Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Review

At first, I was hesitant to include this "extremely interactive visual novel" into the visual novel section of the reviews instead of categorizing it as a game, but since it's on the Visual Novel Database (which also notes this issue), I did it anyway. I'll still be calling it a game, however, because it is.

You begin the game as Phoenix Wright, and as a rookie defense attorney, your boss, Mia Fey, allowed you to take on your first murder trial to clear the defendant of the charges, and this is right at the beginning of the game. I believe that there's just no better introduction to get the player in the mood; the accusal is serious, the defendant is your childhood friend, and the victim is his girlfriend, so everything is keeping you focused. Your friend tells his version of events to the court but the prosecutor accuses him of lying and summons a witness; the actual murderer.

In the gameplay, you interactively learn how to challenge the witnesses' statements and use the appropriate collected evidence to disprove them, cornering the witnesses and pushing them to modify their versions of testimony until they become untenable, which allows you to deliver the last blows and either request further investigations on the situation or convict them of the crime (if they're guilty).

After winning the case, your boss Mia got killed and the name of her sister, Maya, was written with blood on a piece of paper near her body; your task is to defend the boss's sister from the charges. In this second part of the game, you get introduced to other main characters in the game besides Maya; Miles Edgeworth (the prodigy prosecutor, his fanon "relations" to Phoenix Wright is funny, look it up) and Detective Gumshoe (well, the detective, his other name is funny, look it up).

You'll also learn how to gather evidence from crime scenes and witnesses, and this way, the game essentially becomes a game of "go here, talk to this guy, get an item, go back, show the other guy this item, note down his testimony, go back, tell the other guy that testimony, see his reaction, pressurize him to tell the truth, pretend that you're his therapist, get the evidence, use it in court, get hit by an updated autopsy report that obliterates everything you've built up for so far, etc.," and all is kept engaging throughout the entire game.

The game is really good; all cases have so much immersion to make you think and plan things, the soundtrack is extremely fitting for every situation, the animations are funny and expressive, the characters are well-designed and I've even become emotionally attached to some of them. The dialogue is very, very well-made and it helped a lot with my vocabulary. Who would've thought that a game inside the courtroom could be so fun? S-tier!