On a rainy night, the streets of Shibuya, the rain on the ground reflects the brilliant neon, but the streets are empty.
You stand there, letting the rain pass before your eyes, and in the slits of the steel jungle you see those slender ghosts.
But the Charm Ray can't make you waver, you are fully armed, wrapped in a dark protective suit, even in this cold rain, you can still move freely, the compact attack bag behind you, hidden in spells, prayer beads, compound bows, and more exorcism weapons.
The aether flows through your fingertips, you cast your hands, you steer the wind, you prepare to strike—
Don't fear the unknown, Attack it.
The first time I saw the CG promo for Ghost Line: Tokyo in 2019, and hearing this Japanese accent of "Don't be afraid of the unknown, go to the unknown", I fell into a state of intracranial orgasm, thinking that such a sexy game can only be in the sky.
As a result, when the game was unlocked 3 days in advance (I bought the PS5 Deluxe Edition for me), I found that such a sexy game was indeed "only in the sky", because Tango Studios itself fucking did not make it.
A game, in the end in the gameplay design part of the brain, so that such a good art setting can not save its -
It's like eating at a restaurant with an extremely avant-garde decoration and the result is Chef Kong's old sauerkraut beef noodles.
1
First of all, we need to be clear - Ghost Line: Tokyo is unsurprisingly rotten, so I'm not writing this thing to recommend you to buy, I'm telling you to run away.
In fact, when I was writing, I was also very entangled, and I was eager to fight with myself, because I really liked the scene and concept design of the game, so much so that even if I just walked around in it, or even in a daze on the streets of Shibuya in this game, it could make me feel comfortable.
However, I am still willing to believe that this experience belongs to only a few people, and normal people should roll their eyes when they play this game, and then we will elaborate.
As soon as the game opens, the protagonist Xiaoren is killed by the car and possessed by the ghost of an emo middle-aged uncle KK, at this time Shibuya has been shrouded in fog, the residents have disappeared, and the villain BOSS has kidnapped the protagonist's sister, and since then Xiaoren has transformed into an undead sister to hunt down and kill the cool riddler Man Banruo in Shibuya.
▲ You may not believe it when you say it, but This outfit of Praruo is the driving force behind me playing this game
The concept of ghost possession was not reflected in the 2019 CG, nor was it explicitly mentioned in the 2020 gameplay demo, which made me even more suspicious that this was added to the game in the middle of development.
In the actual game, the function of KK is an arrogant big brother who guides you and presses you at any time, from "buy me a pack of cigarettes", "don't like to buy things for people" to "sense the enemy", constantly guiding you, constantly giving you directions, constantly nagging you, afraid that players do not know what to do next, just like many canned open world game protagonists now meaninglessly talk to themselves.
On the other hand, our protagonist Xiaoren has been in a state of confusion in the early stages, taking two steps to make the sounds of who am I, where am I my sister and who the are you, who the are you, who the am I, with the earthy performance of the black screen broadcast in the early stage of the game really pushes people's blood pressure to take off.
▲ Of course, after playing to the back of the Xiaoren is still supported
To know that "Ghost Line: Tokyo" combines Shinto elements and urban weird themes, the sense of violation of strange phenomena, the sense of fear brought to people, and the loneliness of single action, which is almost the most important experience in these two concepts, and the result is that the game is put aside throughout the performance of brain-wandering, blinding the immersion advantage of the first-person perspective.
In addition, although the voice of Uncle KK voiced by Kazuhiko Inoue is very magnetic, if you make the gender of kk optional, add an arrogant sister, and change the voice actor to a mature voice like Atsuko Tanaka, it will definitely complete the kill, and I will directly give Tango a thumbs up.
▲ Isn't it cooler to imagine that your spirit behind your back is Beyonita?
Originally, my expectation for "Ghost Line: Tokyo" should be a box court exploration horror action game, and now the horror part has been sent, and the development team has repeatedly emphasized in the interview that this game is not a horror game, what about the box court exploration part?
Sorry, but I didn't do it well, because Ghost Line: Tokyo is actually a "Tokyo Ghost Assassin's Creed" open world game, the structure of the open world is wafting from the inside out with a canned smell, and your exploration process is to find a way to move to the tall building to open the torii gate (bird's eye point), unlock an area, mark you with various to-do items on the map, and then repeat the cycle.
