Review: Ghost Trick

I finished Ghost Trick 6 months ago and loved every second of it. After revisiting the game today (It’s amazing how much free time you have when recovering from pneumonia.) I realized the love hasn’t gone anywhere, and as such I though I ought to mention it in some way here, in the vast reaches of the internet. If you haven’t played the game yet, I urge you to do so. It’s beautiful.

The following post is based on a review published in the Finnish magazine Japan Pop, issue 2/2011. I’ve made an attempt to avoid spoilers, so it’s safe to read even if you haven’t played the game. (Avoiding spoilers makes it rather cursory, but it’s a price I’m willing to pay when reviewing a game that’s so delicately dependant on its mysteries.)

Mens Sana in Corpore Sano
A sound mind in a healthy body

The opening act of Ghost Trick focuses on a murder. This is not unusual in fiction, I know. Except, this time the one who dies is Sissel, the game's protagonist, which stirs things up from the get go: Who was just murdered? The protagonist, sure, but why? What did he do?

Sissel. True to the game’s lead designer’s love for puns, Sissel’s name derives from the japanese word シセル (shiseru), which is the katakana form of the word 死せる (shiseru, to die). This in itself is quite punny, but it gets even better! Shiseru is also a conjugated form – the potential form, to be exact – of 資す (shisu, to have a hand in; to play part in something). So, Sissel’s name means both dying and influencing. Note that by writing the name in katakana, Takumi obscures the exact meaning, thus incorporating both interpretations under one name, which is very fitting for Sissel.

Luckily, the universe is merciful and lets the unfortunate hero stay within the mortal realm until daybreak. Within this time limit, Sissel must unravel the mystery of his own death as well as help a whole bunch of other people who are related to him and his murder. The details of the situation are left somewhat vague, however, as Sissel suffers from the most frequent of game protagonist maladies: amnesia. He has no memories of himself and is totally clueless about the rest of the world as well.