Ghost Trick
Encyclopedia
is an adventure game
developed by Capcom
for the Nintendo DS
and iOS. The lead development was handled by Shu Takumi
, the creator of the Ace Attorney series. The game is published by Capcom and was released for the Nintendo DS in Japan on June 19, 2010, in North America on January 11, 2011 and in Europe on January 14, 2011. A version for iOS was released in Japan on December 16, 2010.
, a ghost who has special abilities called Ghost Tricks. As a spirit, Sissel can switch between the Land of the Living, where time runs its course, and the Ghost world, where time stands still. In Ghost mode, Sissel can travel between various objects within his reach, represented by blue cores, as well as communicate with the spirits of corpses, who have yellow cores. Sissel can only travel within a certain radius from an object, meaning the player must connect through multiple objects to reach things that are farther away. When possessing certain inanimate objects, players can perform Ghost Tricks while outside of Ghost mode in order to perform actions that open new paths or invoke certain reactions from characters required to progress through the story. For example, moving a tray of donuts will prompt a character to change where he/she is currently seated, as well as giving Sissel access to new areas. Sissel can also possess phones to listen in on phone calls and travel through communication lines to other areas, although during the past, he can only travel while someone is speaking on the phone. He is also able to talk to people who he has rescued before.
By interacting with a dead body, Sissel can travel to four minutes before that character was killed. The player must use Sissel's Ghost Tricks to open up new paths so they can change the victim's fate. Some sections include moments where the player must race against a short timer in order to save the victim. If a player makes a mistake or is unable to save the victim in time, he can rewind time back to the start, or from the last point fate was altered. Later in the game, players can switch control to Missile, the ghost of a small dog. Missile's spirit has a longer reach than Sissel, and has the ability to swap the position of two objects that are the same shape.
After managing to delay Jowd's execution, Sissel soon learns that Kamila had been kidnapped by the organization that targeted Lynne and arranged for Jowd's execution. They also learn of the existence of a "manipulator", who allegedly caused the death of Kamila's mother. While continuing to find ways to save people and rescue Kamila, Sissel once again encounters Missile, who had died once again but has gained the Ghost Trick of swapping similarly shaped objects and decides to help Sissel rescue Kamila. Soon, they find that the body that Sissel thought was his own is walking around and has his own set of Ghost Tricks. It is revealed this man was involved in an incident ten years ago in which he took Lynne hostage while escaping from Jowd, but was killed by a strange meteorite shard with strange properties, the radiation of which gives spirits their Ghost Tricks, his being to manipulate living beings. Sissel, Missile, and Lynne go to a submarine where the mysterious man tries to possess Kamila and attack Lynne, but is betrayed by the organization leader, Sith, who steals the meteorite within his body and tries to sink the submarine with everyone in it. After getting Lynne and Kamila to safety, Sissel once again encounters the manipulator now known as Yomiel. He explains his motives for revenge, which included controlling Lynne to shoot himself and making a deal with the organization to get Jowd executed. Refusing to give up in a seemingly hopeless situation, Sissel and Missile ride a torpedo over to an escape pod where they find Yomiel's lifeless body and travel back 10 years to the four minutes before his death, where the three of them use their combined Ghost Tricks to stop Yomiel from being killed by the meteorite, thus rewriting everyone's fate from that point onwards.
Following this, it is revealed that Sissel's true identity is that of Yomiel's pet cat, who was accidentally killed when he manipulated Lynne to shoot at him. Ray also appears and reveals himself to be an older version of Missile from an alternate future in which he was unable to change anyone's fate, but managed to travel back in time and teach Sissel about his Ghost Tricks in order to set things right. He also reveals that he lied about "disappearing by dawn" so that Sissel would solve the mystery in one night, before Yomiel was to be trapped at the bottom of the sea, at which point it would have been impossible to reach Yomiel and stop his death. Sissel returns to a new present, in which he is a happy cat living with Jowd's family and is soon reunited with Lynne, while Yomiel finishes his prison sentence.
, though lost to another Capcom
game, Ōkamiden.
Ghost Trick was the second best-selling video game in Japan during its release week at 24,000 copies. It dropped to number nine the following week with an additional 20,000 copies sold, and then to number 22 for its third week. Capcom has listed the game as a contributor to the low sales of its first quarter of its 2010 fiscal year. Results from a poll conducted by Dengeki
showed that Japanese gamers found Ghost Trick to be the 13th most interesting game for the first half of 2010.
