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Ghostwire: Tokyo produces a problem to potion hoarding in open-world games, reckons one veteran indie developer.
Earlier today, Space Organ Warlord Trading Simulator and An Airport for Aliens Currently Run by Dogs lead Xalavier Nelson Jr. explained how Ghostwire: Tokyo tackles potion hoarding in open-world games. In the tweet thread just below, Nelson Jr. details how Ghostwire: Tokyo increases your maximum health by using consumable items like food, therefore powering you up by incentivizing you to use said food items after tough combat encounters.
Now you're incentivized to not reload bad encounters, and to try new navigation/combat strategies--because failure just means you use more consumables. Which makes you stronger. And it's balanced such that you can't game it for UNLIMITED FOOD POWER.Kinda stunning, honestly.2/2March 29, 2022
It's a brilliant little design tidbit, and excellent broken down by Nelson Jr. in the thread just above. At first in Ghostwire: Tokyo, it's almost easy to miss the fact that health items like dango skewers increase your overall maximum health, and even once you know that, it's easy to forget it, as the increments the items increase your maximum health by are relatively small.
However, this counters players repeatedly using said food items to bolster their overall health, turning themselves into invincible tanks patrolling the abandoned streets of Shibuya. The player actually takes a tonne of damage from even one enemy attack in Ghostwire: Tokyo if they forget to block, so it's likely that you're going to burn through health items even if you have accrued a fair few of them.
Ghostwire: Tokyo is out now on PC and PS5 as a console exclusive. Developer Tango Gameworks' next project might look a lot different though, as studio head Shinji Mikami hinted at a desire to make smaller, less scary games at some point in the future. While Ghostwire: Tokyo definitely isn't as scary of horror-themed as the two Evil Within games from Tango, it's still a decidedly spooky adventure.
Check out our Ghostwire: Tokyo review to see what we made of Tango's latest venture.
