I liked Ghostwire: Tokyo, but cripes did it need a dodge button. Combat basically amounted to circle strafing enemies while firing fancy magic at them, and I'm not alone in feeling that its fighting was the worst thing about it. A little fluidity, a little flair, might have helped, and myself and many others (just google it) have sometimes asked: where art thou, dodge button? In a newly announced free update dubbed Spider's Thread, I'm getting my goddamn dodge, baby.
That's probably among the more minor promises in the update, which is coming on April 12, and will coincide with its launch of PC Game Pass. It's an impressively comprehensive update, offering new areas, new skills, new enemies, and even a new roguelite mode which isn't just permadeath bolted onto the campaign. The new mode offers a stage-based challenge—30 stages randomly pulled from a pool of 130—which will put your combat and traversal skills to the test. Dying means a fresh run, but "you'll have a portion of your upgrades retained," so it's not all tears and faceplants.
Tokyo is expanding, with a Middle School promised: expect to explore dimly lit classrooms a la something like White Day or Detention, I guess. The new missions will likely focus on this setting, and will probably necessitate the use of the new Counter-Attack and Quick Dodging moves, which compliment the new skill-tree abilities. These include Charge Rush (basically a super powerful melee attack), Tengu Wind (drop a launchpad-style whirlwind wherever you want for some quick building scaling) and Spiritual Fountain (quickly generate a pool of 'Ether' ammo on-the-fly).
Interestingly, extant cutscenes are being extended, all the better to grant "players more character interaction and insight into the plot". It all culminates in a patch that feels like a comprehensive "fix" to a game that was generally considered just OK upon release.
Tango Gameworks is keeping quiet about some of the expansion's features and additions, all the better to surprise returning players. There is one little QOL improvement I quite like, though: if you find this unscary supernatural thriller too scary, you'll now have the ability to "replace certain psychic effects with adorable Shiibuya Hachi stickers." What's Shiibuya Hachi? Why, this famous dog statue.
