One Life Left - "Ghost Trick"

Platform: Nintendo DS

Rating: Teen

One of my favorite franchises of all time is Ace Attorney, a visual novel series focusing on the wacky cases of a defense attorney. Once a Japan-exclusive, the series made quite a splash on the western market recently with its colorful and memorable characters, amazingly written story arcs and beautiful animation. When I heard that the same studio that produced the Ace Attorney series was releasing an entirely new, original project, I immediately jumped aboard the S.S Ghost Trick.

Ghost Trick places the player in the role of … well, I can’t reveal your character’s name because it’s an important aspect of the plot, but what I can reveal is that the game opens with your character being recently deceased. You now find yourself as a ghost and only have one night to figure out who killed you and why. On your journey you will encounter other characters that you must help with the use of your “ghost tricks.” These “tricks” involve you interacting with the environment via possession of inanimate objects, and are the only actions you can make as a ghost. Each inanimate object can then do something in particular; possessing a bell will make it ring, for example. The larger puzzles of the game require you to string multiple tricks together and in the correct order, so you can save the lives of other characters that are important to the plot.

The portraits of the various characters are flat-out gorgeous, as are the animations. I would seriously consider just watching the game move on its own for hours. Since it is a DS title, there is no voice acting so there will be a lot of text to read. Like I said in my review of 999 (another visual novel game), if you don’t like to read, go play something else. The game’s script is a great combination of humor and murder mystery, and some very crazy twists appear. It provides a satisfactory ending, even if it is a little open-ended.

My only real complaint of Ghost Trick is the sudden difficulty spikes. Most of the puzzles will provide just the right amount of challenge, but all of a sudden you will stumble on one that you will consistently fail. While I never had to use a walkthrough, there were times when I had to put the game down for a while and go do something else.

While no contender against the Ace Attorney games, Ghost Trick still offers a unique adventure with beautiful visuals. If you have a DS, why not distract yourself with this game on the trip home this spring break?

Ghost Trick gets an 8/10.