enabled, which can sacrifice graphics quality for higher frame rates.

From my experience, the two high frame rate modes that do not enable VSync have severe screen tearing, so it is not recommended to choose them; The two high frame rate modes that enable VSync have a certain decrease in image quality, but personally, the increase in frame rate is not significant; The quality mode has a good effect, but when it comes to playing, the decrease in image quality in performance mode is not very significant. On the contrary, the 60 FPS experience has significantly improved.

Performance Mode

Quality Mode

Atmosphere shaping is the strength of this game, and the DualSense controller of the PS5 is indispensable. Tactile feedback can reflect the differences in different environments through vibration, with the most obvious feeling being the rain hitting the hand, and the raindrops being felt clearly one by one.

The sealing and exorcism section in the game also attempts to enhance the sense of immersion through controller operation, requiring players to use a touchpad or joystick to draw a designated trajectory to purify evil spirits. Perhaps due to poor sensitivity adjustment, the experience of using the touchpad in this section is not satisfactory, or is it easier to complete using a joystick.

Of course, you can also entrust KK to help you complete it

I personally think the best application is the controller speaker. The mysterious character KK, who is possessed within the protagonist Xiaoren's body, occasionally engages in conversations with Xiaoren during his adventure. At this time, KK's voice is simultaneously transmitted through the TV and controller. When my attention is focused on the TV, the sound coming from the controller seems to really come from within me, and the listening experience is very special. However, when playing with headphones, you won't be able to experience this.

Compared to creating a rich atmosphere, the main storyline of this work appears relatively thin. At the beginning of the story, the protagonist Xiaoren, who was involved in a car accident, was possessed by KK and survived. He also gained the magical ability to shoot spells from his hands. Xiaoren discovered that the initiator of the Shibuya incident had kidnapped his sister, so he embarked on a journey with KK to drive away ghosts and save Shibuya's wandering souls.

Mysterious villain wearing a Prajnaparamita mask

Although the main storyline is relatively complete and the motives of the villain are clearly explained, the important characters, including the younger sister, are not portrayed enough. The way of explanation is to present the story in a straightforward manner at the end, which may seem rough. In addition, there are also many questions that have not been answered until the game is completed. It is unknown whether it is necessary to clear all the branches and collections in order to know.

I tied my fingerprints to ward off evil spirits and break through demons

I can completely accept that the main storyline of the game is average, as there were not particularly high expectations originally. By comparison, the battles in Ghost Line: Tokyo really disappointed me.

The gameplay of this game is essentially first person shooting. The protagonist can use different spells to shoot enemies, exposing their inner "spiritual core" (to create an executable state), and then use spiritual power lines or bare hands to remove and destroy the spiritual core (execute).

enters execution status and then executes

Spells are called "ethereal combat skills" and have three attributes: wind, water, and fire. It is said to be "attributes", but in fact, this game does not have designs such as attribute suppression or element chain. The three spells only correspond to three forms: continuous shooting, shotgun shooting, and large-scale burst.

Releasing spells requires the consumption of "spiritual power", and its manifestation is not "mana value", but ammunition. So you can completely understand these three spells as pistols, shotguns, and rocket launchers in general shooting games.

, this is obviously ammunition

In addition to ethereal combat skills, the protagonist can also use the Pok é mon Bow and Yuzha to engage in battles. Breaking the Magic Bow has a long range and high damage, equivalent to a sniper rifle with a noticeable trajectory curve; Yuzha is a throwing consumable similar to a grenade. Some can temporarily control enemies within range, while others can directly expose their spiritual cores.

can directly put weaker enemies into a state of execution, known as the "exposed nuclear Zha"

Don't be fooled by the analogies I've made with common shooting game elements above, in fact, Ghost Line: Tokyo is not a skin swapping of a common shooting game. The key lies in the various gameplay features designed around "ethereal combat skills".

