Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective

Overview

I wrote a little blurb for Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective back in March 2020. It's a decent game that was overlooked at the time of its release but I don't have that many words on it.

Review

I had never written a review for Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective in the "old index" because I hadn't come to terms with it yet (don't ask) and wanted to replay it so I could finally see how replaying it works. Besides, it's a neat game with a decent soundtrack.

As the game is fairly old by this point, let me just play it straight with you right now by showing you a picture (not from the game) that is one of the story's big twists.

First, it's pretty slow-paced, some of the puzzles work only after specific scenes and movements by the right actors, and timing. They try to drop subtle hints that Sissel is a cat but these are often inconsistent. He doesn't know what "science" is (but human Lynne, as a ghost, can't either)...but he understands the concept of inertia (when Lynne first encounters the "murder machine").

Another "clue" of his true nature is stating in the same chapter that he likes small, cramped places (like Lynne) despite the fact that he (thinks) he is a tall guy with a haircut like Mac Tonight, yet he seems to like dogs, feeling sorry for Missle (who a likable and friendly dog, despite his breed being one of the small, yappy types) when he is killed a hitman.

Player Notes

The above review is very unfinished, and perhaps could be left that way. Despite writing most of that back in 2020 and being fairly unfinished ("I might add more if I feel like it"), I only scribbled down a bit on how I felt like the villain's punishment was unfair, but it really isn't since he did commit a serious felony in his escape, and then of course caused everyone a lot of trouble and misery in an alternate timeline.

I did play this back in 2018 for the Nintendo DS on a recommendation from Hardcoregaming101.net (one of the games I actually liked, and I got it new for the Nintendo DS before prices shot up).

I also bought this for PC (see Port & Rerelease Notes) on Steam.

Port & Rerelease Notes

Wikipedia indicates that the game was released for iOS (in Japan) in December 2010, even before its release in the West. The iOS version had some extra features. In 2023, with the iOS port (as well as an Android port) defunct, the game received a graphical update and wide release on modern consoles (Nintendo Switch, PS4, Windows, Xbox One). This I played hoping to get a superior experience to the original DS version, but nothing sounded right. The music was changed ever so slightly just enough to feel "wrong" and gliding from place to place with your ghost powers seemed far more clunky as a M&K-based game than one with touch controls. It was enough to push it to the backlog. Maybe I'll try to pull it out again at some point, but at this point there are a lot of games that I need to finish up.

Recommended Guide

I'm pretty sure I used GameFAQs for this one. There's no real guide I remember that was iconic or that useful.