Game: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
Console: Nintendo DS
Developer: Capcom
Release Date: 11th January 2011
Listen to music from the game as you read!
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is one of the most interesting games I've played this year, for a number of reasons. Firstly its use of the DS touchscreen is innovative, fully necessary, and works well to define the character of the game. Secondly it has an engaging and interesting story which unfolds at a consistent pace throughout the game's 18 chapters. Lastly the gameplay is fun, challenging and some of the most unique puzzling I've seen in a title from a large publisher in this decade.
If that didn't convince you, then maybe going into a little more detail will; Gameplay is made up of puzzling sections, interspersed with story and cutscenes which develop once you've solved the puzzle at hand. Players control "Sissel", a soul searching for his identity and trying to figure out why he was killed, and by whom. Taking control of his "core" to possess inanimate objects and briefly animate them, or to talk to other recently departed souls, Sissel is also able to travel back to 4 minutes before the death of souls he comes across.
Most levels involve trying to stop a particular event, or series of events from happening by possessing various objects in order to make a path to that which you want to change. While in the "ghost world", time pauses so that it's easy to switch between objects that are near one another, however if you want to animate an object using a ghost trick, then time must be unpaused. This leads to some situations where timing is critical later on in the game.
There's a set amount of time in which you must complete each level, as once the timer runs out, the event you're attempting to prevent happens, and the future will not play out as you'd like. While messing around with time in this way does sound quite complicated, the game does well to provide a somewhat continuous flow of time through its chapters on the whole.
While there's not many details of the story that I can reveal without giving away spoilers, it features a good deal of mystery, plot twists and character development, especially for a game which is set over the course of one evening (for the most part). Without the storytelling power of the game, it'd be a series of fairly disconnected puzzles, but that just goes to show how well the events of the game tie everything together. The cutscenes and dialogue sections of the game are just as interesting as the gameplay.
A consistent feature of the game is its humour which ranges from sarcastic to slapstick with many other stops inbetween. Every character you meet and interact with has their own mannerisms and style, which goes a long way towards giving the game its unique feel. The pacing is near perfect, as I never felt that the game was moving too fast or slow for my liking, and the only indication that the end was almost upon me was given by dialogue and the events of the game, rather than the progress chart style of other games.
Graphically the game has a nice 3D foreground on a 2D background feel to most of the gameplay, with cartoon style sprites representing important characters when they are in conversation. As always the image quality isn't exactly helped by the size of the DS screen, but it's on par with most of the other games for the system. The music for the game is fitting, enjoyable and incredibly catchy. Its ambient electronic style enhances the mood of gameplay and stays with you even after completing the game.
Overall Ghost Trick is a game that I'd highly recommend if you're looking for a handheld game which is just as engaging as console titles, a good puzzle/adventure game, a well told and unpredictable storyline, or all of the above. Even when I couldn't figure out a certain puzzle, the game was so good that I was encouraged to carry on (some are challenging but never illogical or impossible). My only criticism of the game is that it ended, because I've been yearning to play again since completion.
Rating: 88/100
Grade: A
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