PW:AA: Justice for All is a good game. But a huge downfall.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All (METALLICA! ... wait, what? lol) is a port from the original japanese version of the game that was released for the GameBoy Advance. So yeah, like the first game, don't expect many stylus features or other NDS specifics you might see on exclusives for the console. Or even awesome graphics, it's 2D anime, and it looks awesome.
01 - STORY ||
As in the first game of the series, this is the biggest pro of the game. If you don't like to read or don't like RPGs because it has too much story details and all you want to do is play and have fun with it, don't even think about getting this. It is not for you at all. This game runs on it's story, as the first one did and I'm sure all the others to come will. And that's what makes it awesome and enjoyable. Unfortunately, compared to the first game, wich had 5 chapters (even though the last one was made only for the Nintendo DS version) this one only has 4 chapters, so it feels a lot smaller. Also, the cases are a bit boring compared to the previous game, except for the 4th one... and well, the second one was not that bad either. Although every case / chapter has it's awesome characters, funny times and plot twists, they just feel worst if compared to the original game. But there's still a lot here for you, and some mysteries about the main story of Ace Attorney are are revealed here, and you'll also be left with more questions, of course. In this game, your biggest opponent is Prosecutor Franziska von Karma! von Karma! HECK NO!, you might be thinking if you played the first game. Well yeah, that's right, (if you didn't understand, just play the first game) von Karma. And she's bad! *gets whiped* HACK! Yeah, she likes to swing that whip of hers a lot. A lot more than she should. Even the judge gets whipped! Well, anyway I will not reveal anything about the chapters, I'll just say, it's Phoenix Wright. It's awesome even though it's inferior to the previous game you won't be able to put this down until you solved it all.
02 - GAMEPLAY ||
The gameplay is almost the same as the previous game, there's only one major difference. We'll go on about that later, first, the basics; you go through 2 different situations in each chapter (these might occur more than once each chapter). They are:
- Investigating: You go to the crime scenes, and other relevant places and gather as much information as you can by talking to other people and examining the scenes;
- Court: You go against the Prosecutor that's charging your client of murder (well, in almost every case) and have to listen to witnesses to the crime and then proceed with your Cross-Examination, wich consists of you trying to figure out holes in the witness testimony by pressing them or by presenting evidence, OBJECTION!
That's the whole playing you'll do, bascially. Also, in every chapter you can also hold the Y button and scream "OBJECTION!" or "HOLD IT!" or "TAKE THAT!" into the microphone. The major improvement on the gameplay that was presented here on the second installment of Ace Attorney is the Magatama. The Magatama is an object wich allows you to see a "Psyche-Lock" (or various, depending on the secret) when the person you're talking to is hiding something. After using the Magatama (I won't explain what this is exactly, as it is explained on the second chapter) you'll need to present evidence to the person so they will 'spill the beans' to you. That's always satisfying. That's a very cool feature added and I'm happy that they did it, as it may seem quite "dangerous" for many people (the whole concept behind the Magatama, that is. You'll understand after playing).
03 - SOUND ||
The main music is basically the same from the first game, as well as the soundeffects. Although the new characters also have their own theme songs, so yeah. The music is pretty ok, i still prefer the music on the court, or you might call it "the tension song" lol, it fits. I also love when characters go stupid / funny and a stupid / funny song plays. lol awesome. Lacks voices, as I said on the review of the first one. But... oh well.
04 - GRAPHICS ||
The graphics are all drawn anime-style wich couldn't be better, as I find the anime-style drawings to be the most able to get the feeling and personality into the characters' face/actions. You'll be laughing really hard with some of the faces you'll see and actions. I know I did. No 3D on this one though. Not missing it too, though.
05 - LENGTH ||
It's a big game but not as big as the first one. The first one took +- 12 hours to complete, this one took me like 8 hours or something. So yeah, not too big but not too small either.
06 - REPLAY?
Unfortunatly I see no need to replay this game (unless it's like 10 years from now because you probably won't remember all the story details). There's nothing to unlock and nothing new to see. So I'd say finish this one and go on to the third title.
OVERALL - 3 out of 5
Good game, but worst than the first one.
Go get it now if you love crime stories or point and click adventures! It's an order. NO OBJECTIONS!
Case closed.
