Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

Kept me amused for plenty of long nights during my college campus job. On a personal note, I'd be happy to go back to a "job" where I do so little even at the minuscule pay it may have had. Getting a few dozen bucks to sit and play my DS for a quiet evening a few nights a week? Ah, you don't miss what you have till it's gone.

Hopefully not an accurate representation of Japanese court room procedings.

I love the style of this game. Taking something that could be potentially boring at times, and throwing in that special anime style that amplifies everything to be more exciting. I do think the final "DLC" case went on WAY too long though, and I preferred the previous case as the ending to this game over Rise from the Ashes. I've also been watching the anime adaptation alongside the game as I finish each case, which has been pretty fun.

/completed

It seriously stretches suspension of disbelief and requires the occasional dash of moon-logic, but is overall quite well-written (despite being occasionally cringy) and is a fun, light experience. The main group of characters is diverse and well-rounded; Edgeworth in particular has an immensely satisfying character arc. Grabbed the trilogy on Switch and I'm looking forward to jumping into the next game. Mostly played in 30-minute chunks before going to sleep.

Menu-driven murder-mystery adventure games are one of the most venerable fixtures of the Japanese video game scene that just don't leave their home shores much. This series happened upon a uniquely colorful take on things that helped engage a global audience, even if it's really a very linear experience that mostly relies on reading everything closely for obvious nudging.

Snoozy and dumb.

I love these ridiculous characters and their melodrama. Furthermore, I quite enjoy this genre-defining investigation game, even tho there are rather stiff and weird elements to navigating this initial chapter in the series. They're ridiculous fun characters in ridiculous fun stories.

fun characters and engaging trials, with case 5 being a standout. still, i found the game rather ontologically suspicious: phoenix wright, ace attorney, helps clients on little more than vague belief of virtue, yet his belief is always found to be reality, as if preordained. that's not all: his detective savvy also roots out the real villains, casting the defense as de facto prosecution. absolving the innocent, punishing the wicked...a superhero of the law! ah well, it's all in good fun, right?

Occasionally drags during investigation and rarely is there a time where I felt like I had to put much thought into the solutions. There's a lot of cases where the trial kind of just hands out the solution in very obvious fashion which makes the solutions hard to really engage with at times. Despite this and some awkward plot beats, PW still manages to be an engaging murder mystery with some damn good catharsis and use of animation and music. Case ratings: 4 > 5 > 3 > 1 > 2