Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

"Seamlessly ties in an engrossing story while remaining intelligent and fun. One of the best text-based games on the DS, and arguably ever."

If my faith or lack thereof in the gaming community is correct, every gamer has one game that they absolutely abhor and think is sickening. For me, this game was Phoenix Wright. Actually, not so much to the extent I might've implied, but I did have quite a large amount of bias and ridicule against this game. I saw a preview for it in an old issue of Nintendo Power (or as I will fondly call it from now on, Ninty Fanboyism) and just laughed. It looked so basic and remedial when it comes to actual intricacies of text based games. However, at a sitathon for a charity fundraiser, a friend of mine brought this game, played parts of it and let me watch, and listen with headphones. Damn he was a good friend...... In case the title or rating haven't already informed you, this review is essentially just a 1200 word+ version of me saying how wrong I was.

The game starts off with Phoenix Wright having to defend his friend Larry from charges of murdering his girlfriend. You can think of this as the tutorial case, because it will only go over how the courtroom gameplay goes. The witness/detective/etc. will give a testimony, and as Phoenix, the defense attorney for every case, your job is to find inconsistencies, contradictions, present evidence, and to press the testifier for information, etc. At first, this sounds extremely boring and trying. However, this game has a sparkling way of keeping everything interesting and still amusing, I'll get into that later.

Back onto gameplay, outside of the courtroom, the gameplay will generally consist of gathering information, checking the crime scene, talking to various people, and building your defense case for the courtroom. My first impressions of this were that it would be easy to miss information, do something wrong, or generally ruin something in this period and trip yourself over in the trial gameplay. This is quite the opposite though; the game runs on a track for the entire time without having that "linear gameplay" feel. You're usually presented an area or person that you need to interact with, but you're not really forced to go there or limited to only doing that. You can still go talk to people and review the information you found out, check for evidence at other areas, etc. The game is still somewhat linear, but it just never felt like I didn't enjoy it.

(bad segue), talking to the witnesses and such in this game proved to be surprisingly fun. Every character is clearly defined in their personality and often will say something funny or say something of importance. If not one, it's usually the either. In fact, there's only one character I can honestly say I didn't like and it was that stupid cop in the last case. Even then, he still somewhat grew on me. The antagonists in the cases are also very well defined. While many of the villains and antagonists are portrayed as the ultimate evil, they are still shown some characteristic regret and sorrow for what they did when they are defeated in court. I know I said this for TWEWY, but frick me, it's much more powerful in this game. I've never actually understood the idea of having sympathy for someone like case four's antagonist, but the game clearly paints a double fault with the character so that you can still condemn the character for their actions but you can still understand the character and almost feel a certain degree of empathy. This game works powerfully with characters and emotions, not to mention that the story line in the game's cases itself are usually so intriguing and provocative that you'll be dying to find how the murder took place or who the criminal was, etc. The cases aren't just stereotypical "hey hugh mann died and he was fighting with his brother" or something to the effect of an obvious case with an obvious resolution. All the cases have deep and intricate plots and designs. I'm still in awe for the fact that four out of the five cases in this game were made in 2001 (this game was originally Japan-only on the GBA but this is a remake with one extra case), when creativity was at a standstill. I've been trying to be careful with this review so that I don't ruin anything in the game in terms of story for any of the readers, because this game's gameplay revolves around its captivating story. If you can't feel some amount of interest for the game when the game combines its pulsating music that gives the impression of intensity with danger while the story takes a dark turn, then you have little appreciation for good writing and you just lack a heart. You have nothing if you don't get even a slightly raised pulse at all through this game.

Oh, the music. I almost forgot this beauty. After reading this review, go onto Youtube and look up the Original Soundtrack for this game. It's so good that it's almost indescribable. Everything is well orchestrated and even thrilling at times. The sadness conveyed from some other themes almost bring a tear to my eye, which is saying something because I have a shard of broken glass for a heart. The music in this game makes great usage of tempo and bass background, and the overall beat and rhythm really establish what mood you should be in for the time it's played. This game has probably one of the best OSTs in any game I've ever played, if only because I appreciate how well it makes use of its music. It follows a different idea than most games; this game doesn't just create music then figure where it should go. Instead, it feels like the game made the story and game then created music to assign to specific parts. I might not have wrote that coherently, but basically I'm saying that this game is heavy on the great music it has. It's almost a cardinal sin to play this game without hearing the music. If you don't hear the music, you'll probably miss out on all the emotional cues, tension, and sorrow that this game will generate.

One last thing I feel it's good to mention even though it's not really related to the quality is the main character, Phoenix. While he's not talkative throughout the investigating phase of the gameplay, he still breaks the mold of "the character you control doesn't speak or have any personality! ^___^". He's a main character that mixes the idea of having input without becoming obnoxiously characterized or having too much expository monologue/dialogue, etc. Plus, it's also worth mentioning that there's a good feeling to solving the cases. I became very connected to the characters, whether it be defendants or Edgeworth, so to see that even through the bleakest of cases and sorrowful standings that there is still a shining way past the wrong was a great feeling. Part of the game's great story comes from its characters, which you become attached to very easily.

You should get this game if you enjoy a good text-based game, because this game does it extremely well while still garnering in gameplay exploits that don't feel tacked on. I cannot convey how great this game is without seeming deranged in some way. It was actually amazing enough to give me a lust to play the other three games in the series, along with the upcoming new one. If you haven't played any of the games in this series, now is the best time to do so with four already out. Start with this game, you'll more than likely enjoy it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/15/09, Updated 07/15/09

Game Release: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (US, 10/12/05)