Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (DS)
Don’t ask me when but somewhere along the line there started to be more games than time to play them. It would not surprise me if you said you had a collection of games you have yet to play and you’re concerned you’ll never find the time to play them.
I share your pain. With the inclusion of Downloadable titles and Handheld games my “To Play” list is getting a little out of hand. Will I stop buying games until I’ve played the ones I have? Hell no, Arkham City comes within the next few weeks and that was long overdue from the moment I finished Arkham Asylum.
So where am I going with this? Well, amongst my growing pile of games was a little DS game called Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. To be honest I had barely heard of it, just that it was sort of like Phoenix Wright, a series I absolutely adore. But truth be told it wasn’t the most exciting game in my pile. In fact it was in danger of being so far down my list I might never get around to playing it.
Fortunately I did and it turned out to be an absolute gem of a game, filled to the brim with great storytelling and originality. It so did not deserve to be ignored.
The idea is simple, you are dead and are now a ghost but you can interact with objects. Your goal is to discover the truth about your mysterious death. You do this by changing the fates of the main characters, usually saving them from being killed.
On screen you are a blue flame than can move between certain objects in a small radius. Once inside an object you can manipulate it using a “ghost trick”. For example you can open a suitcase, or turn on a fan, or roll a tyre. If you move the flame towards a dead body you can talk to them and relive the last 4 minutes before their death. Here you’re free to move about the area as a ghost and manipulate objects until you find a way of saving that person’s life.
For example there’s a section where one of the main characters gets sniped by a hit man hiding in the nearby junkyard. There are three places the hit man will try to shoot from and he will not shoot where there is a light. You can move about and turn on the lights covering the shooting locations but you can only turn on two at a time. You use the lights to place the hit man where you want him to be, and then manipulate the near by police car siren to alert the nearby policemen to his location.
Other puzzles get more complex, even moving to the location you want becomes itself a puzzle giving the limited range you can move. You need to take advantage of moving machines and objects to get around. Later on in the game you’ll get the ability to swap objects of similar shape, e.g. to change a boulder to a tennis ball.
It’s hard to place this in a genre. Probably closest to Point and Click but it doesn’t have the same feel as games like Sam and Max, or the Monkey Island Series. The go to location and interact with object mechanic is intentionally far more restrictive but offers a unique blend of timing and strategy.
By far the game’s best strength is its story. Gripping, nicely paced and with plenty of twists it has the makings of a real “page-turner”, just like Phoenix Wright hence the comparisons.
With a lovely soundtrack and some nice stylish visuals the whole experience is very well presented. It’s hard to find any fault; Ghost Trick is a polished, well made and original experience that deserves all the recognition is gets, and then some.
As I look at my pile of games yet to play I can’t help but wonder how many more potential Ghost Tricks there are, and worryingly am I ever going to play them.
If you’re looking for something to fill the void Phoenix Wright has left Ghost Trick is the perfect answer. A game that should be played at some point by anyone who calls themselves a gamer.
9/10
I share your pain. With the inclusion of Downloadable titles and Handheld games my “To Play” list is getting a little out of hand. Will I stop buying games until I’ve played the ones I have? Hell no, Arkham City comes within the next few weeks and that was long overdue from the moment I finished Arkham Asylum.
So where am I going with this? Well, amongst my growing pile of games was a little DS game called Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. To be honest I had barely heard of it, just that it was sort of like Phoenix Wright, a series I absolutely adore. But truth be told it wasn’t the most exciting game in my pile. In fact it was in danger of being so far down my list I might never get around to playing it.
Fortunately I did and it turned out to be an absolute gem of a game, filled to the brim with great storytelling and originality. It so did not deserve to be ignored.
The idea is simple, you are dead and are now a ghost but you can interact with objects. Your goal is to discover the truth about your mysterious death. You do this by changing the fates of the main characters, usually saving them from being killed.
On screen you are a blue flame than can move between certain objects in a small radius. Once inside an object you can manipulate it using a “ghost trick”. For example you can open a suitcase, or turn on a fan, or roll a tyre. If you move the flame towards a dead body you can talk to them and relive the last 4 minutes before their death. Here you’re free to move about the area as a ghost and manipulate objects until you find a way of saving that person’s life.
For example there’s a section where one of the main characters gets sniped by a hit man hiding in the nearby junkyard. There are three places the hit man will try to shoot from and he will not shoot where there is a light. You can move about and turn on the lights covering the shooting locations but you can only turn on two at a time. You use the lights to place the hit man where you want him to be, and then manipulate the near by police car siren to alert the nearby policemen to his location.
Other puzzles get more complex, even moving to the location you want becomes itself a puzzle giving the limited range you can move. You need to take advantage of moving machines and objects to get around. Later on in the game you’ll get the ability to swap objects of similar shape, e.g. to change a boulder to a tennis ball.
It’s hard to place this in a genre. Probably closest to Point and Click but it doesn’t have the same feel as games like Sam and Max, or the Monkey Island Series. The go to location and interact with object mechanic is intentionally far more restrictive but offers a unique blend of timing and strategy.
By far the game’s best strength is its story. Gripping, nicely paced and with plenty of twists it has the makings of a real “page-turner”, just like Phoenix Wright hence the comparisons.
With a lovely soundtrack and some nice stylish visuals the whole experience is very well presented. It’s hard to find any fault; Ghost Trick is a polished, well made and original experience that deserves all the recognition is gets, and then some.
As I look at my pile of games yet to play I can’t help but wonder how many more potential Ghost Tricks there are, and worryingly am I ever going to play them.
If you’re looking for something to fill the void Phoenix Wright has left Ghost Trick is the perfect answer. A game that should be played at some point by anyone who calls themselves a gamer.
9/10
posted by Master hunter at 5:30 pm
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