The logo for the first three ''Ace Attorney'' games' English release
'''Ace Attorney''', known in Japan as , is a series of
adventure/
visual novel games in which players assume the role of new
defense attorneys. The first three games, originally made in Japan only for the
Game Boy Advance platform, has been ported to the
Nintendo DS as well as localized into English. Due to the lead character in these first three games, the series is also sometimes referred to as the eponymous '''Phoenix Wright'''. Additionally, one case in the DS remake of the first game, and in the fourth games, take advantage of the DS features including the microphone and touchscreen.
Setting
The game takes place in an urban city set in
2016 and later; for the Japanese versions, this city is somewhere in Japan, while the English localization places the games in
Los Angeles,
California.
[1] Localization differences will sometimes reflect the differences between these societies (for example, which side of a car the driver's wheel is on). Additionally, the names of the major characters have been adapted for localization; for example, the main character of "Ryuichi Naruhodo" (whose last name is a pun on the Japanese phrase for "I see") has been renamed in the Western versions as "Phoenix Wright", referencing the
phoenix that rises from its own ashes, and a pun on the word "right".
The fictional future justice system is such that when a person is accused of a crime, they are immediately given a
bench trial presided by a judge, a prosecuting attorney from the state, and a defense attorney that must completely prove the accused innocent of the crime. Trials last 3 days at most, due to the large number of cases that the courts must deal with; if the accused cannot be found innocent after this time, they are automatically convicted of the crime. The majority of the work during a trial is on the shoulders of the defense attorney who must cross-examine the witnesses brought forth by the prosecution to find contradictions in testimony to clear their client. By the time frame of the fourth game, an option for a
jury trial has also been established.
In the first three games, the playable character is Phoenix Wright. He is a rookie lawyer fresh out of law school in the first game, taking a position at Fey & Co. Law Offices run by Mia Fey, a defense attorney that helped to acquit Wright of murder a few years before. When Mia is murdered, Wright takes over the offices with the assistance of Maya Fey, Mia's younger sister. The Fey family have the ability to channel and see auras, which sometimes allows Maya or her much younger cousin Pearl Fey to channel Mia's spirit for Wright to help in court. Wright develops a rivalry with prosecuting attorney Miles Edgeworth, handling several cases together. Wright's victories over Edgeworth causes Franziska von Karma, who sees Edgeworth as a younger brother to herself, to hold a grudge against Wright. This grudge is later brought into the open when Phoenix faces off against her in court.
The series demonstrates
continuity with plots through each game and through the series of games involving the main characters.
Gameplay
The games in the ''Ace Attorney'' series are primarily point-and-click
adventure games, though requiring the player to collect evidence and to present it to the witnesses when they are in court. The game is presented primarily using animated
two-dimensional sprites, with text dialog, sound effects, and minimal spoken clips to simulate speech.
There are two phases to each case, Investigation, and Courtroom sessions. Investigation includes the ability to visit several key locations in the case and talk to those involved with the case; the second game also introduced the Psyche-Lock, a means for which the defending attorney can break mental barriers to learn the truth during investigation. Players can present both evidence and profiles of people involved with the case.
Courtroom sessions are generally made up of
testimonies of two or more statements by the
witness. The player may
cross-examine the witness to locate a
contradiction, where they can "press" on any specific statement for more information, possibly gaining a hint of the contradiction, or to present evidence that contradicts the statement. This latter action is accompanied by the defense attorney pointing with his finger (as in the game's logo) and shouting "
Objection!" ("Igiari!" in the Japanese version), accompanied by a word bubble of the same, both which have become iconic representation of the series. If the player presents the wrong evidence, attempts to present at the wrong time, or fails other parts of in-court questioning, they lose some measure of acceptance by the judge, and if the player is wrong too may times, the case will be declared over with a guilty charge for the accused, and the player will have to restart from his/her last save point or the beginning of the court session.
In the DS remakes, the game utilizes the touchscreen in addition to the normal controls, and also the microphone, allowing the player to shout "Objection!", "Hold It!" or "Take That!" at the appropriate times, though they can also select these options via more common entry methods. The remake of the first game for the DS included a brand new fifth case created specifically for the remake, with additional aspects of gameplay that fully used the DS special features; for example, one could dust for fingerprints by tapping the screen to apply fingerprinting powder, then blowing at the DS microphone gently to blow them away, or by using the 3D capabilities of the DS to render the collected evidence, with the ability of the player to find additional evidence by this means. The fourth game of the series, which is the first game developed completely for the DS without any GBA release, also includes a number of these elements.
Each game is made up of 4 or 5 cases with the games and the cases have some interconnectivity (reoccurring minor characters or similar crime elements).
Games
The ''Ace Attorney'' series began as trilogy of Game Boy Advance titles, called ''Gyakuten Saiban'', from
2001 to
2004 released only in Japan and only had the original Japanese dialog. Starting in
2005, each title was ported to the Nintendo DS; these ports, released only in Japan, included both Japanese and English localization, making the games popular import titles. Subsequently, the English (and other Western languages) localization was used to produce the ''Ace Attorney'' games.
Starting with the 4th game, ''Gyakuten Saiban 4'' (''Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney'' as it will be called in Western countries), the series has been developed directly for the Nintendo DS system, and presently have only been released in Japan with Japanese dialog only, though additional Western countries releases are planned.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney / Gyakuten Saiban
Main articles: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
The GBA ''Gyakuten Saiban'' was originally released in
2001, with the Japanese and English DS ports in
2005.
