Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective launched on the Nintendo DS in 2010, and 13 years later, it’s being remastered for the Nintendo Switch. On that note, a recent interview with the game’s developer and Game Informer raised the question of whether it will ever receive a sequel.
Director Shu Takumi, producer Shingo Izumi, and port director Atsushi Maruyama all recently sat down for an email interview with Game Informer to discuss how Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective came to be, including the chance for a sequel.
When asked if Takumi would like to see a sequel, they said, “The story of “Ghost Detective” is completely told in this one game, so I think it will be difficult to make a sequel. The introduced power of the dead may still have some possibilities.”
Izumi then added, when asked about the possibility of making a sequel in the future if the remake sells well: “Right now, we’re doing everything we can to make Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective available to as many players as possible, so we haven’t done that yet. Time to think about what we’re going to do after that. I hope enough people play the game that we can consider making a sequel!”
So there you have it. If you want to make a Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective sequel in the future, you’ll want to force every single one of your friends to play the game. It shouldn’t be too hard, considering Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is a great game, we can say it’s one of the best Nintendo DS games ever; maybe it’ll be our best Switch game ever one?
Game Informer also asked how the animation in Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective works so that it still looks unique today, and Takumi shared, “When we made the original in 2010, motion capture wasn’t as widespread as it is today. Use. Over 90% of the animation in Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective was handcrafted. That probably wouldn’t happen today, but I think because it’s handcrafted, there’s a unique appeal to the movement.”
I find this especially interesting because Takumi is correct; you rarely see new games from major studios that are entirely or mostly hand-drawn. It also made me think of Hotel Twilight: Room 215 on the Nintendo DS, which used motion descriptions to animate characters. This is something I haven’t seen since! I definitely miss the NDS days and all the unique gems you find on the console, including Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective.
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective launches June 30, 2023 on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.
