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Here's the [[http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/en_GB/games/nds/ghost_trick_phantom_detective_18194.html English demo]] if anybody's interested.
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Here's the [[http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/en_GB/games/nds/ghost_trick_phantom_detective_18194.html English demo]] if anybody's interested. (Click the "Demo" button near the top.)
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** Characters holding items (like the night-visions guards or the minister's wife) always have their items facing the viewer. Oddly, however, there are animations that show them changing hands whenever they turn around.
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** Characters holding items (like the night-visions guards or the minister's wife) always have their items facing the viewer. Oddly, however, there are animations that show them changing hands whenever they turn around.
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** Characters holding items (like the night-visions guards or the minister's wife) always have their items facing the viewer. Oddly, however, there are animations that show them changing hands whenever they turn around.
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** Except for the prison guards.
***And the second assassin.
****And Lynne [[spoiler:when she shot Sissel and Yomiel.]]
***And the second assassin.
****And Lynne [[spoiler:when she shot Sissel and Yomiel.]]
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** Actually, escape from from police custody combined with child abduction and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon probably COULD net you ten years.
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--->'''Lynne:''' Ha ha! I died again!
--->'''Sissel:''' ...
--->'''Sissel:''' ...
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I think we\'re trying to cut back on needless potholes to Understatement. Besides, this one\'s more appropriate.
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-->'''Pigeon-Headed Man''': [[{{Understatement}} That didn't go well.]]
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-->'''Pigeon-Headed Man''': [[{{Understatement}} [[CaptainObvious That didn't go well.]]
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* BenevolentArchitecture: The key to success is to make sure that inanimate objects come within three feet of each other. They often do. And sometimes other people help you with it.
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* BenevolentArchitecture: The key to success is to make sure that inanimate objects come within three feet of each other. They often do. And sometimes other people help you with it.it, typically without knowing.
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* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: Interspersed with the credits.
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* GasLeakCoverup: The new housing development in Tensik park is a cover-up by the government to excavate the [[spoiler:Temsik meteorite]].
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* GasLeakCoverup: The new housing development in Tensik Temsik park is a cover-up by the government to excavate the [[spoiler:Temsik meteorite]].
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* HeKnowsTooMuch: Sith and [[spoiler:Yomiel]] have conspired to kill ''everyone'' who knows about the [[spoiler:Tensik meteor]].
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* HeKnowsTooMuch: Sith and [[spoiler:Yomiel]] have conspired to kill ''everyone'' who knows about the [[spoiler:Tensik [[spoiler:Temsik meteor]].
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** Last but certainly not least, [[spoiler:Yomiel]] possesses his own unconscious body to uproot itself from a spike, scoop up Lynne, and pitch her out her out of the path of the tumbling Mino statue [[spoiler:right before being crushed himelf]].
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** Last but certainly not least, [[spoiler:Yomiel]] possesses his own unconscious body to uproot itself from a spike, scoop up Lynne, and pitch her out her out of the path of the tumbling Mino statue [[spoiler:right before being crushed himelf]].
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* ChekhovsGun: The music box is the most obvious example. However, several "minor" things you see and run into near the beginning take on much more significant meaning as more is revealed. Particularly the [[RubeGoldbergDevice Robinson-Goldberg device]], the bag Sissel[[spoiler:/Yomiel]] is carrying, and "the rock of the gods".
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* ChekhovsGun: The music box is the most obvious example. However, several "minor" things you see and run into near the beginning take on much more significant meaning as more is revealed. Particularly the [[RubeGoldbergDevice Robinson-Goldberg device]], the bag Sissel[[spoiler:/Yomiel]] is carrying, Sissel's bag, and "the rock of the gods".
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Getting rid of the [1].
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* AnimeHair: This ''is'' a creation of the same guy behind the ''AceAttorney'' series, after all, though special mention must go to Emma, whose rosebud-shaped hair ''blooms'' whenever she gets mad. Also how the HELL does Beauty's hair even work?! Seriously, just look at it: [[http://moe.animecharactersdatabase.com/uploads/chars/5688-1318602082.png]]
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* AnimeHair: This ''is'' a creation of the same guy behind the ''AceAttorney'' series, after all, though special mention must go to Emma, whose rosebud-shaped hair ''blooms'' whenever she gets mad. Also how the HELL does Beauty's hair even work?! Seriously, just look at it: [[http://moe.animecharactersdatabase.com/uploads/chars/5688-1318602082.png]]png just look at it.]]
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* {{Handwave}}: When Sissel asks Ray how ghosts can go back in time and that it doesn't even make any sense, Ray just replies: "We're talking about the powers of the dead, here. It doesn't have to make sense."
** Though, given how conversations between ghosts and the ghost world itself are out of time, it's not that much of a stretch to think they could go back to a previous moment.
** Though, given how conversations between ghosts and the ghost world itself are out of time, it's not that much of a stretch to think they could go back to a previous moment.
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* {{Handwave}}: When Sissel asks Ray how ghosts can go back in time and that it doesn't even make any sense, Ray just replies: "We're talking about the powers of the dead, here. It doesn't have to make sense."
** Though, given how conversations between ghosts and the ghost world itself are out of time, it's not that much of a stretch to think they could go back to a previous moment.
** Though, given how conversations between ghosts and the ghost world itself are out of time, it's not that much of a stretch to think they could go back to a previous moment.
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* {{Handwave}}: When Sissel asks Ray how ghosts can go back in time and that it doesn't even make any sense, Ray just replies: "We're talking about the powers of the dead, here. It doesn't have to make sense."
** Though, given how conversations between ghosts and the ghost world itself are out of time, it's not that much of a stretch to think they could go back to a previous moment.HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: Yomiel.]]
** Though, given how conversations between ghosts and the ghost world itself are out of time, it's not that much of a stretch to think they could go back to a previous moment.
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* YouShouldKnowThisAlready: You start off not knowing your own name. The back of the box says your name is Sissel.
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* YouShouldKnowThisAlready: You start off not knowing your own name. The back of the box says your name is Sissel. To be fair, you learn it in-game as early as the second chapter.
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* AlwaysMurder: Subverted. Although the first few deaths are murders, there's a fair share of accidents as well, including one case where the deceased [[spoiler:died of a panic-induced heart attack]].
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* RecklessGunUsage: When someone hands a gun to the Justice Minister to examine, he immediately proceeds to stare straight down the barrel. For most of the rest of the scene.
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be careful with the abundance of entries, as well as getting mythology gags mixed up with writing patterns and styles, as both games had the same writers. the most notable mythology gag here is Missile and the chicken kitchen uniforms
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** Who's betting that [[GrandeDame Elegant Lady's]] glass and bottle contain [[FrothyMugsOfWater grape juice]]?
*** In the same vein, there's the hat that ''doesn't'' [[spoiler: kill Cabanela]] in chapter 15. It could be coincidence, but all it needs is some pink lettering and a pin to fit in in ApolloJustice.
*** In the same vein, there's the hat that ''doesn't'' [[spoiler: kill Cabanela]] in chapter 15. It could be coincidence, but all it needs is some pink lettering and a pin to fit in in ApolloJustice.
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** The [[spoiler:heart-attack scene at the Justice Minister's office]] is much like ''AceAttorney'' criminal breakdown scenes, down to the sound effect.
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** In the backstory: [[spoiler:A man is innocent of a crime, but returns to find that his fiancée has killed herself, so he names a pet after her and disappears, returning years later to try and take revenge on those responsible for ruining his life.]] Sound familiar? The same thing happens in 1-4.
** Never mind the fact that the entire plot resembles one giant [[WhenItAllBegan DL-6 Incident]]...
** A [[RunningGag stepladder]] appears in Chapter 15.
** The Justice Minister's ghost spits out the word "contradiction" when applying it in the given context is a stretch at best, and claims to be a "seeker of truth". Basically he's mirroring the behavior of several AceAttorney characters.
** Never mind the fact that the entire plot resembles one giant [[WhenItAllBegan DL-6 Incident]]...
** A [[RunningGag stepladder]] appears in Chapter 15.
** The Justice Minister's ghost spits out the word "contradiction" when applying it in the given context is a stretch at best, and claims to be a "seeker of truth". Basically he's mirroring the behavior of several AceAttorney characters.
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* DoesNotLikeShoes: The Police Chief, of all people.
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* DoesNotLikeShoes: The Police Chief, of all people. Apparently he has itchy toes.
** Also the park's guardian. Which is more believable since he's a hippie and all...
** Also the park's guardian. Which is more believable since he's a hippie and all...
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Funny, people usually put \"Subverted\" where \"Averted\" belongs, not the other way around...
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* {{Retirony}}: Averted. Memry, the waitress at the Chicken Kitchen, mentions that it's her last day working there. She is ''almost'' killed by a speeding truck crashing into the restaurant, but is saved at the last minute by Lynne pushing her out of the way.
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* {{Retirony}}: Averted.Subverted. Memry, the waitress at the Chicken Kitchen, mentions that it's her last day working there. She is ''almost'' killed by a speeding truck crashing into the restaurant, but is saved at the last minute by Lynne pushing her out of the way.
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** Bizarrely, certain letters in seemingly random places are consistently colored red as well. For example, the "Tri[[color:red:c]]k" button has a red letter C in the DS version-- though not in the iOS version-- and the "Trick [[color:red:T]]ime!" prompt is always colored as such.
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** The very first AND very last thing [[spoiler:Missile]] is seen to do with his ghost powers is [[spoiler:swap the park's heavy mascot with something else in mid-fall]].
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** All the [=GameCenter=] achievements in the iOS version are worth 4, 44, or 444 points, and all the "do X a certain number of times" achievements follow the same pattern.
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* TheDogWasTheMastermind: [[spoiler:Literally, as explained in the ending.]]
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* TheDogWasTheMastermind: [[spoiler:Literally, as explained in [[spoiler:Well, more like the ending.dog was the TricksterMentor, but close enough.]]
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Oops.
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* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig Zagged]] to hell and back with [[spoiler:Yomiel]]. [[spoiler:When he, Sissel, Missile, and Jowd travel back in time to the Temsik incident (Yomiel holding Lynne hostage and at a standoff with Detective Jowd) to alter his fate. [[spoiler:Yomiel]] decides he prefers TakingTheBullet to [[WhoWantsToLiveForever "living" like he did before]]. Missile, however, refuses to let Jowd become a murderer, and swaps the bullet with Lynne's sweet potato. All right, a subversion. But then the sweet potato knocks Yomiel into a sharp part of the fountain, which stabs him in the back. Okay, double-subversion. But ''he survives''! No, wait a second, the Mino statue is about to fall on Lynne! Yomiel possesses his own body to [[HeroicSacrifice grab Lynne and toss her into Jowd's arms]]. The statue falls on him instead, crushing his lower back. [[MadeOfIron He survives, and completely recovers]].]]
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* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig Zagged]] to hell and back with [[spoiler:Yomiel]]. [[spoiler:When he, Sissel, Missile, and Jowd travel back in time to the Temsik incident (Yomiel holding Lynne hostage and at a standoff with Detective Jowd) to alter his fate. [[spoiler:Yomiel]] Yomiel decides he prefers TakingTheBullet to [[WhoWantsToLiveForever "living" like he did before]]. Missile, however, refuses to let Jowd become a murderer, and swaps the bullet with Lynne's sweet potato. All right, a subversion. But then the sweet potato knocks Yomiel into a sharp part of the fountain, which stabs him in the back. Okay, double-subversion. But ''he survives''! No, wait a second, the Mino statue is about to fall on Lynne! Yomiel possesses his own body to [[HeroicSacrifice grab Lynne and toss her into Jowd's arms]]. The statue falls on him instead, crushing his lower back. [[MadeOfIron He survives, and completely recovers]].]]
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I think it\'s best the whole thing is spoilered, not just bits and pieces.
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* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig Zagged]] to hell and back with [[spoiler:Yomiel]]. When he, Sissel, Missile, and Jowd travel back in time to the Temsik incident ([[spoiler:Yomiel]] holding Lynne hostage and at a standoff with Detective Jowd) to alter his fate. [[spoiler:Yomiel]] decides he prefers TakingTheBullet to [[WhoWantsToLiveForever "living" like he did before]]. Missile, however, refuses to let Jowd become a murderer, and [[spoiler:swaps the bullet with Lynne's sweet potato]]. All right, a subversion. But then [[spoiler:the sweet potato knocks Yomiel into a sharp part of the fountain]], which stabs him in the back. Okay, double-subversion. But ''he survives''! No, wait a second, the Mino statue is about to fall on Lynne! [[spoiler:Yomiel possesses his own body]] to [[HeroicSacrifice grab Lynne and toss her into Jowd's arms]]. The statue falls on him instead, crushing his lower back. [[MadeOfIron He survives, and completely recovers]].
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* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig Zagged]] to hell and back with [[spoiler:Yomiel]]. When [[spoiler:When he, Sissel, Missile, and Jowd travel back in time to the Temsik incident ([[spoiler:Yomiel]] (Yomiel holding Lynne hostage and at a standoff with Detective Jowd) to alter his fate. [[spoiler:Yomiel]] decides he prefers TakingTheBullet to [[WhoWantsToLiveForever "living" like he did before]]. Missile, however, refuses to let Jowd become a murderer, and [[spoiler:swaps swaps the bullet with Lynne's sweet potato]].potato. All right, a subversion. But then [[spoiler:the the sweet potato knocks Yomiel into a sharp part of the fountain]], fountain, which stabs him in the back. Okay, double-subversion. But ''he survives''! No, wait a second, the Mino statue is about to fall on Lynne! [[spoiler:Yomiel Yomiel possesses his own body]] body to [[HeroicSacrifice grab Lynne and toss her into Jowd's arms]]. The statue falls on him instead, crushing his lower back. [[MadeOfIron He survives, and completely recovers]].]]
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Added information to the Meaningful Name trope, under the Character Alma.
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** Alma is Kamila's mother. In a StealthPun, this makes Alma "mater".
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** Alma is Kamila's mother. In a StealthPun, this makes Alma "mater". Alma is also the Spanish word for Soul or Spirit.
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It is also now available for iOS on the iTunes Store; the free download includes the first two chapters, with the rest of the story locked behind purchases (either divided into three batches of chapters for $5 apiece, or the entire game for $10).
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moving to correct namespace
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[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ghost_trick_4745.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[TheyFightCrime A woman and her crime-solving ghost.]]]]
->''"You were given the powers of the dead. But even that is only temporary. When the sun rises in the morning...I'm afraid you're going to cease to exist."'' \\
-- '''Ray'''
An adventure game from the minds behind the ''AceAttorney'' series for the NintendoDS.
In an abandoned junkyard, a ghost wakes up to see a blue-faced assassin training a gun on a young woman. Between them is a red-clad corpse which he identifies as himself. Realizing he can still manipulate the environment even as a ghost, he stops the assassin and teams up with the woman to try and recover his memories and find out why he was killed. However, he only has [[RaceAgainstTheClock until the next sunrise]] to solve this mystery, or else he will completely cease to exist.
The game is focused on solving a variety of puzzles in order to prevent events from happening and save the people around Sissel (the ghost), while working to uncover the truth behind his death. It was released on January 11th, 2011 in the U.S. and on January 14th, 2011 in Europe under the name "Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective".
'''[[color:red: A word of warning:]]'''[[color:red: after a certain point, this game can be described as a '''''pile''''' of plot twists, so if you're reading this page but want to remain unspoiled, please step lightly.]]
Here's the [[http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/en_GB/games/nds/ghost_trick_phantom_detective_18194.html English demo]] if anybody's interested.
----
!!Tropes used in ''Ghost Trick'' include:
* TheAlcatraz: The "Special Prison" for suspected [[spoiler:ghost-possessed]] criminals.
* AlternateTimeline: In a small way, what happens whenever Sissel goes back in time and averts someone's fate.
** In the storyline at large: The first one is what happens when the important characters die because [[spoiler:Missile]] lacks the needed ghost tricks and [[spoiler:Sissel]] refuses to assist him, too preoccupied with his own quest for identity. The second one occurs when the first timeline's [[spoiler:Missile-Prime]] goes back 10 years via [[spoiler:Yomiel]]'s body and takes TheSlowPath to the present, then, under the guise of Ray, [[spoiler:making Sissel think he's Yomiel to trick him into saving Lynne and everyone else]]. The third one happens when Sissel, [[spoiler:second-timeline Missile, Yomiel]], and Detective Jowd save [[spoiler:Yomiel from dying via Temsik shard]] in Temsik Park 10 years ago, preventing his StartOfDarkness and the chain of events that lead to people dying.
* AlwaysClose: Completing some puzzles long before your time runs out still has you averting fate in this way despite the cause of death not arriving for another minute or so. The earliest this happens is [[spoiler:when you save Missile]]. Many other puzzles can only be solved in the final seconds "until death".
** It gets pretty ridiculous, considering that the way to prevent quite a few deaths is to wait until the absolute final ''milliseconds'' before a person's death, usually to [[spoiler: swap a bullet that's hanging in midair ''centimetres from the victim's face.'']] Fortunately, the player doesn't have to time these, as the game does it for you.
* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: The "foreigners" are identifiable by their blue skin.
** Including [[spoiler: the blue medical examiner]], though you don't get confirmation until later in the game.
* AmbidextrousSprite: When Lynne's portrait is facing left, her badge is on the left side of her shirt. When she's facing right, it magically migrates to the right side. Emma also switches which hand she holds her glass in when she turns around.
