"OBJECTION! Why don't you own this game yet!?"

It started a couple of months ago. I had first heard of Phoenix Wright from times up to last year, and people told me about it. It was a popular game series in Japan that was originally on the Game Boy Advance, but was converted to the Nintendo DS in the new English version that took advantage of a few things the Game Boy Advance didn't have.

So I found several new copies of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney on eBay. The vast majority of the copies were brand new and the same price. I did a little more reading on Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, and it seemed like a really good idea to me. I felt very encouraged to get the game. I ordered it, and a few weeks later, it arrived in the mail. I played through the game and picked everything up quickly.

And let me tell you, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney blew me away. It was amazing, brilliant, and one hundred and ten percent genius, and my expectations were high to begin with! I instantly fell in love with this brilliant game.

So a few weeks passed, and I finally beat all five cases in the first game. Shortly after beating it, I heard about the sequel, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Justice For All, coming out in the United States. I was hoping to get it for Christmas, but I was let down when I found out it would be released January 16th, 2007.

But my hopes had been bought back up quickly a few weeks later. My friend (a huge Phoenix Wright fan) had imported the Japanese copy (known as Gyakuten Saiban 2) for the DS, and, at first, I laughed. How was he going to play a Japanese game, I thought. But I thought wrong. He started the game, and pressed a red button on the main menu, then I heard Phoenix cry "OBJECTION!" and the entire game switched to English, even with the title "Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Justice For All." The real American version was built-into the Japanese game. I searched eBay that day, and a few weeks passed when the game arrived in the mail.

I played the brilliant game in English afterwards, and I was blown away.

The story began a little differently than the first game, but to avoid spoilers, I'll only summarize the first three minutes of the game. It began with Phoenix in the Courtroom Lobby waking up from a nightmare while awaiting his trial, followed by a guilty man (because the first case in each Phoenix Wright game makes it very obvious who the guilty one is, but it isn't that easy in later cases) sneaking up on Phoenix with a fire extinguisher, and whacking him in the head. The strike resulted in Phoenix getting amnesia, and to make matters worse, his client showed up soon after, hoping to get the guaranteed "Not Guilty" acquittal Phoenix promised her. Phoenix identifies he's supposed to be a defense attorney and, with the help of his client, relearns everything he knew during the case. I would like to go on with this fascinating story, but, since the game is heavily story-driven, I can't reveal anymore than that without it counting as spoilers. By the way, each case has a different story, and each one is genius.

The gameplay retains most of its feeling from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, but a few new things are introduced as well. For example, instead of having five objections in court, and having them replenish themselves between trials during investigations, you will now have a green power bar. When you mess up and lose an objection, you lose a fifth of your power bar (because you had five objections in the first game). But this time, it's harder and it gets more complicated than just that. When you're on to something and the judge or the prosecution asks you to present evidence to back-up your claim, the amount deducted from your power bar will be bigger than just a fifth, such as a third. There's even times where the judge says he will only give you one chance to prove something, and messing up here results in your entire power bar being erased. Not only that, but you can now present profiles from the Court Record instead of just physical evidence.

But it gets harder. There's a new feature for investigations introduced called "Psyche-Locks." Starting in the second case, something will happen so that you will get a tool called a "magatama," and when you're talking to people who are lying or staying quiet about something, psyche-locks (or a single psyche-lock) will appear. More psyche-locks means the secret is harder to unlock, and the number of psyche-locks you see on people increases per case. You have to use your magatama and reason with the person with your evidence to get the truth. If you do what you're supposed to do, some psyche-locks will fall apart. But when you present wrong evidence, you will damage your soul, which deducts from your power bar, the exact same power bar you use for your objections! This is why it's harder now. And when you break more and more psyche-locks and have to keep presenting more evidence to break them on a single person, the amount deducted for presenting the wrong evidence will go higher and higher, as high as half your power bar. Worst of all, if you're a fan of the first game, you may be disappointed to find out your power bar doesn't refill at all between chapters.

