How Hard is Ghostwire: Tokyo?

Ghostwire: Tokyo appears to be a complex and difficult game, as the concept of fighting yōkai (Japanese supernatural entities) sounds menacing and the description for the two hardest difficulties (hard and tatari, the latter meaning curse in English) can be daunting.

Tatari describes itself as "For players who enjoy split-second decisions being the difference between life and death", which can be frightening to read. Well, you might be wondering whether Ghostwire: Tokyo is too hard or if you can pick it up, and how forgiving the easier difficulties are.

Ghostwire: Tokyo's Gameplay

Throughout Ghostwire: Tokyo, you'll be faced with many challenges, including several enemies with different attacks and weaknesses, and even being placed in situations where you'll need to face multiple at the same time. For attack options, you're given three elements (known as Ethereal Weaving) which are a choice between Fire, Wind, and Water Weaving; a bow and arrow; and numerous talismans with different systems, such as the capability to stun the Visitors, a decoy, or even spawn a wall to hide with.

With stealth as part of the system, punishingly low ether (ammo), and several enemies attacking at once, Ghostwire: Tokyo's "split-second decision" taunt feels terrifying, to say the least. Hordes of enemies attacking at the same time can make it challenging to find the opening to extract the cores of the Visitors for a kill, blocking only absorbs part of the damage unless it's a perfect block (which can prove to be a daunting task), and several enemies launch projectiles that you do need to perfect block lest you take damage.

Exploring the world is crucial, as almost getting one-shot is a reality in Ghostwire: Tokyo's hard difficulty, and gathering the souls to receive the necessary XP to level up will be a core part of ensuring your own survival.

How hard is it?

I like to believe that Ghostwire: Tokyo's difficulty is nicely customisable, as depending on which difficulty you choose, this answer can vary.

I found the easy and normal difficulties to be almost unfeasible, as the Visitors lost a lot of their fear factor when you can dispatch them with just a few shots, and things such as Fire Weaving can even one-shot some, such as the Student of Misery. The easy and normal difficulties are very accessible, as hitting enemies only a couple of times will kill them without even needing to expose their core.

Although unique enemies continue to carry some of their powers, such as the Rugged Walker still blocking shots, it is so much more manageable when you don't need nearly as many shots to expose their core. Even when looking at hard difficulty, the game is very manageable as no fight felt unfair or impossible to bypass. Sure, enemies do more damage, and it becomes far more important to learn how to perfect block, but it isn't unfeasible, even at the highest difficulty.

Tatari's greatest challenge comes from not being able to level up, so you won’t be able to get skill tree upgrades nor maximum HP increases that way. That said, skill tree upgrades aren't completely off the table, as KK's notes do give SKILL POINTS to use on the skill tree.

Despite the daunting gameplay descriptions, Ghostwire: Tokyo is overall an easy game that anyone should be able to pick up, thanks to the very forgiving easy difficulty. Even those seeking a challenge, the hard difficulty doesn't feel impossible to manage, and being able to change mid-game allows you to change your mind if easy is too simple, or hard too challenging.