After giving up on playing Ghost Trick several weeks ago, I decided to skip the frustration of playing it and find out the story through Youtube. I watched chapters 3-17 in quick succession, but it took another 2 weeks before I watched the final chapter and “finished” the game.

Not because it’s bad or anything, but just because Ghost Trick is one of those games where the journey is more interesting than the destination. The process of finding out is fun, but what you actually find out is like, “Hmm. Okay. I see. Thanks for telling me.” Rather than “OMG I can’t believe this is what really happened OMG!!”

Part of it is the character motivations, part of it is the timelines. “You stole my life! So I’m gonna just chill for a couple of years, then I’ll do something bad, then I’ll chill for another couple of years and then I’ll do something bad again.” …Excuse me?

Actually it’s the characters themselves I don’t like. Sissel is cool, I like Sissel. Lynne is boneheaded, pushy and annoying, a terrible combination if there ever was one. And her constant dying got old after the second time. Jowd is…EGAD BAD DAD. I like him, but he’s an idiot. Cabanela? Eh, I don’t see what the fuss is about. The only thing going for him is his dance moves, and Bailey’s got him beat there. Go Bailey! Oh, and Missile. I like Missile, he’s a funny dog. So they were a mixed bunch, all in all. Memorable though. That’s got to count for something.

If I had to pinpoint an exact moment when it all fell apart, I’d say it was chapter 16 and 17 that killed my enthusiasm. First the stupid meteorite zomg alien powers plot twist (BUUUULLLSHIIIIT, BUUUUULLLLSHIIIIITTT) then all that time spent in the stupid submarine fiddling with torpedoes and rising water levels and more torpedoes instead of progressing the story at a critical moment. It was B-O-R-I-N-G. As far as climaxes go, this was more like a speed bump than like Mount Everest. It’s weird that I can accept ghost manipulation powers and time travel but meteorites and submarines just pissed me off, but that’s life for you.

Still, I’m glad I watched it and found out what really happened, even though it wasn’t that exciting. It ended fairly well for everyone, especially? except? Sissel, so I’m happy? not happy? for him. His fate left me with extremely mixed feelings. The whole 10 years ago, Ray, waiting-it-out thing didn’t make a lick of sense to me, but I’m tired of thinking about time travel plotholes, they only make my head hurt.

I’ve got to say this, though: Thank goodness I didn’t keep playing! If I had, by now I would hate this game and all its characters with every fiber of my being. Those puzzles are crazy! How does anyone ever figure them out?! From reading comments and reviews, it sounds like I’m the only one on the planet who had trouble with any of them. Maybe if I kept doing them over and over again I’d figure out the correct answers in the end, but can you imagine the pain and the torture? Besides, the hourglass cheats! I checked the videos against the clock and it isn’t always 4 minutes, sometimes it just jumps to 3 seconds left after barely a minute. No fair! I couldn’t handle that kind of pressure, no way.

So thanks to Zslyzer who uploaded those videos to Youtube for me to watch, pain-free. Now I can move on with happy memories.