TOKYO GHOUL:RE CALL TO EXIST Review: A Mixed Ghoul Of Problems

PS4 Review Code Provided by Bandai Namco

It seems that the idea of a video game being made off of a show or movie, and vice versa, is a subject of work that will always be a hit or miss type deal. While some projects really breathe a new sense of life into a world with a fanbase and following behind it, others tend to bring a stain to the name. Unfortunately, this is the latter side of the situation when it comes to Three Rings Inc and Bandai Namco’s anime based game Tokyo Ghoul:re [CALL to EXIST]. Let’s break down the issues the game holds.

Story

Providing what appears to be a side story version of events that follows the first season of the beloved anime, you take control of Ken Kaneki after he was turned half-ghoul. As you progress through the various Recollections and Campaign, you come across a variety of scenarios that don’t really flow together well. All-in-all, the story seems to be trying to present that Kaneki is much more than a victim turned ghoul and rather a sort of prophet ghoul that has powers beyond all others.

Gameplay

In a series of uninspiring events, you find yourself playing a game that could essentially fit well with a mobile or wave-based title. Every level presents you with the same set up: start the mission, get put in the first section of the level, fight a wave of enemies and/or mini-boss, move forward to the next section of the level, fight a wave of enemies and/or mini-boss, rinse and repeat until the end where you fight the boss of the level.

Occasionally you will be given something that is slightly different like open a timed door or find a keycode, but these are things that you have to defeat a wave of enemies to do calmly. If you were hoping this change would be significant, you are wrong. Finding these aspects or completing them is as simple as finding the glowing blue dot and then interacting accordingly. No puzzles, no real challenge, no actual change of pace.

Then you have the combat itself. While I will give props to having a handful of move styles and options to pull from making the fighting itself not-so repetitive, it is still rather basic. Melee combo, ghoul attack A, ghoul attack B, range attack, air attack, and dash dodging are your list. This is a little different when you do side missions and play as different characters, but the set up remains similar.

While Recollections is the main mission mode, the part of the menu actually listed as Campaign is a co-op designed mode where you can play through specific levels that have already been completed through Recollections. This mode is like a slow version of Left 4 Dead, but with Tokyo Ghoul themed enemies, bosses, characters, and fighting options. The levels are hardly any different, but at least there is a difficulty option menu there.

If you are worried about your skill level in all of this, then fret not! There is literally no consequence to dying, other than hurting your end mission rank and rewards. If you die mid-battle, you simply respawn to continue the fight with any and all enemies remaining at the same amount of health as they were when they bested you.

Visual

This is yet another area of the game that was a bit of a let down as even the graphical aspects are very low standard. Enemies have only color variations, character customization is incredibly limited, and it just all around looked like old gen graphics - I would say PS3 / X360 at best. Simply doesn’t live up to today’s standards, especially being a game based on an anime where they could have just made it look like the anime.

Sounds

They got this aspect right as the music was fitting to the action, the sound effects were all on point, and the voice work wasn’t bad at all. Would have helped the game have a nice atmosphere if the rest of the aspects had been pulled off better.

Replayability

If you do find yourself enjoying your time on the game, there is plenty of aspects to go through. There are side missions that unlock as you complete the story further, the campaign mode that gives a slightly changed team-based version of the levels, an online mode that you can play (given that you have a friend or fellow player to play with), and always have the aspect of going for a better score in each map.

What Could Be Better

When doing the Recollections main missions, you are given the option upon completion to continue the story. If you hit “Yes” it will take you to the next mission in line, which is always a side mission - not the next main mission. Why would you presume I don’t want to continue the main missions first? This made no sense to me and it is annoying that they have it set up that after every mission you have to leave to the menu, pick the next main mission, and then begin.

The overall level layouts should have offered more variety. This is a game based off of an anime literally called Ghoul Investigators, yet there isn’t a single investigation going on. It just feels like you here to kick some ghoul ass and take names, which is repetitive and boring after the first few missions.

Storytelling in the game is all over the place and shows no linear path to take. Even when I was following along the cutscenes, it just decides to change direction. An example of this is the cutscene at end of one of the Recollections where you defeat an enemy, a cutscene plays to show the past connection between Ken and his friend, then abruptly someone intervenes the moment and the dialogue is literally “…” from both sides, then boom it loads up in a new area that you weren’t in previously and starts a boss fight against a guy you don’t know. What was that? Who is this? Are they connected to what was just being shown to me? Why are we fighting when no words were exchanged? It makes no sense to do an abrupt change to that all of a sudden. This type of storytelling jump is done CONSTANTLY and makes no sense. What’s worse is that when you are in the menu and go to the story section, even those tidbits are all over the place and don’t seem to tell the story chronologically.

Almost everything about the graphics. It looks like it was made to be optimized for a mobile platform and at the last minute, they threw it on PC and Console devices without making any changes. There are too many games out there from indie developers that provide better graphical quality for a large publisher to allow to slide by with such a low grade of detail.

Conclusion

Tokyo Ghoul:re [CALL to EXIST] is one of the worst anime-based games I have played so far. Almost everything about it seems uninspired and lazy to the point that it didn’t seem like the developers even cared to make the game in the first place. I was hoping to have a game full of exciting moments and lore filled cutscenes, but instead got non-stop repetitive action and randomized plot fillers.