Though you may not be familiar with the name Shu Takumi, odds are you’re at least somewhat cognizant of his work. Takumi worked as writer and director on the first three games in the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney series for Capcom, and has now moved on to create a new adventure in a whole new setting, called Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective for the Nintendo DS. At this year’s E3 conference, I had the opportunity to play two levels from Ghost Trick at Capcom’s booth, and while there are certainly some similarities to Phoenix Wright, the new game brings some intriguing new ideas and mechanics to the genre.

Ghost Trick opens in a junkyard, where an ethereal entity suddenly gains awareness. You look around and soon notice what you recognize as your own corpse lying prone on the ground, though you don’t remember your name, how you died, or anything else for that matter. A mysterious voice begins to speak to you, explaining that you are now a ghost, and as such are in possession of some unique abilities. Before the voice can explain further, you see that a woman (later identified as Lynne) is about to be shot by a hitman, apparently the same one who killed you moments earlier.

Play is handled entirely with the DS stylus. You tap a button in the corner to activate “Ghost” mode, which temporarily freezes time. From there you can drag your spirit from whatever it’s currently possessing (at first, your corpse) to any object within a short range. The top screen displays a description of the object and what sort of “Trick” you can do with it. For example, if you possess a cupboard door it may say “Open”. Once you’re where you want to be, you then restart time, and press a button in the opposite corner to do the selected Trick. In the junkyard, you can knock the hitman’s arm away with the arm of a crossing gate, then distract him by strumming an old guitar. The scene continues as you must jump from object to object to thwart the hitman and save Lynne.



Unfortunately, you fail. And this is where you learn about your other ghostly ability: time travel. The voice explains you can go back in time up to four minutes before someone dies to try to change fate and prevent their death. If things are going poorly, you can reset to the beginning of the scenario or, in longer levels, to a “Fate Changed!” checkpoint. The second time around, you learn how to better use your Tricks to move objects and expand the range of things you can possess, and you manage to save Lynne. The voice then lays out your goal from here: you have one night to remember who you are and figure out who ordered your murder.

One thing the Phoenix Wright series is known for is long scenes of dialogue between its characters, and Ghost Trick seems to continue this tradition. In the second level from the demo, taking place in a woman’s apartment, there were several long stretches of conversation between the main character and a recently deceased dog. The tone seems to vacillate between a light-hearted and cartoonish sense of humor (evident in the main character’s bright red suit and miraculously pointy blond hair) and a dark edge (such as the shooting of a cute and cuddly puppy dog), but I didn’t see enough of the game to say for sure how well it pulls off such a balancing act. The secondary characters also have a slightly exaggerated appearance (and attitudes to match), and the backgrounds tend to be bright and colorful. The animations are very smooth, and reminded me of the classic rotoscoped platformers Prince of Persia and Out of This World.

The apartment level was marked as “Advanced” difficulty, and really served to show how Ghost Trick could become very challenging as it progresses. The apartment has several objects you can distract yourself with that aren’t actually needed for the solution, and multiple instances where something has to be done at a precise moment and can only be triggered once, though nothing that requires particularly quick reflexes. I definitely made use of the ability to reset the level a couple times before I figured out the solution. An hourglass, showing how much of your four minutes are left, adds a constant feeling of tension.

With so many adventures relying on recycled gameplay, this kind of interesting story, colorful characters, and a unique approach to puzzles indicate the potential for a truly great adventure title, and with a pedigree like Takumi’s behind it, there’s even more room for optimism for DS owners. Look for Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective to materialize on store shelves later this year.