What parents need to know
Ghost Trick- Phantom Detective is an HD remaster of a game originally released for the Nintendo DS in 2010.
You play as a ghost who has forgotten his identity as he regains consciousness at the scene of his death. Confused, our ghost tries to uncover the mysteries surrounding his identity and the circumstances of his death. In the course of his investigation, he must team up with a host of characters, including Lynne, a young detective who thirsts for justice, but whose recklessness often leads to her death.
Luckily, our character has some very useful powers. First, when he comes across a deceased individual, he can go back in time to 4 minutes before his death, in order to change the course of things. Our character can also manipulate small objects, but in a rather limited way.
It is therefore necessary to be resourceful, and to find the best way to use the objects scattered around the crime scene in order to prevent the fatal outcome.
Details
Level of experience required
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Evaluation
The game starts with our own death, and as the game progresses, we have to thwart several assassination attempts. So there’s a certain violence intrinsic to the themes of Ghost Trick.
However, the level of graphic violence is very, very low. We never see blood, the dead are depicted in a cartoonish way, and the universe itself is very colorful and not at all creepy. On a few occasions, we see characters shooting at each other with guns, but we don’t show any blood or graphic violence.
None.
You have to read a LOT in Ghost Trick: Ghost Detective. The dialogues, essential to understanding the game mechanics, are all delivered in a written form only. In the same way, the story is told almost entirely verbatim, so a player with little reading skills will not understand it and will find very little pleasure in it.
However, the vocabulary is relatively simple.
However, we do not recommend this game for players who are not comfortable with reading.
In the end, the game has a moral stance that is quite acceptable to a young audience: it advises against the unnecessary use of violence and emphasizes the sanctity of life, even for those who are “bad guys.”
On rare occasions, you have to perform quick (but simple) maneuvers with the joystick. However, for the vast majority of the game, we have time to think about our actions, and the controls are easy to execute.
The title is offered at a lower than average price ($39.99 CAD, €29.99) given its remaster status and its rather short lifespan, which we welcome. While the game offers paid downloadable content, it’s hard to imagine more dispensable content than this. You can ignore it with peace of mind.
Local game modes
There is only one single-player mode. The game offers us a few optional challenges that can serve as an incentive to replay.
Online Game Modes
None.
Expansions/Add-ons (DLC)
Capcom offers a small expansion at a low price ($2.69 CAD, 1.99 euros) that offers 4 wallpapers and 2 additional music tracks.
Our opinion
Ghost Trick became a cult hit when it was released (despite disappointing sales), and playing this enhanced version for HD consoles, it’s easy to see why: this simple title is bursting with creativity, personality, and brilliant ideas.
At its core, Ghost Trick is first and foremost a puzzle game, and necessarily, games of this genre live and die by the quality of their puzzles. Here, Ghost Trick is not lacking. The proposed puzzles manage to maintain a delicate balance; They work the mind, without ever being frustrating. They have amazing and creative solutions while remaining logical. It’s a thin wire to walk on, but Capcom’s title pulls off the act brilliantly.
The story on offer is also very interesting. The characters that populate the story are colorful and exploded, but above all they are memorable. And as with any good investigation and murder story, it takes a satisfying mystery, and again, mission accomplished. We enjoyed following the story of Ghost Trick, trying to guess the outcome (but couldn’t!), and in the end, we were satisfied with the conclusion.
Now, Ghost Trick is a remaster of a modest DS game, and we have to adjust our expectations accordingly. If the visual design is successful, it is obvious that the graphics will not take the breath away of gamers used to the photorealistic graphics of current consoles.
It is also noted that the dialogues are not acted by actors, and that everything is communicated entirely by text. It’s a lot of reading, it’s almost flirting with the visual novel, and it could be an obstacle for players who are less fond of reading. We would have liked the dialogues to be played to the audio for this modernized version.
That being said, if you’re a fan of puzzles, mysteries (and very Japanese quirky humor), you’d be crazy to miss Ghost Trick: Ghost Detective.
Note: A code has been provided to us by the publisher for review purposes. This does not affect our rating.
