Monday, August 26, 2013

August of Games: Day 26 - Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective


Man, I actually really like the soundtrack to this game. And this song in particular is BEGGING to be remixed or covered and, to my knowledge, it hasn't been! Someone do it, with real guitar. Maybe I'll get lucky and Familyjules7x will be a fan of the game or something.

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
Developer: Capcom (specifically Shu Takumi, the Ace Attorney guy)
Genre (Setting): Modern
Genre (Gameplay): Puzzle
What is this game: In this game you are dead. But you are a ghost! And for some reason you have the weird power of Ghost Tricks, which have two main forms: you can perform minor manipulation of object, and if you inhabit a newly-dead body, you can rewind time to four minutes before their death to attempt to prevent it. You can also speak witht hose who've either died or those you've rescued from death, even once they're alive again. There's one little snag: you aren't exactly mobile. You can only inhabit some object, and have to hop from one object to another to travel. You can travel through phone lines, but with your destinations restricted.
Plot-wise, well, you woke up dead, and can't remember anything about yourself. Nothing at all, in fact. And you've only got one night as a ghost, so you spend your time trying to figure out who you are and what happened to you, but get caught up in something so much larger. I confess that I haven't actually finished it yet, because it gets pretty hard!

What's great about it: So let's hit the highlights: A plot that really keeps you guessing, but again, not in a way that the game is trying to trick you, it's just smartly written, as you would expect from the creator of the also-excellent visual novel-esque Ace Attorney series.  Difficulty and ingenuity in its puzzles keeps you intrigued and satisfied with it on a game level. Its pixel art is masterful, some of the smoothest animation in the medium; seriously, I would play this all over again just to see all the animation again. It's smooth, stylish, and exaggerated. The character design is pretty great too. The soundtrack, while bound by the DS, is good in the ame vein that the Ace Attorney games had good soundtracks, as in it's pretty compressed but has strong melodies that are both catchy and mood-enhancing. I'm not saying much, but this is a really good game.

How do I get it: Nintendo DS is its native home, which means that it is best acquired used. It is also available on iOS, with all the chapters available for $10 total. Normally, like with The World Ends With You's Solo Remix, iOS ports are often imperfect, but this game is absolutely appropriate for iOS - you can get the full experience, maybe even enhanced. It's very fitting, so that's actually a good option.

Wow, I'm like 5 days from done! Gonna have to prepare a couple ahead of time, because I've got PAX starting on Friday! So excited!
End Recording,
Ego.

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