Ghostwire: Tokyo, the cool new Tango Gameworks mission about chatting up spirits and preventing ghastly humanoids, has managed to drag me away from Elden Ring. It’s a pleasant reprieve. Ghostwire is nowhere close to as arduous as FromSoftware’s newest Souls-like. So relatively than roaming an enormous, haunting open world and getting completely decimated by melancholy monstrosities within the Lands Between, I’m stalking the darkish streets and slender alleys of Tokyo, feeling badass, blasting enemies with magic spells that fly forth from my fingertips. There’s nonetheless a problem to be discovered right here although, and whereas I’m not prepared to offer my full ideas on Tango Gameworks’ new supernatural action-RPG simply but, what I can say is that I don’t fear a lot after I do get whopped on. That’s as a result of therapeutic on this recreation guidelines!
Being an open-world recreation, Ghostwire: Tokyo enables you to choose up therapeutic gadgets like dumpling skewers and strawberry desserts littered round Shibuya’s spooky streets. It’s also possible to purchase them from varied outlets operated by yokai referred to as nekomata, two-tailed ghost cats that sleep floating within the air. There’s a restrict to what number of consumables you may carry at one time–three to begin–however that capability may be elevated as much as 10 by upgrading a specific talent within the Tools class. This can be a godsend in fight encounters the place you’re prone to blast by your consumables.
Naturally, the therapeutic gadgets do the apparent factor of replenishing your well being. There are additionally some often known as spectral meals that provide distinctive passive bonuses, comparable to boosting a spell’s energy for a short while. Whether or not regular or spectral, although, all meals and drinks have one essential further impact, the one which makes me love this recreation’s therapeutic system: they enhance your most well being factors. That’s proper, by merely utilizing consumables, you completely enhance the quantity of well being protagonist Akito has total.
I really like this as a result of it does two issues. The primary is tied to how we play video games, or relatively, how video games have conditioned us to play them. What I imply is, when you’re something like me, you in all probability hoard lots of your potions and different therapeutic gadgets, maybe imagining some climactic boss combat through which you may lastly put all of them to good use. If you roll a recreation’s credit, you come to search out out that these gadgets you stockpiled, whereas helpful, went unused for any variety of causes. You’ll be able to principally do this in Ghostwire: Tokyo, too, holding onto consumables indefinitely. However since therapeutic gadgets additionally enhance your well being factors, you’re inspired to snack everytime you don’t have full well being. You not solely get some well being again, however you’ll additionally deepen your total well being pool. Candy!
Secondly, this neat little system additionally incentivizes you to play extra aggressively, and possibly to experiment with different tools and spells too. Sadly, fight in Ghostwire may be boring and tedious. The enemies aren’t that good, charging you head-on more often than not as an alternative of strategizing to drive you to combine issues up. However by providing you with well being and rising the well being bar, therapeutic gadgets encourage you to take that probability charging the slow-but-powerful hearth grenade or utilizing another dangerous tactic. Or when you wanna get all up of their faces, the sport’s plentiful, magical, health-restoring, health-increasing meals gadgets imply you are able to do so with out worrying an excessive amount of about biting the mud. Go forward, snack up and keep alive!
Utilizing therapeutic gadgets isn’t the one approach to enhance your most well being factors, both. Very like different action-RPGs, leveling up in Ghostwire: Tokyo is one other approach to pump up your HP. However folding the idea of accelerating your total well being stat into the precise mechanic of therapeutic your self is a cool concept I’ve not seen earlier than. And it’s one thing I hope extra video games attempt to implement sooner or later. Not all of Ghostwire: Tokyo’s systems work, however the best way it handles therapeutic positively does.