The game's story introduces Wright, Mia and Maya Fey, and Miles Edgeworth, along with other minor characters that reappear in later games. The original GBA game contained 4 cases; a special 5th case was made for the DS version that utilized additional investigation techniques that relied on the features of the DS, such as the microphone and touchpad.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All / Gyakuten Saiban 2
Main articles: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All
''Gyakuten Saiban 2'' was released on the GBA in Japan in
2002, and on the DS in
2006 and
2007. The game (both the GBA and DS versions) contains 4 cases, and takes place about one year after the first game. It introduces the characters of Pearl Fey and Franziska von Karma.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations / Gyakuten Saiban 3
Main articles: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations
''Gyakuten Saiban 3'' was released on the GBA in Japan in
2004, and a Japanese DS port was released in
2007. Western localization releases was planned for later in
2007 and confirmed on a October 2007 release (after a delay from the original September date). The game takes place roughly a year after the previous game and includes many characters from both previous games, and also allows the player to play two cases in the past as Mia Fey. There are 5 cases total within the game.
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney / Gyakuten Saiban 4
Main articles: Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
''Gyakuten Saiban 4'' is currently only released in Japan and the first installment to be developed specifically for the
Nintendo DS. It will be released in America and other territories as , reflecting the change of the main character from Phoenix Wright to Apollo Justice (). The game features a total of 4 cases.
Future games
''Gyakuten Saiban 5'' will be the fifth game in the ''
Gyakuten Saiban'' series. The game will be developed and published by
Capcom. The development of ''Gyakuten Saiban 5'' was announced by Capcom's president on
May 22,
2007 with no further detail.
[2]
Reception
Reviews
| Game | MetaCritic | GameRankings |
|---|
| ''Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney'' | 81/100 (53 reviews)[3] | 82% (62 reviews)[4] |
''Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Justice for All'' | 76/100 (51 reviews)[5] | 79% (55 reviews) [6] |
The Western releases of versions of the games have been generally favorable reviews by the gaming press. The series has generally been praised for being a strong adventure game in an otherwise lacking market, having great presentation, music, and dialog, while being critiqued for being too linear and easy at times, and lacking replayability.
[7][8][9] The representation of the legal system in the games has been noted to be significantly flawed; Gamespot's review of ''Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney'' noted that during courtroom sessions, one should "suspend your disbelief about the whole procedure, since, although it feels fairly close to reality, many things go on during the proceedings that would probably horrify actual members of the legal system."
[10] ''Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All'' also received negative comments due to the lack of the unique DS features introduced in the first game.
Popularity
In Japan, the series has performed reasonably well, with the combined sales (both GBA and DS) of the first two games around 400,000 units, and the third game, only considering GBA sales, nearing 250,000 units.
The fourth game sold 160,000 copies the day of release in Japan, with a total of 250,000 units moved during the first week of release.
[11]
In the United States, the first game became extremely popular, forcing Capcom to prepare at least three additional runs of the game to meet the demand.
[12][13]
Characters from the ''Ace Attorney'' series have become popular targets for
cosplay at both
anime and video game
conventions.
[14]
Influence
A based on the cartoon series is being developed by
High Voltage Software to be distributed by Capcom in the United States. The game is said to feature the characters from the show, using the same game mechanics of the Ace Attorney series, and will feature
cameo appearances of other Capcom characters.
Soundtracks
Soundtracks are available for the first three ''Ace Attorney'' games in the series. The official soundtrack for ''Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney'' is titled , and was first published by
Suleputer on
November 30, 2005.
[15] [16] covers the first two games, and
[17] covers the third.
Capcom has also released an album entitled with orchestral arrangements of many of the songs used in the game and its two sequels on
September 9, 2006. A second CD with additional ''Ace Attorney'' orchestral pieces was released for sale at the
Tokyo Game Show 2006, and will be sold to the public sometime in November, 2006. On the
March 31, 2007, another official arrangement album named was released by Capcom.
[18] As the name implies, the album consists of jazz arrangements. The CDs were originally scheduled for Japanese release only,
[19][20] but since, it has been announced that they will be released in North America as well, the release date currently unknown
[21]
The
video game music remixing group Magical Trick Society
[22] has released an album with arrangements of songs from ''Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney'', called .
Manga
A
manga of the video game series is currently being serialized in Japan.
[23] U.S manga publisher
Del Rey Manga has confirmed that they will distrubute the manga in the U.S.
[24]
See also
★
Phoenix Wright (character)
★
List of Ace Attorney characters
References
1. Nintendo.com News : On the Wright Track: The Writers of Phoenix Wright's Sequel Discuss Their New Case
2. [1]
3. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
4. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
5. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All
6. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All
7. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
8. Phoenix Wright 2
9. Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Justice for All Review
10.
11. All-Time Japanese Phoenix Wright Sales (DS/GBA)
12. Phoenix Wright ordered back in stores
13. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
14. PAX 07: Objection!! Cosplay is awesome
15. Chudah's Corner - Gyakuten Saiban ~Yomigaeru Gyakuten~ Original Soundtrack
16. Chudah's Corner - Gyakuten Saiban 1 & 2 Original Soundtrack
17. Chudah's Corner - Gyakuten Saiban 3 Original Soundtrack
18. たのみこむ「逆転裁判」
19. 逆転裁判シリーズ公式サイト
20. http://www.gamesarefun.com/news.php?newsid=6807
21. [2]
22. http://www.magicaltrick.com/
23. Gyakuten Saiban (Phoenix Wright) To Be Made Into Manga
24. Del Rey confirms Phoenix Wright manga to be released early next year
External links
★
Official website of the series
★
Official website of the series
★
Court Records - ''Ace Attorney'' fansite, with information spanning all games in the series.
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