The good 👍
- If you're interested in Japanese culture there is a lot of historical lore to learn - Good soundtrack

The bad 👎
- Combat is really basic
- Enemies are not interesting and are very predictable
- There is a lot of padding (like in all Ubisoft games), so it IS a typical open-world "climb a tower" Ubisoft creation
- Story is very standard and ending is easy to predict
- Game requires 3rd party video codec to show cutscenes, that doesn't come with Windows or K-Lite codec pack. Either manually install from Windows Store, or manual installation via PowerShell is required

Conclusion:

The game starts as a mild horror, with us having to sneak around paranatural enemies in order to survive. And quickly turn into FPS with copy-paste enemies, map filled with endless supply of fetch quests and collectibles, and short main storylike. If you like generic "Ubisoft genre" you will be happy with hundreds of graffiti, spirit clumps, food types, clothes, small figures etc. to collect. Otherwise, you will be bored rush through main story and think "oh, it's over already?".

---

Details

📘 Story ☐ Bare-bone ☑ Average ☐ Good

Akito rushes on the motorbike (never a good idea) to the hospital to his dying sister. He gets into a car accident, suffer near-death wounds and is reanimated by a phantom of KK - a former cop who was fighting supernatural phenomena while still alive. Akito wakes up to realize 1) his body is not fully his own any more 2) everyone in Tokyo is gone, after making contact with spooky mist. He does the only logical thing - keep rushing to the hospital to see his sister. On place, it turns out his sister did not disappear in the poof of mist, but is instead kidnapped by clearly out of whack guy in a samurai mask. Mumbling about using Akito's sister to resurrect his family. From this point game obviously focus on Akito fighting city full of "visitors" - creepy being from the underworld - in order to safe his sister. Change from whiny crybaby to man up Schwarzenegger that fight oversized underworld bosses is rushed and not believable. And I won't be surprised if you know how the game ends, after my brief summary of first 1.5h gameplay.

🔄 Gameplay loop ☑ Boring ☐ Average ☐ Good	The city created for this game is very detailed. But also very empty. We can meet: visitors that try to kill us, cats that can sell us some junk (if we care enough to grind money to have funds), and dogs that can be pet. On top of that, there are a lot of spirits that "need just this one thing done for them before they can move on". Which is your usual fetch quests "go-kill-retrieve" slop. We run around the deserted city to the next objective. Use talismans to absorb spirits along the way. Collected spirits are later transferred via a phone booth into the "real world" to restore people there, and we get experience points and some funds in return. Problem is the number of spirits we can hold at a time is very limited, which means we constantly run between phone booths and spirit clusters. Like a person who drank too much coffee and need to constantly run for a toilet. It does break the flow of the game. It is possible to grind for cash and buy more amulets (so we can hold more spirits), but it makes the soul-absorbing loop just a bit less tedious. Not eliminate is entirely. Some experience is also gained from fighting enemies, but then combat is not great. So pick your poison.
🪄 Abilities ☐ Basics (walk, jump etc.) ☑ Magic / powers ☐ Advanced combat	We can run, jump and have limited "hover" used to jump between rooftops (if we fancy). On top of that we can shoot energy with our hands, but it boils down to having 3 guns: green is assault rifle, blue is shotgun and red is rocket launcher. Ammo is limited, so shots can't be carefree. Especially if we don't spend time unlocking "Ubisoft towers" that contain bracelets, which act as passive damage boost for our abilities. It is possible to increase the ammo capacity, but it requires running around the city to find hidden statues. On top of that we have a bow (the only offensive tool we have at disposal when KK is "not available") but environmental ammo is very scarce, and the main source are cat shops. Which is expensive. There are immobilization or protection amulets, but they suffer from the same issue as arrows - can't be found around, need to be bought. There is a "scan" ability that is used to track spirits in handful of mission, and to highlight collectibles/visitors in 30(base)-50(upgraded)m radius.
🎮 Controls ☐ Clunky and stiff ☑ Adequate ☐ Fluid and enjoyable	Controls are fine. Thought there is not much that can go wrong. There is no parkour or precise movement required. We run around or go on the rooftops to jump around (easier to avoid visitors that way).
📇 Inventory and menus ☑ Basic ☐ Detailed ☐ Over complicated	The only menu I was using was the map for fast travel. The rest of the interface is focused on reading material on Japanese folklore, or to track hundreds of available collectibles. All long-winged cutscenes can be skipped if we die in the middle of a boss fight.
🥊 Combat 🏹 ☐ Boring and generic ☑ Average ☐ Good ☐ Great	Like I mentioned above, there are basically 3 types of weapons. Assault rifle for generic enemies. Rocket launcher for mini-bosses and enemies with shield. And shotgun, which I was using after running out of rockets. We shot with our hands. Enemies are brain-dead and always charge at us. So it's enough to walk back while shooting to end all encounters. Some sneaking is possible, and enemies can be one-hit killed that way. But then usually the rest of the enemies will notice us, and it goes into the usual gun fight. Some enemies have typical close range approach, while others can shoot various objects at us. And it is funny to see visitors looking as high schoolers, throwing classroom objects in our direction. After we deal enough damage we can expose the enemy core. At this point we can shoot it once or twice more to destroy the visitor, or extract it (which takes time and makes us vulnerable for attacks, but also conserves ammo). If we don't destroy the core within few seconds it will reset and visitor will be back at full health. Each weapon have ultimate fire mode, but it mows through ammo like crazy and leaves us dry after few seconds.
🤖 Game AI ☐ Brain dead ☑ Really basic ☐ Average ☐ Smart and responsive	Enemies have no strategy or thought. They just charge at us. The same goes for bosses. And there are no NPCs to see if they would have any brain power.

