Before you jump into Tango Gameworks’ horror adventure Ghostwire: Tokyo, you might be interested in just what kind of time investment it requires and how many chapters it has. Is this a short run through the city or a long weekend’s worth of urban exploration? How can you expect to break up your play sessions alongside the story beats?
Ghostwire: Tokyo Has Only A Handful of Chapters, But…
There are five chapters in Ghostwire’s story path, but the game is designed and arranged in a rather unusual way for an open-world game. We’ll avoid all but the vaguest spoilers here.
At the start of the game, in Chapter 1, you’re limited to exploring a relatively small part of the Shibuya ward in Ghostwire’s haunted Tokyo. Much of the city is locked behind walls of spiritual miasma that rapidly drain your health, which forces you into a linear path.
Over the course of the next few chapters, you have the option to gradually clear away the miasma by cleansing gates and shrines that are scattered throughout the city. This opens up more of Shibuya for exploration and also unlocks useful gear such as Prayer Beads, which directly improve Akito’s abilities.
By the time you reach Chapter 4, you can clear enough of the miasma to have the run of the game’s Shibuya, which lets you freely explore its alleys and rooftops.
The end of Chapter 4 also marks a point of no return that takes you away from Shibuya for the entirety of Chapter 5 and leads directly into Ghostwire’s endgame.
Due to how the game phrases some of its warnings, it may lead you to believe that you have to finish everything you want to do in Ghostwire before the end of Chapter 4. However, clearing Chapter 5 and thus completing the game lets you make a new save file. Load that, and you’ll reappear in Shibuya right before the end of Chapter 4.
In short, Ghostwire’s main story consists of five chapters. The first three and the last are relatively short and you can run straight through them, although it’s worth doing the occasional side mission to power up Akito and KK’s synergy level. Chapter 4 is where Ghostwire is fully open for exploration, so you can take on side quests, clear out the rest of the map, and take on optional challenges to power up Akito. If you want to race through all five chapters in Ghostwire: Tokyo, expect it to take you roughly 11-14 hours.
