Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (2005)

How do you make a game about being a lawyer interesting? JUST MAKE COURT INSANE. This game is awesome, the gameplay formula of trial and investigation is quite good though sometimes it felt like you could be punished during the trials for making a connection too quickly. The music is also fantastic, the characters all stand out, and the sprite work is excellent. I've finished the main story and am currently going through the post game (AKA chapter 5). This is another game that I wish I played when I was younger but that I'm happy to experience now.

Oh and the drama and hijinks really make the game stand out.

This is the hardest game of the series to rate for me, because the earlier cases are so inferior to the quality of the ones you get in later games and much shorter, but the last one + the DLC one are really amazing. Plus, the story that links all the cases together remains one of the more compelling ones out of all the games. So... not a five star only because the later games beat it in term of gameplay, but this game has exactly the same charm in term of wacky characters, funny interactions, and everything that makes Ace Attorney such a beloved game series for so many people.

It's my third or fourth time replaying it although it's been a while, and the fact that there is still so much enjoyment to be had even if you already know the plot twists and answers to the mystery (although admittedly, I still forgot some of it so some of the surprises still got to me) speaks volume! Truly timeless.

This is a pretty laid back playthrough for the most part. You listen to the story develop on it's own, and then the game tests you on your detective skills later. It was pretty easy to pick up and pretty easy to put down. The characters were silly, the cases were interesting, and it kept you playing. For the most part, at least. There were times early on in a case where things weren't developing fast enough and I started to get bored. However, things would pick up quickly and I was suddenly hooked. There are lots of plot twists that are well written which is easily the biggest reason I liked the game.

The playthrough is separated into two phases: investigations and trials. I thought the investigations were the part that was dragged out. I eventually just wanted to get on with the trials because that's where things developed the most. The trials were fun since you had to find things wrong with testimonies and prove things wrong to learn the truth.

One issue I had: You need to ask the right character the right question, or you need to examine the right item in the room, to progress the investigation. This was really tedious sometimes. It wasn't clear what to do next and I even had to Google a couple things. Nothing in this game was exactly "difficult" other than that.

Technically I was just watching, laughing, and vibing. My friend, who has recently become my roomie, loves these games and plays through them multiple times a year. We decided several weeks back to start up the first one to play through together after work and on weekends since I'd never played any of them. I might not have had the controller, but I'm considering it played for me.

I think, overall, it's a solid experience. I laughed a lot, for sure. Some of the investigative parts took an eternity so the pacing was kinda bad, and I had a lot of questions about various aspects of the game. Why is Phoenix continuously doing his job with the assistance of teenaged girls? What even is this justice system where said teenaged girls can just blurt shit out in a courtroom, witnesses are questioning defendants, and laws regarding evidence, witnesses, etc. are acknowledged in one case and completely ignored in others?

I know it's not meant to be taken seriously in this regard. I know the intention was more or less "mystery game that happens to be set in a courtroom." Like I said, I laughed a lot and I typically enjoy ridiculous shit. Honestly, it was more of a jokingly-indignant "What!!!" most of the time and none of it really bothered me except for the inconsistencies from case to case. (Ex. Playing through one of the earlier cases, there was surprise evidence introduced by the prosecution or something, and I was like, "That bastard can't do that!" and my friend was dying laughing, and then the whole post-credits bonus case revolves around NOT BEING ABLE TO DO THAT. I know it was a case added to later versions of the game/was DLC, so that could be part of it.) My brain just really wanted to make sense of something that isn't meant to be made sense of when I'm usually perfectly capable of suspension of disbelief on some wild levels. I think I just subconciously wanted to understand the laws in this particular "world" and got tripped up every time I thought I'd locked onto it.

Music was bangin', anyway.

I did pick up the trilogy and TGAA Chronicles on the eShop for super cheap shortly after we started playing this one, so I'll maybe get to them eventually.

After looking at fanposts and playing Ghost Trick(which is godlike. Please go play it), I'm finally getting into the Ace Attorney series.

AA1 is a good start to the series. Case 1 was a good start to see what wacky things play out like the statue being a clock and Frank Sawhit throwing his hair at Phoenix. Case 2 sets up major characters like Maya Get, Dick Gumshoe, and Miles Edgeworth. As a case, it's alright. As an introduction to characters, this is great. Afterwards, AA1 is not great at pacing. The game consists of constant flashbacks which pad out the runtime. There are even flashbacks seconds before the flashback happens. An option to skip or fast forward these would be great for those who already know what the characters are referring to. Another pacing issue I had were the investigation parts. Traveling in this game sucks. Case 3 is the worst CASE SCENARIO(heh heh. case...). Don't make me go to a certain place to go to another certain place. Some of these investigation scenes aren't bad, but there are ways to easily improve these and they pale in comparison to the scenes in the courtroom. These scenes are awesome. Whenever Cornered comes on, that's when you know that shit is going down. Case 4 is my favorite case so far in the series as every major character's backstories and motives fall into place.

Ace Attorney 1 is a good game. It does have problems but they don't make me OBJECT not recommending this game(heh heh. object). If you want to go into the series, be sure to start with this one. Particularly on an emulator due to fast forwarding. I'm now interested to see how this series continues.

FINAL RATING: 7/10

(While this is a quick review of AA1 for the DS, I skipped Rise from the Ashes. It's a post-credits case that I feel doesn't add much to the narrative at all and works retroactively against the ideas set up, and it's also the worst paced)

The first Ace Attorney game is timeless in its charm, and generally what it's known for is exactly that plus the concepts it sets up for the rest of the trilogy. Some of it holds up to scrutiny, but there are certainly cracks and dusty structural issues in the writing mold.

Primarily, AA1's biggest issues are pacing and the investigations. It's endemic to all but the fourth case, that the pacing will be bloated in ridiculous filler that adds nothing, and goes far too slow working on red herrings and trivial information that most people could easily glean to be falsehoods or fucking about. The investigations are also just never fun, the railroading structure is fine but having such obtuse event triggers that don't make sense or just information drips that only end up making a difference at the trial kind of leaves it with a hanging half that could use trimming.

But, I'd still say AA1 is goodish, and that's primarily because of my feelings with Case 3 and 4. Case 3 may be a terribly paced, contradictory plot mysteries (the head blocks everything BUT THE VAN???? what??), and frontrunner for worst event triggers, but it offers such a strong message on deconstructing idol culture tied to a goodish villain, interesting motive, and humanized people surrounding the villain. Case 4 on the other hand builds off the previous by working on "dealing with the past", with multiple characters all stemming from one incident that are characterized by their relationships between each other. It really works best to the entire game, and while 1-3's final day is my favorite moment, 1-4 is genuinely the best constructed.

The charm as I said is also really beneficial, with each emotional hype moment resonating probably due to how much condensed Capcom energy it is. The music is also excellent, with each time something like Cornered playing firing on all cylinders, getting me giddy every time.

Overall, it's a goodish start that I still recommend trying if you can get past the blech stuff. The series (to my memory) gets better from here anyway. (6.5/10)