More than just a popular source of memes, Phoenix Wright has become a very iconic part of the online gaming culture and has been subject to countless webcomics and other media. The pointing hand and the spiky hair has probably reached you dozens of times without you even knowing that this is actually a game. That is because the concept of basing a game on the court of law would seem like yawnfest. What about humor? Large breasts? Samurais? This is what we demand as young adolescent gamers today, and thankfully, this is exactly what Phoenix Wright delivers in an intelligent, hilarious, stylish and engaging package somewhat related to playing a defense attorney.
Gameplay/Story
You are Phoenix Wright, a fledgling defense attorney receiving his first case as the game begins. The story follows you and your clients and colleagues through four cases. A few central characters remain throughout the game and keeps it familiar. There is your nemesis, Prosecutor Edgeworth, Your mentor Mia Fey, her little sister Maya as well as officer Gumshoe. These characters form the framework of each case and provides you with important hints and evidence. Maya is your sidekick throughout the game, a quirky spirit medium (my least favourite character, although they are all great). The story is really the whole game here and without spoiling anything, its spectacular and immensely engaging. There is a main storyline as well as the four separate ones in each case.
You are a defense attorney as opposed to a prosecutor. You goal is thus to clear your client of all charges and, unlike the real world, also find the actual perpetrator. You do this by investigating the crime scene, interrogating involved witnesses and suspects while gathering clues and evidence around the scene of the crime. Do not fret, the key items you need for the trial cannot be missed, however if you don't pay attention you might miss important hints.
Actually that is the core of this game. Paying attention. You have to constantly take in all information that is given to you, consider it and try to find suspicious statements and motives even before the trial. You then proceed to the trial where the witnesses give their testimonies. And here comes the crucial part, cross-examining. You will now try to find contradictions by comparing what the victim says to the available evidence. Alternatively you can 'press' the victim for more information, sometimes causing them to slip up. As they start sweating and making mistakes they will revise their stories to cover the holes you find and finally they break, ripping hair off and crying while Phoenix smugly savors his success. That is of course assuming you are successful.
The crux is that you are only allowed 5 misses. A miss is when you present evidence that does not contradict the current segment of the witness's testimony. This is most of the time not a problem but quite frequently you will get confused or actually find a contradiction but not the one you are "supposed to find", and the judge annoyingly penalizes you.
This entire style of gameplay is actually quite similar to reading comprehension tests you do in school, except a lot of fun. The characters in this game are simply outstandingly portrayed and very funny. The game has so much personality that for the first few hours playing you will be almost ecstatic with joy over what good a game you're playing. The gameplay is extremely rewarding and there is nothing more engaging and dramatic then being on a roll and being totally in sync with Phoenix's line of thought, always one step ahead, in quick succession presenting contradiction after contradiction and ripping a testimony to pieces.
The game does one thing perfectly which is the key to its success. It makes the player feel clever, even when you are not. Most of the time you get a fair amount of hints and clues to what the game wants you to do, and should you sit back and analyze the situation you would find most of everything to be completely obvious, at least in the first few cases. But that's not how you play. The animation, music and dialogue all comes together to completely envelope you and no matter how obvious and simple the case is, you truly feel like an ace attorney all the way through.
The game is split up into 5 cases, 1 of which is "hidden". It start out simple and then cases get progressively longer and more complicated with more witnesses, more evidence, more twists and more drama. The cases are separated but they are tied together by a mysterious case from the past which all of the main characters are somehow involved in. You will face murder, framings, cover-ups and corruption among other things.
I only have one real complaint with this game, preventing me from giving it a perfect 10 and that is the 3rd case, which feels a lot like filler and is generally quite uninspired. The 4 others however more than make up for it.
Graphics/Sound
The graphics here are very stylized and appealing. It's without a doubt Japanese and very manga/anime. The game is very short on frames and animations but they are so good and so well done that you never get tired of them. The characters are all very strongly exaggerated and stereotypical, but none the less entertaining and nice to look at. The best part are the trials where its hard to tell if your watching an anime action fight or a trial. When you present contradictory evidence to the witness he is smacked back in despair and almost knocked out of the chair. The judge gasps, eyes wide and the prosecutor knocked back with panic. Its all completely off the charts exaggerated but it makes the game very vivid, dramatic and funny.
The sound consists mostly of a dozen or so music tracks. Some characters have their own themes while evidence gathering and trials have very different moods. Trials have the same tracks and starts out quite idle and sober at the beginning while progressively escalating until it reaches boss-battle levels of excitement. The music is overall very good, very skillfully used and never gets old.
Playtime/Replayability
There is no in-game clock but I would guesstimate that you will get about 20 to 30 hours out of this game. That is quite a lot for a game this linear and structured. The replayability will be nill for some, as once the puzzle has been solved, a lot of the appeal is lost. However, As with any game, if you let it rest on your shelf for a year, it will likely be a fresh experience again. You will most probably though want to move onto the sequels in the series before playing this game again.
Do whatever you can to get a hold of this gem. It is so worth the money and the time. While this game is seldom found in stores and quite rare and pricy on ebay. Do try! There are few games I would recommend as warmly as this one and I am usually quite picky. If looking on ebay, do include worldwide into your search as I hear its near impossible to get this on American ebay alone.
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