OBJECTION! Part 3 - Goodbye Turnabout

• Part 1
• Part 2

First I want to apologise for the previous entry in this blog series. Only the second blog and I already messed up! I rushed it, so I wasn't really thinking and did a poor job in general. It's completely useless as an introduction to Phoenix Wright. Especially when you consider it's covering the first game which is the most important and considered by some to be the best in the series.

With that out of the way, I will be looking at the second game, Justice For All. There are more games that I will address in the future, but Trials and Tribulations serves as an end to many of the plot lines and unanswered questions of the previous two games and will be in the next blog. I'm getting ahead of myself though. First up...

Justice For All

The sequel to Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney is largely the same as the first game and follows very much the same format. Investigate, go to court. Talk to people, read a lot of text, solve logic puzzles to prove your client innocent. The game reuses most of the same graphical assets as the first such as locations and characters but also feature's an entirely new soundtrack.

Some of the characters introduced in Justice For All, I think, are some of the best in the Phoenix Wright Universe. Pearl Fey, the sweet and innocent cousin to Maya;Franziska Vonkarma, the daughter of tough prosecutor Manfred Vonkarma following in her father's footsteps; Shelly DeKiller, the honourable assassin. Returning characters such as Edgeworth, Gumshoe, Maya, The Judge and Winston Payne are still a delight but there are also a few insufferable or boring characters, such as Max Galactica.

Improvements and Disappointments

Even though this is considered the worst in the series by some ace attorney fans the game benefits from a host of improvements that come from making a sequel. There were some pacing and writing issues with testimonies and conversations with witnesses in the first game that are improved here and in all future ace attorney games. You get the sense that they finally standardised a lot of things internally leading to a smoother experience. No more overly long testimonies with super short statements. Also, as I mentioned previously, it features some strong characters that go on to feature in future games.

New gameplay elements are also introduced. The first being a minor change; strikes are gone and in its place is a health bar. A health bar that EXPLODES when you receive a penalty in court. Previously you had 5 penalties and it was game over, but the health bar allows for variable amounts of life to be lost depending on the situation offering more flexibility in the games failure state.

The second element is the magatama. Charged with spiritual energy this object allows Phoenix to see in to a persons heart and determine if they are lying. Note that it doesn't determine the truth, just if the person is lying or not. The effect is twofold. One is it fixes some of the issues where Phoenix would just take someone's statement as true without question. Two, more importantly, is it adds some much needed depth to the investigation part of the game. Familiar elements from the courtroom are taken out in to the field and adds some puzzle-like challenge rather than pixel hunting to trigger the next scene.

A great atmospheric piece of music. Shame the rest of it is junk.

Well, you might be asking what's so bad that fans consider this the worst of the ace attorney games. My perspective on it is the writing is just bad. Characters, scenarios, logical sense... bad. I'm not able to articulate exactly why. I'm certainly not a literary critic. The cases you deal with are not as interesting, the twists aren't as shocking and the characters can be forgettable all the way to annoying.

It isn't for lack of effort. For example, one of the cases is set in a circus. Ripe for wacky antics and characters, right? Well, sort of. For some reason I found all the performers to be unlike-able narcissists. Even the stoogey clown. Character motivations and relationships seem questionable to the detriment of the plot killing a lot of the intrigue and an unsatisfying pay off. There feels like a lot of wasted potential.

Spoilers

The one exception is the final case. Unique in the entire franchise, you find out your client is guilty. You proceed as normal under the assumption that your client is innocent but over the course of the case it becomes evident that they are responsible for murder, and the game creates legitimate tension. Maya has been kidnapped and even though you know your client is guilty you must get a not guilty verdict. On top of that, you're presented with the first real choice in the series because you can continue the charade or serve justice by submitting a guilty plea. It isn't completely free form by any stretch of the imagination but it feels liberating considering how linear the game normally is.

Well, that's it. Look out for my next blog. I intended to write about the third game as well in this blog but just doing one game took far too long so I'll do it another time. As always, leave a comment. I love to read them.

I think one of the biggest mechanical failings of Justice For All is related to it being the first game to allow you to present character profiles as part of an objection. It effectively doubles the amount of possible objects you can present as part of an objection. I remember there being multiple times where even when you've figured out which part of a testimony has flaws, it's very ambiguous whether you need to present a particular piece of evidence, or just present a particular character's profile. I think they were new to the idea of using character profiles within the mechanics, and didn't localize the script well enough to make it super clear whether it was expecting you to present evidence or to present a character.

I remember there was one really dumb part in Big Top Turnabout (or whatever the circus case is called) where I was trying to indicate a particular character when someone poses the rhetorical question of "Who else could've been there?" as part of their testimony, and it wouldn't accept it if I submitted the dude's profile to indicate "This guy. This guy could've been there. You know, because we already established he was in that area." But it WOULD accept it if I submitted his top hat that had been found near the crime scene.

I'm probably misremembering that scenario some, but overall I recall that circus case being frustratingly narrow in what evidence it would accept. The later games are much better about sometimes accepting 2 pieces of evidence that are more or less equivalent in relation to the current testimony. Also I believe the series eventually dropped the ability to present character profiles as objections anymore, going back to simply presenting evidence, which I think was a good move.

@bisonhero: Great point, I forgot to mention the character profiles. I think it was used a lot better in 3, and could have improved 1 but poorly implemented in 2. I did miss it in Apollo Justice. I always think of it more in terms of flavour because I just present profiles to people to get their opinion on a person rather than the times when you need it to progress the story. All of the games suffer from lack of clarity over which evidence the game expects you to present.

It doesn't stand out to me among the usual logical failings though. It's bundled in with all my other frustrations.

You mention it briefly, but honestly, my biggest issue with Justice For All is the soundtrack. It was one of my favorite things about the first game, and comparatively, this one is just awful. Besides the first one, I actually really like all the cases themselves, or at least their big twists. Yeah, the circus characters are mostly shit, but at least Larry Butz isn't there to lie on the stand again. Why am I friends with this guy?

@spunkyhepanda: Yeah I didn't harp on it because it's not something I can say explain, you just need to hear it. I chose one of a couple of tracks that I like but the main themes are awful.

They really brought it back with 3 though.

I don't think the second one is that bad, about the soundtrack I think it's noticeably worse because the first one was sort of remastered for the DS (since the original trilogy first came out on the GBA), it even had that last case with some 3d stuff trown in, so I want to say they may have touched up the soundrack as well, while both the second and the third were just straight ports, idk this is 100% speculation on my part.

That last case makes up for any earlier shortcomings in characters and writing in my opinion, like I was legitimately very tense while playing that, didn't want anything bad happening to Maya.,

I believe that the weakest so far is the latest 3DS iteration (dual destinies), for many reasons, but I'll just let you write about it in due time ;p, I loved it all the same though (even bought that additional DLC case), god I love this series.

@onarum said:

I completely agree. I enjoy it, and have finished it 5 or 6 times but it is severely lacking in something I can't quite decide. The iPad version is surprisingly good and the one I would recommend.