Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
For the review, here is a link to the description (it takes a while to load), and the review follows with the more button.
Name: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Game Ownership: Yes
Game Status: Beat all cases.
How it was Acquired: Borrowed from friend and bought it
Condition when Bought: New
Game Type: Text-Based Adventure
Name: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Game Ownership: Yes
Game Status: Beat all cases.
How it was Acquired: Borrowed from friend and bought it
Condition when Bought: New
Game Type: Text-Based Adventure
Preliminary Comments:
Fact: This game had to be reissued in North America four times due to high demand, and as of this time, it has sold out three of those times.
Rant: Greatest site ever.
Rant: ^Other than this one, of course.
Rant: I wonder how much it pays to sit in a room and see how many puns I can come up with involving people’s names.
Graphics - 7.5
You may not know, but this game is a port from the Japan-only GBA version. One would think that since this is an almost direct port, it would be graphically inferior to games now. However, if you consider what kind of game this is, there isn’t really that much that has to be going on graphically. The game is mostly made on text and still images. The most graphically intensive parts of the game are probably when the characters display some type of reaction such as surprise or anger. The animation for said reactions are decent, but I felt they could have been made with a few more frames to look smoother, especially since DS cartridges hold more memory than GBA cartridges. However, I do like the amount of detail they gave for the individual pictures themselves. The backgrounds and still images used in the game look wonderful. The characters themselves look great as well with a lot of detail (although I think Edgeworth looks kinda weird sometimes).
There is an extra case that was not in the original GBA game that does take advantage of the DS’s capabilities such as including a fully animated video using 3D models, which looks pretty good. There is also the ability to analyze some objects in 3D in the third case, but we’ll talk more about this capability later.
Sound - 8.0
Though I could say something about the sound being inferior since it came from the GBA port, it really doesn’t matter to me what is used to make the music. All that matters is if the music doesn’t become annoying and if the music complements the scene it is used for. I feel that the music of Phoenix Wright fits both of these criteria. It shouldn’t be any surprise that a game like this would have well-fitting music. After all, the game is essentially an interactive court room drama. The music should play a key part in setting the mood of the scene. Whether it’s a sudden revelation of facts or a battle of wits during the cross-examination, there is always a good combination of music and sound effects to accompany the moods and actions of the scene. With that said, I can’t really say there was anything that incredibly remarkable about the soundtrack. Despite its ability to set the mood and tone of the moment, there isn’t really much else to propel the soundtrack past that other than some pretty nice composition.
Story - 8.0
There are five cases in this game, and each of them have their own separate story which somehow builds into a larger central story. In order to avoid ruining anything about the game, here is an overview:
You play as Phoenix Wright, a rookie defense attorney under the wing of the great defense lawyer Mia Fey. Your job is simple: protect those who have no one to defend them. Though the trials are tough, and you probably don’t have all the answers, you must press on…for great justice.
Well, that’s really all I can say about the main story without revealing anything too specific. However, I can talk about other facets of the story, such as characters. Throughout the game, you will meet many different characters ranging from police officers to actors to crazy old guys running boat shops. Most of these characters have some kind of cheezy pun as a name (”Penny Nichols” or “Sal Manella” or “Frank Sawhit” for example). I’m not too crazy about that part, but the characters had cheezy names in the Japanese version too as I understand it, so it’s not like this is limited to the English version or anything. I must say that I liked the job that localization did since characters themselves are pretty fun and memorable. Small things such as making one of the nerdier characters speak in 1337 for absolutely no reason is a nice little addition which I’m pretty sure was not in the Japanese version. Even the characters whose personalities were relatively untouched, such as Prosecutor Edgeworth, are great as well.
The cases themselves have a number of twists and turns to keep you in suspense. Now, I know that a lot of the turns the cases take are pretty obvious, but the interesting aspect of these turns is that the story actually works with the game. You may have an idea of what actually happened, but just speculating isn’t enough to win a case. You have to have evidence or a logical reason in order to convince the judge what you think is correct. The only way you can prove your theory is to find small contradictions and build up a case as more details are revealed.
One criticism of the game that some have pointed out is that the court cases are unrealistic. For example, there is no jury or concept of manslaughter, and the game calls every difference of opinion an objection, though they may not actually be so. To that I say those people are taking this game too seriously. It’s just a game, people! Are real court cases fun? No. They’re not fun for anyone who’s taking part in them. Why should they be like that then?
