Ghost Party
Platform: Windows
Have you heard? There's a fancy evening dinner party at a stately mansion, and you're invited! But you know, these things would be a lot more fun if we could throw one that didn't involve the wealthier guests falling over dead partway through. Get ready to party the night away with cute talking bats, chic clairvoyant goth girls and giant malfunctioning robots in Tuan & Marshall's premiere afterlife adventure mystery, Ghost Party!
Since you're a ghost already, you have less to be personally concerned about when it comes to guests suddenly collapsing unexpectedly into their soup. Instead, you'll be wafting through the mansion with the [arrow] keys gathering clues as to whodunnit. (No, not this one. We've already sorted out what happened there.) You can also use [space] to interview listen in on the various guests. Influencing events to keep everyone you can alive — which Miss Manners advises us is a very important element of hosting a successful event — is a little more difficult, as nearly all the mortals don't see you. Much of your afterlife is spent finding obscure items or clues that various people need, and then being utterly incapable of getting it to them because they're not on your plane of existence. Well, not yet at least! But where there's a will there's a beneficiary, and Ghost Party has come up with some clever means of getting around that. You can also bring up information about your inventory with [esc], as well as saving and loading.
With an 8-bit Nintendo look-and-feel and an inventory-based Infocom sort of gameplay dynamic, playing Ghost Party really starts to feel a little like Maniac Mansion — if you could keep playing after you've managed to kill off all the kids. It was built in RPG Maker, the same engine that's been used to bring us so many other indie games. It's fairly short and can be solved in under an hour, but features three possible endings. For a game put together by two people taking a few random weeknights out of their schedule to make it — including all the graphics and music — it really gives a sense of how solid RPG Maker is, and what can be made with it. So get set to party with the night life, high life, lowlife and afterlife in Ghost Party!
Windows:
Get the free full version
Mac OS X:
Not available.
Try Boot Camp or Parallels or CrossOver Games.
Walkthrough Guide
(Please allow page to fully load for spoiler tags to be functional.)
Ghost Party Walkthrough:
Notes:
Ghost Party is a difficult game to give specific hints for, so this walkthrough is just... an outright walkthrough. It says what to do, which rooms to visit, etc. If you'd like to figure things out for yourself, try the Tips and Hints section (Hints will probably be more useful if you've played adventure games before). The Mansion Map might be helpful to you too, if you're disoriented, and it doesn't contain any spoilers. There's no endings guide, but endings are discussed within the walkthrough, before the branching point.
For easier reference, items are italicized and locations are bolded. Also, the walkthrough is designed to be used with the map, for my own ease in referencing locations (and yours too, since it wasn't very a very comprehensible walkthrough when I tried it without the map.)
There are no color puzzles in this game.
Tips and Hints:
Tips:
It's a good idea to examine everything and grab every item you can, but most of the items you find aren't going to be useful. If you can't find a home for that random object you picked up under the bed, it's probably just there to be part of your collection.
You also can't save everybody. Many of the deaths in Ghost Party are unpreventable, so don't worry too much about being unable to save a character, especially if you're early in the game.
Save often. Toward the end of the game, you'll have to make some decisions that determine which ending you get, and sometimes you're stuck heading toward an ending you didn't want to get.
The easiest way to get an object to a character is to let that character die. However, it's not the only way! More than one object can be transferred to a living person.
The bats might look like they're only there for flavor, but don't just assume they're going to be useless. Several can give you very important items. If you're stuck talking to people, try talking to bats.
Speaking of talking to people, that's what moves the story along in this game. Don't shy away from talking to people, but you might want to see if you've done everything else you can first.
Hints:
Some rounds have specific item-related tasks you need to accomplish before you move on, and some rounds don't, but every round requires you to talk to everyone (or almost everyone) in order to move on. If you think there might be more to see, it's a good idea not to talk to everyone just yet.
Two items are important for getting the best ending. One is required for getting the other, and can only be found before a certain time. The other can only be found after a certain time... but the earlier you can get it, the better. Pay attention, and after your first playthrough, you should at least know what these items are, more or less.
Only three characters are saveable. If you've found an ending where you save three people and you want to see the other endings, don't bother trying to save more of them, since that just isn't possible. Try doing worse.
Mansion Map:
This image shows the rooms in the mansion, their names, and how they connect to each other.
Room names are taken from the way the maps are labelled when the game is opened in RPGMaker.
Walkthrough:
Again, note that this walkthrough is designed to go along with the map, which is not spoilery in the least. A picture's not only worth a thousand words, it also does a much better job of differentiating the Fancy Living Room from the Sitting Room in a game where everything is blue.
Round 1:
Go to the Entrance and examine the left bust near the large doors to get the Funky Phone Charm.
Go to the Fancy Living Room and talk to the bat. Answer anything but "Neither" to get a Dog Pencil Sharpener, Cat Pencil Sharpener, or both.
Return to the Entrance. With at least one pencil sharpener in your inventory, examine the table left of the small door to get the #2 Pencil.
In the Big Bedroom, examine the bed to get the Electric Blanket.
Talk to everyone. Pearl is in the Big Bedroom, Sam and Amy are in the Hallway, Frankie is in the Study, Hank is in the Sitting Room, Hershel is in the Entrance, Virginia and Herbert are in the Dining Room, and Endora is in the Fancy Living Room. The round will end.
Round 2:
In the Dining Room, talk to Virginia.
Go to the Kitchen and examine the refrigerator to get a Ghost Popsicle.
