Some vague spoilers for Ghostwire: Tokyo
Butch:
OK! I got to the next gate. From where Femmy is.
Stuff was learned. Or, at the very least, stuff was implied. Vague things. But hey! Progress.
Nice and creepy. Y'all's gonna love it.
Will you all catch up, please? I'm not used to being ahead.
Loothound:
Yo!
I got to play a bit after work yesterday, and I'll get a chance to take another bite out of it tonight. Maybe I'll try to avoid getting distracted by every shiny thing in ghost vision and do some story stuff…
Something I noticed that's interesting is how not all of the Visitors are kind of "on mission" or whatever. I keep coming across some that are just checking out what's in a vending machine, or playing hopscotch (not umbrella dudes, obviously, although that would be hilarious) or something relatively ordinary. It's neat to think of them as something other than just henchmen for Hannya dude.
Feminina:
I do like that about the Visitors. Many of them pace back and forth 'on patrol' but others, as you say, are sometimes just playing around (the headless schoolkids), or staring at vending machines (umbrella guys). On the other hand, I find it deeply creepy when the umbrella guys are staring fixedly through car windows or at doorways. Like, it's fine to be lost in thought trying to decide what snack you want, but if you seem like you're hunting people, that's disturbing.
But it does make you wonder what their internal process is, if anything...they aren't human, even ghosts of humans, they're just manifestations of human concerns and emotions (if I'm interpreting this correctly, and not being Japanese, I may not be), so you think...among the bitter negative emotions that formed them, are there also hints of other emotions, like the urge to play, or the desire for a quick snack?
Loothound:
I know. I also wonder since there seem to be non-human Visitors. I came across the ghost parade again yesterday, like the one from the beginning of the game. There is definitely a giant cat thing (which we're totally not going to have to fight at some point) so I'm wondering how that's going to play into things. There's the Japanese culture angle to a lot of these things, but there's also the pure game angle where they're trying to come up with creepy, interesting, and challenging enemies for us to face. Some of the game design choices certainly have that as a factor.
Feminina:
Yes! The giant cat thing with the spooky spidery legs! I'm just waiting to meet it. Somewhere.
Butch:
Oh man FUCK that ghost parade. I stumbled on that just last night and promptly died. No. All the no. I generally find, in this game especially, that when I find myself saying "wait, the fuck is THAT?" I'm about two minutes from a load screen.
Well, we have some non human(ish) enemies. The other thing that killed the holy hell out of me yesterday was stumbling on the marionettes en masse. Sure, they have humanish faces, but still. I fucking hate those things, too.
Have you seen the headless schoolgirls taking selfies yet? Holding their phones up to where their faces should be?
So where are we all? The best part of always being behind is that I always know I can talk about what I just played, so get ahead of me, will y'all? Are you guys up where I am?
Feminina:
I am probably about there. I got past the first marionette and cleared that gate and since then I've been wandering around talking to cats and collecting souls. And talking to spirits about the concerns that keep them from moving on. As one does.
About the "we're in the afterlife" theory, I've noticed that KK seems to have already been doing this sort of thing for a while. His research notes are all about solving weird spirit- or yokai-related mysteries, and he'll comment on some ghost's story with "oh, that sounds like x type of spirit" and knows how to handle it. One interpretation is that before he died he was a sort of spirit-sensitive detective and did this as a job. Another interpretation might be that he's actually been dead for a lot longer than we (or maybe he) thinks, long enough to build up this extensive experience with the way things work here.
Loothound:
The last story thing that I did was watching one of the masked henchmen go into the subway station. Going down after him is supposed to be my next move, but I've been doing a lot of wandering and rescuing. I will try to stay more on story. My general strategy in games like this is to play the hell out of activities and side missions to get XP and power up to fight the big bosses and stuff that show up during story missions. Makes the fights a little quicker and less frustrating. Now that I'm playing along with others, ai'll adjust my approach.
As far as KK's past goes, at the beginning of the game he didn't seem alarmed or put out at being dead and needing to find a new host. There was a very distinct "oh, this again" vibe to the whole deal. Like getting killed and pressing on is just part of the job for him. Definitely makes me wonder how long he's been doing this.
Feminina:
Nah, I play exactly the same way. Exhausting every possible side mission before proceeding with the main story is the only way to go!
We just got a head start on this one.
Butch:
Looty, we call this "the call of the magpie."
Probably good I'm pretty busy today as I now know some things and, as Femmy will attest, I suck at not spilling beans.
Feminina:
Even though, according to the internet, it turns out magpies aren't actually particularly interested in shiny things.
Reality interfering with a good story, YET AGAIN.
Butch:
Hey man, there is Naked Zeus, and there is the Magpie and I'm sticking to that shit.
Have I mentioned I hate being ahead of everyone?
It's all good. Tonight is Wednesday, so that's stuff I have to do, and you both play like lightning downhill. All will be right with the universe soon.
It's not y'all. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I've done all the side quests, so you guys are just being better at souls and collectibles. I'm trying here, KK! I spend a lot of time looking at soul blobs all "How the hell do I get up there?" and wandering and looking and not getting up there. Same thing with the collectibles. I wander through yellow circles, meticulously spamming square, and nothing.
