Phoenix Wright had a good run. He starred in 3 great games and will stay in a special spot in our hearts forever. Of course, who's going to take his spot in court? Capcom decides to add a new hero, Apollo Justice, to defend witnesses from their Guilty verdict with a new, totally unexpected partner named Trucy WRIGHT. That's right, it's Phoenix's Wright's daughter! How did this happen you say? You'll have to play the game to find out.
-Investigation: CSI style
In every case (sans the first), you have to go into an Investigation phase, where you'll find out small details of the case a little at a time. The game decides to still stick with their menu-driven gameplay. The bottom screen of your DS is used to examine evidence, talk to people, etc., all using the 4 menu buttons (Move, Talk, Examine, and Present). You pretty much press this button, press that button (or tap if you want to use the stylus, which can be used the whole game since it's a point and click adventure) until you get all the information you need. You go place-to-place with the Move button, talk to people with the talk button, examine the location with the Examine button, and present evidence with the Present button.
If it sounds boring, it is. However, people don't play for the gameplay; they play for the story. Everytime they have a new event, they read every word to the letter, wanting to know what's going to happen next. They can't wait to squeeze every bit of information out of their witnesses.
However, that's one of the main flaws of the game. If you don't present the right evidence at the right time, or found this item at this place, you're stuck in the game. If you make it a point to throughly check everything at the location you're in, then you'll be stuck less often, but it's a major pain to search this item only to get a side conversation of the characters talking. Sometimes they're funny and worth it, other times it's just a waste of time. Not only that, although you'll need to present a certain piece of evidence to a certain witness in order to progess the story (which is natural of course), the game rarely gives you hints on the what and the who, forcing you to present pretty much all your evidence to one guy. Plus, the item that does the trick is sometimes something that the character has NO relation to.
However, there are some good things. One thing for example is the fake CSI investigation minigames (I use that term loosely). At certain parts of the game, you get to dabble a little in forensic science like dusting for fingerprints, taking shoe molds, etc. They all utilize at least one function of the DS, be it the touch screen or the microphone, which is a definite plus. However fun the minigames may seem, they are severely under-used. But... it's still a nice distraction.
-Court is now in session...
After going through with the investigation phase, you're awarded by going to court. This is where the real fun begins. This is where you get to do battle with the totally awesome rock-star/ prosecutor Klavier Gavin, who's the coolest prosecutor since Miles Edgeworth (who sadly, makes no appearance in this game) to ever grace the stage, and I'm sure the fans will agree with me. He even has an awesome air guitar solo!
Sorry, getting off topic. Anyway, this is where you'll break down witnesses by reading their side of the story (or testimony) and finding contradictions, or "holes" in their story with evidence (ex. She says "I was here at this time" and you prove that she "was here at that time" with this photograph). It's a good feeling to use your brain to find out what's the lie in their story, but sometimes their stories have no contradictions, and you need to "press" the witness to get more information (...not like that you pervert!). Once you do find their lie, you get an another testimony and have to do it all over again. It sounds tedious, but the story's too riveting to care.
However, if Capcom just left this alone, vetern Ace Attorney players will find that there's nothing new to offer and get bored. So Capcom added a new way to break witnesses at certain parts of the game, the Perceive bracelet button. If a witness is way too nervous to stand still behind their podium, then they'll express it with their nervous habit. You then find their nervous habit by pressing the button at a certain part of the testimony, which then transforms the screen into a close-up of the witness, where you can look around for the nervous habit. It's fun to do actually, and with each one, it gets harder to find the next one (except in the very last case, which is PAINFULLY obvious). It's just too bad that there's so few of these situations...
Closing Comments...
That's pretty much the game in a nutshell. You go to investigate, go to court, and repeat until finished. It seems boring, but each of the 4 cases has an exciting story that'll keep you curious until the end of the case. Although the game is good, it's fairly low budget. Character animation way often repeat themselves, graphics aren't up to par with the DS's 3-D capablities (it's mostly 2-D sprites and backgrounds), and the whole menu-driven gameplay seems overrated. However though, the story's too awesome to pass up, the court scenes gives you a certain feeling of adrenaline, and the musical score in this game, while not as good as previous ones, is SO darn good. So if you're the kind of person who just wants to blow stuff up and don't want to read, don't waste your money with this one. If you love a good story, reading books, or just want to play an Ace Attorney game again, then add this little gem to your collection!
Leviathyn.com | As a person who loves video games, I really enjoyed Apollo Justice. But as person who loves Phoenix Wright games, Apollo Justice has my heart in a muddled, confused mess.
Walk around with chibi Phoenix Wright on your cell phone.
PlanetDS have held an interesting interview with Shu Takumi from Capcom, developer of Ace Attorney and the new ds adventure game Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective.
In my opinion, Ghost Trick is more challenging as Phoenix Wright! Perhaps a new series, even for the 3DS?
I love Capcoms game and Shu Takumi knows his stuff. Ace Attorney, Apollo Justice and Ghost Trick looks cool now, too. Didn't he mention a 3DS version?
"With the Nintendo 3DS coming out soon, will Ghost Trick be one of your last Nintendo DS games or will you still develop for the current model?"
Shu Takumi: "I can only guess as you would – but perhaps this would be the last…?"
No more Ace Attorney for the Nintendo DS then...
as long as the serie evolve on another support that's not a problem. the ace attorney saga is powerfull enough to get other episode IMO .. but i'll welcome ghost tricks with pleasure
I really like the idea of time travel to prevent murder. Now they would just need that Ace can review the cases. A cross over with Attorney :D
Why isn't Edgeworth in this one (*cry*):(