#The ghost on the shore wiki full#

It's pretty subtle and the music changes according to the scene's mood throughout the game. A faint musical score plays in the background, building the atmosphere with gentle strings. It was easy to get carried away as I was busy reading someone’s journal or examining various objects up close.

I snapped lots of pretty pictures like a tourist with my F12 button, and focused on discovering objects for Riley to sketch, or simply explored my surroundings instead of feeling hurried to solve the mystery. With the liberty to move at my own pace, I took my time. It was a little like watching scenes from a period drama because, during these visions, neither Riley nor Josh could do much but try to follow these ghosts and listen to what they had to say. Through these very intense moments, sometimes Josh would recognize the people in these visions, and each time I learned more about the inhabitants of the islands. I would be thrown between ghosts conversing at that very same spot many years ago or even have a spirit talking directly to me.

Sometimes Riley encounters a vision where the whole screen turns dark, calling forth specific memories of the past. It’s so quiet that Riley even questions whether Josh is just a fragment of her imagination at one point. It could be eerie at times since I, or Riley to be exact, was alone throughout the game. That can all be done passively, as all I needed to do as a player was to take mental notes and observe as I learned the history of the place there weren’t any real puzzles for me to solve to further the plot. It’s stimulating to try and connect the dots through the crumbs of information gathered in this book, to guess what happened to the people of the islands, and most importantly, to siphon for clues - anything that might relate to our ghost friend Josh. I could check the drawings afterward by accessing the journal, where Riley often scribbles her thoughts next to her drawings.

Riley brings a sketchbook with her, so all I needed was to watch out for interactive signs: sparkling firefly-like beings that hover over certain spots where she can stop and sketch the gorgeous surroundings or anything she finds interesting. Everywhere I turned, I could take a screenshot, and it would make beautiful wallpaper - it was amazing how each location seemed to have points of interest that invited players to explore deeper. But that oddity would soon be answered throughout the game and became a hint for a bigger story that spans decades.Įach location's gorgeous landscapes and distinctive interiors were always exciting to discover. There were photos and some cassette tapes scattered among them that confused me at the beginning as to what year these people truly lived on these islands. Most of the fun of the journey was discovering trinkets, letters, and cooking recipes, all sitting around these dilapidated 19th-century buildings, which had been slowly eaten away by nature through time. These dialogue choices seem to determine the ending later on. That motivated me to find new grounds and follow the right path, and in-between, choosing the correct responses to Josh’s questions and remarks. A new conversation between Riley and Josh triggered whenever I stepped into new territory, propelling the story forward. But I quickly found how intuitive the exploration aspect of the game is.

#The ghost on the shore wiki full#

Everywhere I looked was the open sea and sky and a shore full of old fishing houses it seemed that I could walk Riley anywhere I wanted. Our journey begins as Riley steps out of her boat onto the battered dock of the islands. As I discovered lives from the land’s past through old letters and personal objects, abandoned homes, and names on tombstones, the islands eventually pulled me to a heart-wrenching story through a time of loss, hope, and family. In Ghost on the Shore, you play in first-person view as Riley, a solo traveler trying to make sense of Josh, a ghost from a distant era who seems just as lost as Riley is on these haunted islands. Being stranded alone on an island is already quite a predicament, but things get complicated when a spirit inside your head suddenly starts talking to you.