The Weakest in the Series
I'm a man who loves his Phoenix Wright games. Once upon a time, I was stranded in an airport for 24 hours with only Phoenix Wright with me and, with the help of that wonderful game, I survived and became a great fan of the series. It never even bothered me that 3 in the series were really just half-assed ports of GBA games with almost nothing to make them new for DS. Though not every case is a home-run, it usually comes together in a thoroughly enjoyable package with smart stories and twists, and never feels as contrived as it really, really should.
I suppose that's the biggest difference, then, between those games and this one. Miles Edgeworth feels like a very contrived game throughout. A big part of this comes from the way the game is no longer in the courts, but out on the crime scene. Yelling "OBJECTION" countering testimonies with a well-placed evidence attack is fine when a judge is overseeing the issue, but when you take it to 'the real world', it's just ridiculous. The dialogue at certain points doesn't help very much, either. It's set up with a lot more "I will do exactly as you have told me to do but with EVIDENCE! And THIS is the evidence that will do exactly that!". It repeats and drags itself along with more references to the evidence, and that nothing matters but the evidence. Yet nothing is more contrived than one of the cases finales, which takes place in a courtroom. No judge, no trial-you and your opponent are on your respective sides of the room acting like it's a real case. Come on, really?!
But let's boil this down to the basics, though. What everyone wants out of an Ace Attorney game is the cast of quirky characters and a set of memorable cases. The characters rather disappoint this time around, with new characters being few and rather one-note. It's really the cast of old favorites that really shine when they pop in, such as Wendy Oldbag (especially since she's so in love with Edgeworth) and Larry Butz (...who's Larry as usual) . Even characters thrown out over the advertisements aren't used very often, and it's about halfway through the game that Kay Faraday, Shi-Long Lang and Agent Shi-Na even appear. Kay's okay, though a rather one-not always happy person looking to become a great thief, despite any gigantic plot revelations. Shi-Na is just a very quiet, efficient secretary with...well, she's essentially personality less. Just efficiency and secretarial duties. It's really Agent Lang who shines the most here, his hatred of prosecutors, rash nature and wolf-like tendencies bringing a certain badass charm that's a good foil to Edgeworth's cold, calculating logic. His story is rather interesting and the strange glasses he wears and proverbs he spouts make his moments good ones, even if he does jump to conclusions for the stupidest reasons possible.
Overall, though, the new characters continue as sort of one-note facades. Businessman. Flight attendant. Spoiled kid. To be fair, they are quite interesting, though, until you realize that there's not going to be a change to characters who would probably be more amusing if there weren't so few of them being leaned on so heavily. In fact, one of them is such an agonizing, annoying person that I'm willing to put up money saying she's the worst character conceived in one of these games. There's maybe 3 new characters per case at most, and the rest of the troupe is just your old friends from other games. I guess I should say that I didn't dislike ALL the characters. Lauren Paups was fairly hilarious, the hopeless romantic who would do anything for love. Likewise, the new detective introduced for one case, Detective Badd, is also strong. His Dirty Harry sort of demeanor and way of talking is in a clear contrast to some of his animations, which makes him seem a lot nicer than his appearance shows. The ambassadors in the last case are interesting as well, but it's really very hard for me to think of any other characters I felt any kind of interest in. However, kudos for having Edgeworth grill the judge. It was odd, to be sure, but I felt it really worked for what the game was trying to do.
The cases are interesting because, outside of one flashback, they take place over the course of 4 days and they all deal with an international smuggling ring in some way or another. It's a weird gamble, since no other game has really had this shadow over every case like that (even Trials and Tribulations, which dealt with the deliciously evil Dahlia Hawthorne quite a few times). It works pretty well, but the structure is a bit confusing because it starts on one day, goes to two days before, then the day before that, then a flashback, then a day after the first day. It's a bit weird to keep up with and I'm not too sure why it was arranged this way, but when you figure out where you are, it becomes a lot easier to follow.
