Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters: Daybreak Special Gigs (PlayStation 3) Review

For those who haven't played the original game, Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters is a visual novel at its core, with a very… unique dialogue system, along with an original strategy style combat approach. The story follows a new transfer student in Japan as he joins "The Gate Keepers," a team somewhere between the Ghostbusters and the Scoobies from Buffy. This group of ghost hunting teens trekked around Tokyo, taking on monster-of-the-week style stories.

At its centre, the main tale and the mechanics of the combat are unchanged, but there has been a mammoth amount of extra content, along with a major overhaul to numerous elements. There is a surprising amount of changes and extra content here. Every aspect has had some work done to it, from the big parts like extra scenarios and missions, to the cosmetic changes for the fans.

Just what is new here in Daybreak, then? First off, the story has plenty of little additions throughout its 15 chapters, with many parts of the story receiving extra scenes that help to flesh out the story and give a little more explanation to events. It's not just the existing chapters that have been expanded upon either, as completely new missions and scenarios are added. A new character appears, too - an intimidating, scarred man that looks something like a cross between a witch hunter and a gunslinger. His name is Chagall, and he is a highly skilled and experienced exorcist from an ancient organisation that is very unimpressed with the "Gate Keepers."

On top of the extra story content, there are some new features for the combat and plenty of cosmetic additions. In the combat corner, now each character in the party can perform as many actions as its AP allows. Moichi has also been hard at work crafting a whole bunch of new items and traps to use in combat. This area was one of the glaring problems with the original and as nice as these new features are to have, they simply are not enough to elevate the combat above the complete fiasco level it currently sits at. The other fatal flaw with the original remains unaltered… the method of communicating with characters and interacting with the environment. The ridiculous sensory input wheels return! Get ready to accidentally lick party members, sniff them and just, in general, ruin the mood repeatedly.

Another aspect that remains unchanged is the presentation. This is something that is happily kept the same. The game looks absolutely gorgeous - background, character designs, monster designs; all of it absolutely fabulous and the sound perfectly complements the artistic style, as well.