** It gets especially obvious with Jowd. The blue and red paint-stains on his shirt switch places!
* AnalogyBackfire: Sissel being instructed to possess a water nozzle and to "spray like your life depended on it!"
-->'''Sissel:''' Uh, I'm dead, though...
-->'''[[spoiler:Yomiel]]''': In that case... Make it spray as though your death depended on it!
* AngstAversion: In-universe example. While the justice minister doesn't become important until halfway through the game, Sissel can visit him at any point starting with the second chapter. Doing so results in Sissel listening to the man's self-loathing rants. At least twice, Sissel immediately desires to leave.
* AnimateInanimateObject: Ghosts can become these by manipulating inanimate objects.
* AnimeHair: This ''is'' a creation of the same guy behind the ''AceAttorney'' series, after all, though special mention must go to Emma, whose rosebud-shaped hair ''blooms'' whenever she gets mad. Also how the HELL does Beauty's hair even work?! Seriously, just look at it: [[http://moe.animecharactersdatabase.com/uploads/chars/5688-1318602082.png]]
* AnyoneCanDie: Considering Sissel starts off dead and most of the game play involves changing fate to save lives... yeah. A few even end up dying multiple times in the same evening, and one in particular dies ''five times'' over the course of one night, to the point the characters actually make jokes about it.
* ArmsAndArmorThemeNaming: In Japanese, Kamila's name is Kanon, while her dog is named Missile. Ironic, since they're two of the sweetest and weakest people in the game [[spoiler:until Missile dies and {{Takes A Level In Badass}}, at which point he's just one of the sweetest.]]
* TheAtoner: [[spoiler:Yomiel]] becomes one of these after he gives up his quest for revenge.
** Many of the characters are these. Cabanela because his recklessness gave [[spoiler:Yomiel]] a gun, which he used to escape custody. Jowd because he forced [[spoiler:Yomiel into a corner, so he took Lynne hostage]]. And Kamila has a few shades of this since she built a device that ultimately [[spoiler:killed her mother.]]
* BackForTheDead: Although it seems like [[spoiler: Missile]] will simply be a minor character, he comes back...just to die. Of course, this serves an important purpose, as [[spoiler:he now has the Ghost Swap power to aid Sissel with.]]
* BadFuture: What happens if Sissel doesn't save anyone. [[spoiler:Ray]] hails from this timeline.
* BadassAdorable: Missile. [[spoiler: [[EverythingsCuterWithKittens And Sissel.]] ]]
* BadassBoast: "I'm a top Pomeranian, you know!"
* BatmanGambit: The ending reveals that [[spoiler:Ray tricked Sissel into thinking he was the blond-haired man in red, as well as telling him that he would cease to exist after dawn. This misdirection causes Sissel to save Lynne and the others as leads to his identity, and eventually bond with them]].
* BeAsUnhelpfulAsPossible: Jowd, when Sissel tries to erase his death. Granted, the guy ''[[DeathSeeker wanted]]'' to die, but he doesn't have to be such a [[DeadpanSnarker smartass]] about it.
** [[spoiler:The justice minister]] also has shades of this. Sissel even {{lampshade}}s the latter.
-->'''Minister''': Maybe if you [[spoiler:give him the water first]] he'll feel a little better.
-->'''Sissel''': (Wait, did he just say something constructive?)
* BenevolentArchitecture: The key to success is to make sure that inanimate objects come within three feet of each other. They often do. And sometimes other people help you with it.
* BigGood: It's technically Ray/[[spoiler:Missile]]. A very effective one in the end.
* BigOlEyebrows: The leader of the foreigners, aptly nicknamed "Eyebrowed Villain" by Sissel.
* BlondGuysAreEvil: [[spoiler:Yomiel, before his HeelFaceTurn.]] Also, Beauty and her sidekick, Dandy. Averted with Sissel, though [[spoiler:as a cat, his hair is actually black]].
* BloodlessCarnage: Every death in the game, except the heart attack.
* BookEnds: Sissel trying to hurl his body around the junkyard, with no results. [[spoiler:Yomiel]] tries it in the climax, and succeeds.
* BrokenPedestal: Cabanela for Lynne [[spoiler:until this is subverted, revealing that Cabanela is actually keeping his spotless record in order to save Jowd.]] Logically, Jowd would fit this, except that Lynne doesn't believe that he murdered Alma, and rightfully so.
* BurgerFool: The Chicken Kitchen. The uniforms are {{camp}}, yet the restaurant seems unusually expensive.
* ButterflyOfDoom: In some levels, you need to track down one of these and neutralize it to prevent MAJOR disasters. [[spoiler: The spying bug in the chicken kitchen chapter is probably the best example.]]
* ButtMonkey: Lynne, who dies a total of [[spoiler:5]] times! Also the rat, who can't seem to catch a break.
* CassandraTruth: Bailey's worries are always right on the money, but never listened to.
* CatsAreMean: [[spoiler:Sissel-prime was only interested in figuring out his identity, and refused to help Missile-prime save Lynne and Kamila. The second time around, [[TheChessmaster Missile-prime]] [[BatmanGambit manipulated this self-interest by giving him an artificial deadline]] which led to the game's Sissel [[CharacterDevelopment developing a genuine interest in saving the people he meets]].]]
* CatsAreSnarkers: [[spoiler:You don't know about the cat part until the end, but Sissel is quite the DeadpanSnarker.]]
* CatsAreSuperior: As a spirit, [[spoiler:Sissel]] is a lot smarter than Missile, who often strolls over into [[TheDitz Ditz territory]]. [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] when a ten-year-older Missile from an AlternateTimeline is revealed to be TheChessmaster.]]
* CaughtOnTape: The end of Chapter 5 shows [[spoiler:a junkyard security camera showing Lynne shooting Sissel]]. By Chapter 15, we learn that [[spoiler:Yomiel intentionally manipulated Lynne into shooting his body in order to frame her for murder by this method]].
* CentralTheme: Theater. The levels are set up like they're being viewed from the FourthWall, the props, character designs and animation are all supposed to be clearly "readable" from a distance (or on the DS's screen), the characters act campy and theatrical, spotlights appear during cutscenes when the game wants to draw attention to things, and the ability to rewind time is equivalent to rehearsals, which you keep doing until you get it "right".
** Flashbacks and the previews before 4 minutes before death puzzles look like film strips relating to the fact that it's been "recorded" into the past.
* CheckPoint: Whenever you alter the situation to give you more time, you get a new place to fall back to if you screw up (which you inevitably will).
* ChekhovsGun: The music box is the most obvious example. However, several "minor" things you see and run into near the beginning take on much more significant meaning as more is revealed. Particularly the [[RubeGoldbergDevice Robinson-Goldberg device]], the bag Sissel[[spoiler:/Yomiel]] is carrying, and "the rock of the gods".
** Two innocuous-seeming examples: Cabanela's pocket watch, and Sith's grape-peeling machine.
** The van in the park has shades of this, given that it's possible to see it very early and not recognize its significance. For that matter, the mural/graffiti on Jowd's cell wall probably counts too.
* ChekhovsGunman: In the order you first see them: Ray, the [[spoiler:black cat]] (which gets vignetted in Chapter 1, but is not commented on), and Pigeon Man.
** And [[ParodiedTrope parodied]], with [[spoiler:Yomiel]] revealing that armed government agents constantly patrol Temsik Park. Sissel flashes back to the "Guardian of the Park".
-->'''Sissel''': You mean--?\\
'''[[spoiler:Yomiel]]''': No. He's just a plain old odd person.
* CityWithNoName: The city the story takes place in isn't named, and the two countries that play into it are simply referred to as "this country" and "that country". See WhereTheHellIsSpringfield below.
* CloudCuckooLand: In some aspects, the country the blue people are from. In any case, they have rather odd applications of technology, like robot arms for feeding one GrapesOfLuxury, flipping tables that have phones and fruit on different sides, and [[spoiler:robotic manservants]].
** Even lampshaded by [[spoiler:Yomiel]] and Jowd.
-->'''Servant''': I am a [[spoiler:remote-controlled robot]], detective.
-->'''Jowd''': What?!
-->''*beat*''
-->'''Jowd''': Your country's use of technology... is just [[UnderStatement plain "off"]]!
-->'''Servant''': We get that a lot, detective.
* CloudCuckooLander: Bailey, especially when doing the "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LBzcXCl-uE Panic Dance]]", which he performs during emergencies but refuses to stop doing after the crisis has passed. Also, the "Guardian of the Park". Oddly, Bailey's outlandish fears almost always [[TheCloudCuckooLanderWasRight turn out right]].
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: When Sissel uses the powers of the dead, the world of the dead is red. When [[spoiler:Missile]] uses them, it's green, and when [[spoiler:Yomiel]] uses them, it's blue.
** In-game example: Cabanela asks if the detective he's talking to over the phone is "the green one or the blue one", based on the suits they were wearing.
** [[spoiler: All the foreigners are blue.]]
* ColourCodedTimestop: The above mentioned powers of the dead stop time when active, with the world being tinted in their respective colours. Plus if you fail to save someone, time stops and a grayscale variation comes up.
* ComicallyMissingThePoint: After watching a death row officer throw the switch to test a faulty electric chair, causing it to explode before the condemned is even in it.
-->'''Sissel:''' So this is an execution, huh? It seems to me there's gotta be a safer way to do it...
* CoolShades: Sissel, of course.[[spoiler: And also Yomiel, whose appearance Sissel accidentally stole.]]
* CoversAlwaysLie: You'd know after the ending that [[spoiler:that's not Sissel on the boxart]]. Though if you pay attention to [[ExactWords what's actually written]], [[spoiler:it never claims that the figure on the front of the box is Sissel]]. Nevertheless, the fact that the [[spoiler: bag containing Sissel's body]] is not behind the body is misleading. In the game itself, it's there (even if hard to see) and this is an important part.
* CrueltyIsTheOnlyOption: Sissel is forced to do some pretty unfair things to a rat in Chapter 13. In fact, barring one case, you are pretty mean to rats in general. Then again, [[spoiler:Sissel ''is'' a cat]]...
* CutsceneIncompetence: In the apartment, Sissel helps Kamila find a music box she must bring to Lynne by possessing a musical Christmas ornament nearby. She leaves the apartment with it, and Sissel needs to follow her but remains stuck in the apartment. He could have possessed the box...but because of his LaserGuidedAmnesia, he didn't know what it was. You could easily see this coming by noticing the lack of a core to move to on the item.
* DaChief: Cabanela's boss, The Chief.
* DancingIsSeriousBusiness: Inspector Cabanela, full stop. Done to comic effect with Bailey's conga-drum "Panic Dance."
* DarkestHour: All the principal characters trapped on the sinking submarine.
* DeadToBeginWith
* DeadfootLeadfoot: The cause of Lynne's fourth death.
* DeadpanSnarker: Sissel, Jowd, and the Pigeon Man.
** Also Bailey's partner.
* DeathFromAbove: Wrecking balls, crates, chickens, statues, vaults, [[UpToEleven meteors]], footballs...
** [[ZigZaggingTrope ZigZagged]]: [[spoiler:Yomiel]] is struck by a fragment of the [[spoiler:Temsik meteor, "killing" him, but then putting his body in a state between life and death]]. The subversion is in that to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong, [[spoiler:Yomiel]] has to be saved from [[spoiler:the meteor shard]], and when it's deflected towards Detective Jowd, it shoots through his leg. Then it's DoubleSubverted when Sissel is shown to have been hit by [[spoiler:the fragment, making him a ''literal'' Schrodinger's cat.]]
** DeathByIrony: A twist on the above trope. Lynne asks a waitress to hurry it up with her chicken dinner, and is crushed by a giant chicken wing.
-->'''Sissel:''' Well, it seems you've escaped your fate of being [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal hammered by a horrible hen]]!
* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: If you run out of time while averting someone's fate, you can just restart from the beginning of that segment or a checkpoint. Amusingly, in-game the characters close to Sissel [[LampshadeHanging start to feel this way because they know he can just save them]]. This also applies in the few cases where you're trying to stop someone from dying in the first place (eg. you're still in the present) since if they do die, Sissel just jumps back four minutes anyways. In fact, there's no such thing as a "permanent" game over you'll need to reload from.
* DisproportionateRetribution: While the assassins may deserve what they get, it may seem excessive that the hard-nosed (if AffablyEvil) kidnappers are [[spoiler:blown up and Yomiel gets 10 years for escaping police custody]] after being falsely accused.
** Also, [[spoiler: Yomiel]] tries to get [[spoiler:Lynne]] convicted of murder simply because she was in his path at the park 10 years ago, which ''[[NeverMyFault gave him the idea]]'' him to take her hostage. Cabanela even calls him out on it.
** Being mean to little girls is punished most severely in this universe!
* DivingSave: Lynne shoves a waitress out of the path of a speeding van. Later, Cabanela does this in an attempt to save [[spoiler:Pigeon Man]] from getting blown up by TNT.
** Lynne's last 'death' comes as the result of pushing Kamila out of the path of falling rubble.
** Last but certainly not least, [[spoiler:Yomiel]] possesses his own unconscious body to uproot itself from a spike, scoop up Lynne, and pitch her out her out of the path of the tumbling Mino statue [[spoiler:right before being crushed himelf]].
* DoesNotLikeShoes: The Police Chief, of all people.
* TheDogWasTheMastermind: [[spoiler:Literally, as explained in the ending.]]
* DownInTheDumps: Where Sissel's story begins, literally ''and'' figuratively.
* DummiedOut: Several music tracks in the game's files are never used. Most are variations on the songs that ''are'' used, but an arrangement of "Tifa's Theme" from ''FinalFantasyVII'' is also inexplicably included.
* EnemyMine: [[spoiler:Yomiel joins up with Sissel after he's betrayed by Commander Sith. This eventually turns into a genuine HeelFaceTurn on Yomiel's part.]]
* EscortMission: Chapters 9 (rescuing Jowd from jail) and 16 (helping Lynne and Kamila escape the submarine).
* EurekaMoment: On the sinking ''Yonoa'', Kamila wishes her father was there to save them. Lynne is inspired to strap Sissel into a torpedo and send him to find Jowd.
* EverybodyLives: What Sissel is trying to make happen—besides himself, natch. [[spoiler:In the end, thanks to the TimeyWimeyBall, everyone ''does''. Even Sissel, in a sense.]]
** Except [[spoiler: Dandy]] and [[spoiler: Beauty]]. They get blown up in the credits. Though it isn't confirmed if they really did die from the explosion.
* EveryoneIsRelated: Jowd believes that he, Lynne, and Sissel all met [[spoiler:10 years ago when the meteor landed in the park]]. He's more right than he knows: The man [[spoiler: he ''thinks'' is Sissel was actually Yomiel]], but Sissel was indeed present -- [[spoiler:as a stray kitten]].
* EverythingsSpoonierWithSpoons: Detective Jowd's cryptic clue: "Head for the spoon."
* EvilForeigner: Their nationality is never given, but they have ''blue skin''.
* ExtremelyShortTimespan: Maybe about twelve or so hours, give or take, but a ridiculous number of shocking twists occur during them.
* FailsafeFailure: The cell doors inside the Special Prison automatically open during a power outage.
** The torpedo that sinks the ''Yonoa''. A rat [[OffscreenTeleportation somehow]] got ''inside'' [[spoiler:the torpedo]], and was happily perched right in the middle of the failsafe system, stopping it from activating.
* FallingChandelierOfDoom: In the game, Sissel can turn a switch that drops a chandelier inside the [[GrandeDame Elegant Lady]]'s room. He has to do this when the Elegant Lady herself is underneath it so she'll be trapped and [[spoiler:her daughter can call the justice minister]], though unless you get the timing just right she [[NonchalantDodge dodges]] it like a pro.
* FateWorseThanDeath: How do you dispose of a ghost who has [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness outlived his usefulness]]? Leave him stranded [[TheAloner alone]] at the bottom of the ocean forever.
* AFeteWorseThanDeath: A birthday party that resulted in the death of [[spoiler:Alma, who is Kamila's mother and Jowd's wife]].
* FiringOneHanded: Nobody ever aims a gun with both hands.
* {{Foil}} / RedOniBlueOni: Sissel and Missile. [[spoiler:They both have "similar occupations", both being pets and both having Ghost Tricks. At the start of the game, Sissel is more intelligent and realistic, while Missile is more naive and optimistic. Sissel is more concerned about finding out his own mystery, while even in death, Missile is only concerned with Kamila and Lynne. Sissel immediately informs Ray that he wants to use his Ghost Tricks on his own body, while Missile is willing to stay dead so that he can use his Ghost Swap to help Kamila and Lynne]]. Also reversed with Ray and Sissel. Sissel is impulsive and is constantly try to do things, while Ray is more level-headed and intelligent and explains to Sissel that these things are impossible. Later on, [[spoiler:it is revealed that Ray was far more intelligent than Sissel, reversing the Oni roles of Missile and Sissel, as Ray planned everything and Sissel was an unknowing puppet.]]
* TheForeignSubtitle: International versions appended "Phantom Detective" to the game's title.
* ForgotICouldntSwim: Lynne and Kamila.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: There was much of this indicating Sissel's past.
** Sissel can't read or recall what objects do or what certain terms mean while dead, yet every other dead character can. He claims it's because his memory is fuzzy due to dying. [[spoiler:This is not the case. He really can't read and honestly doesn't know what certain objects do and what certain terms/concepts mean because, like Missile, he is not human.]]
** When you first meet Lynne, she messes up and mistakes herself to look like Inspector Cabanela. Later, it turns out that this is what happened to [[spoiler:Sissel, who assumed that the spiky-haired blond man nearby was him.]]