▲ Every time you open it, you can make a big map go black in front of your eyes
Let's put aside for a moment the stupidity of the open world exploration design, calm the anger in my heart, and simply talk about the level of shibuya construction that I think is very good.
Although, this Shibuya has no living person except you; although there are not many interactive items, there are also air walls in many places; although Shibuya in the game is also a big place, the scene construction that the player can go to is still very layered in detail, especially using the feeling of the tengu to shuttle and jump between buildings, which is very well done.
The visual of "Ghost Line: Tokyo" cleverly grasps the balance between presenting "modern city" and "weird", Tokyo street scene is very stunning when opening the light chase, the wet environment and the water everywhere reflect neon lights on the dark and windy night of the moon, which shows a sense of light and strangeness, many of the high-rise buildings in the bustling commercial street can be explored, the exploration stimulation of vertical space is indeed done, and the low buildings in the residential area, the convenience stores and telephone booths on the corner, and the posters in the public facilities can give you the right atmosphere of the city.
This sense of authenticity is especially evident in side quests, which often require you to enter various residential buildings, walk through Japanese-style houses or dirty bedrooms where garbage is hoarded, look for evil spirits hiding in them, and the rooms you can enter are carefully designed to experience being lost in the concrete jungle, even if it is just a walking simulator.
On top of this, urban legends and strange monsters are added, and the collision of "modern" and "strange monsters" makes players more curious and more willing to explore these branches based on urban legends - compared to the main line, the side parts of the game are much more interesting.
When the production team shows ghosts, monsters, spatial anomalies and other occasions, it boldly uses a large number of characters and Glitch, that is, the art of failure, although some players have a sense of "cyber" vision, but in my opinion, it still presents the strange beauty of "modern zhiwei story", which is very good.
But such a good art stalled with mentally retarded and boring battles.
2
I forgot when everyone began to ridicule "Ghost Line: Tokyo" as "Japan Hayashi Masaying" and "Saibol Masaying", probably the first time it released a real machine demo? At first, I thought it was quite appropriate, after all, you see this protagonist switching technique is like performing a flower hand:
▲ Ignoring the unreasonable light pollution and only looking at the shape of his hand, is it a bit of the meaning of "Zombie Road Chief"?
But after a few hours of playing, you will find that you call it "Japanese Hayashi Masaying" is also too insulting to the long way of saying that.
You can open a Lin Zhengying movie at will and see him pulling out all kinds of fancy props like a Doraemon to torture the zombies with their mouths closed. In contrast, this "Japanese Lin Zhengying" is simply a god's head grimace, a total of three spells, four spells, and a hand that feels like Parkinson's bow, and you are not Japanese Lin Zhengying, you are a Japanese literary talent, the kind that can't be found by zombies.
▲ I don't know who Wencai is to make up for "Mr. New Zombie"
▲ It looks like Bethesda's weapon wheel, but the padding is so weak that people roll their eyes
In an interview before the game's release, game director Kenji Kimura said that the inspiration for the shutsu style of combat came from the nine-character mantra seal, that is, the Taoist mantra of "pro, bing, dou, er, all, array, column, in, and front", which was introduced to Japan and combined with Buddhist mudras to become a "nine-character talisman" with Japanese religious characteristics, and after being quoted by various animations and games, it became a cultural symbol.
With such a distinctive and historical intention to make a combat system, I want to break the brain shell and can't understand how I can do it so boring.
You treat "Ghost Line: Tokyo" as an FPS, it only has 4 weapons to die, the wind attribute is a pistol, the water attribute is a shotgun, the fire attribute is a bazooka, and they can only get "shoot faster", "shoot more" and "explode a little larger" with skill points.
▲ My ideal battle
▲ Actual battles
To what extent has this kind of brainless design reached, even the prototype "Nine Character Talisman" has the difference between the "Cutting Paper Nine Character Talisman" and the "Early Nine Character Talisman", mainly reflected in the complexity of the seal, I wondered, a ready-made prototype that can be made into a play method, these people are not even bothered to copy.
▲ The cut paper nine-character talisman is characterized by the corresponding handprint, and the ninjutsu seal in Naruto is based on this
In addition, the official press release of 20 years clearly mentioned that Shinichiro Hara, who was the animation director of the 2016 version of "Doom", specially designed a duel technique like DoomSlayer for the game according to the gameplay characteristics of this game, and the combat system has "combo elements", at that time, I immediately got excited when I saw these four words, the elements were stacked, Combo development, canceled the route, with spell seals, it is no problem to play it as an action game!
