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October 18, 2005

I review Phoenix Wright out of boredom! Huzzah!

First off, HUGE NEWS! The Hucks in town sells Bawls. Needless to say, I am overjoyed.
Alright, I haven't beat Phoenix Wright... YET. But I'm going to write a review on it this point, because, being what I'm pretty sure is about halfway through the game, I've got the basic idea what the rest is going to be. So here we go!
Phoenix Wright is a fun game is you like adventure games. It doesn't take itself seriously in the least, even with every case (at least so far) being a murder. It's retarded but retarded fun, which is something I've certianly always enjoyed. What mostly sets this up as this sort of retarded fun is, well, the legal system of the game. Trials can only last 3 days. No matter what. The judge accepts everything the prosecution says as fact, no matter how retarded a claim it is. The defense has to, you know, basically do EVERYTHING. Certianly makes it more dramatic, I suppose?
Here is a list of the game's GOOD POINTS!
1. The Game Makes You Feel Smart: If you pay attention, you'll get everything before Phoenix and waaaay before the Judge. Not because things are "stupid." But just because the way the game works you're always looking for inconsistencies, since that's basically the entire game. And you'll catch them. I caught an inconsistancy early on in the last case that didn't even begin to matter until the very end. It made for a nice red herring up until it was useful, and then it was like "Damn right! I knew that was important!" Yeah.
2. For Being Mostly A Game Of Reading Text, The Trials Are Exciting: The way the cross-examinations (which I'll explain in detail later) work makes those moments very tense-feeling... and the game picks up with many dramatic, powerful movements when something comes to light. OBJECTION! HOLD IT! Lawyers banging on their desks, gasps from the audience in the courtroom, the always impending want of the Judge to end the case quickly, so every question counts, needing to find that one thing that'll make the trial take another day... yeah, it's trials are suprisingly engaging. (If you use the voice option, they can be more exciting AND more retarded at the same time! The voice recognition isn't amazing, though)
3. The Plots Are Solid: Each of the cases thus far have been very good detective stories! I've found (along with my love of Detective Conan which I still don't totally understand) that I enjoy a good detective story. These are solid. Twists and turns and whatnot, and everything being completely possible and not unreasonable, even if they look that way in the beginning (normally, when a trial starts, there looks like there is absolutely no way your client is innocent, but you soon fix that!). It's fun, slightly silly, but the logic behind them are all solid and thus, so are the plots.
Sounds great, right? Well, there are two major issues I have with the game, so I suppose it wouldn't be a review if I didn't mention them. This isn't going to keep me from finishing it, but it is frustrating.
1. Playing "Find The Suspect": This is a variation of everyone's favorite video game game "Find the Cutscene!" Since the game is very scripted, often someone you need to question simply will not appear until you do everything you're supposed to have done up until that point. Often you'll miss one retarded little thing, like not ask a question that has no bearing on the case (Along the lines of "Do you like the TV show that the man was murdered on the set of?") and then the person you really want to question because you've found out something you really need to know more about won't appear anywhere and you'll be like "What the hell? What do I do now?" Yeah, that's not fun.
2. The Script Says Phoenix Loses This Round: The game is very powered by plot. Sometimes, Phoenix is supposed to be momentarily distraught and think there's nothing he can do before his sidekick goes "No, wait! You're awesome! You can do it!" or whatever. However, these plot points, however appropriate, can create problems with how the Cross-examination process works, which I'll now explain.
A witness takes the stand, and they testify. You read what they say, then you get to Cross-examine. You can scroll through each text box of what they say. Most has one "fact" of the case in it. For each one, you can choose to do two things: Press (HOLD IT!) or to present evidence (OBJECTION!).
Pressing basically asks the witness to clairify that particular part of their statement. This could vary from "And how was that steak you ate?" to "That makes no sense! You said you were alone!" depending on what the statement you're pressing is. Pressing will not cost you "Favor Points" which are basically your life but represent the Judge putting up with retarded thought processes (basically, you can fuck up 5 times per day of the trial, then you die). Sometimes, though, you will have the option of "Pressing Harder" on a certian subject. This can cost you a favor point if you harass a needless point too much ("Are you SURE you used A1 Steak Sauce?"), but most of the time is a good idea.
Presenting Evidence is your other option, and it's more risky, as presenting something towards the wrong part of the text or presenting the wrong thing entirely will cause you to lose a Favor Point. Sometimes this can be frustrating because you know how to break a whole testimony, but the game wants you to take it in steps, and you forget to make that first step, presenting the killing blow and losing a point. But usually you know what to do if you see the contradiction.
The problem comes, however, when there is no contradiction. According to the plot, Phoenix is supposed to get frustrated and be on the verge of losing at a certain point. The game tries to make you just as frustrated and thinking it's hopeless. The problem is, to trigger the "it's hopeless" you have to Press every point in the testimony. But at least one section of the testimony will, likely, seem useless to press. So you'll press the useful parts, but not that one, and then go "Hmm, that didn't work... well, I suppose I'll try something" and kill all your favor points submitting random evidence trying to figure out what to do. This has happened at least 3 times to me, and since you have to start from the beginning of a day of trial when you die (and thus scroll through a shitload of text) this can be very frustrating. Good for plot, but the game should make you stop earlier or not penalize you for submitting evidence during those sequences.
And that's my overly wordy review of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Enjoy! I'm gonna, you know. Stop writing now. Heh.

Posted by poetfox at October 18, 2005 10:05 PM

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