Ghost Trick has received mostly positive reviews, with a current Metascore of 83. 1UP.com
editor Justin Haywald rated the game an A, praising Ghost Trick's puzzles and story. But he points out that, "The concept is novel and fun, though you might feel occasionally frustrated by the trial-and-error process to get at a solution." Ultimately, the story's quick "concise plotting and entertaining puzzles" helped elevate the overall experience. Famitsu
gave the game a score of 34 out of 40. IGN
gave the game a score of 8.5 and an Editor's Choice award, praising the game's mechanics and animation, although notes that it "gets a little wordy sometimes." GamesRadar
gave the game 8/10, praising the gameplay and characters while criticising some trial-and-error and some frustrating puzzles, later naming it one of the top 25 Nintendo DS games. GameTrailers
gave the game a score of 8.5. GameSpot
gave the game a score of 9.0, praising unique gameplay and memorable characters.
Adventure game
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
developed by Capcom
Capcom
is a Japanese developer and publisher of video games, known for creating multi-million-selling franchises such as Devil May Cry, Chaos Legion, Street Fighter, Mega Man and Resident Evil. Capcom developed and published Bionic Commando, Lost Planet and Dark Void too, but they are less known. Its...
for the Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
and iOS. The lead development was handled by Shu Takumi
Shu Takumi
Shu Takumi is a Japanese video game developer working at Capcom who is the main developer of the core Ace Attorney series, serving as director and scriptwriter for each game...
, the creator of the Ace Attorney series. The game is published by Capcom and was released for the Nintendo DS in Japan on June 19, 2010, in North America on January 11, 2011 and in Europe on January 14, 2011. A version for iOS was released in Japan on December 16, 2010.
Gameplay
Players control SisselSissel (Ghost Trick)
is a fictional character and lead character of the Nintendo DS video game Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective.-Appearances:Sissel's first and only appearance has been in the video game Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, where he is an amnesiac ghost who is attempting to recover his memories...
, a ghost who has special abilities called Ghost Tricks. As a spirit, Sissel can switch between the Land of the Living, where time runs its course, and the Ghost world, where time stands still. In Ghost mode, Sissel can travel between various objects within his reach, represented by blue cores, as well as communicate with the spirits of corpses, who have yellow cores. Sissel can only travel within a certain radius from an object, meaning the player must connect through multiple objects to reach things that are farther away. When possessing certain inanimate objects, players can perform Ghost Tricks while outside of Ghost mode in order to perform actions that open new paths or invoke certain reactions from characters required to progress through the story. For example, moving a tray of donuts will prompt a character to change where he/she is currently seated, as well as giving Sissel access to new areas. Sissel can also possess phones to listen in on phone calls and travel through communication lines to other areas, although during the past, he can only travel while someone is speaking on the phone. He is also able to talk to people who he has rescued before.
By interacting with a dead body, Sissel can travel to four minutes before that character was killed. The player must use Sissel's Ghost Tricks to open up new paths so they can change the victim's fate. Some sections include moments where the player must race against a short timer in order to save the victim. If a player makes a mistake or is unable to save the victim in time, he can rewind time back to the start, or from the last point fate was altered. Later in the game, players can switch control to Missile, the ghost of a small dog. Missile's spirit has a longer reach than Sissel, and has the ability to swap the position of two objects that are the same shape.
Plot
Sissel, the spirit of a recent murder victim, wakes up to realise that he is dead, and has also lost his memories. The only lead he can see is a young detective named Lynne, who is then killed by an assassin. However, upon talking to another spirit named Ray, Sissel learns he possesses the ability to perform Ghost Tricks, in which he can possess inanimate objects, and can travel to four minutes before a person's death and alter their fate. Using these tricks, Sissel manages to rescue Lynne, who is investigating something big happening this night while being under suspicion of murder. With Ray's warning that his soul will disappear come dawn, Sissel decides to team up with Lynne in order to help each other. As Sissel continues his investigation, he saves Lynne several times, along with a dog named Missile. Eventually, Sissel stumbles upon security cam footage that allegedly shows him being killed by Lynne, but he continues to help her out despite this knowledge. Meanwhile, Lynne asks Sissel to help out a former detective named Jowd, who was put on death row after an incident concerning his daughter Kamila led to the death of his wife.After managing to delay Jowd's execution, Sissel soon learns that Kamila had been kidnapped by the organization that targeted Lynne and arranged for Jowd's execution. They also learn of the existence of a "manipulator", who allegedly caused the death of Kamila's mother. While continuing to find ways to save people and rescue Kamila, Sissel once again encounters Missile, who had died once again but has gained the Ghost Trick of swapping similarly shaped objects and decides to help Sissel rescue Kamila. Soon, they find that the body that Sissel thought was his own is walking around and has his own set of Ghost Tricks. It is revealed this man was involved in an incident ten years ago in which he took Lynne hostage while escaping from Jowd, but was killed by a strange meteorite shard with strange properties, the radiation of which gives spirits their Ghost Tricks, his being to manipulate living beings. Sissel, Missile, and Lynne go to a submarine where the mysterious man tries to possess Kamila and attack Lynne, but is betrayed by the organization leader, Sith, who steals the meteorite within his body and tries to sink the submarine with everyone in it. After getting Lynne and Kamila to safety, Sissel once again encounters the manipulator now known as Yomiel. He explains his motives for revenge, which included controlling Lynne to shoot himself and making a deal with the organization to get Jowd executed. Refusing to give up in a seemingly hopeless situation, Sissel and Missile ride a torpedo over to an escape pod where they find Yomiel's lifeless body and travel back 10 years to the four minutes before his death, where the three of them use their combined Ghost Tricks to stop Yomiel from being killed by the meteorite, thus rewriting everyone's fate from that point onwards.