** One very, very subtle example: When trying to get the phone over to Amelie, Sissel winds up inflicting all kinds of horrible injury on a rat without killing it. [[spoiler:Almost like a cat toying with it.]]
** Earlier, in the same location, Sissel can let the rodent be spotted before it lands next to the dictionary, and he notes that the boisterous writer treats it as something to be hunted instead of feared. [[spoiler:Sissel says he can relate]].
** Another subtle example. During the prison blackout, one of the guards states that he wishes he could see in the dark, [[spoiler:like a cat]]. Sissel quickly points out the similarity between night-vision and one of his ghost powers, [[spoiler:that he can see in the dark. Maybe because he is a cat]]?
** Yet another subtle example in the prison: when rescuing Jowd, who painted a portrait of Sissel, Jowd replies that he doesn't know that name when Sissel tells Jowd that he somehow knows him. [[spoiler:That's because the blond-haired man in red that he painted was named Yomiel, not Sissel.]]
** The titles given to the people in the records are never replaced with their real names. It's strange at first, but makes sense, given that a lot of [[spoiler:animal narrators in fiction refer to humans as "that short one", "the chicken-eater", etc. instead of their real names]]. Not to mention sometimes the descriptions seem to imply that Sissel thinks that their job titles are part of their names. (E.g., "His name is "Detective Jowd.")
** At one point, to mean "out of danger", Sissel says "out of the water". A strange turn of phrase; shouldn't it be more like "out of the fire"? [[spoiler:Not if you're a cat, who hates getting wet.]]
** On a more general note, Sissel's personality is, once you know the twist, [[spoiler:similar to the stereotypical personality of a cat: aloof and uncaring/unconcerned but also affectionate and friendly once a bond is made]]. Likewise, it's the reason Sissel considers Missile a little off due to [[spoiler: the stereotypical dogs-versus-cats trope]].
** Another one: after Lynne hides in the small elevator, she says she likes to crawl in small and dark places. [[spoiler:Sissel remembers liking to do that too]].
** In the Special Prison, one of the prisoners is rocking out on his guitar, [[DreadfulMusician making a terrible noise]]. Sissel has absolutely no idea what he's doing, and guesses that he's making noise to get attention [[spoiler:because he's hungry]]. Now, [[spoiler:what kind of creature assumes making noise = being fed]]?
** Cabanela mentions at one point that his coat is white, to show that there are no stains on it. Sissel remarks that a black coat would be more practical. [[spoiler: At the end, Sissel ''does'' have a black coat.]]
** In Chapter 16, we have this talk:
-->'''Sissel''': What do you suppose that shock was a minute ago?
-->'''Missile''': I have no idea, of course. I'm just a little sheltered apartment dog!
-->'''Sissel''': [[spoiler:What with my loss of memory, I can't say I'm much better...)]]
** Later on in the same chapter, when the submarine suddenly tips to one side just before Lynne can get to the exit hatch, Sissel's choice of metaphor is ''very'' telling:
-->'''Lynne''': What happened now?!
-->'''Sissel''': [[spoiler: It looks like the submarine decided to rear up on its hind legs.]]
** In Chapter 14, Missile's choice of words at one point is apt.
-->'''Missile:''' [[spoiler: I can reach out my paw a little farther than you can, Sissel!]]
** The security footage [[spoiler:of Lynne shooting Yomiel]] has [[spoiler:Yomiel]] leaning against a pole. After shooting him and being confronted by an assassin, Lynne backs up into the same pole, but moves away from it because it had barbed wire wrapped around it. And given what we later know about [[spoiler:Yomiel]]'s body....
** Throughout most of the game, Sissel can visit the junkyard and have a short conversation with Ray to update him on the situation. Ray goes oddly silent and weak halfway through the game and soon stops moving altogether, which the player will most likely chalk up to the whole "dead tomorrow" thing. On the other hand, it seems Ray [[RippleEffectIndicator starts fading away]] around the time that [[spoiler:Missile is run over in the park...]]
*** Speaking of conversations with Ray, if you go back to the junkyard and talk to him immediately after seeing the security footage of [[spoiler:Yomiel manipulating Lynne into shooting him]], Ray will tell you that "The truth is sometimes hidden in the shadow of what's being looked at."
** Whenever you run into Beauty, she uses a strangely familiar way of addressing you. In retrospect, it becomes apparent that [[spoiler:she thinks that it's Yomiel who keeps trying to spy on her]].
* FourIsDeath: Sissel can rewind time to four minutes before a death he's trying to prevent. [[spoiler:As can Missile, but ''not'' Yomiel. The latter admits that he would prevent Sissel from dying if he could—and by "Sissel", he means both the cat and his fiancée.]]
* GasLeakCoverup: The new housing development in Tensik park is a cover-up by the government to excavate the [[spoiler:Temsik meteorite]].
* GhostAmnesia: Upon death, people become "unconscious" GhostLights and will assume their true appearance once their memory is jogged. However, a ghost can take on someone else's form if they mistakenly believe they're that person. [[spoiler:Ray's BatmanGambit hinges on this.]]
* GoMadFromTheIsolation: [[spoiler:Yomiel.]]
* GoodAllAlong: [[spoiler:Inspector Cabanela is initially presented as a ladder-climbing jerk]], but he only rose in the ranks so that he could monitor the Manipulator case. He also spends much of the game trying to keep Lynne safe and Jowd from being executed.
** [[spoiler:Yomiel plays with this]]. When he was still human, he was thought to be a spy, but was innocent the entire time. Later, he reveals that he could've snuffed Sissel out a number of times, but wanted him to keep going. And then, [[HeelFaceTurn he finally makes up for everything]].
* GoodThingYouCanHeal: Or in Lynne's case, be brought back from the dead.
* GravityIsAHarshMistress: The prison guards' reaction whenever you open a trapdoor beneath them.
* GreenRocks: [[spoiler:Sissel's ghost tricks]] are a by-product of the Temsik Meteor. The same goes for any dead person in its radius. [[spoiler:Yomiel]] was directly struck by it, turning him into a walking generator of Temsik radiation.
* {{Hachiko}}: [[spoiler:Missile gets his Crowning Moment of UndyingLoyalty by going back in time 10 years and taking TheSlowPath back to that fateful night when the murders all began, in order to become Sissel's mentor under the guise of Ray and hopefully make him help save Lynne, Kamila, and the others in the process, which he didn't do in the original BadFuture. It works.]]
* HairColorSpoiler: [[spoiler:The color of the police doctor's skin]]. He's blue, like the other evil foreigners, but you don't find out he was [[spoiler:an imposter intent on stealing Yomiel's corpse]] until far later in the game.
* HeKnowsTooMuch: Sith and [[spoiler:Yomiel]] have conspired to kill ''everyone'' who knows about the [[spoiler:Tensik meteor]].
* HeadphonesEqualIsolation: Kamila.
* HealingFactor: [[spoiler:Yomiel and later Sissel wind up with this, due to being frozen between life and death and constantly restored to the moment before they died.]]
* {{Handwave}}: When Sissel asks Ray how ghosts can go back in time and that it doesn't even make any sense, Ray just replies: "We're talking about the powers of the dead, here. It doesn't have to make sense."
** Though, given how conversations between ghosts and the ghost world itself are out of time, it's not that much of a stretch to think they could go back to a previous moment.
* HeroicBlueScreenOfDeath: Lynne has one after you rescue her the first time when she is just sitting in the rain, getting a little cold. [[{{PluckyGirl}} Of course it only takes a small jab to snap her out of it.]]
* ILetYouWin: [[spoiler:Yomiel]] admits that he knew about Sissel's interference but chose not to stop him. For some reason, this doesn't make saving [[spoiler:the superintendent or Cabanela]] from him any easier.
** That was specifically referring to [[spoiler:saving Lynne]]. He later elaborates on the general situation [[spoiler:by explaining that he doesn't have time control powers, meaning that he couldn't keep up with your SaveScumming]].
* {{Immortality}}: [[spoiler:The Manipulator, Yomiel]], is a Type I, due to being a ghost inhabiting his original body, which is kept from aging, dying, or being wounded by [[spoiler:a meteor fragment]] lodged within it. In the ending, the past is changed so that [[spoiler:Sissel]] ends up in this state instead.
* InSpiteOfANail: [[spoiler: In the end, despite everything Sissel and Missile have accomplished, Lynne, Jowd, and Kamila would have all died if not for the TimeyWimeyBall]].
* InstantDeathBullet: Anyone shot in the game dies instantly. Necessary for gameplay reasons, since Sissel's ability to go back to four minutes before their death would be useless if they died an hour later in the hospital or something.
* ItHasBeenAnHonor: Lynne and Sissel share a moment together before he possesses a torpedo about to launch.
* ItsProbablyNothing: Dandy's reactions to Sissel's ghost tricks? "Just my imagination." Sissel [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this.
* JacobMarleyApparel: Justified, as ghosts can't remember who they are or what they look like at first, so they'll tend to pick the shape of the first corpse they see... or, in Lynne's case once, the first detective she sees.
* JerkassGods: While the "guardian of the park" doesn't seem to hate his gods, he's the one who calls them mischievous when [[spoiler:the park's mascot statue miraculously zooms away from crushing Kamila, crushing ''him'' instead]].
* JigsawPuzzlePlot: The entire plot is pretty complex, and there are some wicked twists the first time you play through. But don't worry, the [=NPCs=] will fill you in on everything and connect different loose ends just in case you can't figure it out first.
* JustifiedTutorial: Sissel learns about his "powers of the dead" from another spirit. [[spoiler:One who was secretly manipulating him into saving Lynne and Kamila, in order to avert the events of his own timeline.]]
* KickTheMoralityPet: The real circumstances of [[spoiler:Sissel]]'s death, albeit unintentional; [[spoiler:Yomiel had trouble manipulating Lynne into shooting him, and the first shot missed and killed Sissel in the bag. Yomiel admits that he would have saved Sissel if he had the power to rewind time and avert deaths.]]
* LampshadeHanging: When Sissel possesses his first object, he actually expresses his disbelief that he's essentially that object now.
-->'''Sissel''': "So...what? Now I'm a crossing gate...?"
** A lot of characters start thinking that DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist since Sissel can just go back in time and prevent their deaths.
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Sissel via GhostAmnesia, of course.
** It's so bad he even forgot basic concepts, such as science, what a kidnapping is, and reading. [[spoiler:In the end, it turns out that he didn't remember his life because he was living as someone else the entire time. When he finally did realize who he was, he remembered everything, revealing that he didn't remember so many basic concepts because he was a cat.]]
* LivingForeverIsAwesome: This is [[spoiler:Sissel's take on his fate at the end of the game; he gets to watch life happen all around him. It seems he adapts better to this life than Yomiel did. Though unlike Yomiel, Sissel does have plenty of people around to watch and interact with and seems to be content to do so.]]
* LockedRoomMystery: Subverted. Immediately after one appears (and declared as such by an excited character) you go back in time and see exactly how it happened. [[RubeGoldbergDevice Turns out to be a domino effect that the victim triggered.]]
* LoyalAnimalCompanion: Missile, [[spoiler:Sissel,]] and the blue pigeon. [[UndyingLoyalty Literally undyingly loyal, at that.]]
* LoopholeAbuse: Sissel is informed [[MagicAIsMagicA very clearly]] that you can only revive someone who's been dead for less than one day. [[spoiler:They're able to revive Yomiel, who died ten years ago, because technically his body is frozen at the exact second before his death by the Temsik shard, until Commander Sith removes it.]]
* LuxuryPrisonSuite: The Special Prison houses people who committed crimes under mysterious circumstances; so mysterious, in fact, that it's believed they may have done it under MindControl or some other influence, so as a concession, they're granted a lot of liberties, like having their own rock band equipment or personal art studio.
* MagicMeteor: [[spoiler:It grants Ghost Tricks to people who die next to it.]]
* MeaningfulName: Nearly everyone.
** A prison guard named "[[http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bailey Bailey]]".
** Lynne's name is spelled in katakana as ''Rinne'', a word that can refer to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsara the Buddhist cycle of death and rebirth]]--fairly appropriate for a girl who keeps dying and coming back to life.
** Temsik is a SdrawkcabName of "''kismet''", the Turkish and Urdu word for "fate". Fitting for a game all about fate reversal.
** Yomiel comes from the Japanese word "''yomigaeru''", which means "to be revived." [[spoiler:Fitting for a character whose body is constantly being revived by AppliedPhlebotinum.]]
** Jeego's name comes from 'jigoku', and Tengo's name from 'tengoku', Japanese words meaning 'hell' and 'heaven', respectively.
** "Sissel" is a variation of the name "Cecil", which means "without sight". Now take a look at [[OpaqueLenses those shades...]] [[spoiler:Also, his desire to be "looked at" and noticed in his backstory, where effectively everyone is "without sight" regarding him.]] On top of ''that'', [[spoiler:"Sissel" is is similar to "Sisal", which is a type of rope commonly used in cat scratchers]]. "''Shiseru''" also means "can die" in Japanese. It's also [[spoiler:a gender neutral version of "Cecil"... or "Cecille", as Sissel is also the name of Yomiel's fiancee]].
** Jowd's name derives from Jōdo (Pure Land), a division of Buddhism.
** Kamila is Missile's BerserkButton. Also, Kamila's Japanese name is "Kanon". Now think, [[ThemeNaming "Missile and Cannon"]]. Hmm...
** Alma is Kamila's mother. In a StealthPun, this makes Alma "mater".
** Mino, the park's mascot, is a bagworm ("''minomushi''").
** As mentioned above, Kamila's Japanese name is Kanon. ''Kannon'' is the Japanese form of "Guanyin", ''[[{{UsefulNotes/Buddhism}} bodhisattva]]'' of mercy, who according to some legends wished to help all beings escape the Wheel of reincarnation. There might be a connection.
** Sith's name in Japanese is Shisu, which means "die".
** Detective Rindge's name derives from the term ''rinjū'', meaning "deathbed".
* MexicanStandoff: [[spoiler:Yomiel]] vs. Jowd, 10 years in the past.
* MoralityPet: Quite literally [[spoiler:Sissel for Yomiel]], although it doesn't do much good until the end of the game when [[spoiler:Yomiel]] does his HeelFaceTurn, [[spoiler:Sissel]] most likely being a major reason for this.
* MorphicResonance: [[spoiler:Yomiel]] constructs a mishmash body out of scrap metal. The 'head', however, is still pointy and wearing sunglasses.
** [[spoiler:After turning back into a cat, Sissel's feline eyes somewhat resemble Yomiel's glasses.]]
* MyGreatestFailure: [[spoiler:Yomiel]]'s death is this for both Jowd, who was about to shoot him, and Cabanela, who gave him the desire and means to flee questioning. Also Sissel [[spoiler:not helping Missile]] in the original timeline.
* MythologyGag: The game [[WordOfGod supposedly]] takes place in the ''AceAttorney'' universe, and seems to contain several references to that series.
** Kamila's dog is named Missile. This is the same name as the police dog in case 1-4. ([[TributeToFido Both are references to Shu Takumi's own Pomeranian, also named Missile.]])
** When seen from a distance, the bespectacled 'green detective' vaguely resembles Winston Payne, and the black-haired 'blue detective' resembles Phoenix Wright. Fittingly, they don't get along.
** In the sequence where Lynne flashes back to Cabanela and Jowd's friendly competition, Jowd makes his point by striking an '''"OBJECTION!"''' pose.
*** He isn't the only character to pull one of [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om2Qu8acZ68#t=4m20s these]]...
** Jowd's green trenchcoat and red tie are reminiscent of Detective Gumshoe. His pink painting smock also resembles Larry's "artist" attire from the third ''AceAttorney'' game. And while the prison uniform he wears has the standard stripes, the colors match the one worn by [[FinalFight Cody]] in his ''StreetFighter'' appearances.
** Who's betting that [[GrandeDame Elegant Lady's]] glass and bottle contain [[FrothyMugsOfWater grape juice]]?
*** In the same vein, there's the hat that ''doesn't'' [[spoiler: kill Cabanela]] in chapter 15. It could be coincidence, but all it needs is some pink lettering and a pin to fit in in ApolloJustice.
** Compare the "Four Minutes Before Death" [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3C-FrmHn44&feature=related music]] with the "Logic ~ The Way To The Truth" [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-a60ITJ2Ko track]] from ''Ace Attorney: Investigations''.
*** There are several other themes in the game which are strongly reminiscent of AceAttorney tracks as well. For example: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kwKogno3dk "TRAUMA"]] and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMxGHvoK9XI Search ~ Core 2001]] from the first game; [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLAvtRewiN4 "CHASE"]] and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wnp3d_jyGHk "The Fire Carves Scars"]] from ''Justice For All''.
** The [[spoiler:heart-attack scene at the Justice Minister's office]] is much like ''AceAttorney'' criminal breakdown scenes, down to the sound effect.
** The Chicken Kitchen uniforms resemble the uniforms Maya and Mia wear in 3-2.
** In the backstory: [[spoiler:A man is innocent of a crime, but returns to find that his fiancée has killed herself, so he names a pet after her and disappears, returning years later to try and take revenge on those responsible for ruining his life.]] Sound familiar? The same thing happens in 1-4.
** Never mind the fact that the entire plot resembles one giant [[WhenItAllBegan DL-6 Incident]]...
** A [[RunningGag stepladder]] appears in Chapter 15.
** The Justice Minister's ghost spits out the word "contradiction" when applying it in the given context is a stretch at best, and claims to be a "seeker of truth". Basically he's mirroring the behavior of several AceAttorney characters.
