Phasmophobia is a ghost-hunting horror that became a cult hit following its launch in late 2020. For this Halloween season, I spoke to one of its most loyal followers and former Giant Bomb mod, Trace Evans.
___
Gamer_152: What's your name? Who are you? What do you want?
PeaceEgg: I'm Trace, Peace Egg on the Internet. I'm a streamer and speedrunner who's best known for being part of the team that has run Phasmophobia at several marathons, including Summer Games Done Quick, and I want to keep speedrunning and entertaining more people with co-op horror games like Phasmo. Or, in more spirit box-friendly terms, "ATTACK."
G_152: Phasmophobia is a very unique game. What drew you to it as a title to speedrun?
PE: It was a bit of happenstance along the course of a few months. I had friends who were really into Phasmophobia very early on, and I watched a lot and played a little with them. At some point, FlannelKat and I decided to start trying to play on our own in more regular sessions, and we started bringing other folks in. B0nd07 was a mainstay, but we kept struggling to find a consistent fourth player and kept trying to reach out to folks in our social circles to join us.
After several months of wrangling, we convinced Brossentia to join us for some investigations with another friend, Fyzzu. Brossentia and Fyzzu are both mainstays in the world of bad video games, and Brossentia's extremely well-known as a part of the awful block or silly block at most GDQs. He's been a part of Games Done Quick practically since its inception.
Long story short, Brossentia fell in love with Phasmophobia, and when we casually mentioned there were speedrun leaderboards for it online, we all started buzzing over the idea of taking the game to GDQ. Practising speedruns only increased that fervour: It was a fun way to take all the ghost knowledge Phasmo requires at an expert level and apply additional pressures trying to complete an investigation and get out. It not only made us better players, it made any successful and fast investigations all that more satisfying.
G_152: After all that time with the game, is it still scary in places or are you just running through those houses with nerves of steel?
PE: Largely, I'm pretty steeled now that I've run a couple hundred hours in Phasmophobia. A lot of the early scares don't quite hit in the same way they might have when things were somewhat unknown still, like how the ghost would lash out. That said, there's still plenty of emergent moments where ghosts appear right next to you or walk through the dark at you, and while they're not tremendously scary on their own compared to the more elaborate events, they become these emergent moments in the right circumstances that make me jump or pause a beat in fear.
It's kind of Phasmo's biggest strength to me: It doesn't rely heavily on huge jump scares so much as dread and being unnerving in moments where the player feels weak or out of control. This especially feels true with the new asylum map, where so much of the map feels hostile and unnerving. It's all just walls, barricades, a known ghost, and some window dressing, but it's tempered enough in its presentation that when everything lines up, it creates those rare moments where it's a new scary experience, even with all the time I've spent around the game.
G_152: So, what separates a good Phasmo run from a bad one? What skills is the game testing?
PE: The biggest things Phasmo's testing with a good run is how quickly you can recognise signs of the ghost, identify its main room, and keep moving forward with testing to deduce what you're dealing with. A lot of newer players will just wander around a house using tools at random until they get evidence or see the most obvious of ghost signs, and usually, that's what leads to hunts and death.
The key, in my opinion, is keeping eyes and ears open for signs of disturbance, following up on those, and using quick tools like EMF readers and UV lights to determine where the ghost is. Once you have the room figured out, evidence that takes longer, like writing books and DOTS, can be placed down, and at that point, the real deduction begins. Even at a high level, unless the ghost gives you everything you need quickly, you're having to consider whether pieces of evidence are still viable constantly, if there's any behaviours synonymous with a certain type of ghost, and on top of that, monitor if the ghost has decided to change rooms on a whim. Has it been too long for a ghost to run through DOTS? Are other quicker evidences not happening, or could they be missed due to a lack of activity or awareness? Is the ghost acting more or less aggressive than expected?
The fastest runs will put the ghost in a room near the entrance, and with decent investigative skills, give evidence very, very quickly across all the maps. Barring that, you're putting these skills to use to minimise the time in a house as much as possible, and it becomes a high-speed mystery.
G_152: You're clearly spinning a lot of plates at once. Do you have any advice for newcomers interested in Phasmo speedrunning?
PE: With all those plates, I think the biggest advice I could give newbies is this: Don't be afraid to just leave. So many people fresh to the game feel like they have to stay in the investigation, that they have to definitively figure out the ghost, but if you're not sure or things are getting uncomfortable, get out of there. Take a guess. It's better to leave with your stuff and be wrong about the ghost than to stay in the house, be killed by the ghost, and find out you were right. So often, I see players struggling to afford items, and it's because they keep overstaying their welcome during investigations and get caught in a bad spot.
When I started off trying to play solo, I'd begin on Amateur difficulty. That gives a five-minute grace period before the ghost can hunt. I'd use those five minutes to learn as much as I could, and if time expired and things weren't looking good, or I was still clueless, I'd leave. Eventually, experience and bravery picked up, and I'd have enough evidence in those five minutes to feel much more confident that I could complete the job. Either way, I wasn't getting killed and had money to spare as a result.
G_152: That makes sense. Last but not least, do you have a favourite ghost?
PE: I'm a big fan of the ghosts that give satisfying unique evidence (mimics notwithstanding), so anything in that regard. Specifically, the obake's rare six-finger handprint is one of my favourites, and getting easy-to-detect fingerprints everywhere is nice. I also enjoy the deogen since it has a chance to give a unique spirit box response and will charge at players from anywhere at the speed of light, only to slow down when it's in their face. It's a great ghost to show off bravery.
___
If you want to see Peace Egg run Phasmophobia, you can check out his regular streams on his Twitch channel or watch him participate with the GDQ team at Summer Games Done Quick 2022. Thanks for reading.
Log in to comment