Ghost Trick First Impressions

In previous articles I mentioned how much I enjoy adventure games. I have beaten all of the Ace Attorney games that have been released in North America to this point. The creator of the series decided to work on something different after finishing the fourth Ace Attorney game. I spent some time playing that standalone adventure, and I would like to talk about the refreshing experience I got when playing Ghost Trick.

In Ghost Trick, your object is to solve the mystery by manipulating the items in the environment. The player character starts off the game recently deceased not remembering anything and witnesses the death of a young lady. You then learn that you can move from inanimate object to inanimate object in the environment, manipulate certain objects like opening and closing a door or deploying an umbrella handle, and travel to certain points in the past. This allows the protagonist to explore the game scenes and prevent misfortune to certain other characters. All of the characters are animated in three-dimensional models, and the art style of the characters and environments stand out uniquely.

While exploring the mystery of your death, the game centers on showing the scene of someone’s death and then traveling back in time to prevent it. If you fail to change the outcome of a scene, you can travel to the past and try again as much as you want. However, the game puts limits on place to keep you on the rails. I had to wait a while until a character moved to pick up an item and time my object manipulation to prevent her from picking up headphones. In that same scene I traveled to an area with a key item, but it was not important until after I saved a dog from danger. At least when enough events change you get a checkpoint so that you do not have to start over. No matter what, the writing is great enough that I am invested in figuring out the greater chain of events behind the protagonist’s death.

A brief play of Ghost Trick indicates that this title will provide a satisfying adventure with a unique style and entertainment gameplay. I purchased it for the Nintendo DS, but it is also available on Apple mobile devices with the option to try the first few levels and pay for the rest. I ought to finish this before I talk about the other games featuring an animal with a weapon moniker as a side character.

Ghost Trick Announcement Trailer

Capcom Web Site