Anyone else not digging the whole pet cat thing? Kinda feels like they wrote themselves into a corner and went back and added the cat in post, after the plot was all laid out. Also the ending with the true reveal of who the lamp was confusing me and was DUMB AS HELL.
Apart from that that, game was brilliant.
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
Game » consists of 7 releases. Released Jun 24, 2010
Ghost Trick puts the player in command of Sissel, who has only until dawn to figure out the mysterious circumstances surrounding his death.
[SPOILERS!!] Ghost trick, story and ending discussion [SPOILERS!]
oh I dunno, I thought the pet thing actually made sense if you thought about it; it was why he couldn't read any of the blackboards in the jail, why he didn't know some of the words people were talking about, why he didn't have his memory...
the whole ray thing wasn't the best part though, I'll agree (even though I love the image of older missile)
They sewed those seeds from the very beginning when the cat popped out of the box. He doesn't know what a fucking wrench is for the love of god. If you look back on all of Sissel's dialogue it becomes really, really apparent that his complete lack of knowledge regarding the human world isn't just "amnesia." That isn't how amnesia works. In fact, I think I'm going to play it again now that all that shit that just seemed like arbitrary side effects of Sissel's powers has a lot more meaning now.
Yea, if anything was wrote in at the last minute it was Ray. They needed a tutorial character, they made one, and they had to justify it. I think that part was cool just because of how completely fucking insane it was, but it was still kind of dumb.
Also, I think you are missing the part where
A FUCKING CAT AND DOG WENT TEN YEARS INTO THE PAST AND MANIPULATED TIME.
AND NOW THE CAT IS AN IMMORTAL.
This is the best game ever made. Ever.
Ever. It just is.
I didn't see anything wrong with the ending honestly. I thought the whole Missile thing was excellent, especially as I assumed he was going to be a dumb throwaway character considering he was named after the dog in Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney and all; having his role develop so much in the second half of the game was a really good twist. The cat thing wasn't quite as satisfying, but it does appear near the start of the game so there's definitely a good Chekhov's gun there which goes a long way to justifying it.
I lack the appropriate handheld to play this game - though hearing about it on podcasts it sounds really rad.
I came in to basically check out how the story panned out (im never gonna get to play it, just wanted to know really) and without context this all sounds insane.
Can someone spoilertag a brief run down of the actual plot and ending? ive checked the wiki page and gb page but neither contain the full story
I just beat the game tonight and wow. This is definitely one of the most engrossing stories I've seen in a video game. The twist with you not really being the man in the red suit was amazing and I never saw it coming. My only problems are that you never catch the blue guys (perfect setup for a sequel of course) and the whole Ray being Missile ten years into the future from the past or whatever.... thing seemed kinda arbitrary and convoluted.
Loved it. Top to bottom. Making Missle a ghostly Hachiko was inspired. Especially since he was introduced as a comical side character. The only things I don't get is why Sissel is now immortal, and who exactly remembers everything. Just Sissel, Romiel, Jowd, and Missile (i.e. the people who went back to prevent Romiel from getting hit with the meteorite shard)?.
" Loved it. Top to bottom. Making Missle a ghostly Hachiko was inspired. Especially since he was introduced as a comical side character. The only things I don't get is why Sissel is now immortal, and who exactly remembers everything. Just Sissel, Romiel, Jowd, and Missile (i.e. the people who went back to prevent Romiel from getting hit with the meteorite shard)?. "Sissel isn't technically immortal, he is dead but possessing his corpse with the Temsik shard lodge inside of it.
And as for who remembers everything, well everyone does to an extent. A lot of time was changed though, so those ten years worth of memories were bound to fade away as we are introduced to the new present with the exception of maybe Sissel and Yomiel as it is made apparent that the latter at least made a concentrated effort to retain his some of his memories in prison. It's still hard to tell if anyone actually remembers everything though.
I mean, if you want to get really philosophical about it it's seems a lot like the religious concept of a past life. They have brief insights into what their previous existence was like, but it's only scrambled bits and pieces that don't add up to anything whole.
