This 👇 has been sitting in my drafts for years, probably because it's not the most polished set of comments in the blogosphere? But I thought you guys might enjoy it, while I replay until I get to the point where I remember/understand what I was talking about when I first started writing this 😅
Sorry for the delay!!
Anyway, chapter 14 blew my mind.
The park guardian died hours ago, and I thought, “We’re not going to be able to bring him back without causing a rift in the time-space continuum, right??” But it turns out he doesn’t have much of an effect on the timeline either way, so we’re safe.
Sissel, on the other hand, has had a major effect on events, so bringing him back to life probably wouldn’t be possible :(
Speaking of people that are dead, MISSILE :( :( :’( That absolute ASSHOLE ran over him. Let’s drop the rock on HIM >:(
Missile ended up with ghost SUPERpowers, so between the two of us, we stopped the rock from crushing the park enthusiast ("And now Mino is right where he belongs," in the trash.)
"So you went back in time?" "YOU BET I DID!"
Missile wants to stay dead so he can keep his powers and protect kamila....
oh no, I hope missile is okay
NO HE'S BEING MANIPULATED Dx wait a minute WAIT A MINUTE
The rock of the gods is what gave missile his powers!! wtf???
(except Sissel got ghost powers, and he was nowhere near the rock when he died...)
JOWD IS INNOCENT OF ALL CRIMES
.... but if the criminal died, near that rock, then... he must have come back as a ghost with some kind of powers, right? and maybe he has it in for jowd because.... idk.
ah, that was the reason she never came back to the park. even feeling like a hero saved her didn't make her feel safe there
... i thought the temsik were a people? the assassin said he had to get rid of all the temsiks... was he talking about the rocks? or the ghosts given powers by the rocks?
we need to go ask jowd what the heck he knows about all this
cabanela will never forgive jowd... for what?
"Please don't pick on the minister. If he dies again, I'm the one who has to save him." I am gonna miss Sissel's snark, though??
WHO'S THE PIGEON GUY. WHY DOES HE HAVE A MURDERCHINE
ohhhhh my god wait a minute
his wife's death was HIS punishment? dude. dude, she's the one who died. and now i'm sad that we know nothing about her except the fact that she's dead. fridge.
JOWD NEVER FORGOT THE FACE OF THE CRIMINAL. SISSEL'S FACE. WHAT THE HELL HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE WHAAAAT
OH MY GOD CABANELA'S MAKING DEMANDS ABOUT JOWD'S EXECUTION
maybe he's being manipulated, though?? if they can manipulate people to sing the wrong lyrics, then they can manipulate him to say something he otherwise wouldn't, right?? why am i suddenly so on this dude's side when i was originally so suspicious of him?
WHAT IS SISSEL'S ACTUAL NAME. or what's the name of his twin, or SOMETHING. is this the family that is mysteriously missing from this story?
who
am
i
Random details:
Does the rock (Mino) kinda look like whatever was painted on Jowd's cell wall, or am I imagining that?
Chapter 13: I can’t believe I was right about something
I needed the daughter to call her dad, but when I got the phone to her, Novelist Mom HULKED OUT, so actually making the phone call happen was a bit more complicated. (I feel so bad for the rat omg)
Aww, the justice minister smiled :) And everyone apologized and all is well again.
"Is this what 'family' is all about?" Another reference to family from Sissel... that’s got to be significant. We still don’t know anything about Sissel’s life before tonight, including whether or not he had family involved in all of this.
"You have the power to control and manipulate people, don't you?" !!! So some ghosts can possess objects, and some can possess... people? I was right (holy fuck that never happens) when I predicted that people were being controlled. I just didn’t expect that a ghost was behind their actions.
We haven’t heard from the blue guys in a while, by the way. What if they killed someone because they knew that person could potentially gain the power to control people?
In the flashback, he's holding his own hand back, just like Lynne did! LYNNE’S INNOCENT I KNEW IT. The question remains: who wanted Sissel dead, and why, and did they use Lynne because her presence was convenient?
Sissel called her because he had info on Jowd’s case. So did he know about the manipulator before he died, and was planning to expose them to the police? OH SHIT MAYBE THE MANIPULATOR MADE KAMILA RIG THE CONTRAPTION poor kid :(
I still just don’t understand the motive behind any of these actions. Why have these things happened? What do the perpetrators want?