** The helmet hanging on the bookshelf in the Super's office belongs to a [[MegaMan mettaur]], this being a {{Capcom}} game.
* NeverSayDie / NobodyCanDie: [[AvertedTrope Averted]], obviously. However, when Sissel [[spoiler:crushes each of the blue-skinned assassins under massive objects]], he uses euphemisms rather than acknowledge their deaths. There may be room for doubt with the second one, but the first one is cartoonishly flattened; there's no way he could have survived. So he's either [[NeverSayDie sidestepping a delicate issue]], or else our hero truly [[NobodyCanDie doesn't kill them]], despite "Mino" killing the "Guardian of the Park" in much the same way later on.
* NewAgeRetroHippie: The guardian of the park.
* NewWorldTease: You gain access to many areas before there's much to do there. Notably, the second location the plot makes you visit is the villain's headquarters.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: [[spoiler: By removing the Temsik fragment from Yomiel's body and making it a regular corpse—and able to have its fate rewound—Commander Sith undoes his own victory]].
** Verges into GenreSavvy territory. [[spoiler:Commander Sith regardless foresaw the "slight possibility", and did everything he could think of to keep Yomiel's body as far from a ghost as possible.]]
* NonHumanSidekick: Sissel may view Missile as this [[spoiler:until Sissel finds out that he is a [[NotSoDifferent cat]].]]
** So actually [[spoiler: Sissel was this to Lynne.]]
* NotSoHarmless: [[spoiler:Commander Sith is short, unimposing and has goofy eyebrows, but he manages to betray Yomiel in the end and almost sends the cast to their deaths at the bottom of the sea.]]
* OhMyGods: Cabanela's "Ye gods!" Others can be heard saying "Gods in heaven!" or variants of it.
* OnlyOneName: Nobody is given two names, leaving it unclear in many cases whether people are being referred to by their first name or last name.
* OppositesThemeNaming: The two blue-skinned assassins are named Jeego and Tengo. Jeego's name comes from 'jigoku', and Tengo's name from 'tengoku', Japanese words meaning 'hell' and 'heaven', respectively.
* OurGhostsAreDifferent
* PaintingTheFourthWall: Those talking directly (usually Lynne) to Sissel may look toward the player in order to speak to him. [[spoiler:This is used to full effect in the case of those who know about the Powers of the Dead that you haven't reached out to.]]
* ParasolParachute: Subverted. A couple times in the junkyard, you possess an umbrella and open it to drift down to a lower level—but as a ghost, of course, you're weightless and it really doesn't matter. Of course, both times the umbrella lands exactly where you need it to.
* ParrotExposition: Especially in the early parts of the game when the controls are still being explained, but Sissel does it to some degree throughout the rest of it as well.
* PercussiveMaintenance: Sith's masked henchman and his console.
* PhraseCatcher: Memry. Odd girl.
** I agree.
*** Me too.
** You never know who might be listening.
*** Like me.
** Regarding the blue peoples' country, their use of technology is just plain "off"!
*** We get that a lot.
* PlayingThePlayer: See Sissel up above? The guy in the red suit with the blonde hair? See how he's all over the game's advertising, he's the player character's image in-game, the first thing the player sees in-game, and even the picture of the PlayerCharacter in the manual? [[spoiler:That's not him. ''That's the Big Bad''. But you do play as someone resembling him for almost all of the game]].
* PlotArmor: With the twist that you're the one ''providing'' it.
* PluckyGirl: Lynne takes this trope to unseen levels. [[spoiler: Laughing off five deaths (all of which she remembers) in one night and all...]]
* PragmaticAdaptation: A minor case, involving the title of the game and what it means in the gameplay. The term ''trick'' is used to refer to different aspects of Sissel's power in English and Japanese. In Japanese, ''toritsuku''—literally, "cling to" and written almost the same as "trick"—is used for his ability to stop time and possess static objects' cores. Obviously, since this play on words doesn't work in English, the translators renamed the latter ability to "ghost" in English, and "trick" has been repurposed for the power to manipulate those objects, simply ''ayatsuru'' (manipulate, control) in Japanese.
* PsychoForHire: The hitmen. [[spoiler: They have no problem with killing unarmed women, little girls and puppies.]]
* QuestForIdentity: Sissel's primary motivation. [[spoiler:So much that, were it not for Ray guiding him toward the identity of the man in red, he would not have attempted to save Lynne and the others.]]
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Sissel comments on this after being partnered with the ghosts of [[spoiler:Cabanela, Pigeon Man]], ''and'' [[spoiler:Missile]].
-->"What a dangerous bunch..."
* RainbowSpeak: Important words are highlighted in red, while Sissel's thoughts are in blue.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig Zagged]] to hell and back with [[spoiler:Yomiel]]. When he, Sissel, Missile, and Jowd travel back in time to the Temsik incident ([[spoiler:Yomiel]] holding Lynne hostage and at a standoff with Detective Jowd) to alter his fate. [[spoiler:Yomiel]] decides he prefers TakingTheBullet to [[WhoWantsToLiveForever "living" like he did before]]. Missile, however, refuses to let Jowd become a murderer, and [[spoiler:swaps the bullet with Lynne's sweet potato]]. All right, a subversion. But then [[spoiler:the sweet potato knocks Yomiel into a sharp part of the fountain]], which stabs him in the back. Okay, double-subversion. But ''he survives''! No, wait a second, the Mino statue is about to fall on Lynne! [[spoiler:Yomiel possesses his own body]] to [[HeroicSacrifice grab Lynne and toss her into Jowd's arms]]. The statue falls on him instead, crushing his lower back. [[MadeOfIron He survives, and completely recovers]].
* RedOniBlueOni: [[spoiler:Cabanela]] and [[spoiler:Jowd]], respectively.
** Also, Lynne or Missile and Sissel.
* {{Revenge}}: [[spoiler:Yomiel]]'s stated goal.
* {{Retirony}}: Averted. Memry, the waitress at the Chicken Kitchen, mentions that it's her last day working there. She is ''almost'' killed by a speeding truck crashing into the restaurant, but is saved at the last minute by Lynne pushing her out of the way.
* RetroUniverse: Although most technology seems to be modern (wireless headphones and plasma [=TVs=]) and a young woman is allowed on the detective force (suggesting modern social mores), everyone uses rotary telephones that still use the old station-extension phone number style. ''[[SchizoTech Wireless]]'' rotary phones, in some cases.
** Which makes for some major SchizoTech with the blue people, who have robotic arms, pimped-out information consoles, and [[spoiler: remote-controlled robot manservants]]. Maybe this is an alternate universe where cell phones were never invented.
*** Note that ''Ghost Trick'' shares a universe with ''Ace Attorney'',[[hottip:*:But not necessarily the same ''country''.]] which has cell phones aplenty.
** Inspector Cabanela is a regular DiscoDan.
** The Chicken Kitchen is an glitzy (?) 50's nostalgia place, complete with jukebox and [[ServiceSectorStereotypes roller-skating waitresses]].
* RightForTheWrongReasons: The protagonist first figures out his name is Sissel when the foreigners refer to him as such while looking at an image of him. [[spoiler:Despite the fact that Sissel was just a pseudonym Yomiel used when dealing with the foreigners, and the protagonist turns out to not be the man at all, Sissel really is the protagonist's name.]]
* RippleEffectProofMemory: Every ghost, as well anyone whose death has been directly averted by ghosts, remembers everything. They even remain connected to the World of the Dead enough to communicate with said ghosts.
** This brings up something mentioned at the ending: It's clearly stated that, because their ghosts went back to 10 years ago, only Sissel, Yomiel, Jowd, and Missile will remember all the details of what happened in the game in the new present. This is proven when Jowd knows what to name [[spoiler:the kitten he adopts, and Yomiel expresses his thanks to his cat for changing his fate]]. However, it appears that everybody else who was brought back through a Ghost Trick previously doesn't remember what has happened, as shown when Lynne is shown to no longer possess the core she received after being saved for the second time.
** This is also what inspires the final puzzle: The gang could have rewound time if Lynne had been crushed by the statue to try and find some other way of stopping things, but that would leave a little girl with the memory of being [[spoiler:''crushed to death'']] for the rest of her life, and Sissel absolutely refuses to let that happen.
*** Basically, you only get ripple-effect proofed if you were part of the Trick that caused the ripple.
* RoboticReveal: [[spoiler:The Masked Muscleman.]]
* RubeGoldbergDevice: The game may as well be called ''[[IncrediblyLamePun Rube Ghostberg Contraption: The Game]]'', though a literal example is seen as well. [[spoiler:And central to the plot itself, as you later find out.]]
* RubeGoldbergHatesYourGuts: [[spoiler:How Yomiel offed Detective Jowd's wife, Alma.]]
** [[spoiler:A replica of it is also responsible for Lynne's [[TheyKilledKenny third]] death]].
* RunningGag: [[spoiler:Lynne dying. Even in the altered "final" timeline, she comes very close to it.]]
* RuleOfCool: Every character has needlessly stylish movements and mannerisms.
* SaveTheVillain: After his HeelFaceTurn, anyway. The villain in question even helps save himself.
* SchmuckBait: In Chapter 15, you have to swap a bullet already in motion with something of the same shape that wouldn't be lethal. If you don't do any other tricks before that point, there's [[spoiler:a hard hat]] on the wall nearby that you can use. Ask yourself this: How would this object impact someone's ''face'' if it were traveling at bullet velocity? [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoH2kN-8B0c#t=25s Ask Cabanela]] -- it ain't pretty. ('''contains spoilers''').
-->'''Pigeon-Headed Man''': [[{{Understatement}} That didn't go well.]]
* SchroedingersCat: We find that [[spoiler:Sissel ends up as a ''literal'' one]] in the epilogue. Kamila says that after all these years, he hasn't aged a day, and a Ghost World perspective shows that he still has ghost powers, due to [[spoiler:getting struck by the Temsik fragment as a kitten]].
* ScrewDestiny: Sissel can go back four minutes in time to stop someone from being murdered. This is called "Avert Fate" in-game. Naturally, it's the whole point of the game.
* SdrawkcabName: Temsik Park [[spoiler:(and, by extension, the Temsik meteor)]] - "Temsik" is "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kismet kismet]]" backwards, an Urdu word meaning "fate".
* SequelHook: It's a foundation for a sequel, anyway. [[spoiler:The ending reveals that in the new timeline, Sissel is a ghost inhabiting his own now-immortal body, as Yomiel was in the original timeline...so he still has his ghost powers in case he needs them in a sequel.]]
** Good luck making a sequel that doesn't result in a massive LateArrivalSpoiler for this game...
* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: The purpose of most chapters, when you attempt to avert fates. [[spoiler:The Final Chapter is an attempt to do this 10 years in the past, creating an AlternateTimeline.]]
* ShootTheDog: Both literal and figurative. First, [[spoiler:Missile the Pomeranian gets shot as a result of trying to protect his mistress(es)]]. Next is [[spoiler:the fact that Sissel uses a crane to crush not one, but ''two'' would-be assassins. While these "deaths" are somewhat humorous, it seems Sissel never goes out of his way to save the blue-skinned foreigners]].
* ShootingSuperman: Poor Cabanela learns this the hard way after capping [[spoiler:Yomiel]] in the head.
** Though as it turns out, [[spoiler: Cabanela knew damn well that it wouldn't kill him; The bullet had a ''tracker'' placed in it!]]
* ShoutOut:
** Cabanela does a variety of MichaelJackson moves.
** We've also got a Commander [[StarWars Sith]].
** Sissel obviously [[http://img684.imageshack.us/i/sayyes.jpg/ never watched]] {{Ghostbusters}}.
** Quite a few to ''PhoenixWrightAceAttorney''. The words "Hold it!" and "contradiction" are thrown about heavily, as well as Lynne asking Kamila, a little sister figure, to get a music box that no longer works which contains important evidence for a cast, mirroring Mia asking Maya to go get the Thinker for her. Also, (Spoilers for ''Ghost Trick'' and the last case of ''PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' (The DS, American one, not the original one for the GBA))[[spoiler: Jowd going to prison to protect Kamila mirrors Lana pleading guilty to protect Ema in "Rise From the Ashes".]]
*** There's also the fact that Sissel repetitively says that he has to find something to "turn around" the situation, much similarly to the whole theme of the ''AceAttorney'' games.
** [[spoiler: The Minister]] says something similar to Dracula's speech in CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight.
** Ray has to be a reference to [[{{Pixar}} Pixar's]] very first short film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdtHSyfcSDs
** Bailey's dance [[FullmetalAlchemist HAS BEEN PASSED DOWN IN HIS FAMILY FOR GENERATIONS]]!!
* SillyWalk: Just about [[RuleOfCool everyone]]. Cabanela is the prime example, but even the guards get in on this with their absurdly formal marches.
* TheSlowPath: [[spoiler:Missile]] was forced to take this after going back to ten years ago and then realizing that he couldn't do anything to avert [[spoiler:Yomiel]]'s death or any of the things resulting from it in the first timeline. Not especially long by the standards of the trope...but it's [[spoiler:the better part of a lifetime to a dog.]]
-->[[spoiler:'''Sissel:''' So you waited and waited, these ten long years; all for the sake of your two ladies, Lynne and Kamila, eh?]]
-->[[spoiler:'''Missile:''' Of course! Because that's what doggies do!]]
* SneezeCut: In the demo, but you'd have to play through the full game to understand why.
* SoundtrackDissonance: It is a little jarring to see, in the ending montage, peppy music play as [[spoiler:the foreign couple gets blown to Kingdom Come, even if they were villains]].
** [[spoiler: They only had themselves to blame for that, though.]]
* SplitScreenPhoneCall
* StartOfDarkness: [[spoiler:Yomiel was accused of espionage, of which he was innocent, but a young Inspector Cabanela pressured him into escaping with the handgun he accidentally left behind. Jowd chased him down into Temsik Park, where he took Lynne hostage and was suddenly struck in the back by a fragment of the Temsik meteor. Then he remembers his identity and tries to meet his wife Sissel, who had unfortunately committed suicide just before Yomiel could get to her, and he lacked the power to rewind time and save her life. This made him GoMadFromTheIsolation and make him want to take revenge on everyone involved in the Temsik Park incident, save for a certain black cat...]]
* StealthBasedMission: Several towards the end, to avoid gaining [[spoiler:Yomiel's]] attention with your ghost tricks. [[spoiler:Subverted, since despite what happens if you fail, he actually knew you were there all along, but didn't really want to stop you.]]
** Chapter 9 has you trying to escape from a pitch-black prison with guards who wear night vision goggles. Even though ghosts can see through darkness in the "ghost world", it's harder than it sounds since [[spoiler:you have to help a condemned criminal escape without making him enter the guards' field of vision]].
* TapOnTheHead: The driver of the [[VanInBlack surveillance van]] is knocked out by a high-pitched whine from his headphones. Unbeknown to him, Beauty has torched his microphone with a cigarette lighter.
* TakeYourTime: The game always shows the precise time, but outside of four-minutes-in-the-past timed puzzles, it will never advance unless you trigger an event that forces it to.
** Averted in Chapter 16, where although the time itself doesn't advance, if you wait too long to give Lynne a path up to the door, [[spoiler:the water ''will'' raise up and drown her, though presumably Sissel revives her, since it lets you try again from an unheralded checkpoint if you got to one]].
* TalkingAnimal: Ghosts of animals can "talk" with people, as Missile demonstrates. [[spoiler:As does Sissel.]]
* TalkingIsAFreeAction: Used whenever Sissel chats up the dead. Justified in that it appears to be some form of telepathy and the ghost world is explicitly stated as being outside of time. Or whenever you decide to talk to the spirit you're trying to save, no matter how pressed for time you are in-game.
* TemptingFate: Early on, Sissel tells himself that it can't be that hard to save Lynne, since how many times can she die in a single night? He later finds out... [[spoiler:Five times, to be exact.]]
** Much later:
-->'''Sissel:''' So now all we have to do is...
-->'''Lynne:''' ...get to that door, and we're safe!
-->[[spoiler:''(submarine turns sideways)'']]
* TheChessMaster: [[spoiler:"Ray"]]
* TimedMission: Each time you go back into the past, you only have four (in-game) minutes to save the victim's life. Additionally, if Sissel ever wants to know the full truth, he has to do it before dawn, when he'll truly [[RetGone cease to exist]].
** [[spoiler: [[BatmanGambit Though that deadline turns out to be a lie told by Ray to make sure Sissel gets to the submarine in time.]] ]]
* TimeyWimeyBall: The Ghost Trick to return four minutes into the past ([[spoiler:for those who have the Tricks or anyone who follows said ghosts]]) to prevent a death. If the spirit is awake to see this occur, they will follow along the path to try to prevent said death. When the death is prevented, the event is erased and replaced with a new present, but the memory remains for those who were along with said Trick. At the end of the game, the Ghost Trick to 10 years ago results in a [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong mild reboot]]: [[spoiler:Sissel the kitten]] is killed by the Temsik fragment, thus taking [[spoiler:Yomiel's place as the ghost possessing his own corpse, and is adopted by Jowd; Yomiel is alive and has recovered in the 10 years he's been imprisoned, thanking Sissel for what he did, and Missile-Prime]] has been [[RetGone erased in the reboot]]. However, all the events in the game still technically happened in that it's how the current present exists. And of everyone who'd died and remembered, it's implied that only Sissel, Jowd, [[spoiler:Yomiel]], and Missile remember the whole story, since they were amongst the final Ghost Trick.
