It’s unusual to begin a game as you do in Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective: you’re dead. That is the premise for this DS game, one of Capcom’s greatest achievements in Nintendo’s popular handheld console. This doesn’t mean that it’s game over, however; this is only the beginning of a mesmerizing detective story like you’ve never played before.
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective can easily and wrongly be dismissed as a game with a gimmick by someone who wasn’t lucky – or clever – enough to play it. As it turns out, this is one of the most ingenious, gripping and surprising mysteries ever created for a videogame. It’s fun as heck, and it also helps that the cast of characters is mostly memorable. The cherry on top is that they are animated in such a smooth way that it almost seems like it was the work of a team comprised of obsessive-compulsive artists.
At heart, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective could be considered a puzzle game. You don’t control a character, taking instead control of his spirit, trying to discover who killed you and why. Without any memory of past events, you have a few hours to solve this mystery or you’ll cease to exist. Obviously, being dead can be a bit of an obstacle to your quest, and so how will you navigate the world and affect anything whatsoever?
By possessing inanimate objects in the spirit world and jumping around between them. You can only jump a limited distance, so this means that you must be resourceful and clever about which objects you possess, and what they can do to help you. For instance, you can open a trapdoor, roll a tire, close an umbrella and move plenty more objects for a myriad of reactions. It’s not as easy as it sounds, however, as some objects will get you nowhere, while others require perfect timing to shorten the distance or have some practical effect on the living characters.
Some set pieces are more intricate and require you to save a person from dying. You can rewind time, going back four minutes and doing your best to avoid the person’s demise. These events gradually become more difficult, requiring your full attention to detail or to wait for some animations to play out, in order to get that bit closer to the object you want to jump to. It does require some trial and error, but when you get a chain of events correct, it’s a beautiful thing to witness. And of course, you get some info from the person you saved that usually turns out to be valuable to your own quest.
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective’s story may feature plenty of dark topics and shady characters, but the overall theme manages to be incredibly clever and funny. The game is text-heavy, but in a compelling and effective way, as you’re witnessing a story that will remain a mystery until the final moments. You can expect a few significant twists, a dark sense of humour and a couple of cartoon moments that could easily be inspired by the Looney Tunes. In no way I’m exaggerating when I say that this game is absolutely delightful to watch; Missile, for example, is a dog so cute that you just want to pet it. Despite featuring a considerable amount of text, it never feels as a burden on the player, as the story is interesting and nicely balanced with the animations and ghost tricks.
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is the kind of videogame rarity that should be cherished and treasured. It’s a brilliant piece of entertainment that will make you feel better for having experienced it. It’s bizarre and wonderful in equal measure, and a game that absolutely deserves a sequel – except that there shouldn’t be one, as the original idea is one that deserves to remain unique, unspoiled. Every proud owner of a Nintendo DS owes himself to play this game.
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