Shu Takumi is a name you’re probably very familiar with if you’re a diehard fan of the Ace Attorney series. Takumi has spent almost 25 years in the director’s chair of Capcom’s flagship murder mystery visual novel series, but in 2010 he took a break from Ace Attorney to release an original title called Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective for the Nintendo DS. The game received critical acclaim, but due poor sales it only managed to achieve the status of cult classic. Fortunately for us the game was remastered and re-released in 2023 so let’s put our detective hats on and figure out if Ghost Trick is worthy of its small, but dedicated following.

In Ghost Trick you play as Sissel, a ghost with no memory of his former life and the ability to move between and manipulate inanimate objects. Sissel is told by another ghost that the key to finding his lost memories is intertwined with a young police detective named Lynne and he only has one night to uncover the truth. Along the way Sissel will meet a colorful cast of characters and discover murders, conspiracies, and other shocking revelations. I won’t go into too much detail on the story because it’s built on so much mystery, but my unwillingness to spoil the plot for the sake of analysis should probably tell you that I enjoyed it immensely and would hate to ruin the experience for any potential players reading this article.

Outsiders looking into Ghost Trick will probably be struck by its striking visuals. The game has a fixed 2D perspective which not only makes narrative sense as a spirit observing the world from the outside, but is also a great excuse to create vibrant hand drawn environments. The game’s characters are actually 3D models redrawn as 2D sprites, meaning the characters all look great in motion despite the limitations of the Nintendo DS. All of this is to say Ghost Trick is appropriately stylish and cartoony, complementing the general tone of the game nicely.

The music in Ghost Trick isn’t too shabby either. The soundtrack largely has a retro chip-tune sound to it which isn’t uncommon for DS games, but this one sticks out as particularly good in my opinion. Each song has a memorable melody to invoke a certain mood, like “Fate Changed”, or to compliment a related character, such as “A Targeted Redhead”. Beyond the music the game’s sound offers an elegant simplicity that punctuates every action rather well.

If I had to summarize Ghost Trick’s gameplay, I’d say it’s a puzzle game/visual novel hybrid. The visual novel aspect shouldn’t be surprising from the creator of Ace Attorney, but regardless you’ll be spending a lot of time reading dialogue to experience the story. The more game-y half of the equation comes from the environmental puzzle solving, where Sissel must possess and manipulate objects in order to solve problems. Think of each chapter like a Rube Goldberg Machine where seemingly mundane objects slowly chain together in creative ways to create unexpected outcomes. Some puzzles are harder than others and being setback after a failed attempt can be pretty punishing, but on the whole the game isn’t terribly hard once you get the hang of it.

From the Catholic perspective, Ghost Trick runs into some issues on the nature of death and the afterlife. I can’t say too much for fear of spoiling part of the mystery, but will say that theologically speaking it’s not terribly compatible with Catholicism. Furthermore while I do believe ghosts are real, I do not believe they have the ability to manipulate physical objects which puts me at odds with the game’s central mechanic. While this might be more practical wisdom than spiritual, I want to say it’s okay to enjoy games and stories that don’t perfectly share your values. Obviously I’m not saying we should endure stories that openly attack our values for the sake of “giving it a chance”, but if we turned up our noses at anything even slightly deviating from the Bible or the Catechism half the reviews on this website wouldn’t exist.

The length of this review might give you the impression that I don’t have much to say about this game, but in reality I’m afraid I’ve already said too much. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is a game that works best when you go in as blind as possible and the reward is something on par with, or dare I say even greater than, Ace Attorney at its best. If Ghost Trick slipped under your radar and you love narrative focused games, you owe it to yourself to give it a try from beginning to end. This mystery is just too good to be left unsolved, so give chase before it fades away like a ghost.

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