Miami, 1986. Chelo Martínez has started a private investigation business to find missing people. Make tough decisions, solve cases, and find love: but you might not have time for all three.
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There's something about little forgotten indie projects that just appeal to me. The dedication and passion, the personal touches and nuances, and just the pure creative process of a few individuals telling an independent, non-corporate story. In my research, I could uncover that half of the creators were either not on major social media sites or could be found running little vtuber/artist streaming channels. This game was just one piece of a creative life, and I'm lucky enough to experience it. There's just something nice in that.
Speaking of moments of forgotten time, Ghost of Miami is a mystery visual novel taking place in Miami 1986, with a peppy 80s anime artstyle to boot. Chelo Martinez is a young private detective who aims to help out the struggling minorities with cases the police aren't interested in solving.
Despite its cheery appearance, Ghosts of Miami isn't interested in pulling any punches. Very quickly the story zeroes in on immigrant stories of trauma and abuse. Overburdened kids who fall into drug addiction, an LGBT community trying to survive without too much harassment from the police, and so on and so forth.
The biggest issue is a mechanical one, that I'm struggling not to hold against the game. Ghosts of Miami is partly a dating game. You can choose to romance some of your allies as the game progresses, such as the clingy rich party girl, the sweet EMT worker, the young star of the drag scene, and so on. They're all pretty charming and I was interested in maybe pursuing them on a different playthrough. But Ghosts of Miami has no skip button when viewing dialogue a second time. And as I discovered in order to solve the next case, I need to have enough affection points with different people in order to earn an actual ending. Since I didn't have enough points, the final case ends ten minutes in with "I guess I need more evidence!" before credits roll. I'm not even 100% certain what I'm missing or who I need to get more points with to get an ending. Its a huge letdown after the enjoyable time I had before that moment. If the game had a skip button, I'd be willing to be more lenient, but this is something of a major obstacle for my willingness to begin again.
That all said... I dunno. There's a feeling this gives me that I don't know how to describe. Its meaningful, its heart-felt and it somehow... makes me remember I'm trans? I don't know why, but it gives me a sense of gender euphoria I really craved. And sometimes just a few hours of that is good enough.
Speaking of moments of forgotten time, Ghost of Miami is a mystery visual novel taking place in Miami 1986, with a peppy 80s anime artstyle to boot. Chelo Martinez is a young private detective who aims to help out the struggling minorities with cases the police aren't interested in solving.
Despite its cheery appearance, Ghosts of Miami isn't interested in pulling any punches. Very quickly the story zeroes in on immigrant stories of trauma and abuse. Overburdened kids who fall into drug addiction, an LGBT community trying to survive without too much harassment from the police, and so on and so forth.
The biggest issue is a mechanical one, that I'm struggling not to hold against the game. Ghosts of Miami is partly a dating game. You can choose to romance some of your allies as the game progresses, such as the clingy rich party girl, the sweet EMT worker, the young star of the drag scene, and so on. They're all pretty charming and I was interested in maybe pursuing them on a different playthrough. But Ghosts of Miami has no skip button when viewing dialogue a second time. And as I discovered in order to solve the next case, I need to have enough affection points with different people in order to earn an actual ending. Since I didn't have enough points, the final case ends ten minutes in with "I guess I need more evidence!" before credits roll. I'm not even 100% certain what I'm missing or who I need to get more points with to get an ending. Its a huge letdown after the enjoyable time I had before that moment. If the game had a skip button, I'd be willing to be more lenient, but this is something of a major obstacle for my willingness to begin again.
That all said... I dunno. There's a feeling this gives me that I don't know how to describe. Its meaningful, its heart-felt and it somehow... makes me remember I'm trans? I don't know why, but it gives me a sense of gender euphoria I really craved. And sometimes just a few hours of that is good enough.