Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations

"OK, it's released on the NDS, but what else?"

As many readers may already know, "Gyakuten Saiban" was the Japanese name for a court simulation series previously released in Japan. While none of the original titles were previously released in the Western market, the titles adapted for the Nintendo DS saw their advent outside Japan a couple months ago. As you may suppose from the Japanese title, this one is the series' third title, and directly follows the events of the two past games.

The series' concept is quite simple: you're a defense attorney set to defend your client, an action that is not only done in court but also outside of it. This may sound easy, but when you have the game in your hands you'll see that it turns out being slightly more complicated than you may be expecting.

Clearly, gameplay can be split into two basic sequences, one where you have to investigate the whole case, finding evidence and more details on the case you're facing, and one where you'll actually go to court and face people's testimonies. At first, the whole concept may sound quite appealing and an original gameplay experience, but ultimately you'll find that the game isn't that good, a fact that is even easier to spot if you've played the two previous games.

Investigation scenes retain all their previous features, enabling you to travel across several different scenarios, examining particular details, talking to people or showing them specific pieces of evidence you've collected, but since nothing new is presented to the player, fans of the series may feel like they're just playing the previous game. Unlike before, you're usually made to follow a particular plot line, and unless you're playing with a walkthrough just next to you, you'll probably roam aimlessly around each case , checking every area now and then just to figure out where you should be going next.

It's impossible to miss any kind of evidence pertaining to the cases, and it appears that each event only takes place after you've fully unveiled the previous piece of information. If, for example, you've only talked about three of the four available subjects, you can roam around the scenario as much as you want, since the next piece of data won't be appearing at all. Instead of allowing you to explore everything by yourself, the game makes you walk along a path set in stone, which may be unappealing to those who want an experience more driven around exploration and figuring everything by themselves.

Fortunately, such an issue doesn't occur when you're facing the famous court scenes, where you'll usually given more room for mistakes. As before, you can silently explore every statement that the witnesses give you, before using your pieces of evidence to prove that they are lying or omitting important facts, but such strategy isn't advised, as drains the interest out of the game - while reading what people are testifying about, you're supposed to achieve your own conclusions and try to defend them, no matter what the difficulties are.

Almost every testimony in the game follows the stated line, but there's a single one that turns out being slightly harder. Generally, you may be penalized for following wrong ideas, or simply by failing do defend yours, but a very few limited opportunities fall under other rules, and it is a pity that such features weren't explored more often. So, more often than not you'll be following the very same strategy in every testimony, pressing every statement to get more information and then imbuing the new information with particular evidence, hoping that everything goes right - it usually does, unless you're not much of a thinker.

There are no new features in this game, which can be pictured as a port of the original "Gyakuten Saiban 3", where a few minor functions were added. As in the past two games, you can press Y and scream particular phrases to unleash the game's three most important actions, or you may use your stylus to point at certain evidence, but these things were only added to take advantage of this console's special abilities, and nothing else. Every word is exactly in the same place as before, just like every piece of evidence and action, and if you've already played (and understood) the original game, maybe you won't be interested in this one, as they're basically one and the same.

These issues could serve as an evidence that this game is no good, but that's exactly the problem. Unlike you may think, and despite its several flaws, the game is very enjoyable. The storyline is quite appealing, even more enjoyable if you've played the previous titles, and you'll be constantly troubled when it comes to stop playing, as you'll be always wondering and dreaming on what will happen next. That's the game's biggest interest, its story, which is usually presented in a way that tries to appeal to people's curiosity.

Unlike before, where the player was limited to controlling Phoenix Wright, the series' hero, this time you have other opportunities. Your first case is played as Mia Fey, an important character who is here shown facing her very first trial, an event which unveils some important information on the series' past. Apart from the famous Phoenix, later you also get the chance to play as an old friend, an experience that should not be spoiled.

An important note has to be given to the storyline... while this isn't the last game of the series, it turns out being the title that ties all of the knots left by the previous games, and in order to fully understand all the events that take place here you'd better have played the past two games. Fear not, the characters give you most of the information you need to know, taking advantage of small flashbacks, but it turns out being much nicer if you're actually informed about everything that they're talking about.

Such dependency on the story takes this game to an obvious problem, its lack of replay value. Your first trip across the adventure may be an extremely enjoyable one, but after uncovering all the secrets that the game has to offer I strongly doubt you'll find any appeal on replaying it. Provided you want some quick fun, instead of a game that lasts you for quite a while, this game would be perfect for you.


Unfortunately, graphics weren't improved when the game was ported to this console, which is slightly disappointing. Almost everything appears to have been taken from the original game, with the quality of some animations appearing to have been slightly improved. It's nothing too big, those are minor improvements and appear to be visible only in a particular scene, but it made me wonder on why they didn't subject the rest of the game to such a treatment.

In terms of sound, the game suffers the same problems as past games - it contains a few enjoyable themes, but there are also many times where the screen is merely occupied with the upsetting effects produced by surging letters. Everyone lacks voices, unless you count the effects heard in court (which are reduced to insipid "Objection", "Take that" and "Hold it" sequences), and there is surely room for improvement there.


Ultimately, your view of this game heavily depends on how much you liked the past games, as this one barely adds anything new, if you disregard the presence of five new cases. If you're a newbie to the series, you'd better pick the past two games before purchasing this one.

There are lots of better titles out there, and unless you want a short, yet interesting, game I don't think you will like this one. Language isn't really an issue, since the Japanese version of the game allows you to play it all in English, but lack of replay value, repetitiveness and generally low technical features are.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/31/07

Game Release: Gyakuten Saiban 3 (Best Price!) (JP, 08/23/07)