Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective Reviews

Watched a video that recommended this in an off-hand comment, decided to try it out. Amazing idea it turns out, this was a really fun and unique puzzle game, I haven't played anything like it before and probably wont again unless I come across a game directly inspired by it. Pretty much everything about this game is charming in one way or another, the art style, the characters, the music, and the story which had me invested during my entire play through, I don't think I can say any of those four things will ever be able to top them in other games I have played. (mostly because I prefer games that excel in those categories and have played quite a few that can't be beaten easily) None of it was bad, or even just decent, it was all good, but the thing that really makes the game stand out is the game play. Most of the "puzzle" games I have played has had the puzzle in the background of the main game play, it might be how you progress in the story, but usually the main focus of the game is something else. So I was rather surprised with how much I enjoyed solving the various puzzles the game gives you, the format of being a ghost jumping from object to object was so unlike anything I had ever played before, and it was done super well, needing to figure out the sequence of events required to get everything done without something going wrong made me feel like a genius every time I solved the puzzle I was given, while the ability to easily reset the puzzle for another shot at it when things went wrong prevented me from feeling stupid that I had missed something. Even if the game wasn't as good as it was, I think I still would have enjoyed it for how unique it's game play mechanics are. This game originally came out on the Nintendo DS, 15 years ago as of when this review was written and playing it has reinforced the idea in my head that the games industry lost something over this past decade, some layer of charm or effort, I don't think I could put into words here, and there are certainly people who have looked farther into this than I have that have probably made hour long videos talking about it. Playing this game reminded me of being able to pick up a game knowing nothing about it, just playing it from start to finish, if I had found this game 15 years ago I probably would have played it late into the night under my covers, to get just a little further, just one more puzzle and I can say i'm done for tonight. So yeah, if it's even remotely interesting to you, try out the demo at least first, it's the first two chapters and gives you a general feel for the game play mechanics, that's what I did, it didn't take very long and I ended up liking it so much I 100%'ed the game (though if you transfer your save from the demo it wont give you the achievements for the first two chapters and you will have to replay them). This games a good one, and I hope more people play and enjoy it.

Not sure why but I was very much not enjoying this game for the first couple hours before it clicked for me and became one of my favorite narratives in gaming VERY quickly. The end of the story was having my jaw drop every couple minutes and making me completely rethink what had been happening lol. This game rocks.

While Ghost Trick's simple and intuitive puzzle mechanics are a lot of fun on their own, it really is its captivating story and quirky characters that pull you along an amazing ride. You begin the game already dead on the ground of an old scrapyard, a young woman and a sinister man with a shotgun threatening her, flanking your corpse. Death is not the end for you however. An old desk lamp nearby teaches you the ways to manipulate the objects around you, as well as diving back into a person's past and change events for a hopefully brighter future. The basis for Ghost Trick's gameplay is rooted in its intuitive design. There is only ever so much you can do at any given moment, keeping the solution to even the more complex puzzle later in the game within arm's reach. And if push comes to shove, there is always the old 90's adventure game method of combining everything with everything until you stumble upon a solution. The game can be a bit frustrating and tedious at times though, if you have to replay sections multiple times. As scenes play out, you may find you missed an opportunity to trigger something or simply didn't think to, only realize a solution to your conundrum is no longer possible. While starting over is swift and there are often even checkpoints along the way, having to watch through events and skipping through dialogue over and over to get to where you originally failed, is the one annoyance I found with Ghost Trick. That little blemish is nothing in the face of the game's enrapturing narrative, however. Initially driven by the desire to unravel the mysteries of your own passing, you soon get entangled in a web of marvelously eccentric characters. Teaming up with junior detective Lynne, you delve into an old murder case, deal with foreign spies and befriend an adorably spunky Pomeranian. I can not overstate how captivating Ghost Trick's narrative is. Its 17 chapters make for a great game to play in shorter bursts. Yet, as every section of your journey may answer one question, two more mysteries arise, making for a game that's difficult to put down.

Fun puzzles, a nice level of challenge, engaging story. Charming graphic style, good humor.

This is a great puzzle/mystery game, ported from the DS with a lot of love. You'll probably get a little over 10 hours from it, but they will be quality. The humor is great, the soundtrack is a ton of fun, and the story knows how to pace itself. Get this one and enjoy the ride.

The memories! It's so great to see this game has been ported to PC. This is one of those games that gets better on the second play-through, though it's still incredible on the first play-through. Seeing the animations each play-through is always satisfying, they're so smooth and do an amazing job of showing the characters personality. There is one puzzle in the game that can be frustrating the first time around but the story waiting on the other end of that puzzle is well worth it. Many, many minutes were spent just listening to the music, the remixed versions and the originals. They're all so good! The story has held up amazingly, and the ending never fails to make me emotional. Going to stop the review here, I keep going to put in spoilers. Overall, this game is so worth it, if you enjoy puzzle games with an incredible story and a lot of charm in the overall art style and animations, give Ghost Trick a go.