The cases are all good, but there's no moment akin to taking down von Karma or the final case of Apollo Justice. The outcomes seemed a lot more obvious and there's maybe one character revelation that comes out of nowhere and really shocks the player. It really seems a bit too obvious, which isn't helped by the new gameplay style. While Phoenix Wright is a first person point-n-click game, the shift in Miles Edgeworth to a 3/4 overhead sprite-based style resulted in the developers taking away your freedom. It tends to stick you in one room and you can't leave that room for whatever reason they've thought of just now, meaning it's streamlined. I know these games have always been very linear, but this it almost like just reading a book by now.
There are a few new gameplay elements, but they never reach what the magatama or Apollo's bracelet could do. There's the 'logic' function, where tidbits of information are jotted down and connected to help you conjecture about the crime. However, more than once, your logic is empty and the game only fills it in when you run out of options otherwise. I guess it's supposed to be a way of showing some kind of leapfrogging through your logic, but it just feels rushed.
Also returning is 3-d evidence, but most of this is also the game telling you that you have to find something. It's otherwise useless to use unless you really, really like 64-bit graphics. Kay brings with her a device known as 'little thief', and she can use it to recreate crime scenes, but this really doesn't add anything because she programs it herself and then it's just a game of spot-the-contradiction. Nothing new, and even things like forensics work isn't done by you. It's some faceless lab tech, and you just reap the rewards because the game told you you're supposed to be looking for something.
In addition, Edgeworth is always too many steps ahead, even for you. He's always so cocksure, unlike Phoenix who's constantly stumbling and bumbling his way through his cases, making it easier for the player to catch up. Edgeworth has already figured it out, and will come flying out with evidence at times when you have no idea what's going on. It can be a bother, certainly, but you can tell when it's coming, so you can just save when it comes up.
One of the biggest failings can be said to be Edgeworth himself, though. The game has convinced me that Edgeworth works best at what we all know him for- being a side character. His stoic, sure nature and the hidden Steel Samurai fan within worked very well against Phoenix, but when brought out on his own, he's not developed any further. No one is-they enter and exit this game exactly the same, and it feels very static, as if they could watch a bus of children get murdered and then go to sleep like it didn't affect them. Even when it's something that should, like one of the revelations further along the line, the character goes back to being exactly like they were. It's a very stark contrast to the rather smart way they brought Phoenix up to confidence and understanding of what it meant to be an attorney. Edgeworth is Edgeworth. You glean nothing new about him or the people around him. This leads into the two biggest things I felt about this game.
First, it feels like a step backward. The spritework is nice, but I think the game would have been better without it, even in classic AA style. The character models are nice as well, shaded and colored well, but it doesn't feel like it was made for the DS. It doesn't have more frames of animation or anything. It doesn't have full motion video, which Apollo Justice AND the first Phoenix Wright did, though video tapes are used as evidence. The touch screen stuff is barely used. There's really nothing 'new' to the storytelling or gameplay. I'd be fine with that if the quality was better, but it really isn't.
This is mostly because of my second reason: It just feels like a fanfic. But a fanfic that doesn't want to admit that that's what it is. It throws the familiar troupes of characters at you- Maggey Byrde, Mike Meekins, The Steel Samurai. Even Sal Manella pops out for a single gag, and there's a stepladder dialogue worked in. Yet it's in denial because it skimps on the one thing that a lot of people probably wanted the most: Phoenix. He's referred to, but not even by name. He's "the guy in the blue suit" or "he, who can turn any situation around." It sounds at times like Edgeworth reveres him, and there's no way Larry would ever forget him, but they can never say his name. The game started to lead me on at a point to where I was expecting him to pop out from behind a pillar or something because it just sets him up so much. He's still a lawyer at the time of this game so...what gives?
It feels trite to say that this game will 'appeal to the core fans' because by now that's really all who plays these. They know what they want from an Ace Attorney game and, unfortunately, not everything is delivered in this package. It does pain me to give it such a relatively low score, but I do hope that this winds up being what it feels like it is-a detour, a distraction, a side story, to keep the fans happy while they work on a big return.
After all, Apollo IS still a lawyer, and Phoenix COULD be returning...
