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'Spun (God is a DJ)' and Remember Me's memory remixing are cut from the same creative cloth
When I first saw Remember Me's "memory remix" sequence play out during Capcom's press conference at Gamescom, my first thought was another Capcom game: Ghost Trick. Creative lead Jean-Maxime Moris agreed that Ghost Trick is a fair comparison, but he denied that that was where Dontnod drew inspiration from when crafting its memory remixing. In fact, Remember Me's memory remixing was "already in place" when Ghost Trick launched in early 2011."We tried it, and we played it, and I liked it very much," Moris says. "The main difference is that we are carrying realistic narrative states in the memory remix, and there will be key revelations about the storyline within the memory remix, or in the way things are gonna pan out before and after the remix ... that's very different, 'cause Ghost Trick was very gamey. And I don't mean that in a negative way at all, but it didn't try to achieve what we're trying to achieve in terms of scenario."Rather than Ghost Trick, Dontnod took inspiration from another source entirely: 2007's YouTube short by Double Edge Films, "Spun (God is a DJ).""Have you seen the short movie on YouTube, 'Spun (God is a DJ)'?" Moris asked me. I hadn't, but, watching it this morning, it was easy to see the inspiration shine through. "In the beginning, it was a massive inspiration for us, and one of the first things I did when I started to design the game was to go back to that and say, 'Well, this is the feeling we want to achieve. And how do we do that in the game?'" Moris admitted that Dontnod failed "two or three times" before the studio figured out the current version. "I'm confident we found the right way," he added.In case you haven't seen the short, it's a clever riff on a DJified deity remixing the world around him, slightly altering events to create alternative outcomes (take a look above). In Remember Me, the game's protagonist Nilin commands that same deity-like power over others, remixing memories to elicit outcomes of her choosing (seen in a video after the break).Like in "Spun," Nilin must first identify the "glitches" in her target's memory that allow for tweaking before she can begin altering the future. "One thing you didn't see in the video yesterday is that she first needs to identify where she's gonna be able to interact. And then, she can try out various combinations of objects," Moris said."Spun" mirrors this concept, where the all powerful DJ must first see what his remixing effects have on the world before he can correctly re-engineer the scenario. The only difference in the case of "Spun" is that the DJ, unlike Nilin, isn't trying to get someone to kill themselves.%Gallery-162365%
Daily iPhone App: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective scares up some fun
I've been waiting for this one for a while. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is a title that won accolades on the Nintendo DS last year, and it's now arrived on iOS in a universal version (that's free to download to boot). The idea is that you're a ghostly "phantom detective" who must solve his own murder. You can't directly interact with the living, but you can mess with inanimate objects in their world. So move objects around and try to change the fate of other dead people. It sounds morbid, but there's a fun sense of humor and style that keep it entertaining. The first two chapters are free to play through, and you can buy the rest for US$9.99 total, or $4.99 in three different chapter packs. Even for the full price, that's cheaper than you'll find it for sale on the DS. There's full Game Center integration and the build is universal, which makes this one of the best ports that Capcom has ever released. It's great to see such a popular game get a decent port to the App Store. Definitely pick it up and try it out. You might find yourself compelled enough to buy the whole and finish the story.
Ghost Trick sneaks onto iOS tomorrow
I'm excited about this one -- Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective was one of the best mobile games on the year that didn't appear on iOS in 2011, but the wait is over: Though it's been on iOS in Japan for a little while, the game is finally coming to the App Store on this side of the world this evening. As of tomorrow, you'll be able to pick up Ghost Trick on your iPhone or iPad, no matter where you are. The game itself will be free, so you can play through the first two levels for no charge, and after that you can buy the rest of the content with an in-app purchase. Ghost Trick is a fun one -- you play as a ghost detective who needs to solve crimes by inhabiting inanimate objects, like possessing phones to listen in on phone calls, or moving objects around to convince the living to move as well. It's a really great title that not a lot of people have picked up to play, so definitely give this one a look tomorrow when it's out.
Ghost Trick comes through the phone lines to iOS tomorrow
The iOS version of Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, which came out in Japan in December 2010, is finally coming out worldwide. Capcom gave the DS version a year to sell (or not), but the English-language version of the game has already appeared on the New Zealand App Store, typically the first sign of a worldwide release over the course of the next day.Like the Japanese release, this version of Ghost Trick is somewhat episodic. The first two chapters of the supernatural mystery puzzle adventure game (phew) are free, with the rest of the game available as in-app purchases. We had no problem recommending a purchase of the full game on DS; it's even easier for us to command you to try it for free.
Ghost Trick jumps to iPad in Japan
A free update to the currently Japan-only iPhone version of the wonderful Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective adds native iPad support, allowing those lucky people in possession of an iPad -- connected to the Japan's iTunes Store -- to see the beautiful animations on the biggest screen yet. The new update also includes "Ghost Puzzle," a minigame in which players solve slide puzzles to unlock iPhone wallpapers, and "Missile Omikuji," a minigame that dispenses fortunes in the style of Missile, an enthusiastic Pomeranian encountered in Ghost Trick.
