Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

"Excellent text-based court drama/comedy with a few objections"

It's been quite an enjoyable experience.

Story Summary:
You play Phoenix Wright, a rookie defense attorney fresh out of law school. In all 5 episodes, you are tasked with defending your client. Unfortunately, the prosecution's evidence and witnesses are seemingly solid to start. Thus, you have to gather evidence and then present evidence in court during cross-examination of the prosecution's witnesses to try to find flaws in their testimonies. Not only does Phoenix eventually prove the innocence of his clients, he will also discover the real perpetrator of the crime.

Gameplay:
You navigate through the game with a point-and-click interface, well-suited for the DS. Basically, the game gives you a list of options as clickable buttons that you press with your stylus. For example, if you want to move from one location to the next, click the Move button and choose the location that you want to travel next from a list of buttons.

When you choose to examine a scene, you'll be able to use your stylus to point to specific things you want to examine. If there is any information or item about the place you clicked, the game will let you know.

During the trial, you use your stylus to page through witness testimony and present evidence that contradict the witnesses' testimonies.

In episode 5, the game will expand the use of your stylus by having it simulate blood-finding spray and fingerprint powder.

The DS microphone is used for optionally saying "Objection!" and "Hold It!", but you can just use the stylus for those functions.

The game is text-based and plays out like a "choose-your-own adventure" game.
You pick an option, and the game tells you what happens.

This game can be picked up by just about anybody. There are no time-sensitive sequences or scenes requiring reflex. All you need is your mind. In addition, the game will not let you miss evidence, and all evidence you collect is relevant to the case. You simply cannot lose or miss something during investigation, so talk to everybody and search everywhere. Since you can "suspend and save" the game at any time, and the game is text-driven with prompts, you can play this game in short intervals, if you wish. This is a very accessible game for all.

Graphics:
The game is primary text-based. The graphics are mostly well-drawn 2D art and very reminiscent of an anime art. Characters have minimal animation, but the animation they do have are extremely effective at conveying emotions or gestures. In episode 5, the 2D art is more detailed, and the game makes use of simple 3D art for certain pieces of evidence.

I must emphasize that the overall presentation of the graphics emulates the feel of watching an anime episode.

Sound/Music:
The music and sound appear to be GBA-quality, but they get the job done. Sound effects sound "correct." The music does a very good job of conveying the atmosphere of the situation, character you are interviewing, or the mood of the situation in trial.

The sound and music work nicely in this game, but I don't feel it is very memorable outside of it. It's not driving music or music to listen to at home.

Storyline:
This is probably the most important aspect of this game. The game is basically a collection of fictional court stories with a just the right amount of comedy. If you have seen shows like Law and Order, Perry Mason, and Matlock, then you'll probably be used to the game's style. You might be able to guess at what is going to happen next, but there are enough plot twists to keep you on your toes. Sometimes, it looks like you are winning, but something happens to cause you to start losing. Then when it looks like defeat, you are able to fight back from the brink. This kind of crazy dynamic in the story keeps you going. You'll likely be surprised at how elaborate some of the cases are in the last 3 episodes. The stories are generally engaging and intriguing. Surprisingly, for a court room drama, there quite a few comedic moments and hilarious quotes.

Flaws to this game:
One flaw in this game is the fact that logic doesn't always work the way you think you should in the trials. First of all, the game does not follow typical Western courtroom practices, not even ones we might see in fictional courtroom dramas. The game presumes the defendant is guilty until proven innocent by Phoenix. Phoenix doesn't call his own witnesses, unless dictated by the storyline. He can only cross-examine the prosecution's witnesses.

In order to poke holes in witness testimony, you must present evidence that contradicts at the right portion of the testimony. Unfortunately, there were certain portions of testimony where I felt a piece of evidence could be used, but the game would not let me. The game is very specific as to which dialogue you can use a piece of evidence, so you have to make sure you reveal as much testimony as you can.

Another problem with the trials is that the game acts like a flow chart. If you press the witness on the same portion of the testimony, you'll get the same dialogue repeatedly. However, the game does not always do this in the latter cases, where you may have to press the witness more than once in the same portion of testimony to reveal new information. So, it threw me off, because I was conditioned to think that the game would just repeat dialogue if I kept pressing the same portion of testimony in the earlier cases, and I just assumed all cases would work like then when it didn't.

In conclusion, the trials are not strictly logical. If you try to tackle the trial on a very logical basis, you will lose the trial. There are situations where you have to pick choices that would seemingly cause you to lose, but it actually advances the story further. There are also situations where you may have done everything right, but you are still on the losing end of things. Then a deus ex machina or plot twist occurs to save Phoenix from a defeat. So, if you think of the trial as a story rather than a logical legal proceeding, you'll probably sense when you need to do something seemingly "illogical" in the trial to keep going.

The only other flaw is that there is little replay value. Once the game is done, you know what happens in the stories, so you can't replay it right away. You can try replaying it after you've forgotten the stories, but that is about it.

The flaws I have with this game, taken as a whole, are minor, as the rest of the game is strong.

Conclusion:
This is a nicely done game that finds a non-novel use of the DS stylus. It has entertaining and intriguing storylines that mimic fictional court dramas but adds just the right amount of comedy to ensure the mood is not 100% serious.

Despite the text adventure nature of this game, you'll probably spend at least 15 hours getting through all 5 episodes. That is quite a bit of content, considering the length of typical TV shows. So, I think $30 for 5 "episodes" of "interactive" anime is not too bad.

This game is recommended.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/17/05, Updated 10/18/05