Ghost Trick Delivers Adventure From Beyond The Grave

You begin your quest in Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective dead, face down in a heap of garbage. Unaccustomed to the afterlife, you slowly regain consciousness, if you can call it that. A cute young girl in a long coat and short skirt vainly attempts to wake you. She is approached by your assumed killer, gun in hand. He stands on the other side of a railroad crossing arm, his shotgun pointed at your attempted savior. Suddenly you come to understand that remaining within your cooling corpse isn’t the most helpful course of action for your spirit, and you’re not the type to stand by while a lady is threatened.

Players control Sissel, the disembodied protagonist of Ghost Trick, as he possesses various inanimate objects in his journey to uncover the meaning for his death. This quest for closure begins by saving the young girl being held at gunpoint. The fledgling poltergeist ingeniously takes control of the nearby railroad crossing arm, achieved by using the DS stylus to drag Sissel’s soul from one object to another. Using the “trick” ability, Sessel causes the railroad crossing arm to rise, knocking the weapon from the stunned hitman’s hand.

Alarmed and disarmed, the disoriented murderer scrambles for his shotgun as the girl sprints past him. She barely makes it two steps before the gunman reclaims his firearm and trains it on her once more. The action has moved beyond proximity of your corpse, and thus Sissel must possess a chain of objects to reach the action. He possesses a discarded guitar and plucks a few loud notes to distract the villain. Caught off guard once again, the bad man turns and fires on the guitar, causing it to crumble to the ground. It’s not enough. A gunshot rings through the air and the innocent girl slumps to the ground. Dead. Smugly satisfied, the killer kicks her corpse off a nearby ledge, causing it to land on a lower level of the dump. Left with no other option, you slink your soul back to your rigid body just as the murderer kicks your body down to the same ledge as the girl.

All is not lost, however. As Sissel possesses the girl’s nearby corpse he gains the unexplicable ability to turn back time. The clock has been turned back four minutes before her death, allowing the player a narrow window to alter the past before the mysterious girl suffers the same fate. An hourglass slowly empties as the player begins inhabiting whatever object happens to be nearby. Sissel possesses a nearby fridge and opens it, causing a blender to roll out conveniently in the direction we’re heading. Upon closing the fridge door, the player can possess the blender, a drawn flag pole, and an oscillating fan. If you choose to occupy and perform a trick on the fan, the flag flaps in the breeze. This allows Sissel to hop over the blender, which has a portion of the flag pole’s rope lodged in it. Turning on the blender causes the flag to raise, forcing the player to quickly repossess the flag before it ascends.

Alas, now Sissel’s soul is on the top level of the trash yard as the scared young girl and dastardly killer. The two banter back and forth as Sissel occupies the handlebars of a nearby bike. He causes the bike’s bell to sound, which again causes the gunman to fire on it and dislodge it from the trash heap. The man with the gun then chases the girl to a precarious ledge, all the while informing her of of her inevitable demise. Meanwhile, Sissel has possessed a ladder, used his “ghost trick” to extend it towards a crane hoisting a wrecking ball. Just as the troublesome killer is about to pull the trigger, Sissel loosens the coupling holding the wrecking ball. The tremendous orb plummets to the ground with a satisfying thud. It and the flattened foe roll harmlessly past the girl off the cliff.

As illustrated by the events above, the concept of Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is deceptively simple. Players guide a spirit along a path of seemingly random objects reminiscent of an intricate Rube Goldberg contraption. Akin to developer Capcom’s own Pheonix Wright: Ace Attorney series, your solution is always within reach but never so simple that it seems too obvious. Judging by my brief time with the game, it will also enjoy the Ace Attorney series’ expert pacing and compelling storytelling. These similarities to the Ace Attorney series are no mistake, as Ghost Trick shares the same creator, Shu Takumi. Ghost Trick also features visuals unlike anything else on the Nintendo handheld. Richly animated, detailed sprites hark back to adventure games such as Flashback and the original Prince of Persia.

DS owners can look forward to over a dozen chapters packed with logic puzzles, charming humor, and an intriguing plot. Keep Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective on your radar as the game’s Winter 2010 release draws nearer. You’re going to want to try this one out before you end up like poor Sissel.