This article is part of a directory: Ghostwire: Tokyo - Complete Guide
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Ghostwire Tokyo is definitely not a horror game,” director Kenji Kimura tells me. “We are trying to make a game that is spooky and mysterious and maybe the trailers made it feel like a horror thing, but it’s not. That’s not our intention, it’s definitely a spooky thing but it’s almost on the border of horror.”

This blunt statement might catch fans of Tango Gameworks by surprise, a studio founded by Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami that cut its teeth on The Evil Within - a game that was very clear about being a direct homage to survival horror classics that helped define the genre decades ago. But with Ghostwire: Tokyo, the studio hopes to break new ground and escape from an archetype it has long been cast into. Ahead of the game’s launch next month, I caught up with studio founder Shinji Mikami and game director Kenji Kimura to talk about the history of Tango, how Ghostwire came about, and what they hope to achieve with this spooky new outing.

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It’s been over ten years since the foundation of Tango Gameworks, with Shinji Mikami piecing the studio together after a continued dissatisfaction with Capcom, hoping to create a space that prioritised young talent while steering the survival horror genre in a direction that it had long lost sight of. “I started a company because I felt we needed to give young talent a chance,” Mikami says. “As head of the studio, it was pretty natural for the company to start by making the sort of game I was known for. So we created The Evil Within, its sequel, and a bunch of DLC for that, which I’d describe as phase one of the company.”

Ghostwire Tokyo

The Evil Within’s success allowed Tango to continue fostering young creative talent from across the industry, laying the foundation for Ghostwire: Tokyo - a project which originally stemmed from Ikumi Nakamura and allowed the studio to begin a natural shift away from its horror origins. Speaking to Mikami, I feel he recognises the legacy that people attach to his name as the man behind Resident Evil, Dino Crisis, and so many other classics. A deserved reputation, but one he’d rather use to prop up emerging creators instead of continually pushing his own projects. It’s refreshing, and he’s eager for others to do the same. “I can’t speak for other CEOs, because I don’t want to make everyone an enemy, but at Tango we want to give young creators and talent a chance to realise their vision, and there probably aren’t that many other companies out there who are willing to take as big a risk as we’re willing to take.”

Ghostwire: Tokyo likely stemmed from this approach, a new IP that doesn’t seem attached to any specific influence. It is heavily inspired by Japanese folklore, but pulls that history into a modern setting with so many distinct ideas. Perhaps this is why Tango is so keen to throw away the moniker of survival horror, like it trivialises what the game is trying to achieve.

“While walking through the city there are going to be some strange or odd-looking things that are peppered throughout,” Kimura says. “There might be a headless character who comes and attacks you, or they might even be hidden in the shadows or in alleyways, so it’s good you felt from the trailer that the area was wide, but we have tried to condense all the fun and cool things across Tokyo into a playable size. It’s not going to be considered that huge, it’s more like a traditional Japanese action adventure game using a sandbox style.”

Ghostwire Tokyo

So it isn’t an open world action experience in the same vein of Horizon Forbidden West or Dying Light 2, but a reasonable chunk of Tokyo’s metropolis that has been ripped off human life, now populated with spooky spirits and occult happenings that the player will have to contend with. In Kimura’s own words, it's an action game, but far from a traditional one.

“Our side missions are short stories based on Japanese urban legends and Yokai which you can enjoy to take a break from the main storyline,” Kimura explains. “There’s probably a little less than 40 of those [in the game] that people in Japan are going to feel a little bit familiar with because some of them are based on Japanese religion for example. I grew up hearing stories about not taking the train by yourself at night, so in the game there’s a mission where you take the train, nobody else is on it, and it kind of takes you to a completely other world.”

Ghostwire Tokyo Official Screenshot From PSN With A Corridor On Fire
Ghostwire Tokyo Official Screenshot From PSN With A Corridor On Fire

Japanese folklore has been the subject of countless games in the past - most recently in Team Ninja’s Nioh 2 - but there’s something special about seeing these unusual creatures and legends roaming the photorealistic streets of Tokyo. It’s something new, but also nostalgic for the creators who grew up being told these stories that they can now use to spook others. “It was really interesting for me because it was about making the paranormal live and coexist right next to the normal,” Kimura tells me. “When making the game I’d think about walking past an alley in the middle of Shibuya with lights flickering in the dark, and you normally wouldn’t go in there because it’s kinda scary. In the game you can do that, it allows you to scratch that itch in regard to that curiosity that you normally feel. It sparked a lot of imaginations.”

Japan’s strong connection to nature across its history will be shown through Yokai throughout Ghostwire, implementing nifty pieces of history both fictional and real into quests that transplant many of them out of the countryside for the very first time. In a medium where horror is often defined by predictable jumpscares and far too many zombies, Ghostwire feels like a game that isn’t afraid to buck some trends, and that’s something we’ve sorely needed.

Ghostwire Tokyo

Despite Tango being keen to distance Ghostwire: Tokyo from the traditional definition of a survival horror game, it still carries many of the hallmarks, and I couldn’t help but ask Mikami and company why they believe players are continually drawn to such things that instil fear while offering an obvious boundary of safety. “People want to feel strong sensations that they don’t feel daily, and that isn’t just for games,” Mikami says. “For example, if you’re using lots of your savings to travel overseas, not all of these sensations are going to feel good, but they’re going to be strong and emotion-spiking, sparking sensations.”

While Mikami and Kimura seemed eager to keep discussion away from the past as they looked to the future, with the constant barrage of remasters and remakes we’re often subjected to, I had to ask them which of their past projects they’d love to revisit if ever given the chance. “For me it would have to be God Hand or Vanquish,” Mikami tells me. “It isn’t my title, but I’d also love to see a sequel to Killer 7, maybe we should ask Suda51?”

Ghostwire: Tokyo is coming to PS5 and PC on March 25.

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