Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is a game that I should've played a long time ago. It's made by Shu Takumi which is the creator of the Ace Attorney franchise(which I love), it has a fantastic art style that is used on some incredible characters. The gameplay is fun and makes you feel smart after solving each puzzle. These should've been clear signs that I would probably love this game. Unfortunately, I was ignorant and mostly ignored my DSi during it's last years of relevance. I missed out on a ton of great DS games and that fact is still something that haunts me. After getting my 3DS for Christmas I've made a promise to beat my long list of DS games that I've missed out on. I already beat 999(which I talked about on Giantbomb) and now I've beaten Ghost Trick. So what do I think about it?

I love a lot of different things about this game. Some of the best aspects of this game are the story and characters. The story starts off with your death and then suddenly getting your ghost trick powers. The main gameplay of it is being able to manipulate objects such as ladders in order to do one trick with them. You can use these tricks in order to move around the area in order to solve puzzles. These puzzles involve saving a person's life in 4 minutes. You can see the death of a person and use it to see how you can avert their death. These puzzles are quite tricky and have different solutions that are in areas that are pretty different. I won't spoil any of the story as it is the main reason to play it so don't worry about that. I'll just say that the story and characters are incredible. It is really like the Ace Attorney games with the focus on characters and their unique quirks. This does feel like a game that the Ace Attorney guys would make.

You should really play it. I know saying that it's unique isn't enough for most people but it really is. It has some wonderful characters with great arcs that are fully realized by the end. The music and art are both spectacular which is to be expected from the Ace Attorney guys. It is also a great looking DS game that has incredible animations in game. All of it makes for a great game that I can recommend full-heartedly. I haven't even talk about the twists that occur in the story that honestly blew my mind. I don't have any big problems with it so there isn't much that I can complain about.Go check it out on your DS and Iphone. You'll be missing out if you don't play this quirky japanese game! Be sure to check out the video above with me talking about Ghost Trick in depth with my dumb face.

I'm glad the first thing I saw when I clicked on this was an image of Missile.

Edit - The thing I loved the most about it was that some scenes you visit early in the game seem to have these throwaway characters that you wouldn't expect to play such a huge part in the game, and then you get to the later scenes and they are really important to the overall story. I adore how insane it gets in the last few sequences and the animation is just so damn good. The payoff at the end is absolutely brilliant.

Playing it right now on my 4S and I'm stuck in the chicken kitchen, anyone wanna help?

BARKING!!

This game has some of the slickest animation I've seen in a handheld game. The character models are so expressive in the way they move despite the intentionally sparse designs.

@Venatio You go to the Chicken Kitchen a couple of times during the game, what chapter are you in or what are you trying to accomplish?

I'll play it eventually, I swear!

...The World Ends with You, too!

This game has some of the slickest animation I've seen in a handheld game. The character models are so expressive in the way they move despite the intentionally sparse designs.

@Venatio You go to the Chicken Kitchen a couple of times during the game, what chapter are you in or what are you trying to accomplish?

Having not played Skyrim or Witcher 2 yet, I will say that Ghost Trick is definitely my GOTY from 2011. I fucking love that game. Always love to hear more about it.

It's a great game.

Yep. This and 999 are the best two games I've ever played on the DS, and yes I've played the Marios, the Laytons blah blah.

Ghost Trick was an amazing game. I don't know how they'd manage it, or what they'd do with it, but I would love to see a sequel on the 3ds.

you are correct missle is the best, the animation and some of the music is also some of the best on the ds as well.... such a fantastic little gem this game is

2011 GotY. Such a great and crazy story. You never expect missile to play as big of a role as he did and what a huge role it was.

Dammit I need to play this game, I've been meaning to but I keep forgetting.

@Venatio So your goal is going to be to get to the van driver. You're going to get to him via the large piece of chicken, but you need to get upstairs first to jump to it. There's a particular way to maneuver around the level beyond just jumping to cores that you've probably figured out - you just need to use that to your advantage.

The game is pretty great. It's charaters are fantastic and it has a nice twist in the end.

@Sanj said:

Yep. This and 999 are the best two games I've ever played on the DS, and yes I've played the Marios, the Laytons blah blah.

Agreed!

Dammit I need to play this game, I've been meaning to but I keep forgetting.