Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney

While stuck recruiting stars rather than advancing the plot line in Suikoden, I begin a new game on my DS – Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney. It’s somewhat of an old game. It was first release on the Gameboy Advance in 2001. The DS version, released in North America just under a year ago, is a remake of the GBA one with an additional case. The gist of the game is you are Phoenix Wright, new lawyer on the block and you have to defend your clients. However additional to being in court, you play a detective role, trying to find evidence in proving your client’s innocence which also always turns out to reveal the true culprit. The setting of the game is in some future time where the justice system had be revised. Suspects are trial a day after they are arrested and the defense have up to three days to prove their innocence. So as their lawyer, you are fairly pressed for time as well.

I’m three cases into the game so far and it’s been pretty fun. I probably would be in the middle of the fourth case right now if the battery didn’t die on me. In each case, I, as Phoenix, the lawyer, along with Maya Fey, his assistance, run around to various places to investigate. At each place I visit, I could examine the environment which reveal some clues and evidence at times. Most of the time, there will also be someone to talk to so you can ask about what happen and so forth. The game itself is fairly straight forward. On one hand it makes the game pretty easy to learn. However, it also means the game is pretty linear. If the player doesn’t do certain things in certain order, the story won’t go anywhere. I guess that goes for most RPG / adventure type games.

Anyway, some positives about the game:

• Humourous dialogs: The conversations within the game is pretty funny. Phoenix, as a lawyer, is pretty goofy. So reading through the storyline is quite entertaining. The expressions of the characters also go well with the corresponding dialogs.
• Interesting cases: Well I’ve only solved 3 cases so far but from them, I can say they get progressively more challenging. From the first case, where it was easy to figure out who the culprit is, the evidence, court proceedings all fell into place quite nicely. It was a good learning case. Then the second case had more twists involved. You know who the culprit is from the beginning but you have to figure out the motive and how to pinpoint it to the murderer. Third case became even more complicated as it involved more people, more places. I had to guess a few times what was going on.

Negatives:

• Quick save: Although you can press start to save at almost any point in the game, the quick save actually suspend the game which ends up back at the beginning game prompt. So when you quick save, you are diverted back to the game opening where you have to select ‘Continue Game’ and ‘Continue from Save Point’ to get back to your game. There’s also only 1 save data slot only.
• Quite lenient: This is a point that can be either positive or negative. If you like an easy game, it’s a good thing but for me, I thought this game was too lenient. You really have to have no clue to ‘die’ in the game. It gives you a lot of chances to do trial and error. Well I’ve guess stuff a few times and was penalized for them but that didn’t end the game for me.

Another thing I like to comment on is the game system itself. During cross examination in court, the player can press the witness in his or her testimony or present an evidence that contradicts it. Sometimes, I thought of one thing that can prove my client’s innocence but there’s no option to use it in the system. Then eventually after embarrassing myself (the lawyer) a bit (Phoenix tends to do that alot in court) and what not, what I had thought of earlier is used. I guess that is sort of a limiting factor in game programming. You can’t anticipate unlimited amount of input from the user so the choices of what can be inputed is restricted by the game. Those are the only selection available to the users. You can’t deviate from the sequential game or the game won’t know how to respond.

It’s a fun game overall. I’ll likely be trying it’s sequel Ace Attorney 2. The third and fourth part of the series are released in Japan already. Third is coming out in North America next month and I assume the fourth will also be translated and released later.

Posted in Entertainment
Tagged as DS, phoenix wright