Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Review

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Murder, fabricated evidence, betrayal, and super spikey hair. Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney has it all. Originally released for the Game Boy Advance, it wasn’t ported to North America until 2005 when the international version was released for the Nintendo DS. The crime-solving, lawyer simulation game was developed and released by Capcom. Would Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney manage to sway the opinion of the court to positive reviews? Hope there is no OBJECTION to this Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney review!

Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Plot:

SPOILERS:

You take control of Phoenix Wright, a newbie defense attorney who has been hired at the “Fey & Co.” law firm. Throughout the game, you will investigate and represent five defendants through five cases.

The first case has you representing your childhood friend Harry, (whoops) I mean Larry Butz. Anyway, your friend Larry isn’t the brightest bulb, but he has been charged with the murder of his girlfriend with an eyewitness claiming they saw him leaving the scene of the crime. It turns out that the real murderer is the eyewitness. This case acts as a tutorial and shows you how to present evidence, when to object, and how to cross-examine witnesses.

This is where one of the more shocking deaths in video games occur. Your boss who is super cute and acts as your mentor throughout the first case is MURDERED! I was shocked during my Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney review and thought she was going to be a main character throughout the entire series! Instead, you’re stuck defending her sister who is charged with the murder after an eyewitness sees her standing over the body of your boss shortly after she is killed.

Your rival Miles Edgeworth is the prosecutor who is currently undefeated and acts like a hotshot. You are representing Maya, the younger sister of your boss who is also cute. She’s caught in a bad trap as the real killer had a fake eyewitness account at the hotel across the street. The killer was a professional blackmailer who was using the system to his advantage until Phoenix Wright serves up a dish of justice! Once you get Maya off (whoa there, she’s only 17!) she joins you as your assistant and helps you through the other cases.

The next case revolved around a famous children’s tv show very similar to Power Rangers. The superhero from the show is charged with murder as his co-star and evil villain is slain in real life! There’s a lot going on in this case but the murder was committed by the producer.

The fourth case has you defending your arch-rival, Miles Edgeworth! He’s been charged with the murder of attorney Robert Hammond. At this point, the cases are almost so bizarre and there’s so much involved with each plot point that I won’t go into details other than the fact that you defend Miles and he is set free from the murder.

The final case in the game finds Phoenix Wright defending a girl named Lana who has already confessed to the murder of a detective who was found in the truck of Miles’ car! This case will take a few days to crack but it’s well worth it as the finale of the game. In the end, Phoenix Wright is undefeated as an attorney and has gained a respected reputation in the law career.

Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Gameplay:

Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney is unlike any other game before it. Every case is presented in a 2D view as characters are investigated, cross-examined, and interrogated. There’s no character movement, instead, you can select where you want to go to investigate for clues or talk to witnesses. A magnifying glass will pop up on the screen and you use it to look for clues or to gain information on an item.

Every single character and case are extremely well-written, clever, and full of puns or jokes. I loved watching the characters during my Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney review break down during the trial as their reactions, facial expressions, and body posture changes the more you press them or point out the lies in their testimonies. There’s nothing like screaming “Objection!” as you put the final nail in the coffin to the prosecutor’s case.

This is no walk in the park, Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney was a challenge to my wife. She had to use all her critical thinking skills during the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney review when defending the clients. It’s important to know when to object instead of pressing every single testimony because eventually the judge will get tired of your act and deduct points away from you. Get deducted too much and you lose the case. The cases continue to grow longer the more you progress throughout the game. The first case my wife beat within an hour or two but the last case took a few days to beat as the evidence kept changing or a new witness was found. Each case becomes more advanced with the final case having my wife dust for fingerprints, watch security tape, sprayed for blood, and cracked a safe full of evidence.

If you have ADHD this game probably isn’t for you. You need to pay attention to all the dialogue or risk missing a key testimony or piece of evidence to present in court. If you love putting together a case, solving crimes, and defending the innocent, you won’t find a better game.

Memories:
My wife played this game after I bought this game for Christmas for her on the Nintendo Switch. She liked the rivalry with Miles Edgeworth as he is a tough opponent but she ended up defending him. Once she took him on as a client she started to like him.

The inclusion of dusting for prints and spraying for blood added another layer of gameplay to break up the long dialogue scenes that happened often. The evidence has to be presented in a certain way during a specific time or else it will be thrown out. There were a few times my wife knew what the conclusion was but didn’t know when to present the evidence and was deducted points. I know that riled her up during the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney review! She enjoyed the challenge of the cases, and this certainly isn’t for kids. You need to use critical thinking skills and piece together the case.