Remember how everyone else got their memory back but not Sissel? It makes sense that he kept thinking he was Yomiel which is why he couldn't remember anything. Luckily for everyone else Sissel tells them who they are after they die so they start remembering again. Also after adding in a talking dog, adding in a cat seems to match with the theme of talking animals. I agree the part with Ray was kind of weird; I felt that they could've fit him in better. I liked it overall, mainly because they laid down a set of rules and never went back on them. If you think about it that way, there really can be no other explanation.
A little bit ambivalent about the ending, to be honest. I'm not really sure if I liked the whole sissel is a cat reveal...I guess it does make sense in retrospect, so that's cool, I guess I was just setting myself up, expecting something crazier. Also, I'm surprised so many people seemed to love missile. To me he was the most obnoxious character in the entire game. Certain actions the characters took still kind of bug me as well.
I really wish the game was a bit longer though. I kept feeling like they never stretched the puzzles to their full potential; just as I was warming up to the possibilities, it would move on to something else. Also, what the HELL is up with the bullets in this game? Bullets are not shaped like that!
My other reason for believing this is because Yomiel's soul got separated from his body when he "died", so that even when he was in his body, he wasn't connected the same way he was as when he was alive. Sissel seems to still be actually inside his body, with his soul attached, leading me to believe that he's still alive.
Also, he could just remain a kitten as an effect of so much direct exposure to Temsik radiation. Remember that at one point someone (pigeon man?) said that Temsik radiation does affect the living, so this might be one of the results: no aging. It doesn't mean that he won't die, either. He could remain a kitten all the way up until death, and then afterwards just go on his way.
I'll post again tomorrow about what I thought. it's 6AM, I've been playing since about 9PM last night, and I want to get some sleep before giving any real opinion.
@Laketown said:
" oh I dunno, I thought the pet thing actually made sense if you thought about it; it was why he couldn't read any of the blackboards in the jail, why he didn't know some of the words people were talking about, why he didn't have his memory... the whole ray thing wasn't the best part though, I'll agree (even though I love the image of older missile) "@LordXavierBritish said:
"OH man all that makes sense now!!!! @ashogo:BECAUSE CATS CAN SEE IN THE DARK
I JUST GOT IT
HOLY SHIT
"
Also, consider Sissel's observation at the scene of Lynn's initial death, "That's got to be some of the slowest running away I've ever seen..."
The whole thing makes sense as far as I know if look at all the small print here and there but what bothers me is the fact that Sissel and Old Missle hatch incredibly elaborate plans. Regardless, the whole game isn't exactly planted firmly into reality so I'll guess I can let this slip. The way they tie everything together into one neat package is incredibly nice I have to say.
Just finished this game... wow, that ending was just superb. I totally didn't see that coming; never made the connection, even in the final chapter, about the cat at the beginning of the game and next to Jowd. I was blown away by the relevation of Sissel being the cat - also makes so much sense considering the lack of understanding like the reading and not knowing what simple objects like a wrench is. The old Missile one was not as strong, but it was still pretty awesome and not integral to the story. I wish more games had this good of a story and such a decent plot twist at the end - it has been a long time since a game surprised me as much as this one did.
"HOLY SHIT, my mind is blown. It's all making perfect sense.BECAUSE CATS CAN SEE IN THE DARK
I JUST GOT IT
HOLY SHIT
"
No doubt the developers thought and combined all these crazy story elements really well. While the perfectly strung together plot is the highlight here, the puzzles were pretty good too. Here's to ''Ghost Trick: Sissel's 21213424-th time Saving Lynne''
It's 2:30 am, and I just finished up the game a little bit ago. Wow. Just wow. Great ending with the surprising Sissel cat reveal. That revelation makes a lot of the details and quirks about Sissel make a lot of sense, such as his lack of human traits like reading and understanding words.
Another pleasant surprise for me was how much Missile got fleshed out as a key story character in the second half of the game. I loved him the first time you encounter him in the apartment, but then later on he's a playable character, and then it turns out he's the desk lamp?!?!
