Last month I had the pleasure of completing Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth and in doing so completing all the Ace Attorney games thus far. Ever since a friend let me borrow his copy of the first game in the series back in 07 the Ace Attorney series has been one of my favourites off all time! I love everything about these games the memorable characters, the suspense, the stories everything it's just so great. I eagerly await the next installment in the series but, for now I cant stop thinking of all the other games so I've resolved to write about them, share my experiences with the game and maybe interest some new players. So let's start off with the first game Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.
As I've already mentioned I borrowed this game from a friend after he'd beaten it because I watched him play and was intrigued. I had never been to into courtroom drama but the way it blended with the fun cartoony characters, humor and the reward of out thinking the prosecution really appealed to me. Giggling at the name Larry Butz is still a guilty pleasure for me. The game is very enthralling with each new case bringing new levels of challenge, intrigue and excitement, I would love to talk in great detail of every case but I don't want to spoil anything. Suffice to say this games story rocks. I remember taking on Miles for the first time and being legitimately intimidated, *minor spoilers ahead* needless to say I was extremely happy when I saved Maya from being put away by his "perfect" prosecution. *minor spoilers end here* The characters from this game are varied and interesting and it shows as almost every character returns in future installments of the game, a trend that doesn't stop with the first game. Admittedly I have the least memories surrounding this game only because it's the first game and the other games are filled with bigger twists and crazier cases.
The second game follows a vary similar formula to the first game but it still is a great experience. When I rented this game from the store I brought it home expecting to breeze through it because I didn't think it would differ too much from the first game. Needless to say I was wrong, Justice for All added the Magatama a mystical gem that allows Phoenix to see the psyche locks protecting someones lies and break them with evidence. This brings me to another thing about that Phoenix Wright and Professor Layton have in common, rewarding clever thinking. It's refreshing to come across a game where instead of the solution to every problem being shoot dudes in the end the solution is quite basically, think. The core of the Phoenix Wright games are these supposedly impossible cases your given that you have to think your way through to overcome the odds and come out successful. This formula leads to one of my favourite moments in a game culminating in the climax of Justice for All. Justice for All once again gives you a thrill ride from start too finish with diverse characters from the accident prone Maggey Byrde to the female friendly Director Hotti. This time around we are also treated to a new prosecutor Franziska von Karma daughter of the revered Manfred von Karma, and not too mention a lady I wouldn't mind getting a lashing from.
The next game Trials and Tribulations is the culmination of story lines from all the games, stories from different times of amazing cases and fantastic story twists. In short like all the others games in the PW series, a masterpiece. You may have noticed I have haven't been to descriptive of events in each game, this is because like I stated the stories are just fantastic and you need to see them for yourself, that makes this game the hardest one too talk about. There are so many things that had me as a fan and a player at a loss for words. You just have to play it. However I don't think you can just play this one as it is part of a trilogy. In order to receive all of the Ace Attorney splender go play the other two.
Now we reach the new kid, we've completed the Phoenix Wright trilogy now it's time for Apollo's turn. Apollo Justice while still being a fantastic game with a great story isn't the best successor to Phoenix's legacy and is probably my least favourite in the series if only because the games before it are so hard too top. This one was the first too be made for DS and as such it makes use of the stylus and touch screen controls quite well. Even tough they feel a little gimmicky the don't feel forced, it just works. And it once again culminates in the final case in an amazing court battle ending in a great climax and closure to the Apollo Justice story, that being said it also ends on a bit of a cliffhanger which makes me want to use money to buy another Apollo Justice game. Just as Capcom wanted probably.
The final game I played is, I feel the successor Phoenix Wright should've had. We've been the Ace Attorney now it's time to play the other side. Ace Attorney Investigations Miles Edgeworth. Now you aren't necessarily playing the prosecutor in the cases in this game as most of the cases you take part in Edgeworth kind of stumbles into each case and it does the video game thing of, they all just so happen to tie in to each other. While is this a little gimmicky it works pretty well and helps raise the intrigue of, "I wonder how this all fits together". Once again this game features an amazing cast of both memorable Ace Attorney veterans it also manages to introduce some very cool newbies that don't feel forced.
I reiterate I would love to go into more depth on the details of these games but I don't want to spoil it for anybody. Overall this series games excels in all aspects the biggest problem I had with the series is the traveling from place too place but, that's only a minor nuisance. If you would like to know more about these games I highly recommend them too anyone unless you're the kind of person who can't go five minutes in a game without shooting someone in the face.
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