Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy
Revisiting Capcom’s flamboyant courtroom drama. By Rachel Watts
This collected trilogy has had quite the journey to PC. The three included games were originally released in 2001, 2002 and 2004 as Japan-exclusive GBA titles. After success over there, they made their English debut in North America and Europe, launching on the Nintendo DS. From there the trilogy was once again ported to the Nintendo Wii and iOS in 2013 and then again onto the 3DS in 2014. The three games finally made their debut onto PC last year, bundled as the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy. The PC port lets new players experience the visual novel series for the first time, and allows fans to revisit the thrills of being back in the courtroom.
Bouncing from console to console, you would think the trilogy would have been through major changes. But, apart from a graphics revamp and a few small mechanical tweaks, the Ace Attorney trilogy has been left relatively untouched. Playing it now on PC is almost the same as when it was first released over two decades ago. Capcom’s courtroom adventure has humour, suspense, thrills, twists, and turns that remarkably still hold up today from when I played it back in 2005. And I will swear to that under oath.
The trilogy includes the first three games in the series: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice for All, and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and
Tribulations. It’s not just an anthology of interesting murder investigations, but also features wonderfully flamboyant characters, witty wordplay, suspenseful twists, and no end of over-the-top drama.
Though since playing all those years ago, I’ve become a bit more literate in what a lawyer actually does, and when playing through the games again there are definitely parts that deserve a raised brow and a side-eye. The series throws courtroom etiquette out the window, and usually the law book right along with it. But hey, it’s all worth it for the sake of the capital D Drama. Objection overruled.
It’s not afraid to get completely ridiculous at times, but always
couples it with moments of satisfying revelation and a truly epic flair for melodrama. Backstabbing? You got it. Tragedy? Naturally. Lawyers slamming hands on desks, aggressively pointing and shouting at each other? Of course. Each game is more outrageous than the last, with the ultimate case in the final game being a crescendo of events that would leave Judge Judy speechless.
CRIME AND PUN-ISHMENT
The trilogy follows the story of Phoenix Wright, a rookie attorney wanting to make a name for himself as a skilled defence lawyer. You play as this enthusiastic upstart as he tries to prove his client’s innocence against false accusations (which 99.9 per cent of the time is a murder charge). There are a handful of cases in each game, and they have two stages: evidence gathering, and then the trial.
In the first stage, you need to gather important pieces of evidence, which means searching the crime scene for clues and interviewing witnesses for testimony to help your investigation. Back in the DS days, this meant tapping my stylus over every millimetre of the small screen making sure I didn’t miss anything. An improvement for the PC version is a magnifying glass icon that has a tick when I hover over a place I’ve already searched – it makes my search rather less frustrating.
The bulk of the investigation is speaking to witnesses and characters connected to the case at hand. There’s a lot of text to read through, but the writing is as sharp and hilarious as Phoenix’s spiky hairdo. Revisiting the cases allows me to experience again some of the trilogy’s colourful characters, like the grumpy grandma, Wendy Oldbag, a security guard who is vital in a case, but every third word of her testimony is calling you a whippersnapper. Or Mike Meekins, an officer who is better at being a wet noodle than a member of the police force.
The investigation phase gives you an idea about what went down, but the full truth of what happened is all revealed in the trial itself. Gathering evidence sets the groundwork for information that comes to light in the courtroom, but throughout my replay, I just couldn’t wait until the courtroom scenes. In the two later games, Justice for All and Trials and Tribulations, the series tries to liven these parts up but they never match the rush of excitement found in the courtroom. You might have a roundabout idea about how the crime was carried out, but it isn’t an Ace Attorney trial if the case isn’t turned on its head halfway through – and knowing there’s a twist coming makes me impatient to get there.
MAKIN’ THE LAW
When you’re done gathering everything you need for trial, the second stage of the story begins. It’s time to present your case in court. The trial is structured around interviewing witnesses and cross-examining their testimony with your evidence. You also have to rebut the prosecution’s accusations as the trial develops. But that’s where the overlap between how courtrooms work in reality and how they work in Ace Attorney ends.
Capcom doesn’t just see the courtroom as a place of stuffy back-and-forth rebuttals, but a cross between a high stakes battle arena and Spanish telenovela. Surprise witnesses, evidence submitted mid-trial, and testimonies that keep changing every few minutes probably wouldn’t fly in a real criminal case. But in Ace Attorney they provide escalating drama as your understanding of the proceedings keeps shifting.
Opposite Phoenix as he battles for his client’s innocence are the prosecuting attorneys, and each
is more ruthless than the next. In the first game, this mantle is taken up by the dashing but cold-hearted Miles Edgeworth. He’s an undefeated lawyer who’s determined to get a guilty verdict in every case. He’s brutal, but he does rock a cravat.
Joining you on the defence bench is your assistant, Maya Fey, a spirit medium (yep) who is the next leader in line of a powerful clan of mystics. When you are totally stuck she gives you little hints on what you should focus on to move the case forward, and has helped me out of a tough spot a number of times.
There’s also the bumbling but lovable detective Dick Gumshoe who works for the prosecution, and sitting above everyone in the
courtroom is the bushy-bearded judge, who is unfortunately very easily swayed. The graphicsrevamp makes the game’s previously rough pixelated edges look more sleek and polished which I greatly enjoy, mainly because Von Karma, a monster of a prosecutor, doesn’t terrify me as much as he does with all his scary jagged parts smoothed out.
The same core cast of characters appear throughout multiple cases, to the point where it plays out like a soap opera, their lives entangled with the investigations. Expect juicy family drama, childhood flashbacks, and cruel betrayals.
As you make your way through the climactic witness crossexaminations, you need to listen to their testimony and present evidence that proves a contradiction, catching them out on the stand. All the clues you have collected during the first stage comes into play at some point during the trial. This is where the main puzzle element of the game comes in. Knowing your evidence, the details of the case, and when to present them to the court is how you get to the truth of the mystery. There you go, those are my top tips as a seasoned defence attorney.
ACES HIGH
The Ace Attorney series does have some pitfalls when it comes to presenting evidence. Some moments where you have to prove a contradiction can be pretty obscure, and if you get it wrong your courtroom health bar, prominently displayed in the top right corner of the screen, depletes with a small but dramatic explosion.
Even having already playing through these cases and knowing who committed the crime, and understanding roughly how the trial would play out, there were moments where I still couldn’t figure out which evidence I needed to present at a particular moment.
Luckily, the PC version has multiple save slots, meaning you can save and load to your heart’s content. You can also dip in and out of the different games in any order you want, so if you’re stuck you can hop into another one for a break.
Issues like these are few and far between, though, and most of the time the game’s puzzles are solvable with some outside-thebox thinking. But, of course, Edgeworth isn’t going to just let you command the courtroom as you please, and one of the best feelings in the Ace Attorney series, that continues through its multiple spin-offs and sequels, is going head-to-head with the opposing prosecutor.
As the trial develops, events begin to escalate and when you’re at the core of the case is where the games really shine. As one of the attorneys hits a crucial bit of information, the music will start to swell. Suddenly, you’re being catapulted back and forth across the courtroom as Phoenix and Edgeworth rebut each other’s points. There’s desk slamming, finger pointing, “Objection!” flying left and right. It’s impossible not to get swept up in it.
There aren’t many games that are filled with thrills and humour like the Ace Attorney trilogy, and my replay only proves for me that its sharp humour hasn’t dulled at all over the years. The melodrama and mysteries are tied together with a flair that still makes it a standout in the detective and visual novel genres.