Fortunately, he hasn’t disappeared from the earth just yet. Rising from his lifeless body as a ghost, Sissel discovers that he can now possess and manipulate objects, using them to affect the world of the living and influence the course of events both past and present. If he finds a fellow corpse, he can travel backward through time in order to change history and prevent that person from dying in the first place.
That’s the premise of Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, a Nintendo DS game released Tuesday. Designed by Ace Attorney creator Shu Takumi, Ghost Trick features the same kind of crazy characters and twist-filled stories that make Takumi’s legal-adventure games so appealing. The gameplay mechanic, on the other hand, is inherently flawed.
‘Ha Ha, I Died Again!’
Ghost Trick is broken up into 18 chapters, in which you guide Sissel as he prevents other people from winding up like him. When he learns he’ll disappear forever by sunrise, the ghost decides to figure out who he is, how he was killed and why he was targeted.
People die a lot in Ghost Trick, and the macabre is tackled in a meaningful way thanks to the game’s delightful cast. Sissel is endearing in his brutal honesty and loyalty. Other characters all boast memorable traits, from the hyperactive undercover waitress to the endlessly dancing detective.
The dialog is also fantastic, with some snappy lines that are translated impeccably. “Women can do anything with fashion,” one cop opines. “I don’t even know what my wife weighs.”
The character animations are strikingly fluid. Assassins skulk around like shady criminals, one dramatic police officer channels Shakespeare every time he’s upset and a certain obese prisoner flops out of bed like a beached whale. Hidden background jokes and themes, like a giant painting of a cooked chicken hanging on said obese prisoner’s cell wall, add to the effect.
It’s great to look at Ghost Trick ‘s environments, but getting from setting to setting is a chore.
Since you’re a ghost, you can’t walk around like a normal person. Your only method of transportation is through conveniently placed objects you can possess at will. You’ll have to continuously possess and manipulate each object as you move along, unfolding doors and opening umbrellas in tedious fashion just to get from scene to scene.
It’s eternally frustrating to be confined to linear paths due to a constricting gameplay mechanic, not unlike the experience you’ll face in Final Fantasy XIII.
The puzzle-solving also feels like menial work. There’s only one possible solution to each problem, and they all involve manipulating the right objects in a certain order at very specific times. Getting through each stage requires a lot of trial and error.
Part of the appeal of the Ace Attorney series is the “Eureka!” moment, that feeling of brain satisfaction that can only come out of solving a particularly grueling puzzle using nothing but your wits. Ghost Trick has no eurekas, only “Oh … is that it?”
WIRED Gorgeous animation, creative and enticing story, bouncy dialog.
TIRED Frustrating gameplay, unsatisfying puzzles.
$30, Capcom
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