💸 Microtransactions ☑ None ☐ Skins ☐ "Time-savers" ☐ Direct purchase ☐ Custom currency (gems etc.)	🏆 Achievements ☐ None ☐ Story progression ☐ Few collectibles / easy to get ☑ Grindy collectibles / hard to get ☐ Require multiple playthroughs	💾 Save system ☐ No saves ☐ No saves, progress carries over ☐ One checkpoint, too rare ☐ One checkpoint, frequent ☑ Manual saves
📊 Performance ☐ Can run on potato ☐ Medium requirements ☑ High requirements ☐ Too low for what is visible on screen ☐ Optimization disaster	🌌 Graphic ☐ May look good 10 years ago, but not now ☐ Blurry textures / geometry problems ☐ Average ☑ Good ☐ Beautiful	🔊 Sound ☐ Nothing to remember ☐ Good voice acting ☐ Good weapons & effects ☑ Good OST ☐ Music flows well with the action
🦚 Customization options ☐ Resolution, volume only ☑ Basic graphic settings ☐ Advanced graphic settings ☐ Adjustable HUD ☐ Accessibility options	🧭 Map ☐ No map ☐ Basic ☑ Detailed ☐ Minimap ☐ Fast travel	Details: - gameplay is flashy and city is fleshed out and well detailed - Japanese voice acting is in the same style like if you'd watch an anime

The good 👍
- No walking-padding sequences like in the previous title
- Interesting challenges that require thinking, navigating and good communication
- Puzzles can be solved in "easy" way by getting fewer points per challenge, which will make it easier to play with kids
- Puzzles can't be solved or brute forced by one player
- Game doesn't have a "big backstory". Which is good, as the backstory of previous games was not great

The bad 👎
- It has only 3 puzzles, thought it is so cheap it is worth paying 3 EUR for it

Conclusion:

I do like it. Feel less bloated than the previous title. No unskippable cutscenes and no average voice acting. No bland villains to defeat. Just puzzles. Main characters survive a storm at the sea and end up on an island. Need to solve 3 puzzles to build the boat to leave. Each puzzle has a "completion level" which is signified by a ticket obtained at the end. Bronze - silver - gold level. To beat puzzles with brown level we don't need to have perfect communication or think very hard, which makes it more approachable for kids. To obtain gold tickets we need to be way more efficient and organized. There are more figures to describe in "select right character" puzzle, more trials to complete in "one played guides the other" puzzle, and more points to get in "generate points by creation of synergy between tiles on a map" puzzle. While previous game had all-or-nothing approach.

---

Details

💸 Microtransactions ☑ None ☐ Skins ☐ "Time-savers" ☐ Direct purchase ☐ Custom currency (gems etc.)	🏆 Achievements ☐ None ☐ Story progression ☑ Few collectibles / easy to get ☐ Grindy collectibles / hard to get ☐ Require multiple playthroughs	💾 Save system ☐ No saves ☐ No saves, progress carries over ☐ One checkpoint, too rare ☑ One checkpoint, frequent ☐ Manual saves
📊 Performance ☐ Can run on potato ☑ Medium requirements ☐ High requirements ☐ Too low for what is visible on screen ☐ Optimization disaster	🌌 Graphic ☐ May look good 10 years ago, but not now ☐ Blurry textures / geometry problems ☑ Average ☐ Good ☐ Beautiful	🔊 Sound ☑ Nothing to remember ☐ Good voice acting ☐ Good weapons & effects ☐ Good OST ☐ Music flows well with the action
🦚 Customization options ☐ Resolution, volume only ☑ Basic graphic settings ☐ Advanced graphic settings ☐ Adjustable HUD ☐ Accessibility options	🧭 Map ☑ No map ☐ Basic ☐ Detailed ☐ Minimap ☐ Fast travel	Details: - I saw people complain that game is buggy, but I did not saw any bugs myself