A new Ghostwire Tokyo Deep Dive video was published yesterday, which sheds light on many gameplay aspects, and even includes an interview with the developers, where they talk about their inspirations and ideas. The nature of the works they mentioned clarifies a lot of the details we have seen in the trailer, and the main point of Ghostwire Tokyo’s storyline.
Ghostwire Tokyo DeepDive
Ukiyo-e Paintings
Ukiyo-e, (Japanese: “pictures of the floating world”) one of the most important genres of art of the Tokugawa period (1603–1867) in Japan. The style is a mixture of the realistic narrative of the emaki (“picture scrolls”) produced in the Kamakura period and the mature decorative style of the Momoyama and Tokugawa periods. The ukiyo-e style also has about it something of both native and foreign realism.
Screen paintings were the first works to be done in the style. These depicted aspects of the entertainment quarters (euphemistically called the “floating world”) of Edo (modern Tokyo) and other urban centres. Common subjects included famous courtesans and prostitutes, kabuki actors and well-known scenes from kabuki plays, scenes from history and folk tales; travel scenes and landscapes; flora and fauna; and erotica.
Japanese folklore is a goldmine of terrifying supernatural Yokai monsters, demons, phantoms. A large number of Ukiyo-e woodblock printings created in that historical period to depict these monstrous beings in the illustrations of popular folk tales and horror stories. Their images have been passed down through the years, and many art genres in Japan today, including manga and games, are heavily influenced by them.
A list of Ghostwire Tokyo Monsters inspired by Yokai folklore can be found here: GHOSTWIRE: TOKYO – THE VISITORS AND THEIR JAPANESE FOLKLORE ORIGINS. and their artworks can be found here: Something Wicked from Japan: Ghosts, Demons & Yokai in Ukiyo-e Masterpieces (Japanese Edition)
Goethe’s Faust
The story tells the experience of the legendary Doctor Faustus, who sells his soul to the demon Mephistopheles in return for worldly knowledge and pleasure. It has been treated as a metaphor for unholy political pacts. The legend is loosely based on the life of Johann Georg Faust (c 1480–1540), an alchemist and practitioner of necromancy, a form of ‘black magic’. The most influential interpretation of the Faust legend was written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) in two parts.
A single main theme is evident throughout both parts of Faust and provides a unifying structure for the entire work. This is Faust’s dissatisfaction with the finite limits on man’s potential — the driving force that motivates him in all his adventures as he strives to find a way to pass beyond the boundaries set on human experience and perception, however the means may be. Closely related to this theme is whether Faust, as a representative of all mankind, will continue to be able to perceive the difference between good and evil, regardless of temptation and personal sinfulness. In the Lord’s view of human nature, it is admitted that man is imperfect and that his ability is limited, which is the cause of his frustration and dissatisfaction.
The continues need for him to improve and find himself, eventually led him to despair instead of answers. The conclusion of the drama is that good may arise out of evil, but they do not advocate that evil should be sought after as a means for finding the good. The moral doctrine that Goethe puts forward in Faust teaches that the essential feature of all existence and the law that governs the universe is one of untiring, purposeful, and positive effort, and that man can find his place in life only through striving to participate in this vast cosmic movement, although of necessity in terms appropriate to his human capabilities.
Goethe’s Faust is available to read on The Project Gutenberg.
Solaris (Novel)
Solaris is a 1961 science fiction novel (adapted into movie later) by Polish writer Stanisław Lem. It follows a crew of scientists on a research station as they attempt to understand an extraterrestrial intelligence, which takes the form of a vast ocean on the titular alien planet. The novel is among Lem’s best-known works.
The unique aspect of this novel is that unlike other sci-fi novels which tackle humanity in a setting about aliens, and even portrays aliens as some sentient form that can be communicated with. The alien lifeform in this novel is an ocean by itself, called the ocean of Solaris. The novel is an internal struggle about trying to understand what exactly is this ocean, and what kind of answers are we even expecting, and can we really conform to these ideas when we finally reach them, as the feeble humans we are?
What makes the story fascinating is that readers never really get answers, it’s mostly about the struggle. But what makes us human in the end, is that we will keep trying despite everything. I think the novel maybe directly related to the otherworldly part of the Ghostwire Tokyo deepdive where there is a sea portrayed and the moon shining beyond it in its full glory.