(...... okay what if the manipulator has the power to bring people back from the dead without having to take the entire story back to the time of Sissel’s death? Cuz I’m a little (a lot) sad that he’s supposed to just disappear in the morning. Oops I got attached)
Cabanela reported the existence of a manipulator, but apparently can’t handle the fact that it’s a ghost, and just dances away from the situation, then Lynne calls and requests my help at the park.
Random details:
"There's something I'd like the two of you to hear," the minister says as he turns his back to the room. Okay, Lana Skye.
Chapter 12: “This all relates back to me somehow, I just know it.” YA THINK?
Sissel thinks the kidnappers made a mistake in getting Kamila instead of the minister's daughter, but I figured they nabbed her on purpose? They already had a recording of his daughter prepared in order to make him comply, so they don’t also need to actually kidnap her. The question is: what would they want with Kamila? Do they know about the music box? (Except they couldn’t have planned for her being in the park that evening, so I’m probably wrong. IDK)
Cabanela brought Jowd to the minister’s office, seemingly only to brag about it. I feel like he’s up to something else, though? Like, I just want to trust that he’s not trying to get Jowd killed, but that he’s hiding a plan behind that poker face or something. Idk why, I have no evidence to support such a feeling, but still.
A GHOST COULD HAVE MADE THE CONTRAPTION. And since Sissel wasn't a ghost then, it couldn't have been him. GOOD
Okay, so I’ve been relying on this mind control theory the whole time, but what if the answer is really ghosts? Just ghosts, ghosting everything. Ghosts shooting guns, ghosts operating flame throwers, ghosts... writing lyrics... okay, the theory’s a work in progress, but yeah. Ghosts. And tricks. The question is, the ghost(s) of whom? And why? And how can we prove it, if ghosts disappear at dawn? (If Lamp was telling the truth about that...)
The name “Temsik” hasn’t been brought up since early chapters. I still have no idea what that’s all about.
Lynne is off to get the music box/gun case from the park, and I need to go convince the minister's wife to call and confirm that his daughter is safe.
Last chapter was all “Here are some things that happened” and chapter 11 is like “AND HERE ARE ALL MY FEELINGS ABOUT WHAT’S HAPPENING DX”
It turns out the blue people DO have a hostage, but it's not the minister's daughter, it's KAMILA
Some of my theorizing paid off: third guess was the charm, and Kamila is indeed Jowd’s daughter. Why am I not happy about this
We now know how Jowd can be innocent of her mother's murder: because Kamila was the one who set up a deadly surprise for her
EXCEPT she definitely didn't intend to set up a murder machine, so how did it become one? And WHY? Why would someone murder her mom?
It’s exactly like the one in the junkyard basement. What’s up with that?? Who was Pigeon Man expecting to walk through that door?
Another question that remains: how much does Lynne know about all this?
"It was the other party in our deal who chose this location." ??? SISSEL, EXPLAIN
So did he get them to kidnap her? Did he ask them to pressure the justice minister into executing Jowd? DID HE CONTACT LYNNE SO HE COULD KILL HER, AND COVER UP HIS CRIMES? IS HE A VILLAIN??? oh god what is happening
... what if...... what if he was the one who set up Kamila’s contraption to kill? I have no evidence to support this theory, just a lot of concerns :///
We still don’t know the content of the deal they were trying to make, and this whole time I’ve assumed he was trying to like, stop the bad guys? But now I’m thinking that might have been a naive assumption
(If he IS a villain, how is he going to feel when he finds out about that? :O)
Kamila somehow acquired a core between the apartment and here.
WHAT HAPPENED. How did she die, who brought her back to life, what is going on
We know there’s at least one other ghost out there, possibly still doing ghost things - it’s Lamp. Which raises the question: why did they bring Sissel back?
Sissel wonders, “Do the kidnappers know about the powers of the dead?” Is Lamp in league with them?
