One Fears to Move On

Feminina O'Ladybrain

Jan 22

Spoilers for near the endgame in Ghostwire: Tokyo

Feminina:

OK, so I finished Chapter 4. Chapter 5 begins with "all right, now we just have to fight Hannya! Are you sure you're ready for this?!" and although logically I know that since there are 8 chapters in all, there must be at least 3 9/10 chapters left, so when I show up to fight Hannya he'll most likely say "psych!" and run off...I still thought "wait, AM I ready? What if I can't come back and find all KK's research notes? What if I need those skill points?"

So I returned to poking around looking for research notes and stray spirits. Although I've pretty well cleared the place of spirits, which makes it feel oddly more lonely.

I was able to ascertain that there's a certain chime sound in spectral vision that seems to mean there's a shrine nearby, and another more standard one that apparently just means you're around...stuff? Buildings? I couldn't detect any significant change in the tone between just wandering around and being near ether, or cat stores, or right next to some research notes (as is, actually looking at them before picking them up), so unfortunately I don't think sound is a useful tool for locating notes. No giveaway 'meow' noise or anything. But there are probably still some fine points of this topic to be uncovered.

That's about what I accomplished.

Butch:

Huh? You can't be at the endgame.

But then, you're at the level cap. Maybe some chapters are very short?

But speaking on clothes, which we were a while ago, how do I unlock more slots for prayer beads? I only have one. There doesn't seem to be a skill for it. What gives?

Feminina:

Oh dude, there totally is and it is critical. I can wear three sets now. You gotta do it.

It's on the second page of skills, I think? Maybe the third. Anyway, it's totally in there.

Do it. Do it now.

Loothound:

I'll be crossing that threshold tonight, and I'm also absolutely nervous about just missing out on some of the side stuff because the story just moves on. It doesn't feel like this is that kind of game, but there is that one trophy that's 'transfer 100% of spirits BEFORE finishing the story.' So who knows.

Actually, I might not story on because I want to make sure that I own all of the clothes. Such a clothes horse, me. Some of the outfit stuff you can only get by completing the required number of cat items, so I'm going to spend time doing that. Not planning on shooting for all cat toys, that's for sure. Femmy has that covered.

One thing about the noises in spectral vision I did note—the spectral awareness emanates out from Akito in a sphere, kind of like when you see sonar portrayed in a submarine movie. The sounds trigger when the awareness wave, for lack of a better term, reaches the item in question. This lets you roughly estimate the distance the damn thing is from you, but unless you happen to be looking in the right direction when it happens it doesn't help all that much given just how many things go aglow in spectral vision. So I'm just full of non-helpful observations at this point.

Butch:

Man, I looked all over! Dammit. I wasted all my skill points, too. I got all the way to level 31!

I still think we're far from over. As I have been doing less magpie, I still have a lot of the map all foggy. Even games that let you magpie don't generally just have huge parts of map that you can/will only get to with the magpie. Usually, you're going to end up in the general vicinity of each bit of the map eventually if you follow the main story. If that's the case, I got a lot of eventually to go, especially as the story has me going solidly westward and a lot of my south east remains in fog.

That said, my game clock says I have 23 hours in this thing. I don't think this is supposed to be a bigass 100 hour Valhalla grade time sink. I can't imagine it's too far north of 35 or so.

Though, How Long to Beat has it at 39 ½ hours for 100% completion, only 11 (that can't be right) for main objectives.

Maybe we are close.

Feminina:

There's still a big chunk of foggy map on the east for me, which logically I will proceed to uncover after failing to defeat Hannya in this big fight that probably won't turn out to be the end fight.

Still, it was talking a good endgame, and I decided to back off just in case. I gotta find notes and visit a few more cats, make sure I've turned in all the stuff they want.

Loothound:

I think those playtime estimates might be benchmarked to more hardcore gamers, because I regularly find myself going over by a decent amount. I think Femmy and I are already 6-8 hours over that 40 hour mark, but since there's almost nothing but story left the rest will probably go pretty quickly.

As far as how much map there is, I looked one up online a while back to jog my memory about something for a blog post (where I first encountered snake ladies, I think) and there were still some pretty big areas of the map image that were fogged up. I think that the rectangular bounds of the map image aren't fully indicative of how much playable map there is—at least in the main game. If there's future DLC, who knows…

Butch:

Weird. Map aside, I feel like there's a whole lot of story that needs to be fleshed out. I've gotten exactly one voice recording about Dale (though, must admit, in backtracking to get cat toys I realize I might have missed some of those, too).

Plot has some holes.

Feminina:

Yeah, I'm afraid I may have missed recordings too...they don't show up on the map, and aren't even officially a collectible that you can check and see you have x out of however many, so I have this nagging fear that there are several of them scattered around that I didn't happen to glance at.

I don't know if this is true, since I've also never found one lying around in an area I've been through before, but it COULD be, you know?

