When it was initially launched on the DS again in 2010, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective was destined to be a type of video games cursed with ‘cult’ standing.
Written and directed by Ace Lawyer creator Shu Takumi, the sport’s mixture of point-and-click puzzling and narrative-driven gameplay meant it solely offered modestly regardless of being critically acclaimed within the east and west alike.
Reasonably fittingly although, the sport (very like its protagonist) has been given yet one more likelihood to make a distinction, although those that haven’t performed it earlier than – which is sort of everybody, to be truthful – will get extra out of it than long-time followers.
For the uninitiated, Ghost Trick opens with a shot of the corpse of Sissel, a person who’s simply been freshly killed. Sissel’s spirit is then delivered to life, and it’s as much as the participant to assist him determine what’s occurred.
Sissel is armed with two particular talents. The primary is the flexibility to carry out ‘ghost tips’, phantom powers that allow him to own and work together with inanimate objects. His different capability is rewinding time – particularly, he can rewind again to 4 minutes earlier than another person dies.
The principle intention all through the sport’s 18 chapters, then, is to maneuver from object to object and manipulate them in sure methods to forestall these different characters’ deaths, regularly rewinding time and reliving their final minutes till the answer is discovered.
It’s a enjoyable premise and one which performs effectively, even though the unique recreation happened over two shows and had a touchscreen-based management system. The change to an analogue stick system works completely superb, that means DS purists received’t have a lot to complain about right here.
Whereas the brand new controls are very a lot a ‘not higher, not worse, simply totally different’ state of affairs, the identical can’t be stated for the Video games graphics, that are considerably cleaner than they have been again within the day.
It’s hardly a shock that the sport seems to be higher on condition that the DS decision was a mere 256×192 and it’s now being blown as much as 4K, however upscales will be dealt with sloppily and Capcom has carried out an amazing job cleansing all the things up to make sure it meets right this moment’s high-res requirements.
It’s a recreation that deserves to look this good, too. The crisp comedian e book type visuals have been already placing on the DS and look positively unbelievable on trendy techniques, particularly given the unbelievable character animations.
The music has additionally been given a slight improve, with every observe getting a brand new organized model. An Extras menu lets gamers hear each the unique and organized variations, even giving them the choice to change between them with the press of a button to allow them to hear precisely what modifications have been made in real-time.
The principle issues that haven’t been modified, nevertheless, are arguably the 2 most vital ones – the dialogue and the puzzles themselves. On condition that each have been broadly praised the primary time round, there’s very a lot an ‘if it ain’t broke’ coverage in place right here.
It’s because of this that longtime followers of the sport would be the one to learn least from this remaster. Whereas it undoubtedly seems to be and sounds higher than its ancestor, anybody who has already performed by the sport will discover little right here in the best way of surprises.
The one new content material is the aforementioned extras menu, which has galleries accompanying the conventional and organized soundtracks. There’s additionally an unlockable mode the place you play primary sliding puzzles to acquire extra art work that isn’t in the usual gallery.
The consequence, then, is a recreation with a compelling storyline and a intelligent premise, each of which nonetheless maintain up greater than a decade later, however one which doesn’t have a lot in the best way of replay worth – one thing Capcom has seemingly realised by pricing it at $29.99 / £24.99 at launch.
