The most unfortunate thing about Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is just how few people seem to have played it — it’s anecdotal evidence, sure, but my decade-plus of polling gamers, other writers, and game devs hasn’t exactly inspired confidence. Still, I can’t say I’m entirely surprised — aside from the fact that Ghost Trick is an adventure game through and through (by which I mean, it’s not the most popular genre), it was only released outside of Japan in early 2011 for the Nintendo DS, a mere two months before the much-anticipated 3DS was set to hit store shelves.
Call it bad timing, bad juju, or a hard-to-market genre, I can understand why Capcom’s cult classic didn’t exactly take the world by storm all those years ago. But, if you missed (or skipped) out on Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective the first time around, you might want to consider need to keep this one on your radar.
A little more background info, but I promise to make it quick: Ghost Trick is, in many ways, remarkably similar to the much-beloved Ace Attorney games (yep, that’s right, this article features not one but two niche Capcom series). The common link between the two is none other than Shu Takumi; a venerable developer in his own right, having also led development on Dino Crisis and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (he also worked on Resident Evil 2!)
With that in mind, it shouldn’t shock you that Ghost Trick is half visual novel, half point-and-click adventure. You play as Sissel, a man who not only lost his memory but is also… dead. As a result of biting the dust, he can’t recall anything about his life, but he makes up for that with his newfound ghostly abilities. As the name suggests, Sissel can pull off ‘tricks’ as a specter, possessing key objects around him and manipulating them. For example, he can turn on a fan, extend a folded ladder, or pull switches. This ability is also central to Sissel’s movement — you see, he can’t just float around all willy-nilly. To get to where you want to go, you’ll need to jump from object to object and use your ‘trick’ ability to bridge large gaps and clear blocked paths. It all works rather well, and most importantly, it isn’t terribly taxing on the ol’ noggin — something which can’t be said of old-school point-and-click adventure games.
This might all sound a bit too laid back, but Ghost Trick has another trick (pun intended) up its sleeve. In addition to manipulating objects in the present, Sissel can also travel back in time — specifically, he can go back exactly four minutes before someone’s death, giving him the opportunity to meddle with the environment in order to save them. These sections also move the plot forward, which, if I’m being honest, is the real highlight of the game. We can’t go into too much detail on story specifics (our preview build was limited to the first two chapters), but the colorful cast of characters and tight plotting is best in class, even all these years later.
Admittedly, I was a bit worried at how this HD remaster would look and feel — it’s hard to describe with words alone, but there was something so cozy and charming about Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective‘s original DS version. The sprite work boasted its own kind of lo-fi charm, and the character animations felt buttery smooth, despite running at a relatively low framerate. In the jump to modern consoles and PCs, the entire game has been given a makeover, and while it’s certainly lost some (or rather, all) of the low-res nostalgia, the results are impressive.
Capcom has opted to keep maintain the original’s 4:3 aspect ratio (a move that’s sure to delight sticklers like me), and while the resolution is limited to 1080p, image quality is very crisp. Oh, and those animations I mentioned earlier? Well, now they’re even more buttery smooth thanks to a locked 60 frames per second.
There’s so much more to unpack here, and we’ll be diving into Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective proper in our full review later this month. For those looking to solve the mystery of Sissel’s death for themselves, you won’t have to wait long — the full game launches on June 30 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Windows PCs.
This preview is based on a demo of the full game, which is now available to download for free. Access to an early PlayStation 4 build was provided by Capcom.