I can't believe that such an engrossing and pretty much completely cohesive story was created about time-traveling ghost animals. And there was some pretty cool gameplay on top of it as well! This is one of those games that is going to stick with me for quite a while. It's games like this that make me disappointed about how little thought is put into creating a good story and likable characters in most current games.
I feel like it would be petty of me to get caught up on the whole identity reveal that Sissel is a cat considering there's a whole nation of blue skinned people who like assassination, a dancing detective with Michael Jackson moves, and a cook with a chicken drumstick for a nose.
One of the best parts of this game is when I realized that "oh man, I'm not the dude in the red suit." Maybe the cat thing would feel more contrived if Missile hadn't demonstrated that animals can do this ghost trick thing as well as humans. I had guessed that Sissel was the cat around the time you were saving Cabanela, but I didn't expect that Ray would be a time-traveling Missile. That's probably the weakest part of the ending, but everything falls together so well that Sissel as a cat works well. As other people have mentioned, there's plenty of proof they planned this way ahead with Sissel not being able to read, not understanding objects, etc.
I think the replay value in this game is going back and seeing if you can catch all the things you missed or didn't think about the first time.
I liked it alot, it was a clever way to fix the messed up situation, which I honestly didn't see coming, also it was fun trying to fix the event from 10 years ago that was so hyped through the game.
Gotta wonder what people will say when the family's cat live longer than the owners though.
I just beat the game and I absolutely loved the ending. When it turned out Sissel wasn't the man in red I was so surprised, but when it turned out he was the cat my mind was blown. Everything made sense and it was awesome. The credits were awesome too. I loved seeing all the characters in their new future, and I loved the music that played during the credits.
I did not see a single twist coming with the exception of Sissel being a cat. For some reason, I totally called it, especially because they remind you the cat was in the junkyard. But man, loved it. They tied up everything extremely effectively. Even Ray. They even fucking went back to Ray. Man.
I can't wait for these guys to make another new game. They have yet to do me wrong.
" I just beat the game tonight and wow. This is definitely one of the most engrossing stories I've seen in a video game. The twist with you not really being the man in the red suit was amazing and I never saw it coming. My only problems are that you never catch the blue guys (perfect setup for a sequel of course) and the whole Ray being Missile ten years into the future from the past or whatever.... thing seemed kinda arbitrary and convoluted. "the 2 blues that kidnapped Kamila died and the main people on the submarine never did anything of the stuff in the game since Sissel erased that present, so they didn't really set up anyhing for a sequel.
" @Sogeman: Didn't the blue guy with the mustache manage to get away with the meteorite piece? I thought Sissel wasn't able to erase that part. "You mean the main bad guy? (those were eyebrows then) Why shouldn't it be erased? The meteroite never killed anyone and no one knows it can give people powers. So that other country has no knowledge of it.
Just want to say that Missile's personality and the fact he waited 10 long ass years to save his mistress makes him a incredible contender for character of the year, imo. Really hope GB guys (Looking at you Vinny!) play and remember this game.
Also, during the credit sequence I got the impression that Missile was staying with Lynne, but shouldn't he be chilling with Kamilia? Unless... didn't Missile say he was only 2 years old? Does that mean as soon as they stopped the meteorite he ceased to exist for 8 years? I probably should know the answers to these questions, but I played that game from 1:00am to 11:am straight, on 3 hours of sleep.
I really liked that Sissel was the cat. It seemed like an odd twist at first, but it all fit in really well with the rest of the story.
I thought the ending was actually kind of touching.
I called Sissel as the cat around the time you end up in the sub. I don't remember what it was that did it aside from his continued failure to understand what things were and my finally putting 2 and 2 together on that count. When the game ended I was legitimately sad I wouldn't see the characters again, particularly the detectives, I guess.
My one negative (sort of) comment about the game is this - it's a good thing that GHost Trick didn't come out on the 3ds, cause none of those puzzles would work if they weren't on a 2D plane. Anyway, late to the party but loved the game.
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