Ghost Trick demo now downloadable through Nintendo Channel
We aren't sure why Capcom waited until last night to announce the availability of a Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective demo on the Nintendo Channel in North America -- maybe they, and we, missed the release because it was just too spectral. As the book says, "the living usually won't see the dead." In any case, it's been there since Monday, and all you have to do to play this trial scenario is load up the Nintendo Channel on your Wii, turn on Download Play on your DS, and beam the demo over like a dead person jumping from your TV into your DS. It's new content, exclusive to the DS demo -- not the same thing you played in that Flash demo.
Ghost Trick inhabits iPhone in Japan
1UP reports that Capcom is releasing a portion of Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective to the iPhone App Store in Japan. The initial download will be free, containing two chapters of the formerly DS-exclusive puzzle adventure. Additional chapters will be available for ¥600 ($7) each, or ¥1,500 ($18) as a bundle. The DS version was released in Japan in June, six months before the announcement of this iPhone port. Capcom has yet to announce this for the West, and likely won't until after the January 11 release of the DS version. Another well-known game by creator Shu Takumi, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, has also been ported to the iPhone.
Ghost Trick media is as serious as a heart attack
One of the most impressive elements of Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is its fluid, expressive animation -- even when the movements taking place aren't the most naturally graceful things. For example, the trailer after the break features a man having a heart attack or some other kind of medical emergency, and it's about as balletic as a heart attack could be. Even better, after seeing this impressive display in the game, you'll be able to turn back time and swing your ghostly self from flag to sword across his room to retrieve his pills. So, for now, you can delight in his Fred Sanford-style gesticulations guilt-free.%Gallery-109469%
Treat yourself to a Ghost Trick demo
Back in March, we linked a Japanese-language demo for Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. Now, you can play that Flash demo in English, not only allowing you to experience the introduction to the DS puzzle adventure, but to know what the hell you're experiencing!
Ghost Trick trailer and screens serenade some chicken
This new trailer for Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective returns us to the distinctive chicken restaurant seen previously. This time, we can see the restaurant as it was before the cops so rudely barged in (through the wall). And we meet the chef, who possibly instigates said intrusion ... by singing.
Ghost Trick haunts Europe Jan. 14, Capcom and Nintendo partnering to publish
Nintendo and Capcom have made a deal wherein Nintendo will handle European marketing and distribution for Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, and Capcom will publish it, with Capcom working alone in Australia and the Middle East. The most important result of this agreement, of course, is that Ghost Trick now has a European release date: January 14, just three days after the North American release. The other positive result is that if Nintendo is handling marketing duties for Capcom's postmortem mystery ... there may actually be some marketing for the game. Dragon Quest IX, for example, enjoyed increased visibility thanks to Nintendo's use of television ads in the US and UK.
Possess Ghost Trick on January 11
The dead will roam the earth starting January 11, 2011, to inhabit our donut carts and cabinet doors. Or at least one dead guy will ... in a DS game. January 11 is the newly revealed North American release date for Capcom's Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, in which an amnesiac ghost named Sissel solves his own murder and prevents the murder of others by manipulating objects (which, in turn, manipulate people). While we would have preferred a Halloween release date for the ghostly game (because it would have been sooner), at least Capcom came through with a seasonally appropriate Halloween release date announcement.
Latest Ghost Trick media includes mystery, meat
A dead amnesiac's work is never done. In the latest Ghost Trick trailer (after the break), we see a new scenario in which a police car drives through a restaurant window, dropping a gigantic piece of meat on a bystander. Naturally, the only person able to set this right will be Sissel, a dead man with the power to possess and control objects. Wait, does that mean a dead person's going to be touching the food in the restaurant? Gross. Of course, Sissel doesn't appear to be the only "free spirit" in the establishment -- it's staffed by a (literally) meatheaded, rollerskating waitress and a philosophically-minded bartender with blue Guile hair.%Gallery-104652%
Ghost Trick's Shu Takumi on finding humor in a murder-mystery
We'd happily take any opportunity to talk about Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective -- to our readers, our coworkers, our friends, people we meet in elevators, etc. So we happily jumped at the chance to talk with Capcom's Shu Takumi, the person responsible for creating the supernatural puzzle-adventure game. In a brief TGS interview, we spoke with Takumi about the unique humor in Ghost Trick and the Ace Attorney series -- and the relative uniqueness of any humor in a video game. Your games tend to have a certain tone, they tend to be funny. Most video games don't even attempt humor. Why do you think it's so rare, and how is it that you can continue doing funny games? I don't really know why people don't attempt to put humor in games. That's something I would actually love to know. I'd love to ask people why they don't try it. As for me, why I put humor in my games, and why I'm able to continue doing that: I like funny things. I like humor. I like writing mysteries, and mysteries have to be fun to read. They have to be something entertaining where you want to continue reading it. It can't be boring or dry. For me, what makes it interesting is adding a little humor here and there, using that to my advantage. Basically, I just write what is funny to me, whatever I'm interested in for other people to read. And that's how I'm able to continue in this manner that I do. It's important what I write, but what I write is in Japanese, and part of that humor and part of what makes it unique is the translation. (Note: Takumi's interpreter in this interview was Capcom's Janet Hsu, who actually works on localization for the Ace Attorney games. She reported her embarrassment about translating praise for herself.)
