Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations

"Contradiction or not, this is the final act of Phoenix Wright"

Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations marks the end of the road for our favourite defence lawyer, Phoenix Wright. Much like the previous two games, Trials and Tribulations is a direct port of the GBA game of the same name. Given its heritage, one would expect everything that made the series an enjoyable gaming experience to reappear in Phoenix Wright's last appearance in court. And you would be right. In fact, nothing much changed since we last saw our beloved lawyer.

Plot

Right off the first case, there is something a little different about Trials and Tribulations. You do not get to play as Phoenix Wright. In fact, Phoenix Wright was arrested and put on trial in the first case. You actually play as Wright's boss and mentor, Mia Fey. It is a flash back case which, just like the first case in the previous two instalments, acts as a tutorial. Thereafter, you're back to being the spiky haired lawyer that gets picked on by every prosecutors.

The new prosecutor this time round is a coffee addict who thinks wearing an X-Men Cyclops visor is fun. After the extremely abusive and irritating prosecutor in Justice for All (the second game), it is nice to see that the worst this prosecutor can do is to throw a hot cup of coffee across the court (and spill it all over our hero). He is a lot less annoying than the previous one.

Much like the previous games in the series, there are five cases in Trials and Tribulations. Each case is a standalone, but many things are common across multiple cases, and some of the cases are related. A witness from one case could be a witness in another, etc.

While you don't need to play the previous two games to know what is happening in the third, it helps greatly if you have played them before. Much of anything in Trials and Tribulations relates to one thing or another in the previous games.

For those who have played the previous Phoenix Wright games, you will encounter many familiar faces. Especially during the last case, you will recognise even more faces, including the prosecutors from the previous Phoenix Wright games. So having played the earlier games will certainly help with your understanding of the Phoenix Wright world, though it is not essential.

The judge is back, and is as useless as ever. You would have thought that he would grow wiser after presiding ten of Phoenix Wright's cases, but no, he didn't. Let's just say that he is only keeping his job because he hasn't delivered a wrong verdict yet.

Much like the previous two games, the last case is a long drawn out, battle to the death, most melodramatic cases of all. The previous cases are just a setup for the final showdown. Whatever case it might be, it gives great satisfaction as you slowly reveal the truth behind the crime.

Gameplay

Gameplay is virtually unchanged from Justice for All. The psyche-lock is back, which means more back tracking. Each case is still split into two main parts, investigation and court session, though not all cases have both. In investigation mode, Phoenix Wright, the detective-cum-lawyer that you play as, is to visit places and interview people to gather evidence that will be used in the court session that follows to disprove "witnesses" testimonies and prove the innocence of your client.

Sometimes while interviewing people, a psyche-lock will appear. That indicates that the person is hiding something, or in the very least, unwilling to share their information with you. You will need to unlock it by presenting him or her with evidence and / or profile that you have collected. Most of the time, though, you will not have enough evidence when you first encounter the psyche-lock, which means you will have to collect more evidence somewhere else, or interviewing other people before you can come back and unlock it. Fortunately, these psyche-locks are few and far between, so you don't have much back tracking to do.

During court session, it is time for you to do your finger pointing, literally. The witnesses will testify against your client, and it is your job to find the contradiction in their testimonies. Common sense usually works here, all you have to do is to check their statements against the evidence that you have. But sometimes, the so-called 'contradiction' is not what you would expect, and common sense goes straight out the window. When you eventually stumble onto the 'contradiction', you would think, "what does THAT have to do with anything?". It could be frustrating sometimes. But for the most part, you just need to look at your court records (where your evidence / profiles are stored) carefully. The green 'health' bar is back, and depending on the importance of the question being asked, a wrong piece of evidence or the wrong answer could jeopardise your case and put your client behind bars for good.

For the whole game, you will be going between investigating and court session until the case is solved. In an effect to ensure that you do their way (and not yours), Capcom 'forces' you to obtain everything that you need before you can trigger the next scene. For example, you must get a particular item before you can unlock someone's psyche-lock. It restricts the gameplay somewhat, but that's nothing new. If you have played the previous two games, you would know what to expect in Trials and Tribulations.

Unlike the first Phoenix Wright game, there is no DS exclusive case (that's reserved for Apollo Justice). But you can still use the mic to shout your "Objections!", among others. Stylus can also be used to go through dialogues, presenting evidence, etc.

There is basically no difference between the second and the third game in terms of the gameplay. If you have played Justice for All, you will know how to play Trials and Tribulations. If any of the bad points ever stopped you from playing the previous Phoenix Wright games, then it probably will stop you from playing this one.

Graphics

No improvement whatsoever over the last two games. There are new faces, but there are also many familiar ones, and with that, many familiar looks, expressions and the likes. You can almost say that it is lazy on Capcom's part to use old sprites for a new game. But the old characters still fits well in the new game. True, Capcom might be lazy, but it is nice to see some familiar faces. The anime style and the simple sprite movements still work well here, albeit repetitive after three games.

As a standalone, the bright coloured background and the detailed characters is a great selling point of this game. It will appeal to younger players.

Sound

Again, no major improvement in the sound department. The BGM is still mostly the same. While it brings back fond memories of the previous games, it does feel lacking. The only difference is in the last case. There are some much need new tunes.

The text scrolling sound is forever present, and it can get annoying after a while, and there is no option to turn it off. So you will just have to put up with it.

The familiar sound of "Objection!" and other phrases are still here, but there are now more people (both defence lawyers and prosecutors alike) saying it.

Replay Value

Much like every game of this nature, there is not much replay value after you have solved the cases. However, like the previous game, the Japanese version contains the Japanese as well as the English game. So if you so inclined, and able, you might like to play the Japanese version. That is, of course, if you import the Japanese version.

That said, there is something that someone said in the last case that could prompt players to replay a previous case.

Overall

Having virtually no improvement over Justice for All, you could easily write off Trials and Tribulations as a "failure" in the sense that it offers nothing new. But it is here that you are wrong. Granted, many characters are the same, many of the game mechanics are the same and many of the sounds are the same. But playing Phoenix Wright is never about stunning graphics, or memorable tunes, or a new way to nail people for murder. Playing Phoenix Wright is all about the story. And in that sense, it excels over its predecessors. It ties the loose ends together, and offers the players a look into the events that made the characters who they are today.

If you enjoyed the first two games, you will enjoy Trials and Tribulations. If you didn't enjoy them, then you probably shouldn't be reading this review. If you haven't play any of the games in the series, doing some background readings will help you understand its constant references to older cases in the previous games. Either way, Trials and Tribulations is a fitting end to the Phoenix Wright saga. Next up, Apollo Justice.

Good:

* Great story
* Interesting characters
* Familiar faces

Bad:

* Virtually no gameplay improvement over the last game

Score (out of 10)

Plot: 8
Gameplay: 7
Graphics: 8
Sound: 6
Replay: 3

Overall: 8

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/19/08

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