Return to the Dining Room, and talk to Virginia again. Give her the Ghost Popsicle to get Herbert's Translator.
Talk to everyone. Frankie, Herbert, and Amy are in the Entrance, Hank is in the Sitting Room, Sam is in the Study, Endora is in the Big Bedroom, Hershel is in the Fancy Living Room, and Pearl is in the Hallway. The round will end.
Round 3:
In the Sitting Room, talk to Hank. After, talk to the bat and give it the Electric Blanket to get the Twin Key.
Go to the Hallway. Examine the middle door on the north wall to unlock it with the Twin Key and access the Twin Bedroom.
In the Twin Bedroom, examine the square shape on the left table to get the Old Photo. Then, talk to the ghost bat and give it the Funky Phone Charm.
.
Return to the Sitting Room and talk to Hank again. Give him the Old Photo to get the Hank's Canteen.
Go to the Kitchen. Examine the sink to get the Filled Canteen.
Return to the Sitting Room again. Examine the fire to put it out and get the Donut Pocket Watch.
Talk to everyone. Frankie and Herbert are in the Big Bedroom, Hershel is in the Twin Bedroom, Virginia is in the Fancy Living Room, Amy and Sam are in the Entrance, Pearl is in Your Room, and Endora is in the Kitchen. The round will end.
Round 4:
In the Twin Bedroom, talk to Hershel twice to give him the Donut Pocket Watch and get the Wad of Cash.
Go to the Hallway and talk to Pearl. Give her the Wad of Cash.
Go to the Dining Room. Examine the clock, then talk to the ghost bat to get the Graveyard Key.
Go to the Hallway. Examine the rightmost door to unlock it with the Graveyard Key and access the Graveyard.
In the Graveyard, talk to the ghost.
Talk to everyone. Amy is in the Hallway, Endora and Hank are in the Big Bedroom, Frankie, Herbert, and Pearl are in the Study (answer Herbert's question however you'd like), Virginia is in the Entrance, and Sam is in the Fancy Living Room. The round will end.
Round 5:
In the Study, talk to Frankie and Pearl.
Go to the Entrance and watch the scene. If you'd like to make it easiest to see all three endings, don't do anything else quite yet, even if you have an idea what you're supposed to be doing.
Talk to everyone. Hank is in the Entrance, Sam is in the Kitchen, Hershel is in the Sitting Room, Herbert and Amy are in the Study, Endora is in the Hallway, and Virginia is in the Graveyard. The round will end.
Round 6:
This is where the endings branch. If this is your first playthrough, it might be more fun to try to get an ending on your own before reading how to get the one you want. You should be able to see all three endings from here, so if you haven't seen them all and you'd like to, it's a very good time to save!
To get Ending A:
In the Kitchen, talk to Sam. On that note, make sure NOT to talk to everyone else this time.
Go to the Graveyard. Talk to the ghost bat and give it the #2 Pencil to get Endora's Wand
Go to the Fancy Living Room. Talk to Frankie. Then, talk to Herbert and say "Yes". As Herbert, talk to Endora and give her Endora's Wand. Leave the room, and the round (and the game) will end.
A note on this ending:
Ending A is probably the best one. You can't save any more people, or any different people. In fact, every other ending involves saving fewer people. Another ending involves accomplishing something a little different, but this one seems to have the happiest outcome overall.
To get Ending B:
Talk to everyone, and don't do anything involving items. Sam is in the Kitchen, Pearl is in the Dining Room, Hank is in the Study, Virginia is in the Hallway, Hershel is in the Big Bedroom, and Amy is in the Graveyard. Frankie, Herbert, and Endora are all in the Fancy Living Room, but you don't need to talk to them — and if you do talk to Herbert, make sure to tell him "No". The round will end.
To get Ending C:
In the Kitchen, talk to Sam. On that note, make sure NOT to talk to everyone else quite yet.
Go to the Graveyard. Talk to the ghost bat and give it the #2 Pencil to get Endora's Wand
Talk to everyone. Amy is in the Graveyard, Virginia is in the Hallway, Hershel is in the Big Bedroom, Hank is in the Study, and Pearl is in the Dining Room. Frankie, Herbert, and Endora are all in the Fancy Living Room, but you don't need to talk to them — and if you do talk to Herbert, make sure to tell him "No". The round will end.
Round 7:
To get Ending B:
In the Fancy Living Room, talk to Endora and get Endora's Lantern.
Talk to everyone else. Frankie and Herbert are in the Fancy Living Room, Hershel is in the Hallway, Virginia is in the Twin Bedroom, Amy is in the Graveyard, Pearl and Sam are in the Study, and Hank is in the Dining Room. The round (and the game) will end.
A note on this ending:
Ending B has no survivors, but it's still kind of interesting. Note that both of the other endings have at least one character live, so you might want to go and see that. On the other hand, this is the only ending where you can help the killer.
To get Ending C:
In the Fancy Living Room, talk to Endora and give her Endora's Wand.
Talk to everyone else. Frankie and Herbert are in the Fancy Living Room, Hershel is in the Hallway, Virginia is in the Twin Bedroom, Amy is in the Graveyard, Pearl and Sam are in the Study, and Hank is in the Dining Room. The round (and the game) will end.
A note on this ending:
Ending C might not have the worst outcome, depending on what you're looking for, but it also isn't really anything special. You can save more people in a different ending if you want to save more people, and you can accomplish something else in a different ending if you want to accomplish something else.
Posted by: Alice
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June 11, 2013 10:01 AM