Random details:
"The dirty tricks those without the powers of the dead come up with..." Sissel, you've only been dead for five hours
Sissel kept adorably forgetting that there's no such thing as an internal monologue in ghost land. <I can't tell her why she was kidnapped...> "Why was I kidnapped? I want to know!!" <Oops>
Kamila left the music box in Temsik park, where "scary things happen", according to Lynne. (WHAT ELSE HAPPENED THERE??) At least it didn't fall into the hands of the kidnappers? That seems important
Chapter 10: Local Ghost Encounters Man Dying Of Stress, Asks If He’s Tried Yoga
Sissel explains what happened at the prison, but doesn’t tell Lynne about Jowd’s other murder. I have a feeling that lie by omission is going to backfire :( How is she going to feel when she finds out? Not great, is my guess.
Lynne explains that there wasn’t any evidence presented in the case of his wife’s murder, just his confession. (As a fan of Ace Attorney, I am APPALLED that Jowd was convicted under those conditions.) She thinks she can find new evidence to prove his innocence tonight.
We go back in time to find out the reason behind the justice minister’s unusual decision to sign the execution order: the blue people are extorting him. (So I was wrong about mind control in THIS case...)
The blue woman with the very impressive hair claims she kidnapped his daughter, and since his wife won’t answer the phone, he can’t confirm that fact. Well, if you travel through the phone to where she is, you can’t save the minister, but you DO find out she’s lying. Also, she wonders how the news about the deal leaked (by a ghost, so good luck with that, lady) and mentions she’s waiting for “the goods.”
Maybe someday I will be able to say I completed a chapter without consulting the walkthrough, but today is not that day. This puzzle was so tricky (heh, get it?) but I finally got the medicine to the minister, at which point he... just chugged the entire bottle. Dude. That’s the opposite of helpful. Why doesn’t my phone book have the number for the hospital
The justice minister said Jowd escaped, so either Cabanela hasn’t reported that he caught him again, OR he let him go. Hmm...
The dialogue in this game is so great:
“Come on, Lynne. If you keep pressing him like that, he's going to die again.”
“Please stop speaking ill of me in my own head!” me @ my intrusive thoughts
elpsycongruent replied to your post “I’m glad chapter eight was so short, because I should really be...”
the panic dance! possibly my favorite little detail in the game. remind me to show you the video of shu takumi doing it. (also, personal headcanon time: bailey's last name is armstrong, and you cannot convince me otherwise.)
Ooh, yes, I’d love to see the panic dance in live action!
Am I correct in guessing that that is a Fullmetal Alchemist reference?
(image: Bailey, the guard from Ghost Trick, doing the panic dance. He is BUFF and has a hair curl coming out of his hat.)
“The Panic Dance has been passed down through this family for GENERATIONS!” *rips shirt off*
Chapter nine was another short chapter, so I finished it this morning:
I snuck through the dark to help Jowd escape, but it didn’t do much good - Cabanela caught up to him outside.
(btw Bailey is STILL DANCING poor guy)
"There's a certain ‘something’ between these two..." Is it a gay something? "Whatever it is, it's immeasurably deep."
Cabanela’s trying to rise through the ranks and doesn’t want any stains on his record, so he’s not going to let Jowd off the hook, even though they’re friends, and he’s probably not going to end the search for Lynne, even though he’s her mentor. Lynne suggested that this attitude began after Jowd’s incident - does Cabanela feel responsible for what happened? Is he investigating the blue people so hard because he sees a connection there??
“If it was me, I'd go with a black coat that didn't show the stains” says the guy in a suit that’s just the right color to hide a bloodstain. Plz stop being so suspicious Sissel
I was looking forward to getting some answers to the mystery that is Sissel, but Jowd said he doesn't know Sissel’s true face? wtf does that even mean??
(Ghosts can look however they want in ghost land... but we saw his body! That's what Sissel looks like, and that’s what Jowd painted! I DON’T UNDERSTAND)
The music box is for Sissel? wtf WTF IS GOING ON
When asked the truth about his murder case, Jowd suggests he’s innocent of his wife’s murder, but reveals that he’s guilty of another: the day he saved Lynne, he killed the guy who kidnapped her. The moment that inspired Lynne to label him her hero is the moment he acquired a lifetime of shame.
Cabanela gave Jowd a pocket watch. I have no idea what that’s all about.