The testimony system was left just as it was, with the only major difference being that you can present profiles now. It works with you having a witness testify on the stand, with all their text in green. Afterwards, the judge will give you permission to cross-examine the witness. During cross-examination, you will be free to skip around the testimony as you search for something contradictory. If it isn't obvious, then you can press them on anything suspicious by pressing the "L" button, touching the "Press" button on the touch screen, or holding the "Y" button and saying "Hold it!" into the Nintendo DS microphone (which is a feature the Game Boy Advance version didn't have). Pressing may result in your witness having to revise parts of their testimony and revealing something contradictory, or you will have to look hard at the Court Record, find evidence or a profile that conflicts with the statement, then press "R" or press "Present" on the touch screen to enter the Court Record, then you select what you want to present, then you press the "Present" button that appears at the top of the screen, or you hold the "Y" button and shout "Objection!" into the Nintendo DS microphone (which I do with gusto). If you're right about what you presented, then you will proceed through the case after possibly learning something new about the case. If you're wrong, you will lose a fifth of your power bar. Fans of the first game could possibly be disappointed to learn that, in some special cases, pressing can deduct some of your power bar.

But you don't spend all your time in the courtroom; you do investigations as well. You walk around and talk to people (if there's anybody where you go, because people aren't everywhere), examine places for clues or leads, move from one place to another, or present evidence and profiles to people to see what they know. You need to know how to master all of these to progress through the story, and with the addition of psyche-locks, you will have to decide when you think you need to do more investigating or not.

Once again, some fans of the first game may be disappointed to learn that there are only four cases in the game, unlike the five cases in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (although the fifth case wasn't in the original Game Boy Advance version, and was added to the Nintendo DS version later on). However, the cases are notably harder than the ones in the first. In my honest opinion, the second case of this game was harder than the fourth case of the first game. As usual, each case gets harder and longer than the last. As in the first game, when you successfully complete each case, you can finally see the words "Not Guilty" appear across the screen with a deep sense of satisfaction as the courtroom celebrates.

The graphics are the same way they were in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: simple, yet effective. The sprites of all the characters are anime-esque, but the characters easily get their expressions across without extreme facial expressions (you won't see any simplified anime drawings of everybody with enormous, blank eyes and gingerbread man shaped bodies), which is a good thing to me. In addition to sprites, there are also drawings used in some parts of the game to show parts of what (or what could have) happened. Some of the backgrounds are from the first game (like the courtroom, the Wright and Co. Law Offices, and the detention center), with a lot of brand new ones in the new cases.

Characters in the game retain their charm. Every character has a distinct personality that makes them seem so human and so realistic, compared to extreme stereotypes that could have been used but weren't (thank you, Capcom). Along with a lot of your favorite old characters (such as Phoenix Wright, Maya Fey, Mia Fey, the judge, Detective Gumshoe, and others), you will meet several new characters, including Pearl Fey and Franziska von Karma (both of which appear on the box art and the majority of the game as very important characters).

The sound effects are still as great as they were before. The majority are from the first game, along with new sounds only in this game. The music is mostly different from that of the first. The courtroom music, the cross-examination music, and dramatic discovery music are now different, but they still capture the same feelings the old music captured. In fact, I prefer the cross-examination music in this game than the cross-examination music in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.

The big flaw of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Justice For All has to be the replay value. It's the same as in the first game: you may replay any case you want as many times as you want, or just replay the cases in case there were some questions you still have that you need to replay the game with more attention to have answered.

So, should you buy or rent Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Justice For All? Above all, you definitely need to buy it for two important reasons. First of all, you are not going to finish the entire game in less than five days. Period. Secondly, it's not available in the United States (or even Europe) yet, so there's no way to rent it. If you have played and beaten Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, but crave more, then buying it is a must. You can find the Japanese copies on eBay, and having an instruction booklet in Japanese isn't bad if you already played the first game. But if you're not the hardcore Phoenix Wright fan, want to own the genuine English game, or any other reason, then it won't hurt for you to wait until the game's release in January 2007 (or March 2007 if you live in Europe).

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 12/08/06, Updated 12/11/06