399th played so far
Genre: Adventure
Platform: DS
Year of Release: 2005
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Prior to us playing the game for this blog, I mostly knew the Phoenix Wright series through word of mouth. People got quite obsessed with it for a while – something slightly obnoxiously so – and beyond that I never felt too interested in investigating.
On its own merits though, it seems like a fun enough premise – an adventure game starring a lawyer, trying to solve cases and defend the innocent in court. That first part reminds me a bit of Discworld Noir, which I enjoyed at the time (and want to play again!) although obviously with some different focuses.
Our Thoughts
First, the one clear annoyance: Realistic, this is not. Aside from all the investigation advantages, one thing that occasionally got to me were the repeated “That’s not how it works in court!” feelings. Trickiest? The amount of intentional lies would normally send some witnesses to their own case for contempt of court or perjury, while the way evidence is treated (including not making it available for both sides prior to the case) seems too easy to mess things up om real life.
But that’s fine. The game clearly goes for the cinematic feel, like a courthouse drama. A lot of that actually becomes quite boring – there is a lot of text to read through, where you have to carefully step through a witness statement to find its weak point, or where you’re waiting for a lot of characterisation to pay off. It’s good text – well written and entertaining, but you might feel you want to actually play a bit more often. This just isn’t one of those games though. It’s about the text, the interaction between several larger than life characters, and resolving the mysteries of various whodunnits in the court room. Interaction outside court is limited to moving between locations, talking to people (and showing them items) and searching rooms for clues, which are often clear enough.
There are no real puzzles to solve – item use is limited to using it at the right point in a conversation or court case and most thinking comes from what points to press.
As muchas that may sound as a criticism though, it really isn’t. Because of the low number of interactions, there are few opportunities for outright failure. The game is constructed so you can’t really miss any clues – the Monkey Island method – and the bits where you can go wrong (with the judge’s patience) are generous in their timing and don’t allow for much deviation anyway.
With a fairly simple gameplay, the storytelling has to be up to scratch, and it is where the game does shine. The characters are lively, amusing, but following along with Phoenix Wright works well as the goofy attorney who’s great when in the courtroom. It’s a world of heightened character – Phoenix Wright’s boss, the most grounded character, exits stage right after the first chapter – where the prosecutor hides evidence and makes back alley deals, witnesses get overly sexual and everything feels larger than life. The mysteries, in the mean time, are compelling, making you wonder what happened and how you’ll pull Phoenix Wright out of a bad situation next. At the same time, the plot resolves in such small steps that the way of reaching the conclusion often seem logical, you can follow all deductions.
The cases themselves link together, creating an undergoing narrative linked through weapons and characters. They are multi-layered, requiring several phases of investigation and court room work.
We played the DS version, which has an extra chapter with more detective options at the end of the game. We didn’t really get to play with that, but it already seems unnecessary. Just solving these murders is fun enough.
Final Thoughts
To be honest I expected something more along the lines of Trauma Center: Under the Knife,ย but I was pleasantly surprised by just how engrossing it was. In many ways it was like taking on the role of a character in a legal procedural drama… especially in the ways that certain elements of criminal proceedings are just ignored. I tell you, if my time on jury service was anything like the courtrooms in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney I would have begged to stay on for longer.