LogFAQs > #933218593

#11





Years of release: 2010 (DS/iOS, Japan), 2011 (DS, WW), 2012 (iOS, WW)
Beaten?: Yes

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective was, once, described to me as being a lot like Ace Attorney, sort of. I understood that it was written and directed by Shu Takumi, the mastermind behind the Phoenix Wright trilogy, but I otherwise didn't really understand how it could be like Ace Attorney. There's no lawyers or courts of any of that stuff - the game isn't really even about solving murder mysteries, not in the standard sort of way, anyway. It's a narrative-driven game, and there's an overarcing mystery to be solved, but that's where the similarities end. But I played it with great skepticism about what sort of game this would be, and it turns out, it's exactly like Ace Attorney. Well, no, it's not actually like Ace Attorney at all, so forget that. But it's written with the same sort of sensibilities - and the same sort of flair - as Ace Attorney, so it ends up evoking a lot of its style. And it is a very good style. Ghost Trick is every bit Ace Attorney's equal in clever writing and storytelling, and for me it was a can't-stop-playing game from start to finish.

In Ghost Trick, you play as Sissel, who has just died. Although he cannot save himself, he discovers that he has just one night to at least solve the mystery of who killed him and why, before he disappears forever. As a ghost, he has the power to possess objects and perform "ghost tricks" to make the objects move and react in various ways, and you move Sissel from object to object, manipulating them to prevent other people from meeting the same fate you did. It's a puzzle game, where each new puzzle is lovingly crafted and exceedingly clever from start to finish, surrounded by lengthy narration that explains further developments in the mystery surrounding Sissel's death.

It's really damn good. Aside from the puzzles being great and the story being surprisingly gripping, the game just nails every element of its presentation so damn well. The animation is one of the rare DS games that still holds up perfectly today, smooth and stylish and incredibly fun to look at; every character moves with a brilliant sense of personality. The music is pretty much nonstop bangers and drives the action much like you'd expect from an Ace-Attorney-except-it's-ghosts-and-not-lawyers kind of game.

But goddamn, if you've read this list you can probably figure out that I'm a fucking sucker for a good plot twist - some story element that the game builds up to that knocks me flat on my ass when it's revealed. I'm not gonna talk about it here, of course, but this is where the game really reveals Shu Takumi's fingerprints all over it. Some of the shit that happens in this game still gets me fucking pumped up as hell thinking about it almost ten years later it's so awesome. There's a fair handful of moments in this game that were worth experiencing not just myself, but also vicariously through other people, and I think this game surprised me in a few ways that Ace Attorney, Danganronpa, etc could only dream of doing. I still think about this game a lot, and I might be due for a replay I think. This may well be my favorite game on the DS; if you haven't played it yet, don't miss it.