I finished Ghost Trick this week and I think the game highlights an annoying trend in what games are lauded for these days. It scored a whopping 83 on Metacritic and has unanimously positive user reviews. The game’s visuals are very amazing and I daresay unheralded on a DS and that distracts from the lack of gameplay. I would consider this an adventure title in the genre of games like Space Ace. Simply put, Ghost Trick plays like a complete animation where events are triggered by performing the right (prompted) action that doesn’t stress you too much on dexterity and coordination speed.

The amount of art effort in there is crazy. Each scene seems custom-animated and scripted and it doesn’t seem like game events can be automated in the sense that actions yield different results in different scenes. Though impressive, that is my main grouse with the game flow. Objects sometimes react completely contrary to what is expected and the learning comes in the form of having to repeat scenes from the beginning to get the right solution. It’s homage to the old days of gaming where you wouldn’t know where a portal or a deadly enemy is until you are killed the first time and I’m sure a lot of people get the AHA! moment but it doesn’t make you feel smart at figuring out the solution because you’re prompted way too often. That AHA! moment happens because you’ve played that scene before and have seen the solution. It’s a cool mechanic in a way but would probably be more rewarding if they ease up on the prompts.

Towards the 3/4 mark, the game starts to introduce new mechanics to spice things up and there are some scenes where you get new abilities to learn ONLY for use during a scene or two. It feels rushed and artificial. That’s also when more prompts are added so you know exactly what you’re supposed to do with the newfound skills. That’s something I really hate too. I’m sure the prompts are added after playtesting results conclude that no one knows what’s going on. It’s the same with the story where everything important suddenly reveals itself (rather ridiculously too) towards the last quarter of the game in very lengthy cutscenes.

Being guided with text instruction throughout makes a game no-fail but it isn’t good design. I think the reason why people are engaged in it is because it’s instant gratification. You don’t need to be frustrated repeatedly or have to pause to think before ‘getting’ it. The smooth-as-Marvin-Gaye animations also help I’m sure because it’s eye candy and no one likes to be distracted from eye candy by unimportant things like pfft, gameplay right?

When it comes to being engaging without frustrating the player, I remember Freddi Fish being a great example of a good balance but my memories of it might be fogged by the ignorance of childhood.

I’ll be playing 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors next and from the first 10 minutes, it feels a bit boring too.