* TitleDrop: Done heavily in the first chapter.
* TheyFightCrime: Lynne and Sissel. Later in the game, [[spoiler:Missile]] joins in on the action.
* TheyKilledKenny: Lynne.
-->'''Sissel''': Lynne wasn't dead when I got there. [[DeadpanSnarker For once.]]
* ThoseTwoGuys: The Green Detective and Blue Detective. They even contrast each other, the blue detective talking big but immediately conforming to authority, while the green detective is a DeadpanSnarker.
* TomatoSurprise: Several. In the end, it turns out that [[spoiler:Sissel was a cat, the "manipulator" was the blonde guy whose body you thought was yours, and Ray was a time-traveling Missile from a timeline where he couldn't save anyone's life with his swap trick]].
* TrackingDevice: [[spoiler:The [[TrickBullet bullet]] Cabanela fired at Yomiel was a tracking device, which was honed in on by a special pocket watch which Cabanela gave to Jowd, who then gave it to Lynne.]]
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Everyone's extremely into giant roast chicken. Extremely into it. [[spoiler:Except for Cabanela, who eats a giant plate of spaghetti in the ending.]] Then there's the curry-loving prisoner.
* TrialAndErrorGameplay: Figuring out which phone calls to go through during the death aversions comes really close to this at times.
** Chapter 10 is more or less this. For starters, the guy whose life you're trying to save receives a call from a kidnapper, knocks his heart attack medicine across the room, and spills a pitcher of water before dying of a heart attack. If your first reaction was to follow the phone call, [[spoiler:you find out they don't have a hostage at the moment, and only have a tape recording of the Justice Minister's Daughter]]. If you jump to the medicine and get flung across the room, you find yourself without enough time to figure out what to do, much less actually perform the exact sequence of actions required to get the medicine back to the guy. The solution?
*** You have to [[spoiler:use the flag to prevent the water jar from dropping, so the minister can take the water]]. That creates a CheckPoint. However, if you do that and [[spoiler:do not possess the ceiling fan while the minister is drinking the water]], you get stuck [[TrialAndErrorGameplay and will need to start all over again]].
* TributeToFido: Missile is named after the creator's Pomeranian.
* TrickedOutTime: At one point, you have to save someone from an explosion while making it look like they were caught in it. And then right after, you have someone shot by a gun without the shooter knowing the difference.
* TricksterMentor: [[spoiler:Ray]] puts [[spoiler: Sissel]] through quite an ordeal. Despite knowing the truth all along, he does not tell [[spoiler: Sissel who he is, he tricks him into thinking he's going to cease to exist in the morning, thus causing a great deal of stress, fools Sissel into thinking he's Yomiel, and then vanishes halfway through the game, making Sissel think that he has ceased to exist.]] However, this causes [[spoiler:Sissel to avert Yomiel's fate]] and learn the value of helping other people besides himself.
* UndyingLoyalty: '''Missile''', quite literally. This is very apparent when [[spoiler:after his second death, where he gained ghost tricks, he decides to stay dead specifically to better help Lynne and Kamila with his new powers]]. If that's not enough, the ending reveals that [[spoiler:Ray is actually Missile from a BadFuture that couldn't save anyone, so he goes back in time and waits ten long years to become the Trickster Mentor for the black cat Sissel.]]
* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: Characters frequently fail to notice things moving in the background, or consider them coincidences. [[spoiler:Which leads to a bit of a shock when Beauty's "sixth sense" means she can figure out what's going on, and when the player tries a Trick in front of the guy manipulating Sissel's body and then the Manipulator immediately figures out what's going on, [[BreakingTheFourthWall addresses the player]], and causes a game over.]]
* VerbalTic: Cabaneeela tends to draw out his vooowels, baby.
** As expected of a Shu Takumi game, many characters have their own verbal tics, while others seemingly transmit from character to character. Odd girl.
*** I agree.
*** Me too.
** '''WELCOME!'''
** "...like me."
** Sith has a very wide range of vocabulary, his favourite being "Confound it!" Far more subtle, Ray tends to say "Now, then" a lot and Sissel says "eh?" quite frequently.
* VideogameCaringPotential: Lynne and Kamila are in the game to invoke this.
* VideogameCrueltyPotential: There are at least two separate instances where you can alter a victim's fate so they die in an even less dignified manner than the original.
** ''[[YetAnotherStupidDeath Helmet in the face]]''.
* WeakButSkilled: The main character is much weaker than a living person and can only move by jumping between objects no more than two or three feet away, but he uses what he ''can'' do to great effect.
* WeirdMoon
* WhamEpisode: Chapter 17 and The Final Chapter.
** Really, ''everything'' that happens after Chapter 14 can fit this trope.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler:The epilogue shows what happens to everyone in the new timeline, even the most minor of characters...except Jeego and Tengo. Some people theorize they died anyway. The fake medical examiner is also unaccounted for.]]
** Not so much a person as a plot device, but what's the deal with [[spoiler: Beauty's sixth sense?]] It tries to be significant, but after [[spoiler: finding out they've kidnapped Kamila]], Sissel never sees the pair again and we never get an explanation for it.
** The culprit in the [[spoiler: hacking/leaking information]] case that [[spoiler: Yomiel was falsely accused of]] was never explicitly revealed.
* WhenItAllBegan: [[spoiler:The incident in Temsik Park ten years ago.]]
* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: The setting is intentionally made ambiguous by including elements from several different cultures.
** The ministries are vaguely Japanese, as are the references to gods (possibly Shinto kami).
** There are European suits of armor in the Justice Minister's office, but the hats the guards wear don't seem to relate to those in any known country.
** All of the characters have names from continental Europe, with the exception of the foreigners. Beauty, Dandy, and Sith are English, English, and Scottish; Jeego and Tengo are Japanese.
** The prison still uses the electric chair, an execution device that has only ever been used by America.
* WhipItGood: The thoroughly evil Beauty carries a bright red riding crop, though we never see her use it.
* WhodunnitToMe
* WhoWantsToLiveForever: [[spoiler:Yomiel]] certainly doesn't, having to deal with crushing loneliness after the death of his fiancée. [[spoiler:Sissel]] [[LivingForeverIsAwesome subverts it]] and doesn't appear to mind that he's immortal in the ending timeline.
* WorldOfHam
* WrongfulAccusationInsurance: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] by [[spoiler:Yomiel]], who was genuinely innocent but got chased and killed when he fled interrogation. Cabanela references the subversion of this trope as his reason for preventing Jowd's escape when he points out that escaping from prison [[AllCrimesAreEqual is still a crime]].
** Even in the "fixed" timeline in the ending, [[spoiler:Yomiel]] is sentenced to 10 years in prison for attempting to escape from custody and taking a hostage.
* XanatosRoulette: [[spoiler: Missile-prime]] planned the plot, but nothing would have worked out if current-timeline [[spoiler:Missile]] hadn't died on the meteorite's exact crash site.
* YouGottaHaveColorfulHair
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Commander Sith strands [[spoiler:Yomiel]] in a sinking submarine after getting the Temsik shard from him. Tellingly, Sith was so afraid of him that it was the only way to be sure.
* YouShouldKnowThisAlready: You start off not knowing your own name. The back of the box says your name is Sissel.
----
[[caption-width-right:350:[[TheyFightCrime A woman and her crime-solving ghost.]]]]
->''"You were given the powers of the dead. But even that is only temporary. When the sun rises in the morning...I'm afraid you're going to cease to exist."'' \\
-- '''Ray'''
An adventure game from the minds behind the ''AceAttorney'' series for the NintendoDS.
In an abandoned junkyard, a ghost wakes up to see a blue-faced assassin training a gun on a young woman. Between them is a red-clad corpse which he identifies as himself. Realizing he can still manipulate the environment even as a ghost, he stops the assassin and teams up with the woman to try and recover his memories and find out why he was killed. However, he only has [[RaceAgainstTheClock until the next sunrise]] to solve this mystery, or else he will completely cease to exist.
The game is focused on solving a variety of puzzles in order to prevent events from happening and save the people around Sissel (the ghost), while working to uncover the truth behind his death. It was released on January 11th, 2011 in the U.S. and on January 14th, 2011 in Europe under the name "Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective".
'''[[color:red: A word of warning:]]'''[[color:red: after a certain point, this game can be described as a '''''pile''''' of plot twists, so if you're reading this page but want to remain unspoiled, please step lightly.]]
Here's the [[http://www.nintendo.co.uk/NOE/en_GB/games/nds/ghost_trick_phantom_detective_18194.html English demo]] if anybody's interested.
----
!!Tropes used in ''Ghost Trick'' include:
* TheAlcatraz: The "Special Prison" for suspected [[spoiler:ghost-possessed]] criminals.
* AlternateTimeline: In a small way, what happens whenever Sissel goes back in time and averts someone's fate.
** In the storyline at large: The first one is what happens when the important characters die because [[spoiler:Missile]] lacks the needed ghost tricks and [[spoiler:Sissel]] refuses to assist him, too preoccupied with his own quest for identity. The second one occurs when the first timeline's [[spoiler:Missile-Prime]] goes back 10 years via [[spoiler:Yomiel]]'s body and takes TheSlowPath to the present, then, under the guise of Ray, [[spoiler:making Sissel think he's Yomiel to trick him into saving Lynne and everyone else]]. The third one happens when Sissel, [[spoiler:second-timeline Missile, Yomiel]], and Detective Jowd save [[spoiler:Yomiel from dying via Temsik shard]] in Temsik Park 10 years ago, preventing his StartOfDarkness and the chain of events that lead to people dying.
* AlwaysClose: Completing some puzzles long before your time runs out still has you averting fate in this way despite the cause of death not arriving for another minute or so. The earliest this happens is [[spoiler:when you save Missile]]. Many other puzzles can only be solved in the final seconds "until death".
** It gets pretty ridiculous, considering that the way to prevent quite a few deaths is to wait until the absolute final ''milliseconds'' before a person's death, usually to [[spoiler: swap a bullet that's hanging in midair ''centimetres from the victim's face.'']] Fortunately, the player doesn't have to time these, as the game does it for you.
* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: The "foreigners" are identifiable by their blue skin.
** Including [[spoiler: the blue medical examiner]], though you don't get confirmation until later in the game.
* AmbidextrousSprite: When Lynne's portrait is facing left, her badge is on the left side of her shirt. When she's facing right, it magically migrates to the right side. Emma also switches which hand she holds her glass in when she turns around.
** It gets especially obvious with Jowd. The blue and red paint-stains on his shirt switch places!
* AnalogyBackfire: Sissel being instructed to possess a water nozzle and to "spray like your life depended on it!"
-->'''Sissel:''' Uh, I'm dead, though...
-->'''[[spoiler:Yomiel]]''': In that case... Make it spray as though your death depended on it!
* AngstAversion: In-universe example. While the justice minister doesn't become important until halfway through the game, Sissel can visit him at any point starting with the second chapter. Doing so results in Sissel listening to the man's self-loathing rants. At least twice, Sissel immediately desires to leave.
* AnimateInanimateObject: Ghosts can become these by manipulating inanimate objects.
* AnimeHair: This ''is'' a creation of the same guy behind the ''AceAttorney'' series, after all, though special mention must go to Emma, whose rosebud-shaped hair ''blooms'' whenever she gets mad. Also how the HELL does Beauty's hair even work?! Seriously, just look at it: [[http://moe.animecharactersdatabase.com/uploads/chars/5688-1318602082.png]]
* AnyoneCanDie: Considering Sissel starts off dead and most of the game play involves changing fate to save lives... yeah. A few even end up dying multiple times in the same evening, and one in particular dies ''five times'' over the course of one night, to the point the characters actually make jokes about it.
* ArmsAndArmorThemeNaming: In Japanese, Kamila's name is Kanon, while her dog is named Missile. Ironic, since they're two of the sweetest and weakest people in the game [[spoiler:until Missile dies and {{Takes A Level In Badass}}, at which point he's just one of the sweetest.]]
* TheAtoner: [[spoiler:Yomiel]] becomes one of these after he gives up his quest for revenge.
** Many of the characters are these. Cabanela because his recklessness gave [[spoiler:Yomiel]] a gun, which he used to escape custody. Jowd because he forced [[spoiler:Yomiel into a corner, so he took Lynne hostage]]. And Kamila has a few shades of this since she built a device that ultimately [[spoiler:killed her mother.]]
* BackForTheDead: Although it seems like [[spoiler: Missile]] will simply be a minor character, he comes back...just to die. Of course, this serves an important purpose, as [[spoiler:he now has the Ghost Swap power to aid Sissel with.]]
* BadFuture: What happens if Sissel doesn't save anyone. [[spoiler:Ray]] hails from this timeline.
* BadassAdorable: Missile. [[spoiler: [[EverythingsCuterWithKittens And Sissel.]] ]]
* BadassBoast: "I'm a top Pomeranian, you know!"
* BatmanGambit: The ending reveals that [[spoiler:Ray tricked Sissel into thinking he was the blond-haired man in red, as well as telling him that he would cease to exist after dawn. This misdirection causes Sissel to save Lynne and the others as leads to his identity, and eventually bond with them]].
* BeAsUnhelpfulAsPossible: Jowd, when Sissel tries to erase his death. Granted, the guy ''[[DeathSeeker wanted]]'' to die, but he doesn't have to be such a [[DeadpanSnarker smartass]] about it.
** [[spoiler:The justice minister]] also has shades of this. Sissel even {{lampshade}}s the latter.
-->'''Minister''': Maybe if you [[spoiler:give him the water first]] he'll feel a little better.
-->'''Sissel''': (Wait, did he just say something constructive?)
* BenevolentArchitecture: The key to success is to make sure that inanimate objects come within three feet of each other. They often do. And sometimes other people help you with it.
* BigGood: It's technically Ray/[[spoiler:Missile]]. A very effective one in the end.
* BigOlEyebrows: The leader of the foreigners, aptly nicknamed "Eyebrowed Villain" by Sissel.
* BlondGuysAreEvil: [[spoiler:Yomiel, before his HeelFaceTurn.]] Also, Beauty and her sidekick, Dandy. Averted with Sissel, though [[spoiler:as a cat, his hair is actually black]].
* BloodlessCarnage: Every death in the game, except the heart attack.
* BookEnds: Sissel trying to hurl his body around the junkyard, with no results. [[spoiler:Yomiel]] tries it in the climax, and succeeds.
* BrokenPedestal: Cabanela for Lynne [[spoiler:until this is subverted, revealing that Cabanela is actually keeping his spotless record in order to save Jowd.]] Logically, Jowd would fit this, except that Lynne doesn't believe that he murdered Alma, and rightfully so.
* BurgerFool: The Chicken Kitchen. The uniforms are {{camp}}, yet the restaurant seems unusually expensive.
* ButterflyOfDoom: In some levels, you need to track down one of these and neutralize it to prevent MAJOR disasters. [[spoiler: The spying bug in the chicken kitchen chapter is probably the best example.]]
* ButtMonkey: Lynne, who dies a total of [[spoiler:5]] times! Also the rat, who can't seem to catch a break.
* CassandraTruth: Bailey's worries are always right on the money, but never listened to.
* CatsAreMean: [[spoiler:Sissel-prime was only interested in figuring out his identity, and refused to help Missile-prime save Lynne and Kamila. The second time around, [[TheChessmaster Missile-prime]] [[BatmanGambit manipulated this self-interest by giving him an artificial deadline]] which led to the game's Sissel [[CharacterDevelopment developing a genuine interest in saving the people he meets]].]]
* CatsAreSnarkers: [[spoiler:You don't know about the cat part until the end, but Sissel is quite the DeadpanSnarker.]]
* CatsAreSuperior: As a spirit, [[spoiler:Sissel]] is a lot smarter than Missile, who often strolls over into [[TheDitz Ditz territory]]. [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] when a ten-year-older Missile from an AlternateTimeline is revealed to be TheChessmaster.]]
* CaughtOnTape: The end of Chapter 5 shows [[spoiler:a junkyard security camera showing Lynne shooting Sissel]]. By Chapter 15, we learn that [[spoiler:Yomiel intentionally manipulated Lynne into shooting his body in order to frame her for murder by this method]].
* CentralTheme: Theater. The levels are set up like they're being viewed from the FourthWall, the props, character designs and animation are all supposed to be clearly "readable" from a distance (or on the DS's screen), the characters act campy and theatrical, spotlights appear during cutscenes when the game wants to draw attention to things, and the ability to rewind time is equivalent to rehearsals, which you keep doing until you get it "right".
** Flashbacks and the previews before 4 minutes before death puzzles look like film strips relating to the fact that it's been "recorded" into the past.
* CheckPoint: Whenever you alter the situation to give you more time, you get a new place to fall back to if you screw up (which you inevitably will).
* ChekhovsGun: The music box is the most obvious example. However, several "minor" things you see and run into near the beginning take on much more significant meaning as more is revealed. Particularly the [[RubeGoldbergDevice Robinson-Goldberg device]], the bag Sissel[[spoiler:/Yomiel]] is carrying, and "the rock of the gods".
** Two innocuous-seeming examples: Cabanela's pocket watch, and Sith's grape-peeling machine.
** The van in the park has shades of this, given that it's possible to see it very early and not recognize its significance. For that matter, the mural/graffiti on Jowd's cell wall probably counts too.
* ChekhovsGunman: In the order you first see them: Ray, the [[spoiler:black cat]] (which gets vignetted in Chapter 1, but is not commented on), and Pigeon Man.