As a result, first of all, this "DoomSlayer-like final skill", embodied in the game, is to attack the weakness of the monster to a certain extent can pull out the spirit core, the protagonist's gesture of ending the enemy is really beautiful, but the appearance of being stopped by a billboard is really embarrassing.
▲ The finishing technique requires you to press the left trigger long, and you are not invincible during the process
Ten thousand steps back, they at least did some skill tree design around this final skill, then even if it can be played, but what about the legendary "combo element"?
I didn't see it at all, I threw it all away.
You might ask, just four weapons, as for making a weapon wheel that needs to be retrieved separately to switch?
Then you really underestimated the creativity of the battle system designer, "Ghost Line: Tokyo" has spells, spells, not only the Daomen Sect, many sects in ancient and modern China and abroad will use spells, the most common in modern film and television, the audience is the best to understand a prop, throw it out to use, in the end how to do boring?
However, the spells of Ghost Line: Tokyo can really make you bored, a total of four spells, all of which are thrown out as traps, paralyzing enemies, exploding, and the last two make me doubt my intelligence - one thrown on the ground to summon a ball of grass, and one thrown on the ground to attract the attention of the enemy.
Dare developers really think their stealth gameplay is fun!
This kind of crouching sneaking, sneaking into the level is not designed, the enemy action is not designed, and the thing that relies solely on the card vision to hide from the enemy can be called stealth? Tango is also Bethesda's studio, see how Arkane, which is also a Besser, does sneak? But I can learn a little bit when they have tried.
▲ The so-called stealth is actually to press the left trigger around the back
Oh yes, this game still has the highest stealth revenue, and there is a special skill tree, so I have to sneak all the time in order to pass the level faster, I can only say that I can't understand it, but I am shocked.
The protagonist's combat behavior on this side has been boring to the extreme, let's take a look at the richness of the enemy, including the boss A total of 23 kinds of enemies, in addition to the boss, a considerable part is skinned, the enemy type is not more than 5 kinds. What's more fatal is that the boss battle design is also extremely bland, and there are so many tricks over and over again.
▲ 19 years of CG will make people look forward to encountering a wealth of ghosts, let me fight Ga Coconut
So don't care what "Ghost Line: Tokyo" is called Lin Zhengying Simulator, it is simply insulting Lin Zhengying.
After 10 hours of main line play, I fell into a deep confusion, except shibuya is really good-looking, the ending is a bit sadistic, I don't seem to remember anything, what did I play? On the contrary, there are many Easter eggs of famous urban legends in the side line, but they are only Easter eggs, and there is no chance to challenge them.
The main line is cleared, the branch line is done seven seven eight eight, at this time to see the open world of "Ghost Line: Tokyo", I only feel a vomiting impulse - that is, the previous I did not press the table, as long as I lifted it up, I was angry and itchy to explore and collect the game.
I have to say that it is really eye-opening to see such a stupid design in 2022, and the background of Ghost Line: Tokyo is that 99% of Shibuya people lose their bodies and become souls, right, well, your biggest collection task is to recycle all the souls of these 99% of people.
Total 240300.
When I first saw this number, I scratched my head, thinking that no one should really do a game that needs to collect 240,000 souls, this must be the kind of regional reward, you know, liberate an area to give you tens of thousands of souls, and when the whole area is open, it will be completely solved, and the common routine of the canned open world is well.
The result is not, you really want to collect 240,000 souls in the city, meet one on the street to collect it, fix your eyes, collect 99 souls, the total progress is 99 / 240300, I directly see a black.
What genius came up with such a stupid collection game? At that moment I really felt that I, who had spent a lot of money on the deluxe version, and the people who designed this collection game, there was always one who was stupid, and of course it was possible that we were all stupid.
It is true that completing tasks in the game will give you thousands more souls, and hundreds more after fighting stronghold battles, but I can't stand the total of 240,000, and this is not all the collection elements of the game, as well as kk reports, goku jade, goku, rosary beads, costumes, music, food, jizo statues, tanuki cats, monsters, voice logs, collectibles, just thinking about these collection elements and writing them out I have brain pain, I really can't figure out how much torture I would have to collect all these things if I was an obsessive-compulsive player.
