Phoenix Wright, called Nick by his friends, is a fledgling defence attorney and the star of this quirky adventure game, on a system that is rapidly becoming the console of choice for adventure gamers, the Nintendo DS. Even though the Phoenix Wright games are a long-running line in Japan with four GBA games released already, this game was released for the DS in the United States last year and only recently released in Europe. Was it worth the wait? Most definitely.
The first thing that strikes you about the game is its unique visual style. Borrowing heavily from the Japanese manga genre of comic books, the design of the characters is what you would call “over the top.” The animation of characters is quite limited, for the most part they only have a few frames, however they do have a lot of personality in them, and they all seem to have at least one trademark mannerism, like Nick’s sweating when he is stressed, or Larry Butz crying his eyes out, almost literally! Adding to the unique presentation is the style in which every trial is conducted. The music becomes more and more dramatic along with the trial itself, and even though the DS is somewhat limited sound-wise, the music is still quite good. But the thing that sticks out the most is visual presentation of the trial. During the cross-examination sequence, we are given a close-up of the defence attorney and the prosecutor, in a way not dissimilar to a fighting game. In fact, during the more intense parts of the cross-examination where you’ve cornered the opposition, the presentation and music will remind you a lot of boss fights in action games, people react to arguments against them as if they were physically hit, and you’re almost half-expecting someone to throw out a dragon punch or two. All this makes the game very enjoyable, since while it does become silly at times, it never stops being amusing to watch. Unless that is, you despise all things manga, in which case you may find the visual part of the game a bit too much.
However, despite its appearance, Phoenix Wright is actually a pretty mature game, with a storyline geared towards older audiences. Each case opens up with a murder, characters usually have complex relationships with each other, and cases often deal with the corruption found among lawyers and police officers. Still, Phoenix Wright is a game done in manga style and not Serpico, so there is always a comical occurrence (with Detective Gumshoe providing most of them with his horrible sense of timing) before things get too serious. However, that is another of the game’s strong points; it never takes itself too seriously so it avoids becoming corny, yet it is still serious enough to ensure that it doesn’t become superficial either.
There are five cases to be solved in the game, four from the GBA original, and a completely new one, created specifically for the DS and taking full advantage of its functions, giving you the opportunity to examine inventory items in 3D, and dust for fingerprints among other things. The four original cases also have uses for the touch screen and the stylus pen, but you may also use the regular D-pad and buttons for them as well. The cases, each divided into chapters, are not similar in length, with the first one in particular being more of a tutorial, but they get progressively longer and this makes Phoenix Wright quite lengthy by adventure game standards. It is also worth noting that even though the latter cases are significantly longer than the first ones, they never feel unnecessarily drawn-out just to make the game longer.
This brings us to the game play, which as mentioned above has two different parts, the trial and the investigation. The latter is the usual adventure faire, with you along with a trusty sidekick investigating crime scenes for evidence and interrogating people, while the former is more unique as you are required to cross-examine witnesses in trials and point out errors in their testimonies. This part is usually a case of trial (no pun intended) and error as you will find yourself pressing the witness on every given opportunity and presenting all sorts of evidence, but usually, if you look at a case close enough you can find out through logic where the flaw is in the testimony. Even if you do end up solving a puzzle in this part mostly by mistake or blind luck, the solution will always make sense in retrospect and you are more likely to find yourself wondering why you had not thought of that earlier, rather than scratching your head and thinking how that solution is even possible.
A word of warning, there are a lot of “Game Over” scenarios in the game, but then again, given the fact that Nick Wright is so over his head with all evidence against his client in every single case, it does make sense in the context of the game. When you are presenting evidence to the court, you are only given a limited amount of times to get it wrong, though the only time you are likely to use all of them is when you are stuck and trying every single option. However, there are a few times where choosing the wrong dialogue option will get you the “Guilty” verdict, but they are always too obvious. To be more precise, if the judge is about to give a negative verdict, always object, even if you are not sure what you are objecting against! However, in case you do get it wrong, you are able to save the game at almost every possible point of a chapter, even though you are forced to quit right after saving. Thankfully, loading times are practically non-existent, so you can get back on track in no time. The only problem with the save system is the fact that you are allowed only two saves, one at the start of each chapter, and one during a chapter as mentioned before. To make matters worse, once you have finished a case, the saves at the start of each chapter are deleted, so there is no way of replaying certain parts you liked unless you start the whole case from scratch. Hardly a game-breaking flaw, and somewhat expected, given the fact that Phoenix Wright is a cartridge game.
The game also utilizes DS's built-in microphone, which you can use to press a witness, make an objection or present a critical piece of evidence, all by saying “Hold it” “Objection” and “Take that” respectively. It is a bit gimmicky of course, and you will have to have a very clear voice in order for your phrase to be recognized at the first try, but it is really satisfying shouting “Objection!” when you are sure you have found a critical flaw in the opposition’s argument. Provided of course that there is no-one around, or you are bound to get some really weird looks.
The part where the game really shines is the quality of the writing and its sense of humor. All the main characters are brilliantly written and the way they develop throughout the game is also excellent. Moreover, they are also quite... unique, for lack of a better word, since they all have certain traits which make them stand out from each other and make them more endearing to us, like Nick and his loser personality and even the cynicism typically associated with adventure game protagonists, the psychic in training Maya, the ever under-achieving Detective Gumshoe, and Emma, the somewhat geeky teen girl obsessed with scientific procedures and proof.
As for the humor, well, I have to confess that there were times when I had to put my DS down and pause the game because I was laughing too much. The humor is as wacky as the game’s characters, but it is so well-written and it provides with some outstanding one-liners, it is just too hard to keep yourself from grinning when playing. Most of the humor comes from the characters themselves (just wait until you meet the “leet” speaking director of the Steel Samurai show) and their interaction with each other, particularly between Nick and his occasional sidekicks, which are some of the most fun and charming moments of Phoenix Wright. It does not stop there however, since the game also makes fun of itself, an example would be the hilarious reactions that some characters have to Nick’s and prosecutor Edgeworth's patented “slam hand on the desk to look important” mannerism.
Another thing about the quality of the writing is the identity of the real perpetrator in each case. If you pay close attention to the clues every time (as you should, after all), you will probably have at least a really strong suspicion of who the real murderer is halfway through the trial. At first, due to this the plot felt too predictable. However, when I was stumped while trying (and failing) to prove why I believed that a certain man was the killer, it hit me: that is the beauty of it, it is not enough knowing who the murderer is, you also have to prove it, with facts. It makes you even more determined to examine the prosecution’s case or the witness’s testimony and find out where the flaw is. There are the occasional hiccups, where you do have proof about a definite flaw and you cannot present it to the court at all, or you can and they do not accept it, but I guess providing critical evidence is a matter of timing as well.
All in all, it was a wonderful initiative of Capcom’s to remake this game for the DS and release it over to our parts of the world, since it is not only one of the best DS games yet, but also one of the best adventure games released in recent years, in consoles or otherwise. To make things even better, the Japanese sequel to this game is also planned to be released on the DS early next year, with an all-new case as well, so that is something to look forward to. In the mean time, if you like adventure games, you should definitely take a look at Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, because it is certainly worth your time. Scientifically speaking, of course.
The final grade is 94/100.
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