Following this, it is revealed that Sissel's true identity is that of Yomiel's pet cat, who was accidentally killed when he manipulated Lynne to shoot at him. Ray also appears and reveals himself to be an older version of Missile from an alternate future in which he was unable to change anyone's fate, but managed to travel back in time and teach Sissel about his Ghost Tricks in order to set things right. He also reveals that he lied about "disappearing by dawn" so that Sissel would solve the mystery in one night, before Yomiel was to be trapped at the bottom of the sea, at which point it would have been impossible to reach Yomiel and stop his death. Sissel returns to a new present, in which he is a happy cat living with Jowd's family and is soon reunited with Lynne, while Yomiel finishes his prison sentence.
Development
Development was handled by the creator of the Ace Attorney series, Shu Takumi. "I first thought of this idea about five years ago," Takumi told Famitsu magazine. "We were working on the third Ace Attorney and figured it was time to start thinking about the next thing. So I came up with a plan to make a new type of mystery, something different in style from Ace Attorney."Reception
The game was nominated for Best DS Game of E3 2010 by GameTrailersGameTrailers
GameTrailers is a media website that specializes in video game related content. It provides free access to original programming , game trailers and recorded game play. Along with standard definition , many of the video clips are offered in a higher resolution .Users can upload videos, create...
, though lost to another Capcom
Capcom
is a Japanese developer and publisher of video games, known for creating multi-million-selling franchises such as Devil May Cry, Chaos Legion, Street Fighter, Mega Man and Resident Evil. Capcom developed and published Bionic Commando, Lost Planet and Dark Void too, but they are less known. Its...
game, Ōkamiden.
Ghost Trick was the second best-selling video game in Japan during its release week at 24,000 copies. It dropped to number nine the following week with an additional 20,000 copies sold, and then to number 22 for its third week. Capcom has listed the game as a contributor to the low sales of its first quarter of its 2010 fiscal year. Results from a poll conducted by Dengeki
ASCII Media Works
is a Japanese publishing company in the Kadokawa Group which formed on April 1, 2008 as a result of a merger between ASCII and MediaWorks where MediaWorks legally absorbed ASCII. Despite this, the former president of ASCII, Kiyoshi Takano, became the president of ASCII Media Works. The company...
showed that Japanese gamers found Ghost Trick to be the 13th most interesting game for the first half of 2010.
Ghost Trick has received mostly positive reviews, with a current Metascore of 83. 1UP.com
1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....
editor Justin Haywald rated the game an A, praising Ghost Trick's puzzles and story. But he points out that, "The concept is novel and fun, though you might feel occasionally frustrated by the trial-and-error process to get at a solution." Ultimately, the story's quick "concise plotting and entertaining puzzles" helped elevate the overall experience. Famitsu
Famitsu
is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Enterbrain, Inc. and Tokuma. Currently, there are five Famitsū magazines: Shūkan Famitsū, Famitsū PS3 + PSP, Famitsū Xbox 360, Famitsū Wii+DS, and Famitsū Wave DVD...
gave the game a score of 34 out of 40. IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
gave the game a score of 8.5 and an Editor's Choice award, praising the game's mechanics and animation, although notes that it "gets a little wordy sometimes." GamesRadar
GamesRadar
GamesRadar is a multi-format video game website featuring regular news, previews, reviews, videos, and guides. It is owned and operated simultaneously in the UK and US by worldwide publisher Future Publishing...
gave the game 8/10, praising the gameplay and characters while criticising some trial-and-error and some frustrating puzzles, later naming it one of the top 25 Nintendo DS games. GameTrailers
GameTrailers
GameTrailers is a media website that specializes in video game related content. It provides free access to original programming , game trailers and recorded game play. Along with standard definition , many of the video clips are offered in a higher resolution .Users can upload videos, create...
gave the game a score of 8.5. GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
gave the game a score of 9.0, praising unique gameplay and memorable characters.