Product Features
- Genre
- Adventure
- Publisher
- Nintendo
- Release Date
- January 14, 2011
- Available Platforms
- Nintendo DS
Related Items
Ghost Trick Phantom Detective
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
-
Danwen Huang February 24, 2012 DS
The cover of Ghost Trick doesn't really sell the game. Mainly because from first glance a person would deduce that this was a game about an anime dude tidying up his stuff in a really red looking garage. However if you take your time to read what it says in the blue box at the bottom you'll see that this game is much more than cleaning up a garage.
Just like it says in the blue box the game-play revolves around manipulating objects with your ghost tricks in order to solve puzzles- or in Ghost trick's terminology 'prevent person X from dying by travelling back in time'. Along the way the game throws in some more quirks to shake up the game-play by giving you the ability to swap objects of the same shape; there's even sections where you help people to escape instead of reviving them. These puzzles are often very experimental, requiring you to try out all the different things your can do with the objects. Only after some experimenting and head scratching will you arrive at a solution. Sometimes you'll miss out on an opportunity to finish the puzzle whether it is because you messed up the timing, didn't do things in the right order or manipulated the wrong items. When that happens you can just rewind time. The game never really berates you for making mistakes, rather if you be a bit brave and try things out, it will sometimes result in humorous situations (such as accidentally getting a detective face-palmed by a hard helmet when you try to save him from a bullet to the head).
Ultimately Ghost trick is a mystery game. You (Sissel the main character) try and discover the truth about yourself after getting a severe case of amnesia, seriously you even forget what a microscope is. Seems relatively simple at first right? Well let's just say your single determination to find out who you are will lead to a variety of other mysteries of other characters and they story- some are serious some are outright strange. Which by the way are all interconnected in one way or another. Sufficient to say the plot presented in this game will definitely intrigue and spark off several Ohs, Ahs and I sees that any good mystery story would. Plus you'll never see the ending coming.
There is a wry and peculiar sense of humour present in a game about deaths and murders. This is mainly thanks to the colourful and expressive characters in the game. Not only do they have unique hairstyles they all have memorable personally quirks. Even the villains and minor similar looking NPCs are loveable- a gentlemanly villain with less temper than a pacifist and a panicky guard who loves to dance away his worries are just a few examples.
It is only reasonable that Capcom decided to create flamboyant characters, after all it means they can show off their animation skills. Let's just say they succeed by flying colours or flying rainbows or whatever silly English phrase that means: 'did a good job of'. The over-the-top characters are accompanied by absolutely stunning animation that make these weridos actually believable. The movements of the hair, clothe, limbs are all animated to an exceptional degree of detail. Watching the characters come alive adds not only personality to them but also make the game so much better to look at. The DS doesn't exactly have the best graphics for a console; but for such impressively smooth and nature animation to be implemented into a pint size touchscreen, Capcom has certainly pushed the console's graphical limits.
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is a fascinating game. With a new take on traditional puzzle adventure gameplay, an engaging story, quirky characters and top-notch animations. This game is another essential purchase for puzzle and mystery fans, or anyone who just desires to try something new and surprising. And congratulations to Capcom and Shu Takumi for making another brilliant new IP. Now I'm just going to cross my fingers in hope for a sequel.