And then I get frustrated and move on.
How are you getting everything???
Loothound:
#NotAllMagpies?
I will definitely go all Main Story tonight to catch up as best I can. How far I get will mostly depend on how tough the fights are. I have to say that at first I found the combat in this game super frustrating, but now that I'm more used to it I actually kind of like it. I've been having some pretty good success with using melee. Between the melee extract skill, ground extract skill, and the one where melee strikes release energy, it makes managing big multi-enemy fights a lot more straightforward. Especially with the dodge skill involved. That thing's money, especially if you change the controls to activate by double tapping circle. I hardly ever block anymore, which cuts down on the number of buttons I have to manage in a fight.
Butch:
I, too, am liking combat, which is weird because usually when combat gets to be more than "Shoot thing" or "whack thing" I start to suck at combat. I do not find myself sucking at this yet. It seems a nice balance of making you think, giving you different ways to approach things, NOT just letting you "shoot thing" or "whack thing," and being just hard enough to be tense without being frustrating.
Now, look, I've gone and jinxed it and the next thing they add will make me suck at combat and get frustrated.
Feminina:
I'd say I hate combat, just to be contrary, but actually I think it's fine. I still don't quite have the balance down, so I'm always destroying things before I get a chance to yank out their core, but for the most part it's not so deadly it's always a huge chore, but is deadly enough to keep me on my toes. I don't die constantly, but it's not so easy it's boring.
I do like the way you use ether for different attacks -- you can run out, so it's a slightly limited resource, but it's also EVERYWHERE so it's not something you have to be constantly thinking about hunting. And it's essentially looting ammunition from the bodies of your enemies (and other places), but with a fresh new twist!
Butch:
Yeah, timing to get the core is key. I've been practicing that. That's what fills the "wired in" meter, right? I kind of love me "wired in."
Loothound:
That's why I love the melee extract core so much. It's pretty easy to pull off, and it can't be interrupted.
The having to loot your ammo is a great mechanic. I remember that being a big thing about Fallout games that made it interesting; all of my best guns had really hard to come by ammo so I had to be very strategic about using them. Use weaker weapons with more common ammo when you can, save the big stuff for when you really need it. Limiting the ammo for Fire in this game, and to a lesser extent Water, sort of does the same thing. Also, you can ABL and you're not just accumulating excess stuff!
Feminina:
I need to work on extracting cores, I do. It's a flaw in my technique for sure.
Butch:
Oh and get the skill where you can rip out multiple cores at once. So satisfying.
While I do like the fact they limit certain kinds of ammo (looks at fire), it would be nice if there was some tip as to which glowing vacuum cleaner or whatever had what. I spend a lot of time needlessly thwacking glowing things only to free up wind ammo I do not need. I don't mind making stuff rare, but at least let me know if what I need is in what I'm whacking.
While that is similar to looting chests or whatever in other games, it's different in the sense that, in most games, if you loot a chest and it has arrows and you're full of arrows, the arrows stay there so you can come back and grab them if you ever need arrows. When you whack a glowing vending machine and it has wind and you're full of wind, that's that. It's gone for good. I can't go back and grab it if I find myself low on wind, so knowing not to whack that vending machine, thus wasting what it has, would be good.
Feminina:
They're kind of color-coded, I think? Red is definitely fire, and there are bluish ones that are water, green is obviously wind, and the blackish ones I think have some of everything. I think the glowing things do regenerate over time, too, because I know in places I've been through multiple times, I've cleared them out, and then had more of them there later when I came back. But it's definitely not immediate, and I know what you mean -- it's especially frustrating to whack a fire energy thing and then realize you were all full up on fire, and now it's not there. I tend to avoid all the red items now unless I know I need fire, just so they'll be there if I need to scurry back later.
Butch:
I don't know, man, maybe I'm missing it. I did punch a red thing once and it blew up and killed me, which was rather rude, I thought.
Feminina:
What?! I've never had that happen! They always give me fire ether! Although they do 'whoosh' rather dramatically...maybe they also injure me, and I've just never noticed.
Worth it for the fire ether, man.
Though now I'm second-guessing myself... did it REALLY give me fire ether? Maybe I've just been wandering around punching bombs for no reason. But you'd think I'd have noticed.
Loothound:
Yeah, the fire whoosh is impressive, but I've never had it damage me that I've noticed. I am definitely under the impression that they are color coded, although I haven't always been clear on it. Red definitely gives fire, and blue water, that I'm pretty clear on. There seem to be ones that are greenish that give wind, but there are ones that look just shiny black that can give multiple kinds of ether. I clearly remember times when I punched a vending machine or something and a bunch of green came out and one or two red/blue ones.
Definitely annoying that once they are gone they're gone, and you can't just leave the ether floating there for later. Although I guess you could if you destroyed the thing with a weaving, since you need to be close enough to attract them. Speaking of which, anyone else get annoyed when you kill the flying ghost ones, and the ether they drop is so far up that you can't get close enough to draw them in. They just stay hanging up their like taunting you like stupid sexy triangles.
Feminina:
Aim at them and hit L2! Pulls them to you. Just learned this, and it is gold.
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