When we first heard that the creator of the world's first (and only) Lawyer simulator franchise, Phoenix Wright (that's the series' name - not the guy who made them), had another project in the pipeline, we knew it was going to be something... different. And looking at Ghost Trick, it seems like we won't be disappointed.
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is an adventure/puzzle game, that has you possessing objects around a room, in order to prevent another character from being killed.
You play as Sissel, a man who wakes up and discovers that he's been murdered, but has no memory of how or why. He discovers (well, a floating lamp teaches him) that he's able to possess objects and perform "ghost tricks" basically turning himself into a poltergeist, but of the most helpful kind. Armed with this knowledge, he then sets out to discover why he was killed, and prevent other characters from coming to a similarly grizzly end.
If this wasn't a video game, there'd probably be a lawsuit in there somewhere...
Each level starts four minutes before a short-sighted gunman enters the room, and Sissel needs to possess the different objects in the room in order to navigate the would-be victim to safety, and scare the gunman away. This is done by moving from object to object through the room (as Sissel can only possess objects that are within a certain radius of the thing he's currently possessing), and using "ghost tricks" on objects that can be manipulated - ranging from opening and closing cupboard doors, to pushing a tray of doughnuts from one side of the room to the other.
Due to the plethora of possessable objects in each room, there's a wealth of different ways to finish each level, meaning it's likely you'll never play the same level in exactly the same way, offering endless amounts of replayability, something we never saw in the Phoenix Wright games.
With a brilliant visual style and a cast that seem every bit as loveable as Phoenix and co, Ghost Trick is going to be a must buy for us when it lands this Winter.
