Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective first came out for the Nintendo DS back in 2013. Written and directed by Shu Takumi, the creator of the Ace Attorney series, it earned a cult following among those who played it despite remaining relatively niche. Now it’s back, coming to the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on June 30, 2023, and as a huge fan of the original, I was thrilled to have a chance to preview this remastered version.
You play as Sissel, a ghost who awakens with no memory and learns he has until the arrival of morning to learn how he died. As a ghost, Sissel must possess objects to move around and perform “ghost tricks” by manipulating the object. Each object has one trick that can be performed with it. For example, an umbrella might unfold, or a cart might roll from one spot to another. You also have the power to rewind time to 4 minutes before a person’s death and try to change their fate within that 4 minutes. This sets up a puzzle game situation where you must figure out how to use these tricks to reach the area you’re trying to get to or avert a character’s death. Although you’re on a timer, you can rewind to the start of the 4 minutes or to a partial fate change within it if you want to start over. That leaves you free to experiment with different ghost tricks to reach an understanding of how to use them together to get the job done.
Much like how the original DS version lets you use either the buttons or the touchscreen, the PC version of Ghost Trick I previewed allows you to use the keyboard, mouse, or controller–whichever you like best. Bizarrely, there were two “Controls” options in the settings, but one just redirected me to a webpage that didn’t exist. Whatever that is about, I’m sure it will be fixed in the final version.
Before the remaster was announced, fans had concerns about whether or not Ghost Trick could be adapted to a wider screen, and Capcom has handled this issue by using a smaller area for the gameplay with bars on the sides. While this extra space mostly goes unused, they do put the 4-minute hourglass timer in one of the sidebars when you rewind time. In the DS version, the timer would appear on the second screen.
The character models in the new release are no longer pixelated, but they still have all of their charms, and the animations are as fluid as ever. The narration text that appears on the screen at key moments has also been smoothed out, although I didn’t quite like its new appearance. Nevertheless, that’s a tiny nitpick in what otherwise looks like a great remaster. They also redid the soundtrack for this remaster, and the game lets you switch between the original tracks and the new arrangements at any point. What I heard of the music in this preview build was excellent, but I appreciate being able to switch to the original soundtrack for nostalgia’s sake. Finally, Ghost Trick now has some quality-of-life features, like the ability to fast-forward through read text or auto-advance dialogue, although it seems you have to hold down the button or key to use these features, which takes away from their usefulness.
My preview let me play through the first two chapters, and everything I saw looked great. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective became one of my favorite games when it came out on the DS, and I’m looking forward to playing it all over again when the remaster launches this June.
