Ghostboy

by Aethyna Aug 4, 2024 | 1 Votes | 57 Played | 0 Reviews

9 rate

Genres:

Strategy

Graphics:

Labels:

Building , Storytelling , Tower Defense

Platforms:

Ghostboy is an emotionally charged tower defense game that features the ghost of a deceased boy who is trying to help the family he left behind to get through all the stages of grief. Will they make it to the end of the tunnel and see the light? Play Now Similar Games

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Summary Plotline Gameplay Graphics/ Sound Conclusion

Summary

Ghostboy is an emotionally charged tower defense game that features the ghost of a deceased boy who is trying to help the family he left behind to get through all the stages of grief and overcome various mental disorders that may arise. Here, you’ll need to defend each family member’s mental health from various negative thoughts by placing towers, using various abilities and the right Buddy, and getting the family members to help one another as they set off on this journey together. Will they make it to the end of the tunnel and see the light?

Plotline

Ghostboy has a simple story that is so incredibly heartfelt. The game opens with a tragic event where the life of a young boy is cut short. Guilt-ridden, his family had their respective mental breakdowns as they tried to accept the reality of what had happened and the grief that came with losing a loved one, especially one so young.

In this game, you play as that departed boy. Returned as a ghost, you felt sad that your brother and parents are completely overwhelmed with grief and regret. As such, you decide to use what time you have left on Earth to help guide each of your family member through their own emotional and mental turmoil.

Gameplay

Ghostboy is a rather unique tower defense game. After the tragic event where the protagonist was killed in an accident, the boy returned home as a ghost, visiting the family he left behind. The game features multiple levels split across the few stages of grief and the three characters, namely the brother, the father and the mother. You’ll start off with only one level per character but that’ll increase as you progress through the stages of grief.

Before heading into a level, however, you’ll need to set up your loadout first. You begin with limited slots at first, but that expands as you progress. Each slot can house a card, and there are several types of cards. There are the usual towers, which you can then build when you enter a level, and there are special one-off abilities listed under “ease your sorrow,” like summoning a hot air balloon that you can move about the battlefield. The one-off abilities usually come with caveats and sometimes hefty penalties. It’s up to you to decide if the ability is worth the penalty you’ll get in return.

There are also abilities under the “Support the family” section, which will allow you to help other family members gain Energy Points (EPs), which are needed to fill up your loadout in the first place or to help them overcome a mental illness. These abilities are important because each family member has a journey of grief to go through, and without help from others, they may not be able to make it without suffering some serious mental disorder.

As mentioned as well, EPs are the currency you’ll need to fill up your loadout since each card you add to your loadout will cost you some EPs. If you run out of EPs, you won’t be able to continue your journey with that family member and will have to play one of the others instead.

After the tutorial level, where you’ll learn the basics of the gameplay, you’ll also get to choose your companion called a Buddy. Buddy is something like a hero you can control during a level. Naturally, different companions will have different abilities. For instance, the default Hunter allows you to place decoys and attack your enemies using your trusty rifle, while the Gardener can build walls to redirect the enemy’s path. You might want to switch Buddies depending on the enemies you’re about to face. The Gardener can be super useful in places where you need to funnel enemies through a narrow kill zone, but if you’re facing enemies who can phase through walls and islands, you might want to go with the Hunter instead.

You’ll start each game with some Spirit Points (SPs), which you can then use to place towers or even upgrade them before hitting the Start button to start the first wave. Destroying enemies will earn you more SPs. Unlike some tower defense games, Ghostboy offers designated tower placement locations, so you can’t just build wherever you like. Also, towers don’t build themselves. Instead, you’ll need to place Claymen, which also cost some SPs, so they could do all the building and repairing… yes, your towers and Claymen can be attacked by the enemies in this game.

There’s even an enemy that’s designed just to attack your Claymen, so you’ll definitely need to factor those in when you come up with strategies to win a level. There’s a limit as to how many Claymen you can place for each level, however, so you can’t just keep spamming them… though, spamming them doesn’t really serve much purpose since they can’t attack.

The goal here is to defend the mental health of the family member in question from all kinds of negative thoughts. Their mental health can take some beating, but if too many enemies got through your defenses, you’ll lose the level. Mild mental disorders will also affect the overall health you get at the start of a level. The more mental disorders the person suffers from, the less health you’ll start with.

Aside from various challenges you’ll encounter if the person you’re helping has a mental disorder, like panic attacks, there are also some interesting mechanisms that will come into play such as the ghost train which barrels through your front defenses and deposits its cargo of enemies behind your first kill zone, much closer to the endpoint than you’d like.

There are interesting mechanisms during boss fights as well, such as the puzzle master. These bosses usually have special abilities that allow them to disrupt your defense strategies in unique ways. In the case of the puzzle master, he can corrupt (a.k.a. disable) towers that are placed within the confines of a specific jigsaw piece. This makes sense once you know that in this boss level, the entire background is a huge jigsaw puzzle.

As things can get quite hectic while the fight begins, it’s nice that the game provides a Build mode option that will pause the game, allowing you to strategize and set up more towers while a fight is ongoing. The game isn’t all combat, though. As you interact with the family members of the departed (ghost) boy, you’ll be presented with dialogue options during events that will then dictate what kind of mental disorder, or the lack thereof, the family member will start to suffer from.

Graphics/ Sound

Thanks to its theme, Ghostboy features a unique atmosphere – one of extreme grief of a departed loved one and one of hope… the hope of one day overcoming said grief and becoming stronger for it. This is complemented by excellent cartoonish art, on-point animation, and the “right” color palette. Plus, the soulful music really sets the scene for the game, injecting some melancholy into a game about the stages of grief.

Conclusion

All in all, Ghostboy is a very well-made tower defense game that doesn’t only provide entertainment in the form of its highly strategic gameplay, but it also provides insight into how one could go about overcoming extreme grief over a loved one as players journey through all stages of grief together with each family member, learning more about the story behind each of them as well as the relationships they have, not only with the departed boy, but also with themselves. If you’re looking for a game that’s more profound and you enjoy playing tower defense games, Ghostboy is definitely a must-play! Give it a try via its free demo, or go all in and just buy the game to play!