onsdag 17 maj 2023

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Switch)

 

Breaking the law! Breaking the law!

So I had to replay the Ace Attorney trilogy after playing the latest games in the series, and of course you start from the beginning. Which I apparently did in 2020 by playing the intro chapter and nothing more. Finished it in a couple of days and what a nice nostalgia ride it was. Last time was back in 2015... or maybe 2014, but I think I at the time still were rather close to play and release compared to now when I got something like 10 months of post already in the cue.

So, as I wrote back in 2015, the story of Phoenix Wright trying to help Miles Edgeworth leave the darkness that hangs above him, rumours of false evidence and so on. And now I watched a couple of Columbo episodes I can quite see a possible inspiration from that series. I mean, someone mentioned that Columbo was about an apparent bumbling police detective taking on the high and mighty who believed themselves to be untouchable by the law, and that premise is very much here. The defendant is someone everyone already dooms and it can't be that rich, famous or powerful person. So much so that I wonder if Gumshoe is actually an homage with the coat. The first chapter just establishing Phoenix, Mia Fey and Larry Butz in order to show off the gameplay. Second chapter is the death of Mia and the accusation against Maya Fey, Mia's sister. Third is the Steel Samurai episode that made me cheat my way through the whole game on the 3DS, which I didn't do this time (maybe due to having a save function that allows for easy retry, still got caught on some pixel hunting episodes). Fourth and final original chapter on the original GBA game is the trail of Miles Edgeworth. And I got a say, it feels rather short so I get adding another chapter for the DS version, but the ending feels right here. It's a bit like Ni No Kuni where there is a natural end, and then a tacked on chapter after for the upgrade to better console (in that case from DS to PS3). 

I'm not the only one seeing that right? He even have a dog!

Fifth chapter on the other hand is great. We have actual investigating to do. Ema Skye brings both finger prints and blood stains hunt, and to be honest I was listening to a couple of Gabriel Knight 3 playthroughs and I had some great cravings for that kinda gameplay. Of course Ace Attorney don't give the whole experience since it amounts to... what, 3 finger prints and 6 blood stains? They of course changed how it worked a bit since the 3DS had a touch screen as well as a microphone to blow away the dust, all changed to buttons now... thank god. Don't recall how often I had problems with the microphone not working correctly with the earphones plugged in. We can also investigate items in 3D which made it a lot more fun since otherwise the only thing you could do was press statements to change the meaning of evidence. The chapter also deals with corruption in the very top of the criminal law enforcement.

Bad things with it... I now get why I get the newer games to be a bit boring, they are so slow compared to this game. The statements fly by and it's easy to rush through if you press again and again. It doesn't work like that in the newer games, which is obviously blamed on the shift to 3d characters who has to show every quirk. I mean, Enoch in the Great Attorney 2 used what, like 15 seconds on every statement showing him doing the robot. You get the same problem here since they made a video tape I believe is made with 3d characters that move so slow and you can't fast forward enough. Other than that, it was a great game. The graphics are nice and the music top notch. Everything from the awaiting the trail to the piecing together to evidence to... wait, there's no Edgeworth theme here? Did they introduce it in the next game with Franziska von Karma's theme first? Well, that make me looks bad in the last post.

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