Game Debate #172: Phoenix Wright - Ace Attorney

[Reed Rothchild | 9,547]

[Gloves | 11,791]

Never played any of these. 

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

I've never played any of these, but I am intrigued. 

[JamesRobot | 5,806]

Never played it and probably never will.  I know the franchise has its fans, but Lawyer Game sounds terribly boring.  "Quick, press the acquit button!"

[DarkTone | 986]

8. 

[Sumez | 2,967]

Had to look up my old ratings to find out what I really thought of this.

I love the Ace Attorney series, the concept alone is great.
The humor and stories are cute, and the court room "puzzles" are interesting even if they never try to challenge you. A majority of the game is just walking around the crime scene and related locations to find clues, but more often those end up being a halfway blind search for the next event trigger, causing a systematic coverage of every location that starts over every time a new event occurs.

That gets worse in the later games though, and didn't bother me too much in this one. The first game has also probably the best story, which starts out mildly interesting and then over the next couple of cases comes back to tie up loose ends in a very satisfying and emotional way.

As a game it's not the best, and as a visual novel there are definitely better alternatives as well, but as its own package it remains unique and worth checking out for anyone who's at least somewhat curious. You don't need to play the whole series, you can perfectly well begin and end with this game.

7/10

[Splain | 2,571]

Eh. You know how it's kind of annoying when you're watching a movie and there's like, a riddle or puzzle or something, and someone has to solve it, and they're like "I'm so smart, I've GOT IT!" And it's just the writer of the story patting themself on the back because they've written the riddle to be just exactly hard enough (by definition), and the main character is exactly smart enough to solve that really great riddle, and you, the observer, are either rolling your eyes because the riddle was either too easy or too obtuse for the story to be believable?

That's the Phoenix Wright games. I do not get why people love these games so much. There are parts that are fun to figure out, but it's mostly slogging through, hoping for another fun part.

4.

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

9 hours ago, JamesRobot said:

Never played it and probably never will.  I know the franchise has its fans, but Lawyer Game sounds terribly boring.  "Quick, press the acquit button!"

I bet @NESfiend will give this a 10. 

[mbd39 | 2,025]

Never even heard of it. Saw the first few letters in the subject line and was hoping it would be the arcade game Phoenix.

 

Edited September 20, 2023 by mbd39

[spacepup | 2,405]

I gave it an 8.

What I loved about this game, was how new and different it felt at the time playing.  It was a unique experience, at least in the West, and I actually liked the exaggerated, almost ridiculous characters.  It was very entertaining and has a certain... charm to it.  If I were to analyze the game very critically, I could nitpick a few things or determine it isn't some absolutely stellar game in terms of gameplay, but the full package and presentation was very interesting to me, and kept me engaged.  

It has been a while since I played it, for sure, but I remember really liking it at the time.

[Webhead123 | 679]

I've heard about the series for years and have always been slightly curious but I'll probably never play any of them.

 

[TDIRunner | 2,744]

Never played it, but I recognize the cover art as something I've looked at in the past.  Not likely that I will ever play it.  

[MagusSmurf | 577]

Fantastic game but not the best in its series - that would be Trials & Tribulations.

[NESfiend | 1,515]

3 hours ago, Bearcat-Doug said:

I bet @NESfiend will give this a 10. 

I wish I could weigh in. I have never actually played it. My little brother has raved about it to me a time or two. He says its pretty damn good. The problem is I have never had a DS. Not much of a handheld guy. 

Edit: and props for the change of venue reference. We have a right to change of venue or change of judge or both. Its a monster part of defense strategy here. If I were making a video game on defense lawyering, those decisions would be integral

Edited September 20, 2023 by NESfiend

[DefaultGen | 5,413]

11 hours ago, Splain said:

That's the Phoenix Wright games. I do not get why people love these games so much. There are parts that are fun to figure out, but it's mostly slogging through, hoping for another fun part

I like Phoenix Wright but definitely feel the slog waiting for another fun part sometimes. Also it’s been a long time since I played, but the last case in the first game was harder and more involved IIRC which made me wish the simpler cases either moved faster or had more going on. Then when I started the sequel it was back to the slog of starting with simple cases.

[Gloves | 11,791]

Danganronpa does a pretty great job of taking the trial puzzle concept and mixing it with a more visual novel style to keep the story moving and interesting. Like I say I've not played Phoenix Wright but I feel like doing so would feel like a downgrade. 

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

4 hours ago, NESfiend said:

props for the change of venue reference. We have a right to change of venue or change of judge or both. Its a monster part of defense strategy here. If I were making a video game on defense lawyering, those decisions would be integral

[rdrunner | 422]

9/10 - I was skeptical about the whole "lawyer game" concept at first, but it really does work quite well.  I love point and click adventure games. especially ones like this with such a compelling story.

[GPX | 1,370]

I don’t remember any of the plot but do recall playing it for several hours in total and enjoyed it with the experience. 
Definitely worth a try if you own a DS. More recommended if you like problem solving with some humour in thrown in.

[AstralSoul | 502]

Love it. One of the funniest games I ever played. 9/10

[G-type | 2,482]

I really enjoyed it. Its definitely got its flaws, but it had a unique idea that was well implemented. (I also reviewed Ace Attorney 4)

Edited September 22, 2023 by G-type

[phart010 | 1,707]

Ironically I just started playing yesterday. I bought all the Ace Attorney games on 3DS eshop just before it shut down. 
 

It’s a pretty fun game, but I find it annoying when I present a piece of evidence that clearly contradicts a statement but the developers didn’t program that evidence to be used against that particular statement. So it’s counted as a strike on me.

[koifish | 556]

The first game was fun for me. I will say that the "bonus" case added for the DS re-release was not bad, but felt a bit like padding at times (to those unaware, these games first appeared on the GBA in Japan, and for the DS remakes they added a 5th case to make it worth it for people who already bought them once). I suppose that's the hardest part of this game and perhaps the series; The cases are up and down in quality. Some are very interesting while others will be boring and drag on forever. I only played the first one to completion; I just found that it wasn't enjoyable once the novelty had worn off. I only played it once and i wouldn't say it's worth playing twice, personally. I tried 2 and 3, but couldn't get into them. Kind of a shame as I understand 3 to be the best overall, or at least, when there were only 4 games, that is what people said. I don't think you would appreciate 3 without having played 1 and 2 though, at least not as much, so I don't worry much about it.

I'll give it a 7, it's a fun game and if you like it then there are more to enjoy. Just wouldn't recommend them for more than one play myself.

[Sumez | 2,967]

4 hours ago, koifish said:

I don't think you would appreciate 3 without having played 1 and 2 though, at least not as much

As I remember it, the biggest resolution in 3 relies on stuff that happens in 1, but if course all the characters develop slightly over the course of the original trilogy - especially Edgeworth. 

1 is by far my favourite though, it's the most emotional of the bunch. If the new cases added to the DS version of 1 feels like filler (which it definitely is) I think the other games have even more of that! 

[koifish | 556]

Maybe that's what inspired me to drop 2 and 3. Though maybe i also dodged a bullet; I have heard a lot of terrible things about a case in 2 involving a clown, people say it's halfway through and that it is the worst part of the whole series. Or so I heard 10+ years ago. Maybe things have changed.