That Ghost Trick both one of the most distinctive titles ever released by Capcom there is no doubt. The work created by Shu Takumicreator of the series of Ace Attorney, was originally released on the Nintendo DS and iPhone, being one of the very first Capcom games for mobile devices. For those unfamiliar with it, the game we are reviewing is Ghost Trick: Ghost detective it’s a puzzle games with a great yellow narrative imprint where, in the “ropes” of the protagonist, we will have to solve the mystery of his murder. To move around the game world we will have to take control of inanimate objects and use them to perform certain actions.
In the 2010Ghost Trick was not exactly an explosive success, certainly not comparable to other productions of the publisher, but it undoubtedly managed to entertain the players with very interesting mechanics and playful dynamics at times brilliant. That was enough, however, to make the title indelible in the memories of those who had originally tried it, which is why it is more than a pleasure to see that Capcom has decided to bring Ghost Trick back to life (so to speak) in a re-edition with one attached free demo.
However, let’s make a more in-depth incipit for all those who have never heard of the game. Ghost Trick: Detective ghost makes us – not surprisingly – ghosts in order to solve the riddle behind the death of the protagonist. Since we will not be able to talk directly to people or even walk, due to our spirit nature, we will have to interact with the world by taking control of inanimate objects. For example, we could command a bicycle to move around or make an umbrella fly up using a fan.
These are nothing more than the foundations of the play system: the story of Ghost Trick is divided into several chapters and follows a specific linearity. Generally, in each of them we will have to prevent a murder returning 4 minutes back in time and observing everything that happens in the area, leading up to the moment of death. By doing so, we can understand how to stop a hit man or how to prevent a fatality from killing someone. By altering people’s present, the protagonist Sissel will discover very important details to solve his own murder.
What revolutionizes this reissue of Ghost Trick is, first of all, the technical and graphic sector. The work was completely revisited from a point of view graphic: now the character models and the game world finally appear cleaner and more defined, albeit maintaining the lively tones and exaggerated shapes of the artistic direction that characterized the title in 2010. We have absolutely no nothing to complain about resolution and frame ratewhich also show satisfactory results on the Nintendo Switch.
However, we did not appreciate the maintenance of screen of game on size of the Nintendo DS, leaving the space available on the sides for other gameplay elements such as the hourglass which indicates how much time remains before a person dies. We would have much preferred the move to the more modern 16:9 aspect ratio although we understand that it would have meant some reworking of some maps, which made use of the smaller aspect ratio of the screens to hide specific scenic elements.
Almost perfect on Switch
The same goes for the controls, which although they have been reworked to accommodate the absence of the touch screen from the current consoles, could have been redesigned in a different and slightly more intuitive way. Let it be clear that currently Ghost Trick remains a lot enjoyableon par with the original version, but it is precisely on this point that a detail that we loved came to light: on Nintendo Switch we can play exclusively with the touch screen, completely forgetting the physical keys and returning to a purely classic feel. We particularly appreciate when developers and publishers create exclusive features for the Nintendo console, paying homage to its peculiarities, and discovering this detail that is not at all obvious made us feel a little more pampered.
In fact, almost all the critical issues we encountered during our test of the title are mainly due to lack of a total rework of Ghost Trick and not a mere transposition with higher resolution and frame rate. We believe that Capcom actually intends to believe in the franchise but that didn’t want to get involved further with exceptional changes to the gameplay sector.
Let it be clear that this does not mean that the work cannot be appreciated. In reverse, Ghost Trick remains a title today highly enjoyable due to its completely peculiar mechanics and gameplay dynamics. We also mention an ever-present puzzle element, which constantly tests the player’s problem solving skills and memory without ever excessively punishing mistakes made.
The only real “punishment” is the need to read the same dialogue every time we rewind time, although it’s not something that slows down the gameplay excessively. As far as the narrative sector is concerned, however, no particular changes have been made: the plothowever static it may be, it always results very pleasantseasoned with as many twists (interesting and never predictable) and memorable characters always ready to be appreciated in their quirks.
Even speaking of the narrative sector, however, we remain of the opinion that some minor improvements would have been due, given that some dialogues keep showing small gaps, while sometimes whole sentences seem to have no context at all. We are talking about defects that are inherited directly from the past, probably caused by a not exactly accurate localization.
Going to put aside our idea regarding the need to further improve the work, it must be said that this re-release is currently the best for enjoying the complete Ghost Trick experience. Not only the graphics sector has been enhanced, but in the same way too the entire soundtrack was recreated from scratch, and is now much more modern and defined. In addition, a series of interesting options for nostalgics have been introduced, such as the one that offers the possibility of playing with the classic soundtrack. Not only that, some extra content has also been introduced such as detailed illustrations of places and characters of the title, as well as i Ghost Puzzles of the mobile edition and even unprecedented challengesperfect once you’ve completed the main story.
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