"Don't trust other peoples' memories. Use your own eyes." This raises the question of how much of anything I’ve learned in the past nine chapters is true. GREAT
Sounds like Lynne’s in trouble at the justice minister’s office (”Everything’s fine over here!!!”) so since there’s nothing more I can do for Jowd right now, I’ll go make sure she doesn’t need help coming back from the dead or something.
I’m glad chapter eight was so short, because I should really be sleeping instead of playing video games right now.
Bailey is doing the panic dance because the power is out in the basement.
"I feel like a ghost is going to show up any minute."
"Memories are like trash." I talked to Jowd in ghost land, and found out he doesn’t remember much. Convenient. (*kicks Jowd* Tell me what you know about Sissel!!)
There was a lot of questioning this situation: is executing him the right thing to do? Is saving him the right thing to do? No one’s sure, and Jowd himself is not very helpful in this regard. Hopefully he’ll get some memories back.
It's been a long time since they've had an execution, and the guard mentioned that it was strange that the justice minister signed the order. So SOMETHING is going on, a BUNCH of people are making unusual decisions, and my money is still on mind control, for the record. The question is - why? What is the motive behind all these seemingly unconnected events?
"So this is an execution, huh? Seems to me there's gotta be a safer way to do it." I was wondering why they did it early, but what actually happened is the machine exploded when they tested it. So the best way to save Jowd (at least for now) was to explode the machine BEFORE he got to the room.
Now it’s time to feel around in the dark and find my prisoner and make an escape... tomorrow.
Chapter Seven: In Which Sissel Begins to Suspect Fowl Play
"The person who shot me tonight... is the last person in the world I want to believe did it." Did I mention I am sad?
Lynne was crushed when Sissel told her what he saw on the video. But neither of them know exactly what happened, so it could still be not what it seems. (And the fact that Lynne doesn’t remember shooting Sissel COULD support my mind control theory...)
“I won't say thank you yet, and I won't say sorry, either. But I'll help see to it that you get your answers.” <3 <3 <3
The fourth of Lynne’s deaths is the second that happened by accident. I had to save the truck driver in order to save Lynne. Reviviception.
Let’s address a theory from last chapter: Jowd and Lynne
He is her hero, not her father. I’m glad that idea was debunked before I got attached to it
10 years ago, he saved her life, and inspired her to become a detective
She swore she'd never set foot in the park again - why? Did something else bad happen there?
NEW THEORY: What if the family member was Sissel?
Remember that time he was like, “I wonder if I had a family?” YEAH
He could be the wife’s brother or something idk
It could explain how Jowd knows his face, and wants to remember it
And it makes Sissel a witness in the case, which explains why he has information for Lynne about it
Although if that’s true, why didn’t he come forward before?
(alternative theory: the family member is Kamila. We still don’t know much about her, or her connection to Lynne)
Jowd’s fate:
I was (mostly) right about the meaning behind his lack of schedule: HE’S BEING EXECUTED (and he wants this, which is why he’s not involved in the escape plan :( Does he feel guilty?)
No one told Lynne that it was happening until the last second :(
Is this “it” that the police were talking about, or is there more going on?
So now Lynne is rushing off to talk to the justice minister (just a guess - is that Sad Dad?) while I go to the prison and figure out some way to save him. In the meantime, Kamila is still on her way with the music box, which was a gift from Jowd at the time of his incident. (“Someday when it's all over, give it to a certain person.” Who??)
(I feel like there’s so much more I haven’t mentioned. Um... we found out what the note said, we saw what the agent in Temsik Park was up to. We now know what the Special Investigation Unit’s big assignment is, but they don’t seem to know that the dead guy in the junkyard is the person they’re waiting for at the restaurant? Cabanela’s been investigating the blue people for a while. Ever since Jowd’s incident, maybe? What exactly is the connection here, though?? Whatever it is, it seems to have national implications. Spooky)
More random details:
"I get the feeling that, back when I was alive, I never had much of a schedule to worry about, myself." What exactly did you do for a living Sissel
“What did Lynne do this time?”
Cabanela helped her cheat on her exams :/
Was Sissel going to trade the cat for whatever was in the trunk?