Phoenix Wright series saves the best for last
The Phoenix Wright series of the Ace Attorney franchise has certainly felt like a strange squeeze onto the DS considering there's very little that's new compared to the original gameboy advance iterations. It seems only the first game had a bonus act that used the DS to its nearly full capacity, while both Justice for All and Trials and Tribulations lack these bonus features.
However, if you had played the previous games this episode in the Phoenix Wright series completely wraps up the game series satisfyingly. It introduces much better characters than the previous game, gives much better cases, and feels genuinely interesting. There are points in the gameplay where the game doesn't give you much to go on as what evidence to present, but for the most part it seems much easier to logically put together the various puzzles that the cases present.
It can still be difficult during investigations to find the "one thing" you need to make the investigation continue or conclude. Occasionally I found myself presenting every piece of evidence and every profile to each person, and scouring the crime scenes up and down left to right before noticing the important detail that causes the story to get past these speed bumps as it won't let you proceed until you have all the evidence and have been everywhere and done everything.
There's still frequent saving required to prevent yourself from starting a chapter over again, but because of my genuine interest in the final and most difficult case I'm more than willing to look past this and other flaws in the game, because the story is pretty good, the characters this time are fantastic, and there is no better feeling than to play a video game that has some kind of definitive ending. It almost seems like most games that come out in recent years always leave the endings open for sequels rather than making a satisfying ending. Fortunately, Trials and Tribulations delivers.
I can't wait to see where Apollo Justice, and the new "Gyakuten Kanji" takes the series.