Loothound:

Oh, yeah. Dale. I keep forgetting about that guy. What if Hannya isn't actually the endgame here. This has come up before as a throwaway twist, but what if the story moves on and the real endgame involves the internal dynamics of KK's team? Ed has been using us to harvest souls for his own nefarious plot, and Hannya was just a competitor for soul resources? A twisted Settlers of Catan?

Insert 'I've got wood for spirits' joke here. Butch, do you have wood for spirits?

Butch:

Oh, I have found recordings I missed. Last time I played (not last night, busy, etc.) I zooped back to a shrine to look for stuff and right behind the shrine, a recording.

A recording that made me agree with Looty's idea that the "scientist" voice recordings are Hannya, but that's another blog post.

I would tip my cap to Ed as the bad guy, but man, it would be quite the twist if you went through putting the fake bad guy (or lesser bad guy) on your box art.

I would admire going to those lengths, must say, but those are some lengths.

Feminina:

I've found enough recordings from that scientist to feel like him being Hannya is pretty much the working assumption at this point. He mentions a daughter, a dead wife, wondering about the permanence of death...sounds like Hannya to me.

Although speaking of plot twists, it's always possible there's one coming where it turns out that was some other scientist.

Maybe it was...KK!!!!!!!

Butch:

I think there's some weird clue in there. I went back and listened to them again, and the very first one mentioned that this dictation thing was given to him "after the accident because I can't use my hands." We've been talking a lot about the power/significance of hand movements in Japanese culture and in this very game.

Maybe it was KK. He, too, has a wife and a daughter (or did). He seems to need to borrow someone else's hands.

Just sayin'.

Feminina:

Yes, there's definitely something about the hands. I don't remember KK having a daughter, although I noted that he mentioned "my boy" at one point. He could have had more than one child, obviously. But yeah, there could be interesting parallels between KK and Hannya.

Butch:

Oh, his kid was a boy? Never mind. Thought it was a daughter.

Feminina:

He at least had A boy. Maybe a girl too, I don't know.

I think KK is pretty implausible as the scientist anyway, but one can't rule out much here.

Loothound:

KK and Hannya both have the 'very driven person' thing going on, so if the whole THEME thing about obsession idea is valid then that may play into it. Maybe we'll see the parallels become more clear as we go forward, but KK generally comes across as so likable that I have trouble imagining that they'll end up making him too big of a jerk.

Feminina:

Yeah, I could see more of a "that could have been me if I hadn't had [my team to keep me sane/the love of a good yokai/some semblance of respect for the natural order/whatever]" reflection from KK, as they may have some similarities in their characters.

Although also – and no disrespect to him – KK doesn't really strike me as a 'scientific genius' type, and I think we're supposed to conclude that whatever the many flaws in his plan, Hannya is definitely a scientific genius for coming up with a way to make it work. So I'm not sure it really could have been KK in a meaningful sense.

Loothound:

My brain is reeling at the possible implications of "the love of a good yokai."

Butch:

You think KK is really likeable? I'm not as into KK. I think that might be voice acting. In English, it's like the director said "Do the most stereotypical sneering, sassy, pain in the ass but lovable asshole you can," and the dude hit all of it and then some except the "lovable."

Loothound:

It absolutely could be the voice acting, by way of a cultural difference. In Japan they have this whole sempai/kohai dynamic in professional settings between men of different ages or levels of experience. The sempai (senior person) is expected to be kind of gruff and bossy in teaching or correcting their junior (kohai), but in a nurturing kind of way. See the Sean Connery/Wesley Snipes movie "Rising Sun" for a kind of clunky explanation or model of it. Anyway, it completely applies to the KK and Akito relationship. I can see how it might not be something that an American voice actor can get down properly.

I think KK genuinely likes and cares for Akito, but takes his responsibilities instructing Akito very seriously. Yes, he yells at you when you don't block attacks right and stuff, but he also offers a lot of encouragement and celebrates your successes. So, yeah, from my standpoint I think he's pretty likable.

Butch:

Hmm. Interesting. Probably is something lost in translation, or just the fact I'm not digging the voice actor in general. Rather overacted. It's too bad, because the other English voice actors aren't bad.

Feminina:

Yeah, I like KK. He seems like he's trying to be a good...uh...co-pilot of Akito's body, as well as a teacher of important supernatural stuff. Also, I don't know how this comes across in English, but one of his reactions to Akito feeding a dog is this kind of disgusted laugh-squeal as if he just can't take the tickly feeling of the dog's tongue, and this always makes me laugh a little. A very humanizing little moment.

Loothound:

Now I'm imagining a bumper sticker that reads 'KK is my co-pilot.'

Maybe one that says 'Out of my way, I'm ether weaving!' too.

Feminina:

"My other attack is a bow and arrow."

Loothound:

'My other ride is a cranky tengu.'

Butch:

Nicely done!

In English, it's more disgust with the dog. "Eeeugh..." Like he stepped in something nasty.

I should've played in Japanese.

I'm too tired to think of a joke.