Watch this Ghost Trick footage, for dog's sake
Snippets of Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective footage went up on various outlets, mostly focusing on a sequence in which Sissel has to save a young girl named Kamilla from the game's nearly-blind assassin. Sissel is assisted in this task by Missile, Kamilla's dog -- who, like Sissel, has recently been killed by the assassin. Sissel rewinds time, and the two have to work together to get Kamilla in a safe hiding place before the killer arrives. After the break, see a clip from GameVideos in which Sissel and Missile manipulate Kamilla through the use of donuts. Find more at IGN and GameSpot (who has a clip of Missile's fateful showdown).
Interview: Ghost Trick and Ace Attorney director Shu Takumi
After publishing our E3 2010 preview of Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, we worried that we hadn't adequately captured and conveyed the game's bizarre concept. We're not the only ones left a bit speechless by the amazing Ghost in the Rube Goldberg Machine adventure -- ooh, that's a good way to put it! -- as even the game's director, Shu Takumi, thought it a challenge to explain his new mystery game to the "bigwigs" at Capcom. Joystiq: When you first had the idea for Ghost Trick, you had to go to someone and say, "Hey, we should make this game." I want to hear what that first day was like, and what their reaction was. Shu Takumi: Since I made the Ace Attorney series for so long, I was like, "Please let me do something new!" So I went up to the bigwigs and said this, and they said, "You go ahead and do what you want, we'll see what happens." The concept was really difficult to explain, so they were like, "Okay okay, why don't you make something and we'll see how it goes." So, that's what happened when I first presented the idea to make a new mystery game.
Preview: Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
Ghost Trick begins where most games come to an abrupt end -- with your death. It's of the intriguing, unexplained and very undignified variety, and leaves your spirit separated from your sharply dressed body. As Sissel, a sarcastic smooth talker who's cool enough to wear sunglasses even after death, you interact with the living world as a ghostly apparition in the hopes of preventing others from sharing your fate. Coming from Phoenix Wright designer Shu Takumi, Ghost Trick is almost as fun to describe as it is to play. Youthful and witty dialogue is the obvious commonality between Takumi's new adventure and the Ace Attorney series, but there's a more subtle connection too: both are traditional adventure games that reconsider the role of inventory objects. In the case of Ghost Trick, the inventory becomes the entire stage.
'Elegant' new trailer for Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
The latest trailer for Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective takes us out of the junkyard venue we've seen previously, including in the demo, and into the home of an "Elegant Lady," who seems to have great skill in the art of drunkenly dodging ghost-manipulated "naughty chandeliers." In addition to demonstrating the extremely odd scenarios possible in Capcom's upcoming DS puzzle-adventure, this new trailer features long stretches of gameplay, showing how the dead protagonist Sissel can move from object to object, manipulating certain items to interact with (or hit) the living. Ghost Trick will be out sometime next year. %Gallery-93388%
Okamiden in North America in 2011; Ghost Trick and Sengoku Basara in 2010
We may have had clues about a localized version of Okamiden, but that doesn't mean we aren't thrilled to see it officially announced. Capcom's DS sequel to Okami will be available for Nintendo DS in North America sometime in 2011. The trailer above relates the story, in which a very cute wolf god named Chibiterasu teams up with a new cast of characters to restore color to the world once again. Of course, the Celestial Brush item is back, allowing you to paint directly onto the world with the DS stylus. After the break, you can see some gameplay footage. Also after the break are new trailers and screens for Ghost Trick on DS (now Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective) and Sengoku Basara Samurai Heroes for Wii and PS3. Ghost Trick, an intriguing puzzle adventure about a dead man possessing the environment to solve his own murder and prevent others, has been given a winter 2010 date. Sengoku Basara, known in Japan as the latest game in the action series that spawned a popular anime and a Japanese history craze (and known in America, to a few people with good memories, as the latest sequel to Devil Kings) is currently classified as "TBD 2010." %Gallery-91176%
Ghost Trick possesses Japan June 24, Capcom releases demo
Capcom has announced the Japanese release date for Ace Attorney creator Shu Takumi's supernatural puzzle adventure game, Ghost Trick. Japan will be able to put Sissel's spirit into a bicycle on June 24. Capcom has yet to offer a date for North American or European releases beyond simply 2010, but if the game is in a complete state by June, that bodes well for localization sometime in the fall. However, if you can't wait that long, and you don't mind clicking through a bunch of Japanese text, you can play the TGS demo right now! Capcom posted a flash demo to the Ghost Trick site. %Gallery-73943% [Via Andriasang]
