Ghostwire: Tokyo asks players to fight demons in the streets of Tokyo. The game is built for Series X|S, PC and PS5, and it wants to stand out from the pack of open-world action games flooding stores right now. Mostly, it succeeds.
Trailer, via Bethesda Softworks.
The World Built From Ash
The setting is Tokyo after a disaster that brought demons into the city. Players move through familiar streets made strange by supernatural force, and the game leans hard into the idea of a city broken by something beyond human control. That tone carries the whole experience.
Movement is fast and fluid. Characters can move through crowds, over cars and across buildings with a system of dashes and glides that feels quick and natural. The city itself is dense enough that there is always somewhere to look, even when the story pushes forward.
The disaster that brings demons into the city shapes every part of the world around it. Buildings stand cracked and broken. Streets run narrow and choked with rubble. Lantern light spills across quiet alleys at night, giving the city a sense of scale that few games manage to hold together so well.
Fighting Demons
Fights against demons are the center of Ghostwire: Tokyo. Players build up a meter that lets them chain together combos and summon spirits to fight alongside them. The fighting holds up well against other games in the genre, and the demon designs give each encounter a distinct shape and sound.
Boss fights break the rhythm of the usual fights. They ask players to learn new moves and timing, and they reward patience over rushing in. These encounters stand apart from the rest of the game, demanding real attention to the way attacks land and the timing needed to avoid them.
Where It Falls Short
Not everything lands. Some side quests feel thin, and the main story rushes through character development in favor of spectacle. The pacing dips in the middle stretch of the game, where the plot slows while the player walks through empty streets.
Performance on Series X|S and PC holds steady. On PS5, frame drops appear during busy fights, especially when the screen fills with enemies. None of these issues sink the game, but they keep it from reaching greatness.
Spirit of the City
The spirit system is the game’s clearest invention. Players collect spirits found around the city, and each one grants a skill or power. It gives players a reason to explore every corner of the map, and it rewards curiosity over a straight line to the next quest.
That system ties directly into the game’s central idea of a city broken by something beyond human control. Spirits exist throughout the ruined streets, waiting to be found by curious players. Collecting them adds depth to the way the game encourages players to move through its world.
Key Numbers
- Platforms: Series X|S, PC, PS5
- Setting: Tokyo after a disaster brings demons into the city
- Score: 7.7 of 10
What Stays With You
- Boss fights demand real attention to timing
- The spirit system rewards wandering off the beaten path
- Movement through the city feels quick and natural
- Side quests sometimes feel thin
- Performance dips on PS5 during busy fights
The best moments in Ghostwire: Tokyo come when the game trusts its setting. A quiet street at night, lit by lantern light and filled with small details, carries more weight than any boss fight ever could. The demons are fun to fight, but the city itself is the real star.
Ghostwire: Tokyo earns its place as a solid entry in the genre. It does not remake the wheel, but it handles movement, combat and exploration with confidence. The score reflects that balance: 7.7 of 10.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.