Firstly, aerial combat skills can be used to accumulate energy. After charging, the spell will be strengthened and produce additional effects, such as the Wind Seal charging which can consume only a little spiritual power to shoot multiple attacks, and the Fire Seal charging which can greatly increase the explosion range. In addition, charging attacks can also make it easier for enemies to expose their spiritual cores or fall to the ground, making it easier to enter a state of execution. However, direct attacks often have no benefits.

looks good on the dynamic diagram, but in reality, the energy accumulation is quite slow

Secondly, the protagonist feels more bulky when moving than a sergeant wearing a 300kg armored suit, and there are no flexible movement methods such as dodging or sliding shovels in combat. Many combat scenes also do not have cover, and the importance of "movement" in this combat gameplay is reduced to the most basic level: if the enemy is too close, I will take two steps back, and if the enemy is too far, I will get closer.

In addition, the protagonist can reduce some damage through blocking, trigger a perfect block, and still be unharmed or rebound from enemy long-range attacks. Most enemies in the game have a relatively low attack frequency, and the forward shake is also quite obvious, making it relatively easy to grasp the timing of perfect blocking.

Perfect Block

Since there are many benefits to charging, of course I charge every bullet; Since it doesn't make much sense for the character to move, I might as well not move. Anyway, I can block enemy attacks. So, this game presents a slow paced, stand up based, and almost turn based combat gameplay.

I never imagined that shooting games could be made in this form. I may spend more than half of my time accumulating energy during combat, and my movements may not be completely lost, but it does mean taking two steps back and slightly widening the distance from the enemy, allowing me to accumulate more energy and launch an attack before having to press the block button.

It should be noted that the above description is mainly aimed at miscellaneous warfare in the game, and the role of movement in boss warfare will be greater. Some bosses have relatively more difficult skills to block, requiring movement and jumping to avoid. However, the issue of energy storage remains. In order to achieve better attack effectiveness, when I play bosses, I still tend to accumulate full energy before attacking, and the pace of the battle is still slow.

In June 2020, the official revealed to the media that the gameplay system of this game emphasizes action, and the combat system is inspired by the "Nine Character Protection Technique", which is a "combo base" gameplay. The so-called "combo base" can be understood as based on combo or combination techniques. How to create specific gameplay by combining hand binding with combo/combination techniques? This is the biggest reason why I was so excited about this work at the beginning.

was reported by Japanese media Game's talk at that time

But in actual games, I haven't found any elements related to combos or combination skills. There is no combination design between different spells, and there is no additional effect bonus for continuous attacks of the same spell. If it refers to a combination of using the Imperial Seal to control the enemy and then using spells to attack at this level, it is too far fetched.

Perhaps the original combo/combo design was abandoned for various reasons, or perhaps there was a deviation in the report during the information disclosure. In short, the combat gameplay of Ghost Line: Tokyo is now like this: only the handsome hand movements of the second player are left, which is not fun enough to play.

In addition, there are not many types of enemies in the game, and there are many derivative variants of the same type of enemies. Playing battles is inevitably boring.

Personally verify every urban legend

So rather than fighting, I actually prefer to wander around the streets of Shibuya.

The exploratory area in the game is designed based on the real-life Tokyo Shibuya, and many real-life landmarks have also appeared in the game, such as Tokyo's transportation hub Shibuya Station, the comprehensive shopping mall Shibuya Kagerie (called Shibuya Kagerie in the game), and Dozen Saka (called Yozen Saka in the game).

Unfortunately, the map of this game is not a one-to-one replica of Shibuya. It is impossible to use this game as a Shibuya tourism simulator, but it is still possible to simply appreciate the charm.

Ghost Line: Tokyo has a large map for free exploration, but in reality, many areas require black screens or loading to access, such as some indoor or underground scenes, which are not fully open in design. The first third of the game's process is almost completely linear, as many areas are set to be shrouded in harmful fog. Players can only push the main storyline first, dispel the fog, and unlock more accessible areas.

The way to dispel the fog is to purify the bird dwellings of various shrines and shrines in Shibuya. Open world game players must be familiar with it, which is called "counting and climbing towers to create maps".

