characters grew on me, though, the
individual cases remained my main
source of enjoyment over the course
of the three games. Still, I appreciate
the interplay between random trials
and more personal stories.
MURDER, SHE TRANSLATED
The localisation is Ace Attorney’s
actual star. Ace Attorney is a hilarious
game, highly dependent on wordplay
and overdramatic witnesses being
completely oblivious to the gravity of
the situation they find themselves in.
There’s more than one running gag
that stretches over several episodes,
and like Sega’s Yakuza series, it’s
often just Wright’s deadpan reactions
to everyone else’s outlandish
behaviour that makes following each
interaction so much fun. The
localisation confers each suspect’s
linguistic ticks and is vital to helping
you find out just when they say
something that doesn’t quite add up.
To help illustrate the scope of
influence the localisation has, you
just need to look at the names in the
series. Each character’s name is
usually a pun. Take Phoenix Wright
- his first name was chosen for its
heroic sound, then modified into
“Nick” by several characters,
becoming a literal nickname. His
original name is Ryuichi Naruhodo,
and his surname is actually the
Japanese way to say “right” as an
affirmation. To justify using English
names however, localisation moved
the setting of the entire game. It’s a
drastic decision in order to accurately
localise as many puns as possible,
especially when the Japanese setting
becomes increasingly obvious in the
second and third games. Still, the
frankly ridiculous puns give Ace
Attorney its own charm.
When it comes to having you
uncover evidence, Ace Attorney uses
a curious combination of very eagerly
pushing hints onto you (complete
with marking text passages of
interest in red), and staying
completely schtum. Every piece of
evidence you collect will become
relevant at some point, but
sometimes you only find out by trial
and error what Phoenix is referring
to. When situations enter the
territory of becoming completely
absurd, cases turn into guesswork.
The very creative twists that make
each criminal case so interesting are
also the ones that are so difficult to
puzzle out. Still Ace Attorney avoids
feeling punishing. During my
playthrough I only saw the game
over screen once.
Solving a puzzle feels great,
thanks to the smug way in which
Wright explains his deductions. Ace
Attorney would likely be half as long
if Wright didn’t announce his
breakthroughs in the most dramatic
fashion imaginable, followed by a
lengthy explanation to make sure
everyone’s on board. “You want to
know what this business card
signifies? I’m going to tell you what it
signifies!” Clickbait, in my games?
Thankfully, a simple button press is
enough to skip to the end of a
sentence or to have the text run
slightly faster.THE A-NIME
TEAM
Of course Ace Attorney
wouldn’t be the same
without these antics.
With the smoothed-out
sprites in these HD
remasters, the games
look more like an
anime than ever before.
Ace Attorney also leans heavily on the
tropes associated with anime than
other Japanese games. It’s designed
like an actual TV series, complete
with posters for each episode, end
cards that say “to be continued”,
flashbacks and filler episodes.
Anime calls for drama and highly
unlikely events the same way it calls
for characters with candy-coloured
hair, and from murder to ghostly
possession and kidnapping, Ace
Attorney has it all. All the screaming,
copious amounts of screenshake
(which you can disable) and
character’s going “what’s the
meaning of this?!” can get a bit much,
especially when the formula remains
unchanged across three games, but it
is satisfying to watch suspects
become increasingly desperate.Justice For All adds additional
elements to the overall formula – the
option to use character profiles as
evidence, finally putting them to use,
and the Magatama, a mystic stone
that tells you if someone is lying to
you during investigations. This allows
you to object to people’s tomfoolery
outside the courtroom and get
witnesses to give up their secrets.
These are small additions to existing
gameplay rather than anything new.
Had Capcom at any point decided to
get rid of them again, I wouldn’t have
missed them.
Game number three, Trials and
Tribulations, is the weakest of the
three games. Being 50 percent
flashbacks, it adds context to events
discussed in prior
games, but the pacing
is off. To my mind the
episodes would have
worked better in
between more exciting
trials to help keep thing
ticking. The tutorial
episodes at the
beginning of each game
are also definitely weaker than others- they take place entirely inside the
courtroom and are full of hints.
Despite this, Ace Attorney hooks
you the same way any good crime
serial does: you want to know
whodunit, and how, and once you do,
you want to point your finger at the
criminal in a heroic manner and
laugh. I dare you not to fall in love
with Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
when the verdict hits the screen in
big, bold letters, and the room erupts
intocheersandconfetti.
83
Just what a visual novel
should be, fun characters
and the rush of solving
mysteries make you
eager to keep going.VERDICTEverypiece of
evidence will
become
relevant at
some pointWITNESS ME
Some of the whackiest characters on the standWENDY OLDBAG
A typical elderly woman,
Wendy calls young people
“whippersnappers”.MAX GALACTICA
He may look like Kefka from
Final Fantasy VI, but Max is
surprisingly sweet.FURIO TIGRE
He’s what happens when
Ace Attorney spoofs more
action-oriented anime.Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy
REVIEW