Fun - 8.0
Fun in this game is hard to determine because this game is technically a text-based adventure. There are people in the world that absolutely hate games like this because it’s just like doing homework to them. I originally thought I’d hate this game as well because I wanted to play a game, not read a book. However, after I played the game, I ended up enjoying it quite a bit. .
Each case is composed of two parts: courtroom proceedings and investigation. Courtroom proceedings normally involve several witnesses testifying about the case and the cross-examination of said testimony. During cross-examination, you are responsible for exposing a contradiction between the testimony and the court record (the record of legal evidence kept by the court) by presenting evidence that proves the witness is lying. In order to figure out what evidence to present, you can ask the witness about parts of the testimony (called “pressing”). If you present the wrong evidence, you are penalized. If you have five penalties during a case, your defendant is declared guilty on the spot.
The courtroom segments are the most exciting parts of the game since they involve using your brain the most. A testimony that seems bulletproof can crumble apart once you press the witness a little. After that, you need to figure out what you need to present or say to the court to show the contradiction. Once you’ve proven the witness was lying, they’ll either re-testify or change something in their past testimony. That’ll happen several times until you’re able to get the entire story out of them. The interaction between Phoenix, the witnesses, and the prosecution is great. Although you yourself won’t be doing that much, just reading the dialogue should be fun enough.
The other part that makes up the case is personal investigation. This involves searching for clues at the scene of the crime, talking to people that could be witnesses, and some good ‘ol fashioned detective work. The purpose is to find out details and evidence about the crime that can be used in court. You can do this either by talking to people at the scene, examining the scene for clues yourself, or sometimes presenting something to a person so that they can tell you what its relevance is to the case. Normally, this isn’t too much of a big deal, but you really have to be looking out for details when doing these investigations. I myself have spent hours…HOURS investigating because I didn’t analyze that glove on the floor or didn’t present the right kind of object to receive information about it. In these cases, you cannot move forward in the investigation until you have done something else. The investigation can become some of the most tedious parts of the game, especially in the last case. However, I can’t really think of a way to fix this problem other than having the game blatantly pointing out to you what to do, so I guess it’s just a tedium that has to be tolerated.
The last thing to talk about in Phoenix Wright’s fun factor is the new DS functionality. Though Capcom didn’t do anything to improve Phoenix Wright asthetically, they did do their best to make this version worth owning. For instance, they’ve essentially made two different ways to play the game. You can either play it using the buttons like in the GBA version, or you can use the touch screen to navigate everything. Probably the funnest thing about the new functionality is the use of the microphone. In case you didn’t know, there are a lot of outbursts during trial from Phoenix or Edgeworth. These outbursts have since become pretty popular, especially when Phoenix says “Objection!” Using the microphone in the DS, you can actually say “Hold It”, “Objection!”, and “Take That!” during trial when you need to. Small things like that are what help you get immersed in the feel of the game, and are necessary to make a game good.
In addition to the touch screen, the developers have also added a new case that was not in the original GBA version. Of course, for all of us who don’t import stuff, it’s just another case to solve. However, this case is remarkable because it takes advantage of the DS’s touchscreen and ability to display 3D objects, not to mention the case being longer and significantly harder than the others. During the case, you will need to look at objects and study them for any important clues. Not only that, but you will also use the touch screen and built-in microphone to dust for fingerprints. Considering the kind of game this is, this was probably the best they could do, and I think they did a great job.
Difficulty - 7.0
Difficulty is dependant on the player themselves more than anything else. A person with a good ability to analyze situations or pay attention to people shouldn’t have too much problem playing through the game. Any average person would probably be stifled a little bit, but it isn’t really anything they can’t handle. As I mentioned before, the last case is a bit harder than the others due to the need to be meticulous in investigation, but it shouldn’t really be that bad for most people.
Replayable - 5.5
Unfortunately, this is probably the biggest handicap to the game, and it should be obvious why. After you’ve played through the game once, you already know what is supposed to happen, what to examine thoroughly, who is lying, and what evidence to present. While other games have a kind of randomness factor or many alternate ways to play through the game, Phoenix Wright is pretty cut and dry. If you play a case over again, practically nothing is going to change. I guess if you really like the story of the cases, then this game would be more replayable to you. If not, then you’d probably have to wait a long time to forget about the case in order to enjoy the game again.