Purifying Bird Habitat

The fun of climbing towers and creating maps in this work mainly lies in exploring three-dimensional terrain with significant height differences. Some bird dwellings in the game are located on the rooftops of buildings, while others are at the bottom of construction sites. Combined with the protagonist's ability to use spiritual power to climb up the rooftops or glide down from high places, exploring upwards and downwards is often much more interesting than walking on flat ground.

Use spiritual power cables to pull Tengu up to the roof with one click

For example, the large comprehensive shopping mall "Shibuya Kagerie" mentioned earlier has high floors, complex structures, and many floating platforms. One of the birds is located in it, which is quite enjoyable to explore.

Unfortunately, Shibuya Kagerie was able to experience it in the early stages of the game's main storyline, but the location of the Bird's Nest encountered in the middle and later stages can no longer match in terms of scale and design. Therefore, the exploration of Bird's Nest in the middle and later stages appears dull in comparison.

After purifying the Bird's Nest, as the map is unlocked, stores, branch lines, and other content in the area will also appear. Although there may not be 100000 question marks to clear, there are indeed many things for players to do on the open map.

icons may seem like many, but in fact, most of them are just facilities such as shops and phone booths

For example, activities designed around folk legends, such as capturing the windlass and the river boy (tracking/sneaking), rescuing the zodiac boy (indoor exploration), and guarding the wooden spirit (guarding points and clearing monsters), are quite interesting for the first time. However, since the gameplay itself does not change, trying it twice and repeating it becomes boring.

Capturing a piece of wooden wool is one of the more interesting activities, similar to the Feather Chasing/Book Page challenge in the Assassin's Creed series, which is a parkour jumping music challenge. Each challenge is a new route that is not too boring.

If you want to learn about urban legends or folk stories, it is recommended to directly do side quests. The side quests in the game are all adaptations or original legendary stories. Although the gameplay is not outstanding, the stories themselves are quite interesting.

Experience Urban Legends firsthand

And personally, I prefer to collect survey data from KK. This is one of the collection items in the game, which records various supernatural events that KK has investigated. Reading it feels like a mini supernatural novel.

Survey data for KK

In addition, there are a large number of spirit bodies scattered throughout the map that players need to collect. These spiritual bodies are the souls of those who disappeared in the plot. We need to use "form generation" to absorb them and deliver them to KK's companions through a "soul teleportation device" disguised as a public phone, in order to resurrect these souls outside the Shibuya barrier.

Collect spiritual bodies

The process of collecting spiritual bodies through running pictures is often tedious, mainly because there are too few places like Kagerie Shibuya, and most of them are uniformly multi story residential buildings or standalone buildings with little unique scenery to enjoy.

Not every place has unique scenery

These open world activities are almost all linked to the character's growth system. Collecting spiritual bodies is the main source of experience for game characters, and learning skills relies on it; Monster related activities will reward the prop "Gouyu" used to unlock higher-level skills; Worshiping the Ksitigarbha statue can increase the maximum spiritual power of aerial combat skills.

It cannot be said that this is a mandatory task for players to complete, but these activity rewards are so important that they do give me a feeling of having to do it even though I don't want to.

summary

After reviewing the game, I realized that there were quite a few areas where I was not satisfied with Ghost Line: Tokyo. For example, the shuttle skills were not smooth enough to use, the stealth design was too rough and lacked fun to play, and the Chinese subtitles were not translated according to the original Japanese text. Not to mention that my biggest expectation for this game has been dashed - the game's combat gameplay is not as excellent as I expected.

But on the other hand, my disappointment is based on high expectations. To be fair, from the perspective of stylization and uniqueness, this work is indeed commendable in certain specific aspects.

Actually, after reviewing, I was also relieved. Although I didn't have a satisfying experience of getting married and fighting ghosts, I could control Xiaoren to eat Japanese street snacks such as Strawberry Tofu and Seabream Braised, while strolling on the rooftops of Shibuya houses, experiencing various Japanese folk stories and urban legends firsthand. This is also another kind of fun.