E127: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective

The Ace Attorney games were an insane success, far beyond what Capcom could have predicted. After 4 mainline games in the series though, it was time for something new, and creator Shu Takumi refused to do anything normal. With a desire to explore characters in a far deeper way than was possible with Ace Attorney, he decided the only way to go about this was to have the main character be a ghost.

Whether that made sense or not, in 2010 we finally saw the release of Ghost Trick, a game that is so wrapped up in mystery that it's almost impossible to spoil all of its revelations. The quirky characters, pacing and comedy of Ace Attorney was preserved, but it was replaced with entirely new gameplay mechanics with you manipulating the environment in subtle ways to change the outcome of deadly events. It was an undeniably unique and beautiful game, and one that had even better critical acclaim than even Ace Attorney.

But with the Indie revolution churning out puzzle games like crazy, does Ghost Trick still stand out as an amazing game today? Do its characters still thrill and excite? Or is this style of storytelling and gameplay bloated and obsolete?

On this episode, we discuss:

Presentation

• How does the music, characters and animation come together to create the feeling and atmosphere of Ghost Trick? Is this just another Ace Attorney game, or is it something fundamentally different?

Story

• Ghost Trick goes to great lengths to ensure the player is following the story, with reiteration and flashbacks being core parts of its narrative. Is this too much, or is the story so complex that it needs this to keep people engaged? Is Ghost Trick meant to be played chapter by chapter, or binged for longer sessions?

Gameplay

• Ghost Trick’s objects are all manipulated and affected in unique ways, instead of being reused and acting consistently. How does this affect the puzzle design? Is is better to have unique objects that need to be understood, or repeated objects to better understand a broader puzzle solution?

We answer these questions and many more on the 127th episode of the Retro Spectives Podcast!

Intro Music: KieLoBot - Tanzen K

Outro Music: Rockit Maxx - One point to another

Ghost Trick OST: Masakazu Sugimori

Is Ghost Trick just another Ace Attorney Game? Is it just another Hitman game? Or is it truly unique? Come let us know what you think on our community discord server!

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