Real Women of Gaming

It’s time to solve another murder created by Shu Takumi, the creative genius behind the original Ace Attorney trilogy. This time, the victim is you.

Our protagonist, Sissel, has woken up in a junkyard next to his own corpse. To make matters worse, he sees an assassin also pointing a gun at a young detective named Lynne. Since Sissel is dead, there’s nothing that he can do to stop a second murder from taking place…or is there?

As it turns out, in the world of Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, some spirits inherit special powers after they die. Sissel has a number of these “ghost tricks” at his disposal. He can influence small objects, travel across phone lines to reach different locations, and rewind time to four minutes before a person’s death to prevent it from happening (except, unfortunately, his own corpse). What Sissel doesn’t have are his memories of who he used to be and what he was doing in the junkyard before his death.

I’d heard good things about Ghost Trick from the Ace Attorney fandom, but was still pleasantly surprised by how quickly I got sucked into this game. The story is compelling. The puzzles are fun to solve. The music is catchy. The animation is superb. The characters are all likable and interesting in their own ways. It really has everything that you could possibly want in a mystery-puzzle game.

You can tell that this game was made by the same person who made Ace Attorney, as there are a number of similarities between the two games. There’s murder, innocent people being framed for crimes that they didn’t commit, supernatural elements, a tone that perfectly balances compelling drama with silly hijinks, and of course, the Dramatic, Life-Changing Incidents that happened [Insert number here] years ago… (Cue somber music)

But what I love about Ghost Trick is how different it feels from Ace Attorney, even with these familiar elements. The heart of the gameplay lies in the puzzles that you must solve using Sissel’s ghost tricks. Sometimes it’s simply a matter of Sissel using different objects to influence events to his benefit. Others are more intense, like when you need to rewind time to prevent a death from happening.

I won’t talk about the story any more than I already have because it’s so much better to experience the twists and turns for yourself. I will only say that it got me deeply invested and everything comes together in a way that feels satisfying and beautiful. In an era full of franchises, it’s refreshing that Ghost Trick doesn’t need a sequel, something that Shu Takumi acknowledged himself. (Though I wouldn’t complain if they did make one!)

So, if you’re a gamer who loves a good mystery and a game that’s just pure fun from beginning to end, please consider giving Ghost Trick some love. The original game was released on the Nintendo DS and iOS devices. I played the Remastered version, which is available digitally on Steam, Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One.