Despite hearing a lot about the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney series for years, and frankly how couldn’t you hear about it with how popular it has become, I’ve not played a single entry up until this point. Most of the world has met Phoenix in a localized version back in 2005-2006 when the original GBA title was ported to Nintendo DS and released worldwide. This original trilogy of games was already out in Japan, having been released in 2001, 2002 and 2004 on GBA, but it was at this point that the famous “Objection!” really took off elsewhere. And after years of popularity, different related media, sequels, crossover games and many direct and indirect imitators the original trilogy has finally landed on PC, worldwide (there were Japan-only PC ports of several previous titles) in its newest updated iteration. I was very excited to finally check it out.
First off, I would like to explain what the series are about. They work as a mix of a visual novel and an adventure game about being a defense attorney. They’re also all divided into episodes, each dedicated to a separate “turnabout”/case, and each of these episodes are also broken up in parts. This is clearly a result of the game being originally for a portable system, but either way works in favor of the pacing and the storytelling of each game. Being what they are, games will be longer or shorter depending on how fast you can read. It took me slightly over 40 hours to go through the entire trilogy, but people seem to report something closer to 60 hours for all 3 games. But due to the way the game is divided, it can be very easy to pick up and play without completely losing the thread of the story even if you play for just a few hours each day.
As mentioned, you play as a defense attorney, the titular Phoenix Wright, who has to defend his clients in an overly dramatized take on the Japanese court system. However, despite the trials being the “meat” of the game, episodes often feature the investigation sections as well, during which you talk to people and investigate the scenes that can provide more helpful clues you could use during the trial. Those sections work in a typical visual novel fashion, being almost completely linear and not presenting any puzzles until the second game. With the second game a concept of “psyche-locks” is introduced, which adds a possibility to “get hurt” during the investigation segment, but, unfortunately, they are not there to break up the linearity or introduce anything new, rather they simply become a more interactive way to get the story. They never feel right and, frankly, I felt that they broke the pacing of the investigation in the second and third games, but the game did some good things with the concept at times.
Things get far more interactive during a trial. The main focus during the court hearings is usually reserved to cross-examining the testimonies from the witnesses, who, willingly or not, tend to lie or misrepresent things. When the testimony is being cross-referenced, you can choose to either press the statement (which is often the thing you will be doing for everything, as the game rarely penalizes you for this), or present some evidence (with the famous “Objection!”) that points out the contradiction and often moves you to the next step of the trial. Occasionally, you will be asked for more specific details, like “show where exactly on the picture this is” and the game will also often get the proceedings to a certain step where you will be presented with a choice. During these moments, you do get penalized for choosing the wrong evidence or wrong option, though not always and not always for the same amount of “health”.
And the main charm of the series is that everything and everyone, including Phoenix himself, is over the top and at least slightly silly. Character names often have puns or obvious references, they look exaggerated and animate in an extremely lively manner, stories often contain incredible elements and twists can sometimes be extremely ridiculous. Yet, most importantly, majority of the cases are genuinely satisfying if you like mystery/detective fiction and characters, no matter how outrageous they can be, tend to also be charming and likable.
Where all the games fail is in how limited and sometimes obscure their interactive elements can be. There are many wonderful moments, and I’d say that’s the majority of situations in all 3 games, where if you’ve looked at every piece of evidence and carefully read every line, you know exactly what to do and when. It’s the wonderful “haha, got you!” moment, when you catch the character on a lie and the game acknowledges what you did, and in those times you often perfectly synchronize with the protagonist. Yet, all too often the game presents you a question and choosing the obviously correct answer doesn’t work, because that’s not what the game wants you to do at that point. This is especially bad with some of the later games’ last episodes, where things are so linear and so focused on telling whatever story they want to tell, that they forget that this is supposed to also be a fun courtroom puzzle.
If I were to look at each game separately, I’d say without a shadow of a doubt, that the first game, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, was the most enjoyable. It had very good cases, fantastic and well focused central storyline and wonderful pacing. The pacing that is only somewhat ruined by the final episode that was added with the NDS port of the game and is chock-full of NDS gimmicks. Of course, on PC you’re not expected to tap the screen or blow in the microphone (though, that might be possible for your PC), yet these types of interactions are built into the story and thus still exist, just with a more traditional control method. Either way, that episode alone is way too long and ultimately boring for its own good and, despite having some cool moments, it ruins the pace of the game.
Justice for All is a really strong sequel where all the cases but the last one are absolutely wonderful. And the last one has a great twist, but is mechanically infuriating due to how it forces specific linear progression. This is also a great game to play where every single character becomes even more interesting and the game even manages to make a genuinely good child character, without her being horrible and obnoxious.
As for Trials and Tribulations, which was originally meant to finish the story of Phoenix Wright, it’s… it can be good, but more often than not it’s just annoying. All of the characters suddenly become complete morons, the game decides to introduce us to “an even bigger story that ties everything”, and it’s all really forced and dumb and, frankly, not worth the time. There are some great concepts for the cases, most notably the very first “proper” episode having a brilliant twist. But the game just drags on and with the characters being as insufferable as they are here, I simply had a sigh of relief when the game was done, whereas with the first two games I was genuinely smiling at time well spent.
Nevertheless, I think that if you have not played Ace Attorney games before, can accept silly and over the top characters for the sake of genuinely entertaining mystery stories, definitely get Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy. Maybe you will even like the last game more than I have, but even without it, the first two are absolutely worth the time and money.
“Hold it!”
Really cool soundtracks too, despite their simplicity and repetitiveness, by the way. So check those as well.