Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective Review: A Second Chance at Life

The Nintendo DS era played host to a number of unique and compelling titles, but the vast majority of those games have remained stranded on the platform. Thankfully, Capcom has been rectifying that over the last few years by bringing the Ace Attorney games to current-gen platforms, and now doing the same for Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. While Ghost Trick belongs in a franchise all its own, the game is written and directed by Shu Takumi, who also created the Ace Attorney series. As such, Ghost Trick features a lot of the elements that have made Ace Attorney so beloved, but also some of the negative aspects, as well.

In Ghost Trick, players take on the role of a recently deceased man by the name of Sissel. Sissel has no memory of his life, and his spirit will pass on at dawn. At the start of the game, another spirit tells Sissel that he now possesses the ability to perform Ghost Tricks, which allow him to inhabit and manipulate objects. Sissel can also communicate with the spirits of the recently deceased, and even go back in time four minutes before their death to manipulate objects to prevent that death from occurring. For some reason, only Sissel seems to have this ability unlike other ghosts he'll encounter, and that's part of the game's overall mystery.

To save the lives of other characters, Sissel will have to pass through various objects to solve puzzles. The puzzles in Ghost Trick can be incredibly satisfying, but they also represent one of the game's weaknesses. Anyone that has ever played an Ace Attorney game can attest that often it's not just about applying logic to solve a puzzle, but about applying the specific logic of the game's world. Sometimes that can get a bit... illogical. For example, one of Ghost Trick's puzzles has you passing back and forth between three different spotlights to prevent a hitman from killing a character. However, the game's police department is so cheap that only two of the spotlights will work simultaneously. It's a really silly detail, but it's also critical to solving the puzzle.

Solving the puzzles in Ghost Trick ends up requiring a lot of guess and check, as a result. Not every object that Sissel inhabits will do something once possessed, and he's limited in the amount of movement that he has from object to object. One puzzle revolves around reaching a medicine bottle, but it's outside Sissel's reach. To get over to it, players have to manipulate a fan to blow a stack of papers, then inhabit a sheet of paper before it floats across the room. As a result, it can take a lot of patience just figuring out how to move from point A to point B. Sometimes the game's chapters play out like a Rube Goldberg machine, requiring several exact, intricate steps to accomplish a goal. Thankfully, the game is pretty forgiving. Players can restart a puzzle at any point, and Sissel will often tip off a player if they have to rewind time to try again. Also, once a character's fate has been changed, it acts as something of a check point, and players can opt to return to the start of the chapter, or the Fate Change, when they get stuck.

The story in Ghost Trick might be the game's greatest strength. Like Ace Attorney, the world of Ghost Trick is filled with a colorful cast of characters who inject the story with heart and humor (such as the delightful Missile). However, the game also has a serious side, and the mystery of Sissel's death offers a compelling narrative. As players progress, they'll discover just how everything in the game is connected, and there are some really interesting twists and turns. The game does an excellent job ratcheting up the tension at the end of each chapter, as Sissel desperately tries to figure out how it all connects before he passes on. 

The shift to modern platforms has seen Ghost Trick given improved visuals over its DS predecessor. It's not a massive improvement, but the modern visuals look nice, and the presentation is pretty strong overall. Players can also unlock border options as they progress, and mix and match different options on the left and right sides of the screen. The game does not feature any voice acting, but the music is excellent throughout, and does a good job highlighting the shifts between the serious moments and those that are a bit more absurd.

After more than a decade stranded on the DS hardware, it's nice to see Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective get a second chance at finding an audience. The guess-and-check gameplay can be every bit as frustrating as it is in the Ace Attorney franchise, but the writing is strong, and there's a real sense of satisfaction to be had when solving the game's puzzles. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective might not be a true Ace Attorney game, but the franchise's DNA is prevalent throughout, and the game is an easy recommendation for those that love the series, while also being something that stands well enough on its own. Hopefully Ghost Trick will inspire publishers to bring back more DS classics in the future.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is set to release June 29th on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. A code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review, and it was reviewed on a Nintendo Switch OLED.