Ghost Trick : Detective Phantom (remastered)

[b]My Playtime:[/b] 13.3h (100% achievement, finished the game) [b]Grindy Achievement(s):[/b] No. [b]Optional Achievement(s):[/b] Yes (12 achievements). [b]Difficult Achievement(s):[/b] No. [h1]Intro[/h1] [i]Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective[/i] is a puzzle game where you play as a ghost doing tricks on inanimate objects. You'll have to find a way to navigate the level, manipulating any objects within the room to prevent someone else's death. [b]Pros:[/b] - 17+ unique levels - Multiple ways to fail - Each chapter is short, perfect to be played in short bursts [b]Cons:[/b] - You need to wait some time when you restart a level to reach the state you were in - Saving only saves on certain points [b]Specs[/b] AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, 16GB RAM, AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT [h1]Should you buy this game?[/h1] [i]If you enjoy puzzle games with unique mechanics and a good story, this one is for you.[/i] [hr][/hr] [h1]In-Depth Review[/h1] [h3]Story[/h3] [i]Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective[/i] tells the story of an amnesiac ghost who is trying to remember himself. He only has time until dawn to figure it out, although unfortunately, today is a busy day. All sorts of things are happening, especially related to murder, and it's our protagonist's job to save the victims. [i]Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective[/i]'s story is told with many secrets. It was designed to be easily digested with simplistic, short dialogues. You'll be fed with information bit by bit until everything is revealed at the end. Even though the story was split into 18 chapters, those who didn't play the game in one sitting won't have any trouble following the story since the game always does recaps for past events. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3379218169 Despite the short dialogues, it still manages to slip in some important information for the ending reveal. The game will explain everything at the end, including minor details that might not seem important to the main plot. Murder might be the game's main focus, but the game still tries to keep the story light-hearted. I ended up getting attached to the characters, and the game answers to that desire: all characters, even the NPCs that only appear a few times, are shown in the ending, revealing how they have become. It's such a sweet ending. [h3]The Game[/h3] [b]Gameplay[/b] [i]Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective[/i]'s gameplay is different from other games. As a ghost, you can't walk; instead, you can possess objects within a certain range. Since it was originally released for [i]Nintendo DS[/i], part of the gameplay requires you to "draw" a line from your position to the object that you want to possess. It's possible to do it from the controller most of the time, but sometimes, it can be tricky when you need to possess an object that is close to another object. Luckily, you can switch to a mouse in these cases. The gameplay is divided into two parts: the present and the 4 minutes before death world. The present is where the story progresses; you mostly just need to move around to trigger a cutscene and read the dialogue. Sometimes, moving around locations—done by using the telephone lines—is required, with locations mostly being told ahead of time. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3648049861 [b]4 Minutes Before Death World[/b] After you find a corpse, the puzzle part of the game triggers. You'll move to the 4 minutes before death world, where you must save the person from dying. The game will show you moments before the person's death, and then you can do your thing: moving between objects and possessing them to do something. Some objects can be moved by your ability, provided that you possess them. This makes it possible to change the person's fate from dying. Since you can't walk, you will have to find a way to reach your target. Sometimes, this revolves around waiting for someone to move, allowing you to possess the object that was moved by that person. Other times, you need to move an object so that it's closer to other objects. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3661072706 There are many objects that you can possess and move, and this is where the puzzle part starts. You must find the correct solution in the level to save the person. There are a lot of possibilities and game overs, although you can reset from the beginning if you fail. [b]Reset[/b] Since the game requires you to wait and do something at the right time, resetting to the checkpoint means that you must wait and go through all of the events again to return to where you were. This can be time-consuming, especially since there are a lot of ways in which you can fail. Luckily, the game offers two checkpoints instead of one whenever the level is long enough. You can save anywhere you want as long as there is no cutscene. However, if you load your save, the game might not load right at the moment where you saved, especially if you were in the 4 minutes before death world.

This was quite a rewarding game to play and finish! The premise was interesting, the greater story was enjoyable and intriguing, and the gameplay mechanics were not only incredibly fun and slightly challenging at times, but meshed exceptionally well with the story, such that the in-game actions felt pivotal to the story, and the story just as pivotal in determining which actions could be taken during the game's events. Add onto that the intrigue of the mystery surrounding who you are and what events truly unfolded at the beginning of the game's story, and you have this wonderful puzzle mystery game filled with comedic gags, fun characters, and not-so-dire yet still somehow suspenseful events. I'm really glad I returned to this game when I found it available on Steam--I'm convinced that anyone even remotely interested in the puzzle mystery genre should give this unique game a try!

As a big fan of the Ace Attorney series, I had been recommended this game countless times over the years, given that it is a Visual Novel-esque game by Shu Takumi. I finally bit this year, and I was not disappointed! However, I do think this game does not manage to reach the highs that Ace Attorney often reaches, for a myriad of reasons. Presentation-wise, I really have no complaints. The artstyle is unique, almost comic book like with extremely vibrant colors and memorable character designs. The environments are these 2.5D dioramas with so much attention to detail, like one of those I Spy books come to life. The soundtrack is catchy and composed well. Ghost Trick, gameplay wise, is kind of hard to describe. It is of course, half visual novel, with the other half loosely earning the label of "puzzle game". You play as a spirit, and gameplay segments will involve you possessing objects and interacting with them to set off events in a Rube Goldberg Machine type of way. It is quite novel, and I want to give it lots of points for that alone. I think where the systems falter is whenever active time is introduced to puzzle segments, which happens fairly often as a main purpose of you possessing objects is to prevent the deaths of characters as the events of said death play out. While I absolutely understand that having these strict timers on those segments was necessary, when these puzzles get more complex in the latter half of the game, you REALLY start to feel suffocated. There were a few puzzles where I just used a guide to get through em, especially when there are many moving parts and possible object permutations in the lategame. Again, this idea is really cool, and I quite enjoyed the puzzles with a less strict or completely absent timer, but I can't lie and say that I was SUPER into the gameplay of this title. What kept me stickin' around was definitely the story, which takes the form of a grand conspiracy set of entangled mysteries that unravel over the course of one night. I was really impressed by how much the writing kept me guessing and wanting to find out what would happen next; the ending especially was really tightly paced and felt like it wrapped up everything well. The characters (especially the more main cast like Lynne, Jowd, Missle, Cabanela and the like) were for the most part charming, though I have two nitpicky problems that nagged at me throughout. A) Shu Takumi has this like weird thing where he loves to write these old couples where the wife is abusing the husband, and it is never funny and just comes off real mean-spirited. Almost anything involving the subplot with the Justice Minister and his wife and daughter made me groan. It did also kind of make me raise an eyebrow at how much people thirst after Lynne and the Blue Woman in-story but it was ignorable enough B) Characters in Ghost Trick have this sort of blase attitude about death which really can add to the comedy of scenes, hell the deuteragonist Lynne dies a lot of times in typically comedic fashion, to the point where she just treats it as a small roadblock. Every other character you rescue from death is equally blase if not more, and like I said, it DOES make this game funnier... but it also makes me pretty emotionally uninvested in the characters as a result. I do think that emotional core is sorely lacking here in comparison to other visual novels, and while I do like the characters and the storyline, it could have been serviced far better by having more emotional stakes. Whew, that's a lot of critiquing for a game I ultimately found to be good, but I think it speaks to the potential that was not fully reached, at least in my opinion. Ace Attorney this is NOT, but I definitely recommend trying it if you can.