** And [[ParodiedTrope parodied]], with [[spoiler:Yomiel]] revealing that armed government agents constantly patrol Temsik Park. Sissel flashes back to the "Guardian of the Park".
-->'''Sissel''': You mean--?\\
'''[[spoiler:Yomiel]]''': No. He's just a plain old odd person.
* CityWithNoName: The city the story takes place in isn't named, and the two countries that play into it are simply referred to as "this country" and "that country". See WhereTheHellIsSpringfield below.
* CloudCuckooLand: In some aspects, the country the blue people are from. In any case, they have rather odd applications of technology, like robot arms for feeding one GrapesOfLuxury, flipping tables that have phones and fruit on different sides, and [[spoiler:robotic manservants]].
** Even lampshaded by [[spoiler:Yomiel]] and Jowd.
-->'''Servant''': I am a [[spoiler:remote-controlled robot]], detective.
-->'''Jowd''': What?!
-->''*beat*''
-->'''Jowd''': Your country's use of technology... is just [[UnderStatement plain "off"]]!
-->'''Servant''': We get that a lot, detective.
* CloudCuckooLander: Bailey, especially when doing the "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LBzcXCl-uE Panic Dance]]", which he performs during emergencies but refuses to stop doing after the crisis has passed. Also, the "Guardian of the Park". Oddly, Bailey's outlandish fears almost always [[TheCloudCuckooLanderWasRight turn out right]].
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: When Sissel uses the powers of the dead, the world of the dead is red. When [[spoiler:Missile]] uses them, it's green, and when [[spoiler:Yomiel]] uses them, it's blue.
** In-game example: Cabanela asks if the detective he's talking to over the phone is "the green one or the blue one", based on the suits they were wearing.
** [[spoiler: All the foreigners are blue.]]
* ColourCodedTimestop: The above mentioned powers of the dead stop time when active, with the world being tinted in their respective colours. Plus if you fail to save someone, time stops and a grayscale variation comes up.
* ComicallyMissingThePoint: After watching a death row officer throw the switch to test a faulty electric chair, causing it to explode before the condemned is even in it.
-->'''Sissel:''' So this is an execution, huh? It seems to me there's gotta be a safer way to do it...
* CoolShades: Sissel, of course.[[spoiler: And also Yomiel, whose appearance Sissel accidentally stole.]]
* CoversAlwaysLie: You'd know after the ending that [[spoiler:that's not Sissel on the boxart]]. Though if you pay attention to [[ExactWords what's actually written]], [[spoiler:it never claims that the figure on the front of the box is Sissel]]. Nevertheless, the fact that the [[spoiler: bag containing Sissel's body]] is not behind the body is misleading. In the game itself, it's there (even if hard to see) and this is an important part.
* CrueltyIsTheOnlyOption: Sissel is forced to do some pretty unfair things to a rat in Chapter 13. In fact, barring one case, you are pretty mean to rats in general. Then again, [[spoiler:Sissel ''is'' a cat]]...
* CutsceneIncompetence: In the apartment, Sissel helps Kamila find a music box she must bring to Lynne by possessing a musical Christmas ornament nearby. She leaves the apartment with it, and Sissel needs to follow her but remains stuck in the apartment. He could have possessed the box...but because of his LaserGuidedAmnesia, he didn't know what it was. You could easily see this coming by noticing the lack of a core to move to on the item.
* DaChief: Cabanela's boss, The Chief.
* DancingIsSeriousBusiness: Inspector Cabanela, full stop. Done to comic effect with Bailey's conga-drum "Panic Dance."
* DarkestHour: All the principal characters trapped on the sinking submarine.
* DeadToBeginWith
* DeadfootLeadfoot: The cause of Lynne's fourth death.
* DeadpanSnarker: Sissel, Jowd, and the Pigeon Man.
** Also Bailey's partner.
* DeathFromAbove: Wrecking balls, crates, chickens, statues, vaults, [[UpToEleven meteors]], footballs...
** [[ZigZaggingTrope ZigZagged]]: [[spoiler:Yomiel]] is struck by a fragment of the [[spoiler:Temsik meteor, "killing" him, but then putting his body in a state between life and death]]. The subversion is in that to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong, [[spoiler:Yomiel]] has to be saved from [[spoiler:the meteor shard]], and when it's deflected towards Detective Jowd, it shoots through his leg. Then it's DoubleSubverted when Sissel is shown to have been hit by [[spoiler:the fragment, making him a ''literal'' Schrodinger's cat.]]
** DeathByIrony: A twist on the above trope. Lynne asks a waitress to hurry it up with her chicken dinner, and is crushed by a giant chicken wing.
-->'''Sissel:''' Well, it seems you've escaped your fate of being [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal hammered by a horrible hen]]!
* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: If you run out of time while averting someone's fate, you can just restart from the beginning of that segment or a checkpoint. Amusingly, in-game the characters close to Sissel [[LampshadeHanging start to feel this way because they know he can just save them]]. This also applies in the few cases where you're trying to stop someone from dying in the first place (eg. you're still in the present) since if they do die, Sissel just jumps back four minutes anyways. In fact, there's no such thing as a "permanent" game over you'll need to reload from.
* DisproportionateRetribution: While the assassins may deserve what they get, it may seem excessive that the hard-nosed (if AffablyEvil) kidnappers are [[spoiler:blown up and Yomiel gets 10 years for escaping police custody]] after being falsely accused.
** Also, [[spoiler: Yomiel]] tries to get [[spoiler:Lynne]] convicted of murder simply because she was in his path at the park 10 years ago, which ''[[NeverMyFault gave him the idea]]'' him to take her hostage. Cabanela even calls him out on it.
** Being mean to little girls is punished most severely in this universe!
* DivingSave: Lynne shoves a waitress out of the path of a speeding van. Later, Cabanela does this in an attempt to save [[spoiler:Pigeon Man]] from getting blown up by TNT.
** Lynne's last 'death' comes as the result of pushing Kamila out of the path of falling rubble.
** Last but certainly not least, [[spoiler:Yomiel]] possesses his own unconscious body to uproot itself from a spike, scoop up Lynne, and pitch her out her out of the path of the tumbling Mino statue [[spoiler:right before being crushed himelf]].
* DoesNotLikeShoes: The Police Chief, of all people.
* TheDogWasTheMastermind: [[spoiler:Literally, as explained in the ending.]]
* DownInTheDumps: Where Sissel's story begins, literally ''and'' figuratively.
* DummiedOut: Several music tracks in the game's files are never used. Most are variations on the songs that ''are'' used, but an arrangement of "Tifa's Theme" from ''FinalFantasyVII'' is also inexplicably included.
* EnemyMine: [[spoiler:Yomiel joins up with Sissel after he's betrayed by Commander Sith. This eventually turns into a genuine HeelFaceTurn on Yomiel's part.]]
* EscortMission: Chapters 9 (rescuing Jowd from jail) and 16 (helping Lynne and Kamila escape the submarine).
* EurekaMoment: On the sinking ''Yonoa'', Kamila wishes her father was there to save them. Lynne is inspired to strap Sissel into a torpedo and send him to find Jowd.
* EverybodyLives: What Sissel is trying to make happen—besides himself, natch. [[spoiler:In the end, thanks to the TimeyWimeyBall, everyone ''does''. Even Sissel, in a sense.]]
** Except [[spoiler: Dandy]] and [[spoiler: Beauty]]. They get blown up in the credits. Though it isn't confirmed if they really did die from the explosion.
* EveryoneIsRelated: Jowd believes that he, Lynne, and Sissel all met [[spoiler:10 years ago when the meteor landed in the park]]. He's more right than he knows: The man [[spoiler: he ''thinks'' is Sissel was actually Yomiel]], but Sissel was indeed present -- [[spoiler:as a stray kitten]].
* EverythingsSpoonierWithSpoons: Detective Jowd's cryptic clue: "Head for the spoon."
* EvilForeigner: Their nationality is never given, but they have ''blue skin''.
* ExtremelyShortTimespan: Maybe about twelve or so hours, give or take, but a ridiculous number of shocking twists occur during them.
* FailsafeFailure: The cell doors inside the Special Prison automatically open during a power outage.
** The torpedo that sinks the ''Yonoa''. A rat [[OffscreenTeleportation somehow]] got ''inside'' [[spoiler:the torpedo]], and was happily perched right in the middle of the failsafe system, stopping it from activating.
* FallingChandelierOfDoom: In the game, Sissel can turn a switch that drops a chandelier inside the [[GrandeDame Elegant Lady]]'s room. He has to do this when the Elegant Lady herself is underneath it so she'll be trapped and [[spoiler:her daughter can call the justice minister]], though unless you get the timing just right she [[NonchalantDodge dodges]] it like a pro.
* FateWorseThanDeath: How do you dispose of a ghost who has [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness outlived his usefulness]]? Leave him stranded [[TheAloner alone]] at the bottom of the ocean forever.
* AFeteWorseThanDeath: A birthday party that resulted in the death of [[spoiler:Alma, who is Kamila's mother and Jowd's wife]].
* FiringOneHanded: Nobody ever aims a gun with both hands.
* {{Foil}} / RedOniBlueOni: Sissel and Missile. [[spoiler:They both have "similar occupations", both being pets and both having Ghost Tricks. At the start of the game, Sissel is more intelligent and realistic, while Missile is more naive and optimistic. Sissel is more concerned about finding out his own mystery, while even in death, Missile is only concerned with Kamila and Lynne. Sissel immediately informs Ray that he wants to use his Ghost Tricks on his own body, while Missile is willing to stay dead so that he can use his Ghost Swap to help Kamila and Lynne]]. Also reversed with Ray and Sissel. Sissel is impulsive and is constantly try to do things, while Ray is more level-headed and intelligent and explains to Sissel that these things are impossible. Later on, [[spoiler:it is revealed that Ray was far more intelligent than Sissel, reversing the Oni roles of Missile and Sissel, as Ray planned everything and Sissel was an unknowing puppet.]]
* TheForeignSubtitle: International versions appended "Phantom Detective" to the game's title.
* ForgotICouldntSwim: Lynne and Kamila.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: There was much of this indicating Sissel's past.
** Sissel can't read or recall what objects do or what certain terms mean while dead, yet every other dead character can. He claims it's because his memory is fuzzy due to dying. [[spoiler:This is not the case. He really can't read and honestly doesn't know what certain objects do and what certain terms/concepts mean because, like Missile, he is not human.]]
** When you first meet Lynne, she messes up and mistakes herself to look like Inspector Cabanela. Later, it turns out that this is what happened to [[spoiler:Sissel, who assumed that the spiky-haired blond man nearby was him.]]
** One very, very subtle example: When trying to get the phone over to Amelie, Sissel winds up inflicting all kinds of horrible injury on a rat without killing it. [[spoiler:Almost like a cat toying with it.]]
** Earlier, in the same location, Sissel can let the rodent be spotted before it lands next to the dictionary, and he notes that the boisterous writer treats it as something to be hunted instead of feared. [[spoiler:Sissel says he can relate]].
** Another subtle example. During the prison blackout, one of the guards states that he wishes he could see in the dark, [[spoiler:like a cat]]. Sissel quickly points out the similarity between night-vision and one of his ghost powers, [[spoiler:that he can see in the dark. Maybe because he is a cat]]?
** Yet another subtle example in the prison: when rescuing Jowd, who painted a portrait of Sissel, Jowd replies that he doesn't know that name when Sissel tells Jowd that he somehow knows him. [[spoiler:That's because the blond-haired man in red that he painted was named Yomiel, not Sissel.]]
** The titles given to the people in the records are never replaced with their real names. It's strange at first, but makes sense, given that a lot of [[spoiler:animal narrators in fiction refer to humans as "that short one", "the chicken-eater", etc. instead of their real names]]. Not to mention sometimes the descriptions seem to imply that Sissel thinks that their job titles are part of their names. (E.g., "His name is "Detective Jowd.")
** At one point, to mean "out of danger", Sissel says "out of the water". A strange turn of phrase; shouldn't it be more like "out of the fire"? [[spoiler:Not if you're a cat, who hates getting wet.]]
** On a more general note, Sissel's personality is, once you know the twist, [[spoiler:similar to the stereotypical personality of a cat: aloof and uncaring/unconcerned but also affectionate and friendly once a bond is made]]. Likewise, it's the reason Sissel considers Missile a little off due to [[spoiler: the stereotypical dogs-versus-cats trope]].
** Another one: after Lynne hides in the small elevator, she says she likes to crawl in small and dark places. [[spoiler:Sissel remembers liking to do that too]].
** In the Special Prison, one of the prisoners is rocking out on his guitar, [[DreadfulMusician making a terrible noise]]. Sissel has absolutely no idea what he's doing, and guesses that he's making noise to get attention [[spoiler:because he's hungry]]. Now, [[spoiler:what kind of creature assumes making noise = being fed]]?
** Cabanela mentions at one point that his coat is white, to show that there are no stains on it. Sissel remarks that a black coat would be more practical. [[spoiler: At the end, Sissel ''does'' have a black coat.]]
** In Chapter 16, we have this talk:
-->'''Sissel''': What do you suppose that shock was a minute ago?
-->'''Missile''': I have no idea, of course. I'm just a little sheltered apartment dog!
-->'''Sissel''': [[spoiler:What with my loss of memory, I can't say I'm much better...)]]
** Later on in the same chapter, when the submarine suddenly tips to one side just before Lynne can get to the exit hatch, Sissel's choice of metaphor is ''very'' telling:
-->'''Lynne''': What happened now?!
-->'''Sissel''': [[spoiler: It looks like the submarine decided to rear up on its hind legs.]]
** In Chapter 14, Missile's choice of words at one point is apt.
-->'''Missile:''' [[spoiler: I can reach out my paw a little farther than you can, Sissel!]]
** The security footage [[spoiler:of Lynne shooting Yomiel]] has [[spoiler:Yomiel]] leaning against a pole. After shooting him and being confronted by an assassin, Lynne backs up into the same pole, but moves away from it because it had barbed wire wrapped around it. And given what we later know about [[spoiler:Yomiel]]'s body....
** Throughout most of the game, Sissel can visit the junkyard and have a short conversation with Ray to update him on the situation. Ray goes oddly silent and weak halfway through the game and soon stops moving altogether, which the player will most likely chalk up to the whole "dead tomorrow" thing. On the other hand, it seems Ray [[RippleEffectIndicator starts fading away]] around the time that [[spoiler:Missile is run over in the park...]]
*** Speaking of conversations with Ray, if you go back to the junkyard and talk to him immediately after seeing the security footage of [[spoiler:Yomiel manipulating Lynne into shooting him]], Ray will tell you that "The truth is sometimes hidden in the shadow of what's being looked at."
** Whenever you run into Beauty, she uses a strangely familiar way of addressing you. In retrospect, it becomes apparent that [[spoiler:she thinks that it's Yomiel who keeps trying to spy on her]].
* FourIsDeath: Sissel can rewind time to four minutes before a death he's trying to prevent. [[spoiler:As can Missile, but ''not'' Yomiel. The latter admits that he would prevent Sissel from dying if he could—and by "Sissel", he means both the cat and his fiancée.]]
* GasLeakCoverup: The new housing development in Tensik park is a cover-up by the government to excavate the [[spoiler:Temsik meteorite]].
* GhostAmnesia: Upon death, people become "unconscious" GhostLights and will assume their true appearance once their memory is jogged. However, a ghost can take on someone else's form if they mistakenly believe they're that person. [[spoiler:Ray's BatmanGambit hinges on this.]]
* GoMadFromTheIsolation: [[spoiler:Yomiel.]]
* GoodAllAlong: [[spoiler:Inspector Cabanela is initially presented as a ladder-climbing jerk]], but he only rose in the ranks so that he could monitor the Manipulator case. He also spends much of the game trying to keep Lynne safe and Jowd from being executed.
** [[spoiler:Yomiel plays with this]]. When he was still human, he was thought to be a spy, but was innocent the entire time. Later, he reveals that he could've snuffed Sissel out a number of times, but wanted him to keep going. And then, [[HeelFaceTurn he finally makes up for everything]].
* GoodThingYouCanHeal: Or in Lynne's case, be brought back from the dead.
* GravityIsAHarshMistress: The prison guards' reaction whenever you open a trapdoor beneath them.
* GreenRocks: [[spoiler:Sissel's ghost tricks]] are a by-product of the Temsik Meteor. The same goes for any dead person in its radius. [[spoiler:Yomiel]] was directly struck by it, turning him into a walking generator of Temsik radiation.
* {{Hachiko}}: [[spoiler:Missile gets his Crowning Moment of UndyingLoyalty by going back in time 10 years and taking TheSlowPath back to that fateful night when the murders all began, in order to become Sissel's mentor under the guise of Ray and hopefully make him help save Lynne, Kamila, and the others in the process, which he didn't do in the original BadFuture. It works.]]
* HairColorSpoiler: [[spoiler:The color of the police doctor's skin]]. He's blue, like the other evil foreigners, but you don't find out he was [[spoiler:an imposter intent on stealing Yomiel's corpse]] until far later in the game.
* HeKnowsTooMuch: Sith and [[spoiler:Yomiel]] have conspired to kill ''everyone'' who knows about the [[spoiler:Tensik meteor]].
* HeadphonesEqualIsolation: Kamila.
* HealingFactor: [[spoiler:Yomiel and later Sissel wind up with this, due to being frozen between life and death and constantly restored to the moment before they died.]]
* {{Handwave}}: When Sissel asks Ray how ghosts can go back in time and that it doesn't even make any sense, Ray just replies: "We're talking about the powers of the dead, here. It doesn't have to make sense."
