Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is a DS game brought to you by the insane team behind the Ace Attorney. For this, I thank them. Not only am I a huge fan of Ace Attorney, but I loved this game.
You play as Sissel, a recently-deceased ghost, as he tries to figure out why he died and who he is. Unfortunately, anyone who might know has an annoying habit of dying. Fortunately, Sissel can turn back time to four minutes before the person's death and manipulate objects in an attempt to prevent it. Over the course of a night, Sissel has to find out the answers... And get caught up in a conspiracy involving a redheaded policewoman, blue-skinned hitmen, and some guy with huge eyebrows. The story's extremely spoiler-heavy, so I won't reveal too much, but the cast of characters IS from the deranged mind of Shu Takumi, meaning they're entertaining... and very, very bizarre. Trust me, though, you'll care a lot about the characters as you spend the night trying to save their lives. The twists are also the kind where you'll go back, play it again, and go "I can't believe I missed THAT the first time around!" or "Ooh, now that makes sense!" In my opinion, this is always a sign of a good mystery.
Sissel can manipulate objects, but he has a pretty limited reach. To prevent people's deaths, he has to get from place to place by making Rube-Goldberg contraptions out of the things around him. For instance, to save a cute little dog, he has to get the dog's mistress to hide from a hitman before he arrives. How do you do this? Move a cart of donuts, rock a donut loose, and bat it across the area with a cabinet, attracting a rat that gets the dog's attention, starts him barking, and gets the girl to hide under the couch. Complicated? Wait until later chapters. Sissel can also travel from location to location through phone lines, making for much easier navigation. However, these two facts do lead to several moments where you have no clue what to do- one chapter has a character trying to reach a jug of water and some heart medication to prevent a heart attack. What should you possess? A flag. To make matters worse, you often have a very limited amount of time to get from one object to another before you get stuck and have to reset the time limit, starting the whole process over again. This is particularly annoying in chapters where you can't actually do anything until a certain point's past, and there's nothing you can do to speed up. Also, the game's VERY dialogue heavy. It's an adventure game. If you have a problem with this, look elsewhere.
The sound is very Ace Attorney-esque, with great music and sound effects, and the stylized character sprites are perfect for the feel of the game, but the real highlight of the game is its animation. Really, this game is smoother than any video game has any right to be. Fortunately, the character designers took advantage of this fact and gave characters wonderfully entertaining walks- the best one is a police inspector who literally dances through every scene. It's ridiculously smooth, making things like the "panic dance" of a prison guard all the more hilarious.
In conclusion, despite a couple ridiculously difficult chapters, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is a very entertaining game. With the 3DS coming out in March, this is a great last hurrah for Shu Takumi and his team, who gave us one of the most entertaining franchises of the DS. (Wait until next update for that one.) I look forward to whatever they try next... Though I'd like to see more of Apollo, please.
Final score:
Gameplay: Rube Goldberg: The game. Fun, if occasionally a bit "How was I supposed to know to do THAT?"
Story: Ridiculously twisty and turnabout-y, and that's just how I like my adventure games.
Graphics: Smoother than polished marbles. Fantastic animation, and very stylish feeling.
Kid-Appropriateness: Rated T, and probably at the lower end of the spectrum. However, the game is, obviously, a game about deaths, and some of them get quite frightening (One late-game character in particular is gonna be haunting my nightmares for some time.) I'd say it's appropriate for anyone age thirteen or up, and twelve or eleven-year-olds who aren't easily freaked out by cartoon violence and the uncanny valley waving hello to you and smirking should be fine.
Buy the game here if you're interested.
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