"Gyakuten Saiban 3 + a strange gap in time = this game"

If you're reading this review, chances are that you've already played the first three games of the “Gyakuten Saiban” series, known outside Japan as “Ace Attorney”. Also, unlike what happened to the first three Nintendo DS games, which were basically ports of Gameboy Advance titles, this one is a fully new title, complete with a whole new protagonist and tons of new characters. While some players may like this change, others will spot some evident problems, and that's something that severely hurts your gameplay experience.

As before, storyline plays a major rule in this game, and even thought the main character from the past games appears in this game, nothing is told about what happened to the other characters. Once in a while, you may spot a few subtle hints, but nothing is too clear about it. Since everyone is just too young to have normally died, a huge blank is left in the game's storyline, and that ends up being a major plot hole. Don't misunderstand me, the four cases available in this game are rather enjoyable on their own, but those who played the first three games are left wondering on what happened in the many years that separate this game from its predecessor.

Although some events are explained as part of this game's storyline, the strange absence of many famous characters is never fully explained, and when you're trying to find yourself immersed in a case, that ends up being a detail that seriously harms your experience. So, unlike what happened in the previous three games, this ends up being a game where, at the end, several questions are left unanswered, begging for a sequel that will eventually come.

In terms of gameplay, the concept is still the same as in the past games: you're a defence 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, requiring lots of exploration and thinking, slightly like a modern Sherlock Holmes' novel, except that you must also defend your client on a court of law.

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. In this area, the game also presents a few new details, as you're allowed to see 3D versions of some evidence collected and apply certain actions to them, although those are only possible as part of the storyline and nothing else. Dusting for fingerprints and reading the inside of letters are only some of the few actions possible, but they're fully imbued in the storyline, meaning that you can only use them when you're supposed to, and only on the items you're supposed to, which makes your experience a lot more predictable.

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.

When it comes to the famous court scenes, you're usually given more room for mistakes. As before, you can usually 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. The thing is... unlike what happened in the past games, a witness may now be lying. Since this would makes cases just too difficult, your character is given a magical bracelet, which tells you when someone is actually lying.

Obviously, that's far from realistic, but it relies on a very interesting idea. According to the information available in the game, people tend to perform a certain action when they're nervous, and by closely giving a look to a witness' physical traits, you'll be able to figure out during what part of their speech they're lying. Some people touch their glasses, others stop moving one of their hands, and that's the sort of thing that you'll have to try to spot in particular sections of the witnesses' testimonies.

Once in a while, you'll also be able to reconstruct crime scenes and take advantage of the multimedia functions that the Nintendo DS has to offer, but unfortunately those sequences are very limited, and you'll probably feel like they were just misused, due to their limited frequency. Some more sequences like those would have probably made this a more enjoyable game. Generally, you'll be penalized for following wrong ideas, or simply by failing do defend yours, and that leads to an odd cycle, where 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.

Presenting the player with just four cases, the play time this product has to offer is rather limited. You'll probably enjoy every minute of your adventure, both the exploration sequences and the court scenes, but this ends up being the kind of title you'll put down for good once you've completed it once. Let's face it, this game has close to no replay value, and even if it may take you up to 30 hours to complete the main storyline, that'll be it, you won't be touching it again, unless you had the opportunity to purchase the limited edition, which included “Gyakuten Saiban Jiten”, an extra cart with a lot of information on the previous three chapters of the series.

Be aware that the extra cart isn't really a game, but it contains lots of information on every character, evidence, scenario and storyline of the first three games, a pearl that all Japanese fans of the series will surely enjoy, and which was unfortunately left out of the Western releases.

In terms of graphics, this title features the same quality seen in the past three games. Once in a while, you'll see multimedia sequences that look shinier, but those are rare and terribly limited, as I previously mentioned.

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.

Since the Japanese version of this game doesn't contain an “English” option, this ends up being a fairly restricted product, which only those who can understand the language will fully enjoy. Nevertheless, an English version of the game is already out, and unless you want the bonus content, which may be fairly hard to get these days, you'll be happy with that one.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/07/08

Game Release: Gyakuten Saiban 4 (Limited Edition) (JP, 04/12/07)