Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice (2016)

Spirit of Justice switches up the Ace Attorney formula by placing its main action in an authoritarian foreign country where defense attorneys have, hilariously, been outlawed and prosecutors rule the land. There are shades of Myanmar and Tibet, but in true Phoenix Wright fashion the game eschews any real political commentary in favor of ridiculous puns.

I have played all the Ace Attorney games that have made it stateside. They are formative games for me. I was a late adopter on the 3DS, so have slowly been catching up the latest generation of Ace Attorney games for the last couple of years. The thing about the 3DS games is the developers' perhaps justifiable pride in their 3D character models and animation. In that sense, Spirit of Justice totally builds on what Dual Destinies did before, moving to elaborate 3D models and multiplane visual effects from the 2D sprites in the DS releases. This type of model work is fairly uncommon for the visual novel genre to which the Ace Attorney games have always (sort of uncomfortably) belonged. As a result, every minor character here has some sort of elaborate movement sequence that is impossible to skip. The more over-the-top these become, the more languid the game feels. Specifically, there is a dance performed by a character that is central to how this game unfolds. It is very impressively animated for this hardware, but the game's designers use it so often it becomes annoying. The same animation is used twice in one episode and three times (!) in another.

What makes Spirit of Justice more ambitious than previous entries is that it splits time between Phoenix, Apollo and Athena (the most cartoon-like protagonist, introduced in Dual Destinies). At first these episodes feel only loosely connected but they come together in a mostly effective way by the end, and put a button on Apollo Justice's arc. I have always found Apollo a little less appealing than the characters that populate the first three Ace Attorney games, but here he finally gets a chance to shine.

Played digital copy on New Nintendo 3DS.

My husband introduced me to the original Phoenix Wright trilogy two and a half years ago, when we were adopting our first child. This year, during the adoption of our second child, I played the "second trilogy," so to speak - Apollo Justice, Dual Destinies, and Spirit of Justice. I played them as a chunk, like I did the original trilogy, and I can't remember super clearly which experiences belonged to which individual game, so my review of Spirit of Justice will sort of encompass all three of them.

I thought, having finished the original trilogy, that I would hate playing as someone other than Phoenix Wright. I did not. I found Apollo and Athena both to be compelling characters, and I thought their special mechanics were REALLY fun and really spiced up the gameplay. I thought the big story arcs in these three games were on average significantly more intriguing than the story arcs from the first three, particularly Spirit of Justice's. The last case in Spirit of Justice was so fulfilling, and it was the first time I've really been moved emotionally by a Phoenix Wright game. I felt things! I was attached to the characters and invested in them! It wasn't just goofy! It was awesome!

Gameplay wise, I also feel like they made significant improvements, particularly in Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice. I actually played Dual Destinies and then went back to Apollo Justice (again, I thought I would hate playing as someone other than Phoenix) and the going backwards made it really apparent just how much things had improved. I told my husband - during my playthrough of Dual Destinies, there were NO instances of "I'm investigating and I know who I need to talk to BUT I CAN'T GET THEM TO SHOW UP BECAUSE I CAN'T FIGURE OUT WHAT RANDOM THING I NEED TO DO TO MAKE THE PLOT PROGRESS" - not a one - and I managed to forget just how often that had happened in the original trilogy, until I went back to Apollo Justice and it started happening again. So that's a vast improvement. In Spirit of Justice, I did have to reference a guide somewhat frequently to figure out how to interact with the Divination Seance, though - often I could figure out what the problem/contradiction was, but not how to communicate it to the game. So, all in all:

Pros: Very improved gameplay - smoother, and less need to consult a guide. New and interesting mechanics. More compelling stories, particularly in Spirit of Justice.

Cons: Mostly nothing! Maybe the Divination Seance was a little hard to interact with sometimes? Also, the normal Phoenix Wright level of legal system fuckery.