Amazing Story and really fun acting/character building. I'm a bit too impatient to figure out the puzzle, but glad I made it to the end!

little bais but i think ds games are peak. Great game with simple yet expandable gameplay concepts, amazing story and twists. Check out ace attorney series if you would like similar games

A Ghost Treat or a Cheap Trick? Overview: The best way I can describe this game is a puzzler crossed with a visual novel. TL:DR version, for all you "I was born to lead, not to read" types :) : Story: The story is interesting and paced well, so it's anything but a "dead" weight. Characters are charming and well-written. But in both cases they are just shy of amazing and instead are more between good and great. 4 Groundhog Day Blu-Rays out of 5 Gameplay: Puzzles are hard to brute force, which is good and are more about trial and error and usually follow a good logic. Mechanics are easy to understand and clean and easy to execute. Didn't find skip button for already read text, just fast forward. 4,5 Smashed Rubick's Cubes out of 5 Presentation: Both visuals and audio are great, but not exceptional. Characters' movements are exaggerated and fun to watch. Music is great, but would have liked 4-5 more tracks. 4 Anime Protagonist Hairstyles out of 5 Value: I like puzzle games and am also pretty good at them. So it's possible to get a few more hours out of the game, but even taking my time to read all dialogue and not rushing at all, I still completed the game in 10,5 hours. There is no obvious reason to replay it as far as I can tell. My opinion is 1 EUR should be equal to 1 hour of entertainment in a game at minimum, so it is pretty far from that, but at least the game you play for that 10,5 hours is pretty good. 1,5 Golden Shotguns (sarcastic) out of 5 Overall: Solid puzzle game set against the backdrop of an interesting murder mystery with great characters. Usually great in all aspects (except value), but always falling short of exceptional. 14 Smashed Golden Anime Blu-Rays out of 20 "Got time:Want to read" version: Story: The game starts with our main character, who wakes up to find that he has become the dead. Roll credits, thank you for playing. . . . Okok. So "shockingly" the game doesn't end in 2 minutes with this revelation. He realizes that while he lost his memories as a spirit, he also gained the power to manipulate objects and to go back in time 4 minutes before the death of other characters. He does so with the aim of preventing it, hoping that every life saved brings him one step closer to solving the circumstances that led to his own death and eventually find out who he even was in life. Going into the story would be really hard without Stay Puft Marshmallow Man sized spoilers, but let's just say that the game does a great job of slowly revealing more and more details regarding you, other characters and events surrounding your death. It gives you small details each chapter, which after many twists and turns eventually form a whole, similar to how the gameplay asks you to piece together the solution to each puzzle. The story is paced and presented well and I found it and the reveals interesting, and although not excellent, but still pretty great. The characters are all well written and endearing, but that being said, no one really stood out for me as really memorable, but that may be because I watch too much anime so I saw characters like this dozens of times :D. 4 Groundhog Day Blu-Rays out of 5 Gameplay: I think puzzle games live and die by one simple question. Are the puzzles logical to everyone or just the person who designed them? I have to say yes :). Most of them make sense if you think about them leading to nice "Eureka!" moments. However in a few instances it wasn't obvious until I manipulated an object and saw that it behaved in a way I didn't expect, but there were only like 3 the whole game at most. Usually there are 3 ways to solve a puzzle. Trial and error, natural flow due to good internal logic, or brute force. As there is a timed element to them brute force usually doesn't work except in a few instances, so you will definetely be using your brain in this one. The time rewind mechanic definetely favors the trial and error approach, and it let's you check what each piece does, without locking you out of progressing the game. Sometimes you can tell what the solution will be before the puzzle starts, but in these cases it is how you can get there, that is the tricky part. There is a hint system, disguised as the internal thoughts of the main character during each step of a puzzle. So listen to his thoughts only if you can't seem to figure something out yourself :). One thing I did find annoying is that sometimes if you restart from a checkpoint you can fast forward conversations, but you can't skip them which would be better if I am trying a puzzle for the 5th time and just want to do that, instead of waiting for the same 7 lines of dialogue to play out since I can recite them by heart at that point :). 4,5 Smashed Rubick's Cubes out of 5 Presentation: Both the in-game models and the illustrations are well done. Each character has a well defined design and have something interesting going on. In-game, their movements are designed to be whimsical and over-the-top, despite the story being about a murder mystery, but I didn't find that it clashed at all. Most of the locales are well-designed, though some are less visually striking than others. As there is no voice acting, the only audio is the sound effects, which are generic, but do the job just fine and the music, which I found pretty good, though not "I'm looking this up on Spotify right now" good. Also while each sequence type has it's own theme, I would have appreciated 1 or 2 more variants for each for varieties sake. 4 Anime Protagonist Hairstyles out of 5 Value: I usually follow one hard and fast rule to determine value. Time is money, money is time. I believe that for every 1 EUR I spend, I would like the game to provide at least 1 hour of entertainment (taking into account replay value of course). I took my time with the story, reading every line, looking up little side pieces of dialogue, but even without rushing I finished the game in 10,5 hours and as far as I can tell, there is no reason to replay it or any other mode. Now I am generally good at puzzle games, but even adding on let's say 2-3 extra hours it is still far from the desired price-value ratio. So just keep that in mind when you consider purchasing it. 1,5 Golden Shotguns (sarcastic) out of 5 Overall: Solid puzzle game set against the backdrop of an interesting murder mystery with great characters. Usually great in all aspects (except value), but always falling short of awesome. 14 Smashed Golden Anime Blu-Rays out of 20

Very good! If you're like me and played the Ace Attorney games before but never had a chance to give this game a try, this port is excellent.