Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice For All (NDS) Review

You sit in the defendant’s seat, nervously fiddling with the hem of your shirt. You have been accused of murder, and right now a witness is at the stand, speaking in great detail of the crime and how you committed it. The only problem is that you know you are innocent, but how to convince the rest of the court? It seems impossible – the witnesses’ testimony is too tight, too foolproof. You slump lower into your chair and began praying that you get a cell with a view of the sea, when-

“OBJECTION!”

The clarion call rings through the courtroom and immediately, a hush descends. All heads swivel to look at the Defense Attorney, one Mr. Phoenix Wright. Calmly, Wright raises his finger, pointing at the witness. With a revelation of a vital piece of evidence, he points out the fatal flaw in the testimony. Completely discredited, the witness can only reel in shock as Wright lets out a tiny smirk of triumph. He’s done it again.

And that, in a nutshell, is the basis for this game. You play as Defense Attorney Phoenix Wright, a man with a knack for spotting contradictions. It’s just you and a couple of willing-but-not-exactly-able partners against a pack of ruthless Prosecutors, whose cases seem airtight, and your client is already all but declared guilty.

The gameplay is split up into two portions, Investigation and Trial. Investigation has you wandering around the scene of the crime and other related areas, looking for enough clues to save your hapless defendant. It plays much like your standard text-based adventure games, right down to the game mechanic of ‘When you have no idea what to do next, click on everything. EVERYTHING.’

Trials are where the gameplay shines brightest. Here you listen to the testimony of witnesses who will swear upon their momma’s grave that the man in the defendant’s chair was the one who did it, cross their hearts and hope to die. Of course, they’re lying through their teeth, and it’s up to you to present the correct evidence at the correct point in their testimony to utterly wreck their credibility. Screw up, and the judge penalizes you. Get penalized enough, and you lose the case.

As you might have guessed, there’s precious little resemblance in this game to what transpires in an actual courtroom. In real life, it’s not often you get to interrupt the proceedings by howling, ‘Objection!’ at the top of your lungs while you point your finger dramatically at the witness. Nor is it often the Judge will penalize you seven-eights of your lifebar (yes, you have an actual, honest-to-goodness lifebar) for claiming a murder weapon is hidden under the Judge’s chair. Nor is it actually considered A-OK for both the defense and prosecution to conceal key pieces of evidence until such a time that they cause the most impact on the courtroom when said evidence is revealed.

The translators have done a stellar job with this game. Though typos abound, the script itself is wonderfully witty, constantly making jabs at pop culture references, and common Internet jokes. From Wright mumbling “Well, excuuuuuuuuse me, Princess.” to an aged grandma shouting ‘YOU SHALL NOT PASS!’ as she faithfully guards the entrance to a hotel, the true delight of this game lies in unearthing more and more dialogue trees, just to see the hilarious conversations, putdowns, and hilarious character animations that liberally pepper the game.

If you’ve ever played the original, this is a game where ‘more of the same’ is most certainly welcome. Apart from an extra fifth case, it’s extremely similar in gameplay to the original Phoenix Wright. If you liked that one, odds are you’ll like this one too.

This game most definitely isn’t for everybody, but if you’re a fan of excellent writing, a good story with plenty of plot twists to keep you on the edge of your seat, or the old-school adventure games, buy this game.

By: Jonathan Lau