Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters (later released on Steam an Updated Re-release, Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters Daybreak: Special Gigs) is a Visual Novel / Tactical RPG hybrid developed by Arc System Works in collaboration with Toybox, Inc. The game focuses on Gate Keepers, a team of high-school ghost hunters for hire; gameplay is divided between visual novel investigation segments, planning segments where the player sets up traps and other tools for hunting ghosts, and Tactical RPG sections as the player actually plays out their missions.
The game was originally released for the PS3 and the Vita.
Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters provides examples of:
- A Taste of Power: In the tutorial you get to use Chizuru, the Gate Keepers' leader, who is level 30 and has one of the strongest skills in the game. After that she always finds an excuse to slack off and can't be deployed again.
- A Day in the Limelight: Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters Daybreak: Special Gigs adds additional chapters to develop the game's Optional Party Members a bit more, since most of them are Out of Focus outside the chapter where they're recruited.
- Adults Are Useless: While there are two adults working at Gate Keepers, Chizuru, the owner, can only be deployed in the tutorial and provides minimal assistance otherwise, while Sadoi will only work as the driver and provides no other assistance whatsoever.
- Bad Boss: Chizuru cares only about money, is implied to underpay her workers, and is generally terrible to work for.
- Death Dealer: While Iku's weapons take a variety of forms based around stage magic, their visual effects in battle always have her throwing cards.
- For Science!: Moichi's motivation is this; he often has to be talked down from dangerous or poorly-considered scientific experiments by the rest of the team.
- Hero Insurance: Averted; if you mess up in predicting where a ghost is going to move and attack the wrong spot, you can damage things in the area, which you have to pay compensation for at the end of the mission.
- Mission Control: Shiga acts as this most of the time, since he's in a wheelchair and can't participate in fights directly. In one of the missions exclusive to the Updated Re-release, he's unavailable and Seecloar, the company's (completely normal, non-speaking) cat, acts as your mission control instead.
- Paranormal Investigation: Naturally, most of what the Gate Keepers are employed for amounts to this; investigating and then banishing ghosts.
- The Power of Rock: Kosuge damages ghosts by playing an electric guitar and has a skill that gives him an attack bonus when his attacks trash the set.
- Punch-Clock Hero: Several of the characters who work at Gate Keepers are this; technically everyone is getting paid, but Chizuru and Sadoi in particular only seem to be there for the money.
- Updated Re-release: Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters Daybreak: Special Gigs, which adds several additional chapters and convenience features.
- Verbal Tic: Moichi prefixes everyone's name with the two-letter abbreviation for his his in-universe perception of their Dungeons & Dragons Character Alignment, such as calling Shiga LG-Shiga or calling Kosuge CG-Kosuge.
- Who You Gonna Call?: The game has you playing a group of ghost-hunters for hire.
