Ghostwire: Tokyo’s release is fast approaching, and soon players will step into the shoes of Akito as he battles with strange, otherworldly Visitors in Tokyo. There are some standard enemies, but “standard” is perhaps not the right word. Players will find enemies who appear to be businessmen under an umbrella or a young girl playing, but all of that changes as they approach.
In a recent interview with Game ZXC, Ghostwire: Tokyo’s game director Kenji Kimura and producer Masato Kimura discussed Tango Gameworks’ approach to the Visitors' design. It was intentional, in short, to create enemies who may look normal from afar, but became more terrifying, chilling, or disturbing as players approached. Not only does this happen multiple times in the game, but one enemy stood out even more to us—when we played the first two chapters of Ghostwire: Tokyo.
After obtaining the second Ethereal Weaving power, it seemed too easy, and that’s when a gigantic woman with a hat attacked. It was unsettling and caused us to spam attack our new Ghostwire: Tokyo power out of fear.
This encounter was immediately memorable, and so we asked about some of the in-game lore and urban legends surrounding this Visitor. As game director Kimura said,
“ That's the Slit-Mouthed Woman, so that's an urban legend. You're like walking down the street, and there's a lady on the other side of the crosswalk. You're walking past her, and she's wearing what looked like a mask on her face. She's got her face covered. And as you walk by, she asks you if she looks pretty. And you say yes, you look pretty good. And then she takes off her mask and you find out that her mouth has been slit open from cheek to cheek like the Joker very, very scary. And the story kind of ends right there. It doesn't really say if she attacks you or anything. There's no mystery, and that's what makes these urban legends so intriguing is that they have cliffhangers like that. That's the urban legend of the slashed mouth.”
Indeed, the very design of this Ghostwire: Tokyo enemy is chilling, but the story isn’t so straightforward either. Director Kimura would go on to explain how there are local versions, with different endings for different regions. Some of these stories include the woman running away, some include the question asker running away, and others include a special code word to protect themselves from the woman. Producer Kimura would also discuss one commonality present in all stories:
“It's drawing on the sense that there's somebody over there. She looks normal, she looks normal, then it's suddenly scary. That's kind of a common theme that we see in all the different versions, and also it draws on this weird kind of sense of like there's no right answer to that question. It's always, you know, females always want to look pretty or beautiful, and you know, there's probably no right answer to that question.”
At the end of the day, all Visitors in Ghostwire: Tokyo strike this particular atmospheric vibe. The Slit-Mouthed Woman is just one of many memorable enemies players will encounter.
Ghostwire: Tokyo releases March 25 for PC and PS5.
