Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective could get a sequel if it receives enough support
Though, Shu Takumi thinks it would be difficult to create a sequel.
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective launched on the Nintendo DS back in 2010, and 13 years later, it is being remastered for the Nintendo Switch. On that note, a recent interview between the game developers and Game Informer posed the question as to 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, among many other things, including the opportunity for a sequel.
When asked if Takumi would like to see a sequel, they said, “The story of Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is completely told in this single game, so I think it would be difficult to create a sequel. However, the powers of the dead that this game introduces may hold some possibility.”
Izumi later added, when asked if there would be potential for a sequel in future if the remastered game sells well: “Right now, we are dedicating all we have to deliver Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective to as many players as possible, so we haven’t had time to think about what we’re doing to do after that. I hope the amount of people who play this game is large enough that it makes us want to consider a sequel!”
So, there you have it. If you want a Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective sequel in the future, you’ll want to coerce each and every one of your friends into playing the game. This shouldn’t be too hard, considering that Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is a great game that we would say is one of the best Nintendo DS games of all time; maybe it’ll become one of our best Switch games of all time, too?
Game Informer also asked about how the animation in Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective works, making it still look unique today, to which Takumi shared that, “when we created the original in 2010, motion capture wasn't as widely used as it is today. Over 90% of the animation in Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective was animated by hand. That probably wouldn't happen today, but I think because it was made by hand, the movement is uniquely appealing.”
I found this particularly interesting because Takumi is correct; it’s not often that you see new games from large studios which are entirely, or even majority, hand-drawn. It also has me thinking about Hotel Dusk: Room 215 on Nintendo DS, which uses rotoscoping to animate its characters. This is something that I haven’t seen since! I definitely miss the NDS era and all the distinct gems you’d find on the console, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective included.
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective will launch for the Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on June 30, 2023.