A serious review of the extremely controversial stealth action game "Ghone is gone".

On January 22, 2020, the stealth action game "Ghone is gone" was released on Steam (priced at 100 yen [tax included]). Players control Roscar Ghone, former CEO of the Rousseau-Nisson Bisibishi Corporate Alliance, as he attempts to escape to the country of Non-Leba by heading to Xi Sekan Airport. Coincidentally, on December 31, 2019, Carlos Ghosn, former chairman of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, was found to have smuggled himself out of Kansai Airport to Lebanon, attracting attention to this work with a similar setting. However, this film is a work of fiction, completely unrelated to any real person, group, nation, institution, principle, ideology, or culture. In this review, the author does not intend to slander or defame them in any way, but rather to summarize his own personal views and objective facts obtained through playing this work.

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Advancing through stages while bribing enemies

This work is a vertical 2D scrolling type. It has a stage system, and there are three in total. When you start the game, you will see a figure of 260 billion yen, which is the assets Gon possesses and at the same time corresponds to his HP. The HP decreases when moving, attacking enemies, and taking damage, so basically the key is to avoid fighting enemies and prioritize escape. It is also possible to hide in the instrument box while pressing the space key. Whether you use it right in front of the enemy or not, they will lose sight of you as soon as you hide, thus reducing the consumption of assets. When attacking, it ejects a wad of cash, but the trajectory is unstable, and it is difficult to aim, perhaps due to poor sensitivity, so the hit rate is very poor. In order to hit an opponent reliably, one must get somewhat close to the target.

Even more troublesome is Gon. He is always on the screen, not only the player's Gon, but also an illustrated version of him, and since he is on the left side of the screen, sticking out of a guitar case-like object, he is very distracting and takes up about a quarter of the screen, making it impossible to ignore him. Both the enemy and Gon as the controlling character are hidden by Gon in the illustration when you go to the left, so you cannot see what is going on. It is not possible to hide the illustration itself in the settings. For all that, the game is surprisingly well-designed, with the characters being surprised when they take damage, and keeping their heads low while hiding. However, I would have liked to see a little more of that effort directed toward the playing environment.

At the end of each stage, a boss awaits, and it is quite strong. The bosses are generally large and have a wide range of damage, and Gon's movement itself is slow, so it is quite tough unless you predict the enemy's movement in advance and take countermeasures. Assets cannot be increased during the course of the game, so if you are scattering wads of cash along the way, you will not be able to withstand the damage of the boss and will be defeated in no time. Even if the game is over, the player can try again as many times as he or she wants by choosing "bail out," but the assets will be the same value as at the stage the player was challenging just before he or she was defeated or at the moment the boss battle begins. Therefore, if the player's assets (HP) are low after a continue, he or she will not be able to push hard even if he or she tries again, which may lead to a deadlock for some people. Although the game can be interrupted by selecting "get out of the game" on the continue screen, there is no save function or checkpoint in this game. You have to start over from the beginning.

For the sake of storytelling

Gon's movement speed, attack hit ratio, aiming sensitivity, and the illustration of Gon that takes up part of the screen are all poorly adjusted, and there are no distinctive gimmicks in each stage. However, the BGM for the boss battles is very uplifting, and this alone was worth the 100 yen I paid for the game. It would make a good conversation piece with a friend.