Test: Ghostwire Tokyo is only the ghost of its promises

Generations of Japanese fiction – whatever their medium – have wreaked havoc on the streets of Tokyo. Kaiju, zombie invasions, gang warfare, natural disasters, battle royale between its inhabitants: the island capital’s leather has been tanned by decades of more or less eccentric confusion. But, from memory, no one had ever decimated its population to harvest its souls in order to merge our reality with that of the spirits. It is the cataclysmic starting point of Ghostwire Tokyo and the megalo-Machiavellian plan of Hannyah, a sinister character hidden behind a demon mask who, to achieve his ends, intends to carry out a forbidden ritual by sacrificing the young Marie, sister of Akito, the reckless hero of this story. Except that Akito escaped this disastrous harvest following being chosen as host by the soul of KK, a ghost hunter determined to bring Hannyah down from his cloud and return their carnal envelopes to the souls of his fellow citizens. Together, Akito and KK will have to face the Visitors – the foot soldiers in the service of Hannyah – while trying somehow to live together despite their differences, in order to save Tokyo and free Marie from the yoke of her torturer. If, from its premises, this story had little chance of surprising us, we expected more from the tandem formed by our acolytes in misfortune. The moments of estrangement between the two lads and their reconciliations might have given rise to some interesting narrative climaxes or touches of cow humor buddy movie. But their relationship never really takes off. A first under-exploited potential and, as we will see, not the last.