Clamp’s X and Tokyo Babylon
X, also known as X/1999, is a Japanese manga series created by Clamp, a creative team made up of Satsuki Igarashi, Nanase Ohkawa, Tsubaki Nekoi, and Mokona. The story takes place at the end of days in the year 1999. The series follows Kamui Shiro, a young esper who returns home to Tokyo after a six-year absence to face his destiny as the one who will determine humanity’s fate, just like the protagonist of Ghostwire Tokyo.
The series is a foray into apocalyptic fiction; it combines elements from various end-of-the-world scenarios, both secular and religious, with its own mythos. Its themes include exploring the personality of humanity, relationships with others, and external conflicts like the impending Armageddon. It has garnered mostly positive reviews for its large, varied cast and appealing illustrations, despite its lack of an ending. It became one of Clamp’s most iconic works in their early career; despite its female target audience, it also attracted male readers because of its focus on action.
Tokyo Babylon, also known as Tokyo Babylon: A Save Tokyo City Story, is a Japanese manga series created by the same group. The series follows Subaru Sumeragi, the head of the Sumeragi clan, and his sister Hokuto, as they work to protect Tokyo from a myriad of supernatural perils while living with a man named Seishiro Sakurazuka.
The series has been well received for its focus on occultism and social themes. It is also famous in the West for including one of the first homosexual relationships portrayed in a manga as explored through the characters of Subaru and Seishiro. The writers’ heavy focus on Subaru’s character development stood out alongside the art produced by Clamp. However, the manga was criticized for its earlier comical style and expositions. The manga is notorious for its open and tragic ending which is followed in Clamp’s next work, X.
Connie Willis’s Passage
Passage follows the efforts of Joanna Lander, a research psychologist, to understand the phenomenon of near-death experiences (or NDEs) by interviewing hospital patients after they are revived following clinical death. Her work with Dr. Richard Wright, a neurologist who has discovered a way to chemically induce an artificial NDE and conduct an “RIPT” brain scan during the experience, leads her to the discovery of the biological purpose of NDEs.
Willis includes elements of madcap comedy in the style and form of Passage, and links different events thematically in order to foreshadow later events.
Connie Willis’s inspiration for Passage came in part from her mother’s death, when Willis was 12. Willis felt frustrated that relatives and friends tried to comfort her with platitudes, so she wanted to write a novel that dealt with death honestly and could help people understand the process of death and mourning.
We can theorize this particular novel is related to the Ghostwire Tokyo deep dive hospital scene where the protagonist of the game is trying to save a vulnerable girl in a coma.
Noh Compositions
Noh theatre, Noh also spelled No, traditional Japanese theatrical form and one of the oldest extant theatrical forms in the world.
Noh—its name derived from nō, meaning “talent” or “skill”—is unlike Western narrative drama. Rather than being actors or “representers” in the Western sense, Noh performers are simply storytellers who use their visual appearances and their movements to suggest the essence of their tale rather than to enact it. Little “happens” in a Noh drama, and the total effect is less that of a present action than of a simile or metaphor made visual. The educated spectators know the story’s plot very well, so that what they appreciate are the symbols and subtle allusions to Japanese cultural history contained in the words and movements.
There are five types of Noh plays. The first type, the kami (“god”) play, involves a sacred story of a Shintō shrine; the second, shura mono (“fighting play”), centres on warriors; the third, katsura mono (“wig play”), has a female protagonist; the fourth type, varied in content, includes the gendai mono (“present-day play”), in which the story is contemporary and “realistic” rather than legendary and supernatural, and the kyōjo mono (“madwoman play”), in which the protagonist becomes insane through the loss of a lover or child; and the fifth type, the kiri or kichiku (“final” or “demon”) play, features devils, strange beasts, and supernatural beings. A typical Noh play is relatively short. Its dialogue is sparse, serving as a mere frame for the movement and music. A standard Noh program consists of three plays selected from the five types so as to achieve both an artistic unity and the desired mood; invariably, a play of the fifth type is the concluding work. Kyōgen, humorous sketches, are performed as interludes between plays. A program may begin with an okina, which is essentially an invocation for peace and prosperity in dance form.
Brain Valley by Hideaki Sena (The Writer of Parasite Eve)
BRAIN VALLEY is a science fiction novel published by Sena Hideaki in 1997. It won the 19th Japan Science Fiction Award.
The themes of the novel include human consciousness and the origin of God. The novel incorporates scientific knowledge of brain science, primatology and artificial intelligence, and deals with such topics as out-of-body experiences, near-death experiences and the hundredth monkey. According to Sena, “I wanted to convey the fun of science in an entertainment vehicle, like Jurassic Park.” An explanatory book was also published for this purpose.