** Though, given how conversations between ghosts and the ghost world itself are out of time, it's not that much of a stretch to think they could go back to a previous moment.
* HeroicBlueScreenOfDeath: Lynne has one after you rescue her the first time when she is just sitting in the rain, getting a little cold. [[{{PluckyGirl}} Of course it only takes a small jab to snap her out of it.]]
* ILetYouWin: [[spoiler:Yomiel]] admits that he knew about Sissel's interference but chose not to stop him. For some reason, this doesn't make saving [[spoiler:the superintendent or Cabanela]] from him any easier.
** That was specifically referring to [[spoiler:saving Lynne]]. He later elaborates on the general situation [[spoiler:by explaining that he doesn't have time control powers, meaning that he couldn't keep up with your SaveScumming]].
* {{Immortality}}: [[spoiler:The Manipulator, Yomiel]], is a Type I, due to being a ghost inhabiting his original body, which is kept from aging, dying, or being wounded by [[spoiler:a meteor fragment]] lodged within it. In the ending, the past is changed so that [[spoiler:Sissel]] ends up in this state instead.
* InSpiteOfANail: [[spoiler: In the end, despite everything Sissel and Missile have accomplished, Lynne, Jowd, and Kamila would have all died if not for the TimeyWimeyBall]].
* InstantDeathBullet: Anyone shot in the game dies instantly. Necessary for gameplay reasons, since Sissel's ability to go back to four minutes before their death would be useless if they died an hour later in the hospital or something.
* ItHasBeenAnHonor: Lynne and Sissel share a moment together before he possesses a torpedo about to launch.
* ItsProbablyNothing: Dandy's reactions to Sissel's ghost tricks? "Just my imagination." Sissel [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this.
* JacobMarleyApparel: Justified, as ghosts can't remember who they are or what they look like at first, so they'll tend to pick the shape of the first corpse they see... or, in Lynne's case once, the first detective she sees.
* JerkassGods: While the "guardian of the park" doesn't seem to hate his gods, he's the one who calls them mischievous when [[spoiler:the park's mascot statue miraculously zooms away from crushing Kamila, crushing ''him'' instead]].
* JigsawPuzzlePlot: The entire plot is pretty complex, and there are some wicked twists the first time you play through. But don't worry, the [=NPCs=] will fill you in on everything and connect different loose ends just in case you can't figure it out first.
* JustifiedTutorial: Sissel learns about his "powers of the dead" from another spirit. [[spoiler:One who was secretly manipulating him into saving Lynne and Kamila, in order to avert the events of his own timeline.]]
* KickTheMoralityPet: The real circumstances of [[spoiler:Sissel]]'s death, albeit unintentional; [[spoiler:Yomiel had trouble manipulating Lynne into shooting him, and the first shot missed and killed Sissel in the bag. Yomiel admits that he would have saved Sissel if he had the power to rewind time and avert deaths.]]
* LampshadeHanging: When Sissel possesses his first object, he actually expresses his disbelief that he's essentially that object now.
-->'''Sissel''': "So...what? Now I'm a crossing gate...?"
** A lot of characters start thinking that DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist since Sissel can just go back in time and prevent their deaths.
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Sissel via GhostAmnesia, of course.
** It's so bad he even forgot basic concepts, such as science, what a kidnapping is, and reading. [[spoiler:In the end, it turns out that he didn't remember his life because he was living as someone else the entire time. When he finally did realize who he was, he remembered everything, revealing that he didn't remember so many basic concepts because he was a cat.]]
* LivingForeverIsAwesome: This is [[spoiler:Sissel's take on his fate at the end of the game; he gets to watch life happen all around him. It seems he adapts better to this life than Yomiel did. Though unlike Yomiel, Sissel does have plenty of people around to watch and interact with and seems to be content to do so.]]
* LockedRoomMystery: Subverted. Immediately after one appears (and declared as such by an excited character) you go back in time and see exactly how it happened. [[RubeGoldbergDevice Turns out to be a domino effect that the victim triggered.]]
* LoyalAnimalCompanion: Missile, [[spoiler:Sissel,]] and the blue pigeon. [[UndyingLoyalty Literally undyingly loyal, at that.]]
* LoopholeAbuse: Sissel is informed [[MagicAIsMagicA very clearly]] that you can only revive someone who's been dead for less than one day. [[spoiler:They're able to revive Yomiel, who died ten years ago, because technically his body is frozen at the exact second before his death by the Temsik shard, until Commander Sith removes it.]]
* LuxuryPrisonSuite: The Special Prison houses people who committed crimes under mysterious circumstances; so mysterious, in fact, that it's believed they may have done it under MindControl or some other influence, so as a concession, they're granted a lot of liberties, like having their own rock band equipment or personal art studio.
* MagicMeteor: [[spoiler:It grants Ghost Tricks to people who die next to it.]]
* MeaningfulName: Nearly everyone.
** A prison guard named "[[http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bailey Bailey]]".
** Lynne's name is spelled in katakana as ''Rinne'', a word that can refer to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsara the Buddhist cycle of death and rebirth]]--fairly appropriate for a girl who keeps dying and coming back to life.
** Temsik is a SdrawkcabName of "''kismet''", the Turkish and Urdu word for "fate". Fitting for a game all about fate reversal.
** Yomiel comes from the Japanese word "''yomigaeru''", which means "to be revived." [[spoiler:Fitting for a character whose body is constantly being revived by AppliedPhlebotinum.]]
** Jeego's name comes from 'jigoku', and Tengo's name from 'tengoku', Japanese words meaning 'hell' and 'heaven', respectively.
** "Sissel" is a variation of the name "Cecil", which means "without sight". Now take a look at [[OpaqueLenses those shades...]] [[spoiler:Also, his desire to be "looked at" and noticed in his backstory, where effectively everyone is "without sight" regarding him.]] On top of ''that'', [[spoiler:"Sissel" is is similar to "Sisal", which is a type of rope commonly used in cat scratchers]]. "''Shiseru''" also means "can die" in Japanese. It's also [[spoiler:a gender neutral version of "Cecil"... or "Cecille", as Sissel is also the name of Yomiel's fiancee]].
** Jowd's name derives from Jōdo (Pure Land), a division of Buddhism.
** Kamila is Missile's BerserkButton. Also, Kamila's Japanese name is "Kanon". Now think, [[ThemeNaming "Missile and Cannon"]]. Hmm...
** Alma is Kamila's mother. In a StealthPun, this makes Alma "mater".
** Mino, the park's mascot, is a bagworm ("''minomushi''").
** As mentioned above, Kamila's Japanese name is Kanon. ''Kannon'' is the Japanese form of "Guanyin", ''[[{{UsefulNotes/Buddhism}} bodhisattva]]'' of mercy, who according to some legends wished to help all beings escape the Wheel of reincarnation. There might be a connection.
** Sith's name in Japanese is Shisu, which means "die".
** Detective Rindge's name derives from the term ''rinjū'', meaning "deathbed".
* MexicanStandoff: [[spoiler:Yomiel]] vs. Jowd, 10 years in the past.
* MoralityPet: Quite literally [[spoiler:Sissel for Yomiel]], although it doesn't do much good until the end of the game when [[spoiler:Yomiel]] does his HeelFaceTurn, [[spoiler:Sissel]] most likely being a major reason for this.
* MorphicResonance: [[spoiler:Yomiel]] constructs a mishmash body out of scrap metal. The 'head', however, is still pointy and wearing sunglasses.
** [[spoiler:After turning back into a cat, Sissel's feline eyes somewhat resemble Yomiel's glasses.]]
* MyGreatestFailure: [[spoiler:Yomiel]]'s death is this for both Jowd, who was about to shoot him, and Cabanela, who gave him the desire and means to flee questioning. Also Sissel [[spoiler:not helping Missile]] in the original timeline.
* MythologyGag: The game [[WordOfGod supposedly]] takes place in the ''AceAttorney'' universe, and seems to contain several references to that series.
** Kamila's dog is named Missile. This is the same name as the police dog in case 1-4. ([[TributeToFido Both are references to Shu Takumi's own Pomeranian, also named Missile.]])
** When seen from a distance, the bespectacled 'green detective' vaguely resembles Winston Payne, and the black-haired 'blue detective' resembles Phoenix Wright. Fittingly, they don't get along.
** In the sequence where Lynne flashes back to Cabanela and Jowd's friendly competition, Jowd makes his point by striking an '''"OBJECTION!"''' pose.
*** He isn't the only character to pull one of [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om2Qu8acZ68#t=4m20s these]]...
** Jowd's green trenchcoat and red tie are reminiscent of Detective Gumshoe. His pink painting smock also resembles Larry's "artist" attire from the third ''AceAttorney'' game. And while the prison uniform he wears has the standard stripes, the colors match the one worn by [[FinalFight Cody]] in his ''StreetFighter'' appearances.
** Who's betting that [[GrandeDame Elegant Lady's]] glass and bottle contain [[FrothyMugsOfWater grape juice]]?
*** In the same vein, there's the hat that ''doesn't'' [[spoiler: kill Cabanela]] in chapter 15. It could be coincidence, but all it needs is some pink lettering and a pin to fit in in ApolloJustice.
** Compare the "Four Minutes Before Death" [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3C-FrmHn44&feature=related music]] with the "Logic ~ The Way To The Truth" [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-a60ITJ2Ko track]] from ''Ace Attorney: Investigations''.
*** There are several other themes in the game which are strongly reminiscent of AceAttorney tracks as well. For example: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kwKogno3dk "TRAUMA"]] and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMxGHvoK9XI Search ~ Core 2001]] from the first game; [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLAvtRewiN4 "CHASE"]] and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wnp3d_jyGHk "The Fire Carves Scars"]] from ''Justice For All''.
** The [[spoiler:heart-attack scene at the Justice Minister's office]] is much like ''AceAttorney'' criminal breakdown scenes, down to the sound effect.
** The Chicken Kitchen uniforms resemble the uniforms Maya and Mia wear in 3-2.
** In the backstory: [[spoiler:A man is innocent of a crime, but returns to find that his fiancée has killed herself, so he names a pet after her and disappears, returning years later to try and take revenge on those responsible for ruining his life.]] Sound familiar? The same thing happens in 1-4.
** Never mind the fact that the entire plot resembles one giant [[WhenItAllBegan DL-6 Incident]]...
** A [[RunningGag stepladder]] appears in Chapter 15.
** The Justice Minister's ghost spits out the word "contradiction" when applying it in the given context is a stretch at best, and claims to be a "seeker of truth". Basically he's mirroring the behavior of several AceAttorney characters.
** The helmet hanging on the bookshelf in the Super's office belongs to a [[MegaMan mettaur]], this being a {{Capcom}} game.
* NeverSayDie / NobodyCanDie: [[AvertedTrope Averted]], obviously. However, when Sissel [[spoiler:crushes each of the blue-skinned assassins under massive objects]], he uses euphemisms rather than acknowledge their deaths. There may be room for doubt with the second one, but the first one is cartoonishly flattened; there's no way he could have survived. So he's either [[NeverSayDie sidestepping a delicate issue]], or else our hero truly [[NobodyCanDie doesn't kill them]], despite "Mino" killing the "Guardian of the Park" in much the same way later on.
* NewAgeRetroHippie: The guardian of the park.
* NewWorldTease: You gain access to many areas before there's much to do there. Notably, the second location the plot makes you visit is the villain's headquarters.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: [[spoiler: By removing the Temsik fragment from Yomiel's body and making it a regular corpse—and able to have its fate rewound—Commander Sith undoes his own victory]].
** Verges into GenreSavvy territory. [[spoiler:Commander Sith regardless foresaw the "slight possibility", and did everything he could think of to keep Yomiel's body as far from a ghost as possible.]]
* NonHumanSidekick: Sissel may view Missile as this [[spoiler:until Sissel finds out that he is a [[NotSoDifferent cat]].]]
** So actually [[spoiler: Sissel was this to Lynne.]]
* NotSoHarmless: [[spoiler:Commander Sith is short, unimposing and has goofy eyebrows, but he manages to betray Yomiel in the end and almost sends the cast to their deaths at the bottom of the sea.]]
* OhMyGods: Cabanela's "Ye gods!" Others can be heard saying "Gods in heaven!" or variants of it.
* OnlyOneName: Nobody is given two names, leaving it unclear in many cases whether people are being referred to by their first name or last name.
* OppositesThemeNaming: The two blue-skinned assassins are named Jeego and Tengo. Jeego's name comes from 'jigoku', and Tengo's name from 'tengoku', Japanese words meaning 'hell' and 'heaven', respectively.
* OurGhostsAreDifferent
* PaintingTheFourthWall: Those talking directly (usually Lynne) to Sissel may look toward the player in order to speak to him. [[spoiler:This is used to full effect in the case of those who know about the Powers of the Dead that you haven't reached out to.]]
* ParasolParachute: Subverted. A couple times in the junkyard, you possess an umbrella and open it to drift down to a lower level—but as a ghost, of course, you're weightless and it really doesn't matter. Of course, both times the umbrella lands exactly where you need it to.
* ParrotExposition: Especially in the early parts of the game when the controls are still being explained, but Sissel does it to some degree throughout the rest of it as well.
* PercussiveMaintenance: Sith's masked henchman and his console.
* PhraseCatcher: Memry. Odd girl.
** I agree.
*** Me too.
** You never know who might be listening.
*** Like me.
** Regarding the blue peoples' country, their use of technology is just plain "off"!
*** We get that a lot.
* PlayingThePlayer: See Sissel up above? The guy in the red suit with the blonde hair? See how he's all over the game's advertising, he's the player character's image in-game, the first thing the player sees in-game, and even the picture of the PlayerCharacter in the manual? [[spoiler:That's not him. ''That's the Big Bad''. But you do play as someone resembling him for almost all of the game]].
* PlotArmor: With the twist that you're the one ''providing'' it.
* PluckyGirl: Lynne takes this trope to unseen levels. [[spoiler: Laughing off five deaths (all of which she remembers) in one night and all...]]
* PragmaticAdaptation: A minor case, involving the title of the game and what it means in the gameplay. The term ''trick'' is used to refer to different aspects of Sissel's power in English and Japanese. In Japanese, ''toritsuku''—literally, "cling to" and written almost the same as "trick"—is used for his ability to stop time and possess static objects' cores. Obviously, since this play on words doesn't work in English, the translators renamed the latter ability to "ghost" in English, and "trick" has been repurposed for the power to manipulate those objects, simply ''ayatsuru'' (manipulate, control) in Japanese.
* PsychoForHire: The hitmen. [[spoiler: They have no problem with killing unarmed women, little girls and puppies.]]
* QuestForIdentity: Sissel's primary motivation. [[spoiler:So much that, were it not for Ray guiding him toward the identity of the man in red, he would not have attempted to save Lynne and the others.]]
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Sissel comments on this after being partnered with the ghosts of [[spoiler:Cabanela, Pigeon Man]], ''and'' [[spoiler:Missile]].
-->"What a dangerous bunch..."
* RainbowSpeak: Important words are highlighted in red, while Sissel's thoughts are in blue.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig Zagged]] to hell and back with [[spoiler:Yomiel]]. When he, Sissel, Missile, and Jowd travel back in time to the Temsik incident ([[spoiler:Yomiel]] holding Lynne hostage and at a standoff with Detective Jowd) to alter his fate. [[spoiler:Yomiel]] decides he prefers TakingTheBullet to [[WhoWantsToLiveForever "living" like he did before]]. Missile, however, refuses to let Jowd become a murderer, and [[spoiler:swaps the bullet with Lynne's sweet potato]]. All right, a subversion. But then [[spoiler:the sweet potato knocks Yomiel into a sharp part of the fountain]], which stabs him in the back. Okay, double-subversion. But ''he survives''! No, wait a second, the Mino statue is about to fall on Lynne! [[spoiler:Yomiel possesses his own body]] to [[HeroicSacrifice grab Lynne and toss her into Jowd's arms]]. The statue falls on him instead, crushing his lower back. [[MadeOfIron He survives, and completely recovers]].
* RedOniBlueOni: [[spoiler:Cabanela]] and [[spoiler:Jowd]], respectively.
** Also, Lynne or Missile and Sissel.
* {{Revenge}}: [[spoiler:Yomiel]]'s stated goal.
* {{Retirony}}: Averted. Memry, the waitress at the Chicken Kitchen, mentions that it's her last day working there. She is ''almost'' killed by a speeding truck crashing into the restaurant, but is saved at the last minute by Lynne pushing her out of the way.
* RetroUniverse: Although most technology seems to be modern (wireless headphones and plasma [=TVs=]) and a young woman is allowed on the detective force (suggesting modern social mores), everyone uses rotary telephones that still use the old station-extension phone number style. ''[[SchizoTech Wireless]]'' rotary phones, in some cases.
** Which makes for some major SchizoTech with the blue people, who have robotic arms, pimped-out information consoles, and [[spoiler: remote-controlled robot manservants]]. Maybe this is an alternate universe where cell phones were never invented.
*** Note that ''Ghost Trick'' shares a universe with ''Ace Attorney'',[[hottip:*:But not necessarily the same ''country''.]] which has cell phones aplenty.
** Inspector Cabanela is a regular DiscoDan.
** The Chicken Kitchen is an glitzy (?) 50's nostalgia place, complete with jukebox and [[ServiceSectorStereotypes roller-skating waitresses]].
* RightForTheWrongReasons: The protagonist first figures out his name is Sissel when the foreigners refer to him as such while looking at an image of him. [[spoiler:Despite the fact that Sissel was just a pseudonym Yomiel used when dealing with the foreigners, and the protagonist turns out to not be the man at all, Sissel really is the protagonist's name.]]