Moreover, the previous we have exaggerated the scene construction of this game is very good, right, who can think of this advantage, can actually be dragged by these collections, because of the height difference, the production team will become more and more intense to all kinds of horns to stuff the collection, the actual experience is that you have to climb the stairs over and over again, repeatedly collect, and do not know what the picture is.
By this point, all the expectations and good feelings I had for Ghost Line: Tokyo had collapsed.
3
Reflect on yourself, why are you so looking forward to "Ghost Line: Tokyo", I know that creative director Yumi Nakamura will run away in 2019, all the trailers released before the release are telling me that this is already a dirt tour, obviously my editorial colleagues are dissuading me, I still bought a deluxe version.
The reason for this is nothing more than the concept of "Ghost Line: Tokyo", which is really too much to my appetite.
What should my ideal Ghost Line: Tokyo look like? Perhaps at the 2019 E3 Bethesda conference, Yumi Nakamura's sister took the stage to describe how "Spooky" the game was to players in somewhat difficult Japanese English and cute body language.
▲ "Spooky", Yumi Nakamura has accumulated a lot of popularity because of this conference
Neon cities, demons, Japanese legends, in addition to these elements, Ghost Line: Tokyo in my mind, used to be the first example of Techwear's implementation in video games.
Mention 'Techwear' you may be confused, but when it comes to "function", you will probably have a deeper impression, yes, this is a clothing style, but also a fashionable sport, both aesthetic, practical and comfortable, emphasizing unrestricted athletic performance, breathability and protection, rooted in the utilitarianism of military materials, and now evolving into a derivative impression of "cyberpunk" or "urban ninja".
"Ghost Line: Tokyo" poked at me 3 years ago, not only its subject matter, but also its extensive borrowing of Techwear elements, such as the villain's clothing, hard-shell storm jacket, MOLE (Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment) webbing on the left chest, backpacks protected by diagonal shawls, and typical army green straps, all with a distinct Techwear style.
For reference, you can take a look at the J1TS-2 HD stormtrooper launched by Techwear brand ACRONYM, from the fit to the use of MOLE webbing, waterproof zippers, straps and so on, you can find commonalities.
The concept of "urban ninja" is also very close to "Ghost Line: Tokyo", in fact, during the promotion period of the game, in order to take care of Western players who are not familiar with Japanese Shintoism and urban legend culture, Tango mentioned "the combination of ninja, ninjutsu and karate" more than once in the promotional language, and the appearance of the protagonist in 2019 is also very "ninja".
▲ The main vision released in 2019 can see the protagonist pulling the hood all up, and the face is also covered with a mask
The 19 version of the protagonist costume is also very elaborate, although most of the time in the CG appear in the dark environment, but still clearly recognizable on the two double-ended waterproof zippers on his coat, the use of this zipper basically means that this storm jacket has a storage function on the front chest, and a large number of similar prototypes can be found in reality.
This costume was eventually retained in the official version of the game, called the RIOT DIVISION Technology Jacket, so we can see more details: the Velcro on the right shoulder, the storage pocket on the left shoulder, the independent storage compartment on the front, and there is no doubt that the jacket that should be the default costume of the protagonist was also designed after thorough investigation and materials.
▲ After the release of CG in 2019, the outfit of stunt actor Kamy Bruder was turned over by netizens and compared with the appearance of the protagonist in the game
▲ NIKEACG's lookbook from 2015 to 2016 can also be seen in the similar atmosphere and design of the game
Therefore, in my opinion, at least until Yumi Nakamura gave up her position as creative director of Ghost Line: Tokyo in 2019 and left Tango Studio, Ghost Line: Tokyo is very elaborate in the setting of character costumes, props, and accessories, and if these avant-garde modern elements are combined with the classic Japanese style, Ghost Line: Tokyo is a game that projects Yumi Nakamura's strong personal style.
▲Some publicity materials from Yumi Nakamura's personal studio UNSEEN some time ago
But before that, Yumi Nakamura had been exhausted by the game between the developer and the publisher, which seriously affected her health, and left Tango before the game development entered the middle stage, and could only hope that the independent Yumi Nakamura could lead UNSEEN to make her ideal game, because to be honest, I really ate her set.
In the end, without Yumi Nakamura's "Ghost Line: Tokyo", it was reduced to a dirt game, and even if the designers of the gameplay part collectively gave art, or even ran to UNSEEN to kowtow to Yumi Nakamura, they could not save the game. I can't say anything but hard to say, after all, video games, first of all, you have to be fun.
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