Murdered: Soul Suspect Developer on Comparisons to Ghost Trick

Square Enix's new IP, Murdered: Soul Suspect, looks rather intriguing. Its premise also reminds us of Capcom's Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. Had the chief creative officer of developer Airtight played the Nintendo DS puzzler? Nope. But he was glad to find out they were nothing alike.

"I wasn't even aware of Ghost Trick until we were well underway on this project, and then someone says, 'Have you played this?' And I was like, 'What the hell is this? ... It made me nervous when I first found out about that." Matthew Brunner told Videogamer.

"I'd say the high concept there are some similarities, but when it comes down to the look, the feel, the vibe, [and] the actual gameplay, it's very different... [Manipulation] is not a big part of the game. There's a little bit of environment manipulation but it's minimal."

Both Murdered: Soul Suspect and Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective feature protagonists that have been killed and are trapped in limbo, interacting with the world as best as they can to solve the reason why they were murdered. But Brunner states that his game is less puzzle-focused than Capcom's one.

"There are puzzle elements but I wouldn't call it a puzzle game. Honestly, we designed [Murdered] so it felt like an investigation." Murdered: Soul Suspect arrives on current-generation consoles and PCs in 2014.