* RippleEffectProofMemory: Every ghost, as well anyone whose death has been directly averted by ghosts, remembers everything. They even remain connected to the World of the Dead enough to communicate with said ghosts.
** This brings up something mentioned at the ending: It's clearly stated that, because their ghosts went back to 10 years ago, only Sissel, Yomiel, Jowd, and Missile will remember all the details of what happened in the game in the new present. This is proven when Jowd knows what to name [[spoiler:the kitten he adopts, and Yomiel expresses his thanks to his cat for changing his fate]]. However, it appears that everybody else who was brought back through a Ghost Trick previously doesn't remember what has happened, as shown when Lynne is shown to no longer possess the core she received after being saved for the second time.
** This is also what inspires the final puzzle: The gang could have rewound time if Lynne had been crushed by the statue to try and find some other way of stopping things, but that would leave a little girl with the memory of being [[spoiler:''crushed to death'']] for the rest of her life, and Sissel absolutely refuses to let that happen.
*** Basically, you only get ripple-effect proofed if you were part of the Trick that caused the ripple.
* RoboticReveal: [[spoiler:The Masked Muscleman.]]
* RubeGoldbergDevice: The game may as well be called ''[[IncrediblyLamePun Rube Ghostberg Contraption: The Game]]'', though a literal example is seen as well. [[spoiler:And central to the plot itself, as you later find out.]]
* RubeGoldbergHatesYourGuts: [[spoiler:How Yomiel offed Detective Jowd's wife, Alma.]]
** [[spoiler:A replica of it is also responsible for Lynne's [[TheyKilledKenny third]] death]].
* RunningGag: [[spoiler:Lynne dying. Even in the altered "final" timeline, she comes very close to it.]]
* RuleOfCool: Every character has needlessly stylish movements and mannerisms.
* SaveTheVillain: After his HeelFaceTurn, anyway. The villain in question even helps save himself.
* SchmuckBait: In Chapter 15, you have to swap a bullet already in motion with something of the same shape that wouldn't be lethal. If you don't do any other tricks before that point, there's [[spoiler:a hard hat]] on the wall nearby that you can use. Ask yourself this: How would this object impact someone's ''face'' if it were traveling at bullet velocity? [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoH2kN-8B0c#t=25s Ask Cabanela]] -- it ain't pretty. ('''contains spoilers''').
-->'''Pigeon-Headed Man''': [[{{Understatement}} That didn't go well.]]
* SchroedingersCat: We find that [[spoiler:Sissel ends up as a ''literal'' one]] in the epilogue. Kamila says that after all these years, he hasn't aged a day, and a Ghost World perspective shows that he still has ghost powers, due to [[spoiler:getting struck by the Temsik fragment as a kitten]].
* ScrewDestiny: Sissel can go back four minutes in time to stop someone from being murdered. This is called "Avert Fate" in-game. Naturally, it's the whole point of the game.
* SdrawkcabName: Temsik Park [[spoiler:(and, by extension, the Temsik meteor)]] - "Temsik" is "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kismet kismet]]" backwards, an Urdu word meaning "fate".
* SequelHook: It's a foundation for a sequel, anyway. [[spoiler:The ending reveals that in the new timeline, Sissel is a ghost inhabiting his own now-immortal body, as Yomiel was in the original timeline...so he still has his ghost powers in case he needs them in a sequel.]]
** Good luck making a sequel that doesn't result in a massive LateArrivalSpoiler for this game...
* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: The purpose of most chapters, when you attempt to avert fates. [[spoiler:The Final Chapter is an attempt to do this 10 years in the past, creating an AlternateTimeline.]]
* ShootTheDog: Both literal and figurative. First, [[spoiler:Missile the Pomeranian gets shot as a result of trying to protect his mistress(es)]]. Next is [[spoiler:the fact that Sissel uses a crane to crush not one, but ''two'' would-be assassins. While these "deaths" are somewhat humorous, it seems Sissel never goes out of his way to save the blue-skinned foreigners]].
* ShootingSuperman: Poor Cabanela learns this the hard way after capping [[spoiler:Yomiel]] in the head.
** Though as it turns out, [[spoiler: Cabanela knew damn well that it wouldn't kill him; The bullet had a ''tracker'' placed in it!]]
* ShoutOut:
** Cabanela does a variety of MichaelJackson moves.
** We've also got a Commander [[StarWars Sith]].
** Sissel obviously [[http://img684.imageshack.us/i/sayyes.jpg/ never watched]] {{Ghostbusters}}.
** Quite a few to ''PhoenixWrightAceAttorney''. The words "Hold it!" and "contradiction" are thrown about heavily, as well as Lynne asking Kamila, a little sister figure, to get a music box that no longer works which contains important evidence for a cast, mirroring Mia asking Maya to go get the Thinker for her. Also, (Spoilers for ''Ghost Trick'' and the last case of ''PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' (The DS, American one, not the original one for the GBA))[[spoiler: Jowd going to prison to protect Kamila mirrors Lana pleading guilty to protect Ema in "Rise From the Ashes".]]
*** There's also the fact that Sissel repetitively says that he has to find something to "turn around" the situation, much similarly to the whole theme of the ''AceAttorney'' games.
** [[spoiler: The Minister]] says something similar to Dracula's speech in CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight.
** Ray has to be a reference to [[{{Pixar}} Pixar's]] very first short film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdtHSyfcSDs
** Bailey's dance [[FullmetalAlchemist HAS BEEN PASSED DOWN IN HIS FAMILY FOR GENERATIONS]]!!
* SillyWalk: Just about [[RuleOfCool everyone]]. Cabanela is the prime example, but even the guards get in on this with their absurdly formal marches.
* TheSlowPath: [[spoiler:Missile]] was forced to take this after going back to ten years ago and then realizing that he couldn't do anything to avert [[spoiler:Yomiel]]'s death or any of the things resulting from it in the first timeline. Not especially long by the standards of the trope...but it's [[spoiler:the better part of a lifetime to a dog.]]
-->[[spoiler:'''Sissel:''' So you waited and waited, these ten long years; all for the sake of your two ladies, Lynne and Kamila, eh?]]
-->[[spoiler:'''Missile:''' Of course! Because that's what doggies do!]]
* SneezeCut: In the demo, but you'd have to play through the full game to understand why.
* SoundtrackDissonance: It is a little jarring to see, in the ending montage, peppy music play as [[spoiler:the foreign couple gets blown to Kingdom Come, even if they were villains]].
** [[spoiler: They only had themselves to blame for that, though.]]
* SplitScreenPhoneCall
* StartOfDarkness: [[spoiler:Yomiel was accused of espionage, of which he was innocent, but a young Inspector Cabanela pressured him into escaping with the handgun he accidentally left behind. Jowd chased him down into Temsik Park, where he took Lynne hostage and was suddenly struck in the back by a fragment of the Temsik meteor. Then he remembers his identity and tries to meet his wife Sissel, who had unfortunately committed suicide just before Yomiel could get to her, and he lacked the power to rewind time and save her life. This made him GoMadFromTheIsolation and make him want to take revenge on everyone involved in the Temsik Park incident, save for a certain black cat...]]
* StealthBasedMission: Several towards the end, to avoid gaining [[spoiler:Yomiel's]] attention with your ghost tricks. [[spoiler:Subverted, since despite what happens if you fail, he actually knew you were there all along, but didn't really want to stop you.]]
** Chapter 9 has you trying to escape from a pitch-black prison with guards who wear night vision goggles. Even though ghosts can see through darkness in the "ghost world", it's harder than it sounds since [[spoiler:you have to help a condemned criminal escape without making him enter the guards' field of vision]].
* TapOnTheHead: The driver of the [[VanInBlack surveillance van]] is knocked out by a high-pitched whine from his headphones. Unbeknown to him, Beauty has torched his microphone with a cigarette lighter.
* TakeYourTime: The game always shows the precise time, but outside of four-minutes-in-the-past timed puzzles, it will never advance unless you trigger an event that forces it to.
** Averted in Chapter 16, where although the time itself doesn't advance, if you wait too long to give Lynne a path up to the door, [[spoiler:the water ''will'' raise up and drown her, though presumably Sissel revives her, since it lets you try again from an unheralded checkpoint if you got to one]].
* TalkingAnimal: Ghosts of animals can "talk" with people, as Missile demonstrates. [[spoiler:As does Sissel.]]
* TalkingIsAFreeAction: Used whenever Sissel chats up the dead. Justified in that it appears to be some form of telepathy and the ghost world is explicitly stated as being outside of time. Or whenever you decide to talk to the spirit you're trying to save, no matter how pressed for time you are in-game.
* TemptingFate: Early on, Sissel tells himself that it can't be that hard to save Lynne, since how many times can she die in a single night? He later finds out... [[spoiler:Five times, to be exact.]]
** Much later:
-->'''Sissel:''' So now all we have to do is...
-->'''Lynne:''' ...get to that door, and we're safe!
-->[[spoiler:''(submarine turns sideways)'']]
* TheChessMaster: [[spoiler:"Ray"]]
* TimedMission: Each time you go back into the past, you only have four (in-game) minutes to save the victim's life. Additionally, if Sissel ever wants to know the full truth, he has to do it before dawn, when he'll truly [[RetGone cease to exist]].
** [[spoiler: [[BatmanGambit Though that deadline turns out to be a lie told by Ray to make sure Sissel gets to the submarine in time.]] ]]
* TimeyWimeyBall: The Ghost Trick to return four minutes into the past ([[spoiler:for those who have the Tricks or anyone who follows said ghosts]]) to prevent a death. If the spirit is awake to see this occur, they will follow along the path to try to prevent said death. When the death is prevented, the event is erased and replaced with a new present, but the memory remains for those who were along with said Trick. At the end of the game, the Ghost Trick to 10 years ago results in a [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong mild reboot]]: [[spoiler:Sissel the kitten]] is killed by the Temsik fragment, thus taking [[spoiler:Yomiel's place as the ghost possessing his own corpse, and is adopted by Jowd; Yomiel is alive and has recovered in the 10 years he's been imprisoned, thanking Sissel for what he did, and Missile-Prime]] has been [[RetGone erased in the reboot]]. However, all the events in the game still technically happened in that it's how the current present exists. And of everyone who'd died and remembered, it's implied that only Sissel, Jowd, [[spoiler:Yomiel]], and Missile remember the whole story, since they were amongst the final Ghost Trick.
* TitleDrop: Done heavily in the first chapter.
* TheyFightCrime: Lynne and Sissel. Later in the game, [[spoiler:Missile]] joins in on the action.
* TheyKilledKenny: Lynne.
-->'''Sissel''': Lynne wasn't dead when I got there. [[DeadpanSnarker For once.]]
* ThoseTwoGuys: The Green Detective and Blue Detective. They even contrast each other, the blue detective talking big but immediately conforming to authority, while the green detective is a DeadpanSnarker.
* TomatoSurprise: Several. In the end, it turns out that [[spoiler:Sissel was a cat, the "manipulator" was the blonde guy whose body you thought was yours, and Ray was a time-traveling Missile from a timeline where he couldn't save anyone's life with his swap trick]].
* TrackingDevice: [[spoiler:The [[TrickBullet bullet]] Cabanela fired at Yomiel was a tracking device, which was honed in on by a special pocket watch which Cabanela gave to Jowd, who then gave it to Lynne.]]
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Everyone's extremely into giant roast chicken. Extremely into it. [[spoiler:Except for Cabanela, who eats a giant plate of spaghetti in the ending.]] Then there's the curry-loving prisoner.
* TrialAndErrorGameplay: Figuring out which phone calls to go through during the death aversions comes really close to this at times.
** Chapter 10 is more or less this. For starters, the guy whose life you're trying to save receives a call from a kidnapper, knocks his heart attack medicine across the room, and spills a pitcher of water before dying of a heart attack. If your first reaction was to follow the phone call, [[spoiler:you find out they don't have a hostage at the moment, and only have a tape recording of the Justice Minister's Daughter]]. If you jump to the medicine and get flung across the room, you find yourself without enough time to figure out what to do, much less actually perform the exact sequence of actions required to get the medicine back to the guy. The solution?
*** You have to [[spoiler:use the flag to prevent the water jar from dropping, so the minister can take the water]]. That creates a CheckPoint. However, if you do that and [[spoiler:do not possess the ceiling fan while the minister is drinking the water]], you get stuck [[TrialAndErrorGameplay and will need to start all over again]].
* TributeToFido: Missile is named after the creator's Pomeranian.
* TrickedOutTime: At one point, you have to save someone from an explosion while making it look like they were caught in it. And then right after, you have someone shot by a gun without the shooter knowing the difference.
* TricksterMentor: [[spoiler:Ray]] puts [[spoiler: Sissel]] through quite an ordeal. Despite knowing the truth all along, he does not tell [[spoiler: Sissel who he is, he tricks him into thinking he's going to cease to exist in the morning, thus causing a great deal of stress, fools Sissel into thinking he's Yomiel, and then vanishes halfway through the game, making Sissel think that he has ceased to exist.]] However, this causes [[spoiler:Sissel to avert Yomiel's fate]] and learn the value of helping other people besides himself.
* UndyingLoyalty: '''Missile''', quite literally. This is very apparent when [[spoiler:after his second death, where he gained ghost tricks, he decides to stay dead specifically to better help Lynne and Kamila with his new powers]]. If that's not enough, the ending reveals that [[spoiler:Ray is actually Missile from a BadFuture that couldn't save anyone, so he goes back in time and waits ten long years to become the Trickster Mentor for the black cat Sissel.]]
* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: Characters frequently fail to notice things moving in the background, or consider them coincidences. [[spoiler:Which leads to a bit of a shock when Beauty's "sixth sense" means she can figure out what's going on, and when the player tries a Trick in front of the guy manipulating Sissel's body and then the Manipulator immediately figures out what's going on, [[BreakingTheFourthWall addresses the player]], and causes a game over.]]
* VerbalTic: Cabaneeela tends to draw out his vooowels, baby.
** As expected of a Shu Takumi game, many characters have their own verbal tics, while others seemingly transmit from character to character. Odd girl.
*** I agree.
*** Me too.
** '''WELCOME!'''
** "...like me."
** Sith has a very wide range of vocabulary, his favourite being "Confound it!" Far more subtle, Ray tends to say "Now, then" a lot and Sissel says "eh?" quite frequently.
* VideogameCaringPotential: Lynne and Kamila are in the game to invoke this.
* VideogameCrueltyPotential: There are at least two separate instances where you can alter a victim's fate so they die in an even less dignified manner than the original.
** ''[[YetAnotherStupidDeath Helmet in the face]]''.
* WeakButSkilled: The main character is much weaker than a living person and can only move by jumping between objects no more than two or three feet away, but he uses what he ''can'' do to great effect.
* WeirdMoon
* WhamEpisode: Chapter 17 and The Final Chapter.
** Really, ''everything'' that happens after Chapter 14 can fit this trope.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler:The epilogue shows what happens to everyone in the new timeline, even the most minor of characters...except Jeego and Tengo. Some people theorize they died anyway. The fake medical examiner is also unaccounted for.]]
** Not so much a person as a plot device, but what's the deal with [[spoiler: Beauty's sixth sense?]] It tries to be significant, but after [[spoiler: finding out they've kidnapped Kamila]], Sissel never sees the pair again and we never get an explanation for it.
** The culprit in the [[spoiler: hacking/leaking information]] case that [[spoiler: Yomiel was falsely accused of]] was never explicitly revealed.
* WhenItAllBegan: [[spoiler:The incident in Temsik Park ten years ago.]]
* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: The setting is intentionally made ambiguous by including elements from several different cultures.
** The ministries are vaguely Japanese, as are the references to gods (possibly Shinto kami).
** There are European suits of armor in the Justice Minister's office, but the hats the guards wear don't seem to relate to those in any known country.
** All of the characters have names from continental Europe, with the exception of the foreigners. Beauty, Dandy, and Sith are English, English, and Scottish; Jeego and Tengo are Japanese.
** The prison still uses the electric chair, an execution device that has only ever been used by America.
* WhipItGood: The thoroughly evil Beauty carries a bright red riding crop, though we never see her use it.
* WhodunnitToMe
* WhoWantsToLiveForever: [[spoiler:Yomiel]] certainly doesn't, having to deal with crushing loneliness after the death of his fiancée. [[spoiler:Sissel]] [[LivingForeverIsAwesome subverts it]] and doesn't appear to mind that he's immortal in the ending timeline.
* WorldOfHam
* WrongfulAccusationInsurance: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] by [[spoiler:Yomiel]], who was genuinely innocent but got chased and killed when he fled interrogation. Cabanela references the subversion of this trope as his reason for preventing Jowd's escape when he points out that escaping from prison [[AllCrimesAreEqual is still a crime]].
** Even in the "fixed" timeline in the ending, [[spoiler:Yomiel]] is sentenced to 10 years in prison for attempting to escape from custody and taking a hostage.
* XanatosRoulette: [[spoiler: Missile-prime]] planned the plot, but nothing would have worked out if current-timeline [[spoiler:Missile]] hadn't died on the meteorite's exact crash site.
* YouGottaHaveColorfulHair
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Commander Sith strands [[spoiler:Yomiel]] in a sinking submarine after getting the Temsik shard from him. Tellingly, Sith was so afraid of him that it was the only way to be sure.
* YouShouldKnowThisAlready: You start off not knowing your own name. The back of the box says your name is Sissel.
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