Overview

Ghost Trick marked a departure for Shu Takumi's studio, most commonly known for their series of portable attorney titles. Gone were the courtroom and the beloved franchise characters, instead replaced by a new locale, art direction, and gameplay mechanic. With this change returned a familiar composer, Masakazu Sugimori, who had in the past been responsible for the first title in the Ace Attorney franchise. How does the composer fare with regards to this newest work?

Body

The main theme of the game, appropriately titled "GHOST TRICK," is heard, appropriately, early in the album. It serves as a good introduction thanks to its exceptionally catchy and unique theme mixed with a very decent drum line. The instrumentation and tone used in the title track fit the game's detective theme like a glove, so it's only natural that this sound would be featured in a major way throughout the soundtrack, to varying, but never quite as enjoyable, success.

A few other notable tracks which utilize this darker, atmospheric tone. These include "Trauma," a rather dramatic and enjoyable piece with some interesting synth sounding not unlike a scratching record, "Joad - A Captive of Fate," a relatively lengthy and well developed piece, and "Chained Past," an initially unremarkable piece that evolves an enjoyable piano motif. There's also "The Last Desperate Struggle," a piece that's unfortunately short given its well handled description of the game's ultimate scenes.

Considering so many tracks follow the same sort of dark, dreary model of composition, the few that don't really stand out. "Lynne - A Targeted Redhead" is a jazzy little upbeat number that does a good job of portraying the game's heroine, and "Missile - A Courageous Little Animal" follows suit likewise, describing the game's perky dog in a slightly sillier tone than the preceding. "Chicken Paradise" is certainly the silliest sounding track featured, however, with a goofy bass line and similarly odd synth.

There are a range of other tracks that are effective in the game. "Welcome to the Salon" is a classically inspired piece that sounds quite pleasing, deftly avoiding sounding corny despite its lack of any sort of minor tone. "Providence" is a slower track: simplistic, yet quite pleasing with its simple orchestration consisting of mostly piano and strings. The melody sounds off in places, creating a rather soothing allure. "Informing About the Parting" is more typical for a sad theme, but the quite remarkable orchestration between the piano and flute keeps the listener riveted.

"Reincarnation" is a rather perky ending theme, with undertones of sadness sprinkled throughout. It works quite well to lead into the album's conclusion, "Epilogue ~The End of the 'Night,'" a lengthy credits theme that incorporates the game's main theme at its start, but quickly branches off into pleasant new melodic territory. It quite well as a conclusion to the soundtrack, bequeathing an air of finality with its upbeat, somewhat sad tune.

Summary

This soundtrack is more functional than not. The themes were made to accompany the detective nature of the title's gameplay, and Sugimori does an exemplary job with the sound he creates. Regardless, this leads to an annoyingly small amount of variation, which, coupled with the relatively short track lengths, ultimately makes this an unfortunately sparse listening experience. It's certainly not a bad soundtrack by any means, but the listener would likely get more out of this soundtrack from the nostalgia of hearing the tracks in the context of the game like I did, and not from the inherent quality of the pieces therein.