Capcom has released Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy for the Nintendo 3DS, completely remastering the first three titles of this beloved lawyer series. Is it worth revisiting these games? Hold it...
Phoenix Wright should never have been a hit on these shores. The games are too weird, too Japanese, and there’s really no action in them. They’re basically books, interactive stories that only have a few moments of gameplay in between all that reading that gamers seem to find so hard. Hardly a recipe for success over here!
But somehow the Nintendo DS port of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney proved the naysayers wrong- it turns out that there is room for quirky, original games. Capcom didn’t even seem to believe it as it was happening- the first title was released in small quantities and was almost impossible to find soon after its North American release, with many merchants boosting prices for the rare title. Another shipment of games sold out within a week and Capcom continued to crank them out, the game eventually going on to sell over 100,000 copies.
Such success guaranteed the rest of the series getting localized, and we’ve received another six sequels and tie-ins over the years (not to mention a live-action Takashi Miike film!) as we grew to love yet another spikey-headed videogame protagonist. Watching a mystery unfold, finding new evidence and interviewing suspects, screaming “Objection!” into our little DS mics to stop a witness from lying during their testimony- there’s a lot of charm to this game. The courtroom drama sections are the most exciting part of the games, as Wright manages to not only find his client innocent but find the true culprit every single time. It’s just how lawyers do.
The first three titles- The Phoenix Wright Trilogy- have been regarded as the best of the series, and now they’ve been lovingly remastered and re-released for the Nintendo 3DS.
Remember that the Phoenix Wright games were originally created for the Game Boy Advance, only transferred and cleaned up for the newfangled touch screens of the Nintendo DS years later. They definitely show their age, so Capcom has completely re-drawn the graphics in HD and added 3D visuals to take advantage of the 3DS's least-utilized feature. (They do make the characters pop off the screen but let's be honest, you'll view it in 3D for a few minutes before turning it off forever.) They have also remixed the game's wonderful soundtrack, which makes courtroom battles way more exiting than they have any right to be.
Along with all three titles looking and sounding better than they ever have, the Japanese version of each game, Gyakuten Saiban 123 Naruhodo Selection (Japan!) is included as well, but unless you speak Japanese it will be useless to you. These are the full original versions of the games, with Japanese text and voice. It’s worth starting up just so you can hear what Phoenix’s voice sounds like, though, and the Japanese versions of him shouting out “Hold it!” and “Objection!”
This remastered Trilogy actually made its way to iOS devices first, and you can download a free (ahem) trial to try it out on there, but everyone knows that a 3DS is the preferred way to play this game. The 3DS version lacks the “Everyone Object” feature from the iOS version, but that’s probably for the better- all that did was connect to your twitter account to tweet out junk.
Here are the three games that are included- each are available for selection from the main menu so you can start them up in any order you please.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - An updated version of the one that started it all. Rookie defense attorney Phoenix Wright starts off by helping out his old friend get out of being framed for murder before moving on to bigger cases that see him finding the culprt behind his mentor’s killer and taking on a legendary lawyer. The remaining cases see Wright turning into a formidable lawyer, feared by prosecutors worldwide.
This game includes the bonus fifth case that was a Nintendo DS exclusive and stands out from the others completely. For one thing, it takes place after the sappy credits roll after the fourth case, and it utilizes the features of the DS/3DS in unique ways. You’ll use the touch screen to observe objects in 3D, spray luminol on a crime scene to find blood splatter, blow fingerprint dust off by blowing into the mic. It doesn’t really mesh with the full story but it’s nice to see that Capcom was trying to take advantage of the system’s features and give fans a little bonus.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Justice for All feels like a bit of a step back, if only because it doesn’t have any new additions like the last title. It’s very much more of the same, which is not a bad thing, but the story is silly (Wright gets knocked on the head and has to start from the beginning again) even if it does introduce plenty of fun new characters that have become series mainstays.
There have been a few changes for the better that stuck with the series, though. Wright now has a health bar instead of a set amount of mistakes he can make during a trial, which allows some decisions to carry more weight, and characters now have "psyche-locks" hiding valuable information that have to be broken with enough evidence. That part makes the investigation sequences much more involving, even as you wonder just what the hell a lawyer is doing investigating crime scenes.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations is easily the best game in the series, offering the most well-rounded story of them all. If Wright’s tale had ended here (and not inevitably resulted in a new 3DS title and Professor Layton mashup) it would have been a fitting finale for the Wright trilogy. It acts as both prequel and sequel, first letting you play as Wright's mentor Mia Fey and learning about her past. You’ll find out why Wright got interested in being a lawyer in the first place, and during one case even control Wright’s rival Miles Edgeworth when the main man is framed for murder- a nice role reversal from when Wright ended up clearing Edgeworth’s name in the first game.
Considering how sappy and sentimental the other titles can get this one is even more so (there are SO MANY endings), but we’ll allow it.
All three titles are incredibly linear and once you know all the twists and turns of a case there’s none of that wonderful surprise as everything starts to fit together, so forget about replay value, but they’re also incredibly long games. There’s probably about 60 hours of playtime between all three, so expect to be solving cases for quite a while.
By this point Capcom’s expected to keep re-releasing their old titles in slightly revamped form, but it’s been so long since these games came out that we have absolutely- you guessed it- no objections to this title. This is a must-have for any Nintendo DS owners. If you’ve never experienced the Phoenix Wright series prepare to sit back with the 3DS like you’re curling up with a great book, and find out just how hard lawyers really have it.
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Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy was reviewed from a download code provided by Capcom. As with Dual Destinies it's available exclusively as a digital download via the Nintendo eShop for the Nintendo 3DS, for $29.99.