Tango Gameworks has exclusively released third-person games since its inception with The Evil Within and The Evil Within 2. Prior to that, studio founder Shinji Mikami's games have almost all used third-person perspectives as well. Tango Gameworks' upcoming Ghostwire: Tokyo is breaking from this tradition, using a first-person viewpoint instead of the third-person camera that fans of the studio have come to expect.
Game ZXC recently spoke with Studio Director and Ghostwire: Tokyo Executive Producer Shinji Mikami and Game Director Kenji Kimura, who provided more insight on why the new game is using a first-person perspective instead of the usual third-person viewpoint. "That decision was made a long time ago, when the project started," Mikami explained. According to Mikami, original Ghostwire: Tokyo director Ikumi Nakamura simply wanted to make a first-person game.
Mikami added, "But the intention was to have gamers experience and get immersed into the setting that we have created. And that intention was very strong and something that really made sense to everybody." Another reason for the first-person view was that it allowed the developers to better showcase the environment, an aspect of the game that has earned particular praise after the latest Ghostwire: Tokyo gameplay deep-dive dropped.
Current Ghostwire: Tokyo director Kenji Kimura added that a goal with the first-person viewpoint was that it would allow players to get more immersed in the game. Beyond that, Ghostwire: Tokyo protagonist Akito uses a lot of spells as one of his primary ways of attacking enemies, and the development team wanted to "create this sense that those were actually your hands that are doing that." Kimura explained, "So the first-person camera is helpful in many ways and that's why we chose and stuck with that direction."
While this is the first time that Tango Gameworks has made a game that's entirely first-person, it's not the first time the studio has worked with the perspective. As some may recall, Evil Within 2 added a first-person mode sometime after it launched, and one has to imagine that the work on that would've helped Tango when building Ghostwire: Tokyo from the ground-up as a first-person game.
What's interesting about that is apparently Ghostwire: Tokyo was originally pitched as Evil Within 3, and so if Nakamura wanted to make a first-person game from the start, it seems that the next Evil Within would've been first-person instead. Ghostwire: Tokyo has another game in development besides Ghostwire, so perhaps that's a concept that could still be explored at some point down the line.
Ghostwire: Tokyo launches March 25 for PC and PS5.
