Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Justice for All

"Best served cold..."

It's been a little over a year since I stepped into the courtroom as Mr. Phoenix Wright in the quirky and wildly original game from the good folks at Capcom who provided gamers with an opportunity to be thrust in a funny, shocking, and unforgettable world of investigations, objections, and, of course, verdicts. Now, the title to this sequel is “Justice for All”, but does the game serve justice to where it matters most? Does the game do justice to the original?

Just let me start things off by getting that question out of the way. It does. Justice for All proves to be faithful to the original game in the sense that it is just as good as the original. Unfortunately, this means that Justice for All doesn't break any boundaries, but at least it's not taking giant leaps back like some sequels tend to do.

Actually, some features that were present in the original don't show up in Justice for All. You see, the Phoenix Wright games are basically ports of Game Boy Advance games that were previously exclusive to Japan, but when the DS was released, Capcom saw a shining opportunity to expand the public knowledge of their courtroom drama, and it works brilliantly. With the re-release of the first game though, there were some new features that took advantage of the DS's unprecedented capabilities. All of these new features, like examining evidence in three-dimensional view and such, have been scratched since there are no new cases added to this port of Justice for All. They just kept all the original stuff and mixed in the new basic game play mechanics that the original introduced.

This laziness is somewhat disappointing, but you'll get over it in a flash when you realize that the game play foundation that the first set is even stronger in Justice for All. The thrilling moments in court where you slowly start to piece the puzzle together and nail contradiction after contradiction seems even sweeter. There are moments where the game really screws with you and throws something out of left field, which I felt kind of took from the thunder, but it's all good…assuming you know how to abuse the save feature.

And that's another thing. There needs to be some sort of checkpoint system incorporated to make these games a tad less frustrating. Either that or make the text entirely optional. Reading through it once or twice is one thing since it's so brilliantly written and clever, but having to climb over the mountains and mountains of text just to get to one or two places becomes tiresome and annoying.

But enough about the old stuff that the game retains from the original. It's time to hop into the game play mechanics that Justice for All introduces to the series and see if it works or not.

Firstly, instead of a simple health point system from the first game to determine how to punish you for being wrong in court, the game adopts a health bar. Big difference, right? Actually, it is. You see, this health bar is your health bar throughout the entirety of the case, even during investigation sessions in-between trials. You can actually refill this health bar to give you a better chance in court.

How do you do this? Enter psyche-locks. Early on in the game, you'll unlock the ability to tell whether people or lying or not. By collecting enough evidence, you can find out what they're hiding from you. This actually works great and it feels like the exciting courtroom segments are integrated into the investigation portions, which was a brilliant move by Capcom if I do say so myself. They can become frustrating at times, especially since they can take away from your health bar, but at other times once you're on a roll, they can really come in handy if you're successful and given more life to use in the courtroom.

There's also less of a focus on randomly scouring the environments for clues and there's more of a focus on getting into the character's minds and discovering the mystery that way. I really enjoyed this approach more and it made the entire experience smoother and less boring.

Another new feature involves the court record. While before you could only present pieces of evidence, you are now granted the ability to present people as evidence. This helps fix the problem of the game being much too vague on what it wants to be shown on evidence and prevents needless frustration. Basically, Capcom has done a great job refining the game play that the first introduced while staying true to the mechanics that made the first so popular.

All that is fine and good, but the real reason why anyone would want to play a Phoenix Wright game is the storyline. I'm not saying that the game play doesn't matter, it does (and it's a lot of fun), but the storyline is just so great that it really overshadows everything else. Presented like an anime or a manga, Justice for All tells the story of Phoenix Wright, finally reunited with his friend Maya, as he gets wrapped up in all the usual drama. The game connects with the first well and throws in a bunch of new and awesome characters that are just as unforgettable as the ones we already know, plus there are a ton of plot twists that will cause your jaw to create a large hole in your floor. Mix this brilliant story telling with the charm and suspense that Justice for All provides, and you have one of the best storylines you can experience on Nintendo's handheld.

Like I said, the game is presented in a style akin to an anime or a manga. This is all fine and good, and it looks great for most of the time with some nice animations here and there, but there is definitely room for improvement. Some of the graphics just look way too much like the GBA, and I realize this is a port, but it would have been nice to see some more work done to make this game more presentable. Also, there are a lot of very noticeable titles throughout the adventure that sort of take away from how awesome the writing is otherwise.

Much of the audio from the first game is recycled for the sequel, but that's not too bad of a thing considering the soundtrack of the first game was actually quite good for the most part. I wish there were more original tunes to listen to, and some of the music just doesn't fit with whatever situation is going on, but generally, the audio experience is quite nice. There were some annoying sound effects that did dampen the mood a bit though and caused me to turn the volume down on my DS.

The first game lasted nearly fifteen hours, though this was probably because of the added content at the end of the game. Justice for All is a good five hours shorter than the first, but that's still quite a long gaming experience. I was disappointed at the lack of replayability once again since you will probably have very little to no incentive to go back through this game again since it's so text-heavy. Something needs to be done by Capcom to give the Phoenix Wright games some more weight.

When the final verdict is passed and the ending scenes play out, you'll be left starving for more. The game play remains true to its predecessor, but it is all a more refined and entertaining experience, with new game play mechanics that really add a lot. The graphics need an upgrade and there needs to be something to give gamers a reason to pick the game up after the initial play through, but besides these minor complaints, Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Justice for All is an awesome game with an enthralling storyline and characters who you will be talking about years from now.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/22/09

Game Release: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Justice for All (US, 01/16/07)