The DS: A Classic Adventure Powerhouse?

I suppose it makes sense, what with the touch screen, stylus, and the (relative) rebirth of classic point and click adventure games on the PC in the past few years, but this old genre has flourished on the Nintendo DS.

Sure, it's no PC in that regard, but the level of quality versus quantity is pretty unarguable. Here's the list of classic adventure games that I've played:

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice for All
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations
Ace Attorney: Miles Edgeworth Investigations
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
Hotel Dusk: Room 215
9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective

And I'm not even counting the Professor Layton games, which are kind of borderline. They are great games, either way, though.

It is somewhat odd that Capcom dominates that list, publishing all but two games (Hotel Dusk and 999). Who would have thought Capcom would make so many awesome adventure games?

Anyway the reason I bring this up is because I just finished Capcom's excellent Ghost Trick. Developed by many of the Ace Attorney people (possibly the same team, depending on where you get your info on the internet), the game is about Sissel, who dies at the beginning of the game. He receives powers after his death, and is able to move about in ghost form by possessing certain items. Sissel can manipulate many of these items, allowing him to move around farther, and also to interact with the many living characters that inhabit the game world.

Also, when he discovers a dead body, he can travel back in time to four minutes before their death, and do his best to reverse it. If he does so, he changes their fate, and thus allows the storyline to progress.

Sissel, you see, suffers from amnesia. He cannot remember who he was, other than the fact that when he dies, he can see his body from his ghost form. He spends the rest of the game trying to figure out who killed him, why they killed him, who he really was (for example, why was he present in the junkyard when he was killed?), and why many of the people he encounters seem to know and recognize his earthly body.

I will not spoil the story here, because it is fantastic, but it also holds up throughout. This is probably my main complaint about every other adventure game in the above list, save for Hotel Dusk. That isn't to say the stories aren't enjoyable, just that the suspension of disbelief falls pretty hard near the end (especially, ESPECIALLY in 999 - as much as I enjoyed the characters and most of the dialogue in that game, the true ending was pretty forced and weird). Ghost Trick has a somewhat goofy explanation for the main event the story spins around, but given the context of the game, it seems grounded and makes sense. I was satisfied with it, and was surprised several times by the twists and turns in the story.

Also, the puzzles were never too obtuse to figure out with a few tries. They were challenging, but since they made sense, it should only take even a adventure game newbie a few tries to figure out.

The animation, though, is unbelievably gorgeous. The characters who move around on screen look a touch rotoscoped, then colored over. They move smoothly, and often hilariously (see Detective Cabanela doing anything, also the "Panic Dance"). The dialogue shifts between lightly comedic (Missile the Pomeranian might be the only dog of that breed whom I find both adorable and lovable, and hilarious) to somewhat gloomy and sad, but never excessively so.

There is the possibility of a sequel (don't worry, nearly all story elements are tied up in this game), although apparently the game didn't sell to well in Japan (and likely in America, either). Capcom apparently even blamed it for a poor showing in the fiscal quarter of its release, too, so that probably dooms any chance of a sequel. Maybe. The runaway success of the Ace Attorney series, and the fact that this is Capcom, who makes sequels to EVERYTHING (they even made an Okami sequel, of all things!), might mean we get to solve more mysteries via Ghost Tricks.