A Skeleton and a Ghost

this has been bugging me for a while - do you think that the color one sees the Ghost World in corresponds to the type of power the person(or rather the ‘tricker’ currently in control) has? ie: manipulating inanimate objects - red, swapping objects - green and manipulating animate objects - blue

Mobility(not all spirits have this i.e. in the game there are only 3)

Manipulating non-living objects(excluding corpses)

Ability to travel to 4 minutes before death (which Yomiel could not do)

Ability to travel over phone lines (Which is explicitly why the entire plot exists, because Missle could not do that exact trick. Quote: “ It may not seem like much, but it’s a very important power. Especially if you’re trying to chase somebody. “ ) 

Also this doesn’t take into account the things that Yomiel can do which is:

Possess himself

Possess others

Possess objects to specifically create a facsimile of himself that can move, see and feel.

So I would say its more encompassing than a single trick/power

Therefore:

Sissel: The desire to pursue and subdue death.

Yomiel: To affect and be seen by the living.

Missile: To be useful even if he is small. 

I agree I like to think of it this way: each Trick-er’s (by Trick-er I’m referring to the soul of someone who has died in the presence of Temsik radiation and has gained Ghost Tricks as a result) powers consist of one main power and possibly one or more side powers.

This main power varies in strength from Trick-er to Trick-er; I’m measuring strength by 1) range*, 2) number of items that can be manipulated at one time** and 3) nature of powers***. Basically, the main power is for interacting with objects using cores or otherwise (Yomiel doesn’t seem to need cores).

* According to the Ghost Trick Wikia, Sissel has a range of about 3 feet, Missile has thrice that much and Yomiel seems to have a limitless range.

**Sissel can ‘trick’ one, Missile can swap two, and Yomiel can manipulate several, as evidenced by the ‘body’ he made for himself out of random odds and ends in the second last chapter.

*** Sissel –> Manipulating objects according to their nature, that is, he can make a fridge open its door, but he can’t make it fly (I think this is a better description for what he does than ‘manipulates inanimate objects’ now that i think about it…). Missile–>Swapping items that look the same, Yomiel–> Manipulating objects against their nature (again, I think this is better…), for example, he can make objects levitate and hijack other’s bodies entirely.

Side powers would refer to the ability to travel back in time by possessing the core of a dead person and the ability travel over phone lines (that’s all we get  in the game, anyway), and how many side powers one has might correlate to the strength of the main power (the weaker the main power, the more side powers you’d have to compensate and vice-versa). The result is that the set of powers that each Trick-er receives at the start, main power and side power(s) if any, all add up to the same in terms of strength overall. Although, while each set of powers may be equal to the next, particular sets are more desirable than others, as the game shows us. That is, the most versatile (and perhaps best)  set of powers that we see is Sissel’s since he has the most side powers compared to Yomiel and Missile despite him having the weakest main power.

As for what comes after the start, it is mentioned that a Trick-er’s powers change over time; I believe that it is only the main power that changes. After all, Ray mentions losing the ability to swap objects and gaining the ability to manipulate them instead (powers are weakened); Yomiel mentions gaining the ability to manipulate living things as well as inanimate objects (powers are strengthened). The former might be due to one’s powers fading due to aging, whereas the latter may very well be powers intensifying due to the influence of being under near-constant Temsik radiation.

Aand whew! Those’re my theories on Ghost Tricks! What do you think? :D Feel free to point out any flaws in logic, or to bring up new theories!

To say that frequent touch causes things to develop a core has just a few flaws.

For example, late in the game while rescuing the pigeon man Missle appears adrift on a leaf in the sewer.

Does that mean out of all the leaves in Temsik Park that one specifically was touched?

I don't believe this to be true.

Only some of the parts inside that torpedo you enter had cores, so does that mean that weapon was touched by human hands more? We are shown that objects only have a single way they can be tricked. (As in the fridge where the door can be opened and closed, but you can't change the temperature inside.)

Therefore, I believe things with more cores have multiple functions, as also shown with the switching fans in the final phase of the game changing venting even though its all part of the same system.

Getting back to that leaf, it raises some interesting questions.

That dead leaf has a core despite being once a part of a tree.

Does that mean each individual leaf have the power to develop a core? If so, we should be seeing hundreds of cores littered about Temsik Park due to the fallen leaves. But there isn't any.

Therefore, we can come to only three conclusions about this leaf.

Either the leaf fell in such a way as to come into the proximity of the Temsik shards in the crater 

Going by human presence theory, someone touched that leaf a lot.

Something else has occurred so that that specific leaf has a core.

I’m not sure if this is the most straightforward answer but I thought it'd be good to talk about.

On another note here’s a question. How were Ray and Sissel able to occupy the same space?

From these photographs, we can clearly see the lamp moving without Sissel tricking it, implying that Ray moved it closer to Lynne so the cores could connect. But as we are shown later in the game two cores can't move into the same space without connecting somehow. Why is this and why didn’t it occur with Ray?

this has been bugging me for a while - do you think that the color one sees the Ghost World in corresponds to the type of power the person(or rather the ‘tricker’ currently in control) has? ie: manipulating inanimate objects - red, swapping objects - green and manipulating animate objects - blue

Mobility(not all spirits have this i.e. in the game there are only 3)

Manipulating non-living objects(excluding corpses)

Ability to travel to 4 minutes before death (which Yomiel could not do)

Ability to travel over phone lines (Which is explicitly why the entire plot exists, because Missle could not do that exact trick. Quote: “ It may not seem like much, but it’s a very important power. Especially if you’re trying to chase somebody. “ ) 

Also this doesn’t take into account the things that Yomiel can do which is:

Possess himself

Possess others

Possess objects to specifically create a facsimile of himself that can move, see and feel.

So I would say its more encompassing than a single trick/power

Therefore:

Sissel: The desire to pursue and subdue death.

Yomiel: To affect and be seen by the living.

Missile: To be useful even if he is small. 

this has been bugging me for a while - do you think that the color one sees the Ghost World in corresponds to the type of power the person(or rather the ‘tricker’ currently in control) has? ie: manipulating inanimate objects - red, swapping objects - green and manipulating animate objects - blue

Mobility(not all spirits have this i.e. in the game there are only 3)

Manipulating non-living objects(excluding corpses)

Ability to travel to 4 minutes before death (which Yomiel could not do)

Ability to travel over phone lines (Which is explicitly why the entire plot exists, because Missle could not do that exact trick. Quote: “ It may not seem like much, but it's a very important power. Especially if you're trying to chase somebody. “ ) 

Also this doesn't take into account the things that Yomiel can do which is:

Possess himself

Possess others

Possess objects to specifically create a facsimile of himself that can move, see and feel.

So I would say its more encompassing than a single trick/power

Therefore:

Sissel: The desire to pursue and subdue death.

Yomiel: To affect and be seen by the living.

Missile: To be useful even if he is small.