You know how there are those games that you are in awe over and get excited every time you turn it on? This just had to be one of those for me.I have not enjoyed a game this much in quite awhile.
When I had first heard about this lovely title, which was actually a few days before it was released, I was instantly intrigued by it and patiently waited for the soon release. And so when I finally got my hands on it, oooh boy... Let me tell ya, I'm definitely glad I stumbled across this gem. It almost makes me angry that it was not advertized well enough.
Anyway, here is my review split up into segments:
Gameplay - The ability to manipulate certain objects and to travel through them is very unique, and immensely fun. And the way the objects interacted with one another was pretty cool too. While some of the puzzles WERE a bit frustrating and took some time to figure out, that never kept me from playing it, I'd find myself constantly rewinding time to the beginning, and going through the entire span of the 'four minutes' just to change one little thing at the end. It still did not interfere with my enjoyment. The ability to save the characters lives is fun, though for certain characters, it got a bit annoying having to save one repeatedly *cough*Lynne*cough* :P
Story - I found the premise to be very interesting; playing as someone who just died, then sets out to solve the mystery that is his death. Sure, the whole 'I have amnesia, I can't remember anything' bit is played out too much, but Ghost Trick is such an exception. In fact, in most of the game, you're trying to solve other characters' mysteries rather than your own. As the player progresses further into the game, the story becomes more complex, but never too difficult to understand, and similar to Ace Attorney, there are plenty of tweeests!
The characters are very, very quirky, but quite memorable, some more than others, such as (an apparent fan-favorite, and mine especially) Missile, the loyal and adorable Pomeranian. Fortunately, he became a VERY important character, so we got to see more of him.
Towards the end (no spoilers here), the story becomes heart-tugging, but it all works itself out in a happily, tear-jerking end. And I have to say, I REALLY enjoyed the ending, both in how they presented it and how they wrote it out.
Art/presentation - I'm very big on art in video games, seeing as I'm an artist myself, and I will have to say that I enjoyed the sort of edgy anime portraits. They provided a specific style for the whole game that truly made it unique. The character designs are obviously quirky and even humorous, but this added to Ghost Trick, and did a good job of going along with the overall of feel of the game. And the animation...My gosh! I was so surprised by the impressive animation -- it was beautifully fluid!! It was almost like watching a little play, what with the 2 dimensional backgrounds. Speaking of the backgrounds, those were very well-rendered too! The style reminded me a lot of Out of this World, but much more detailed.
Music - Similar to the Ace Attorney, it's still pretty good. It does a good job of conveying the emotions and feelings that are going on in certain scenes. Some of them are pretty catchy too, like the main theme. I really liked the soundtrack for the most part; although probably one song became very repetitive while I was 'ghost tricking'.
I've played some of the Ace Attorney series, but I enjoyed this game much more. Don't get me wrong, Phoenix Wright is fun, but Ghost Trick is one spectacular adventure game and that needs to be played by everyone with a DS! :] I'm seriously hoping that Ghost Trick gets the attention that it deserves, it really needs it!