Tucked away from the sprawling Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 posters and demos, Capcom's adventure DS title, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, wasn't an easy game to spot, but after playing the game, I'm certainly glad we found it. It's all crafted by Shu Takumi, the same creative mind behind the Ace Attorney series, and knowing that alone, the game certainly sports a different flair than you would expect it to.
When you start the game, you'll likely realize just how bizarre the visuals look. All of the action takes place on the bottom screen, with characters and objects implementing the now very much popular 2.5D perspective. Capcom wasn't afraid to stretch the color palette, as everything is splashed with an assortment of vibrant colors to give the game its very own unique comic book inspired flavoring. It's certainly not the best looking DS game, but smooth animations pull the action together nicely.
We began the demo dead. Yes, dead. As in no longer living. Sissel, the adventure's protagonist, finds that not only is he no longer living, but he can no longer retain any memories of his prior life. You then spot a mysterious red-headed girl being threatened at gunpoint by an evil looking man to her left. Sissel, being the good gentlemen that he is, attempts to stop the criminal by shooting his "spirit" into nearby inanimate objects in a nearby dump. All of this is done via the touch screen; simply drag Sissel's spirit from his body and place it in a nearby item in an attempt to distract the criminal, which in this case was a guitar. Possessing the guitar enables Sissel to play it for just a split second, but that's just enough time to distract the criminal from shooting the bystander, as the sound of the guitar disrupts his concentration.
While playing, it became apparent that Sissel's spirit can only stretch so far, meaning that in order to possess items his spirit had to be within a few feet of the item. For example, after the above guitar situation the game wouldn't let us hover to an overhead wrecking ball that we could drop on the criminal's head. Instead, players must use an intricate system of occupying and using a variety of objects to get to the desired item. In this case, that particular detour was a bicycle, which eventually led the spirit to the crane's controls to operate the wrecking ball and ultimately stopping the distracted criminal.
From what we played so far, we can only imagine the variety of puzzles and different scenarios Capcom will deliver come this winter when Ghost Trick finally hits the DS. Stay tuned to gamrFeed for more E3 coverage.
