by Alan Au
Hold It! Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney, is back with a new set of cases in the second lawyering adventure for the Nintendo DS,
Ace Attorney: Justice for All (PW2). The second game takes place one year after the events in the first. Fortunately, players don’t need to know the details of the previous game, as the back-story and interface are explained from the beginning. This is done via a cleverly situated tutorial, where Phoenix struggles to remember his lawyerly skills after being clonked on the head, providing a plausible excuse for Phoenix to start again with the basics of courtroom etiquette. Of course, fans of the first game will recognize some familiar faces and situations as Phoenix returns to the courtroom to defend his clients. However, the first game is a hard act to follow, and PW2 starts out in the shadow of the original. These high expectations plague what is otherwise an excellent game for the DS.Phoenix Wright 2 relies heavily on the dialogue and plot to drive the gameplay, but it also makes excellent use of graphics to assist in the storytelling. The subtle character animations and poses add greatly to the atmosphere of the game; a happy witness will cheerfully smile while providing testimony, while a frazzled witness might be nervously tugging on loose bits of clothing. Even Phoenix himself will look confident when making an objection, or cringe when the prosecution presents damaging new evidence. These simple animations add a lot of depth to the story by adding an emotional component, so that the player has a clearer understanding of how the courtroom drama is unfolding.As with the first game, the new Phoenix Wright 2 soundtrack is catchy and offers memorable tunes to establish a lawyering mood. Each character has a distinctive musical motif, and the music becomes light-hearted or ominous as the courtroom situation changes. The sound effects are also used to good effect, with the gavel pounding on the judge’s bench, and voice clips for the infamous calls of “Objection!” that resonate from the prosecution and defense lawyers. The only shortcoming is the generic beeping noise that is used when characters are speaking. Although it’s understandable that the developers wouldn’t use voice clips for all of the dialogue, it would have nice if the speech sound effects had more diversity instead of just “higher-pitched” and “lower-pitched” beeping.
With a story-driven game like Phoenix Wright 2, controls are not as important to the gameplay as they might be for an action-based game. Even so, the PW2 interface is very intuitive and easy to manage. Players can easily advance through the dialogue or manage inventory items by tapping on the touchscreen. As an added bonus, players can even shout “Objection!” into the microphone to interrupt the courtroom proceedings, although this is a purely optional aspect of the gameplay. The only area where PW2 falls short is in its generally poor utilization of the touchscreen for advanced gameplay. This is partly because the game originated as a Japanese release for the Game Boy Advance, and Capcom hasn’t really done much to spruce it up the gameplay to take full advantage of the DS. Still, the strength of PW2 lies with the writing, and the controls are perfectly sufficient to support that.Phoenix Wright 2 is all about the story and the setting. Best classified as a story-based puzzle game, PW2 challenges the player to find contradictions and inconsistencies in courtroom testimony. To assist with this, the PW2 introduces “psyche-locks” which the player must break through to reveal new testimony. Essentially, the player knows that witnesses aren’t telling the entire truth, so the gameplay revolves around careful questioning and use of evidence to expose hidden secrets. Of course, part of the fun of PW2 comes from the unexpected reactions and responses when the player points out these inconsistencies and contradictions. Exposing one piece of the truth can generate even more mysteries, and each story contains unexpected twists and turns that keep the player in suspense. The result is a mixture of logical puzzles and unexpected challenges that come together to form an entertaining gameplay experience.Phoenix Wright 2 suffers from many of the same limitations as other puzzle-based story adventures, which is to say that once you’ve experienced the story and its surprises, there’s nothing left to discover on subsequent replays. Essentially, PW2 is a game that you’ll enjoy the first time, but that you probably won’t play again. You’ll get about 20-30 hours worth of gameplay out of it, but the four cases will leave you wanting more courtroom goodness. This is especially annoying since the original game included five episodes, with the last one added specifically for the DS version. Still, PW2 is an otherwise worthy sequel to the original classic.
Ace Attorney: Justice for All (PW2) marks the triumphant return of Phoenix Wright to the courtroom. With excellent writing and clever puzzles, this quirky little story adventure alternates between logical deduction and unexpected discoveries. The simple (yet effective) graphics and sound also do a good job of setting the scene, both in and out of the courtroom. However, with only four episodes and limited use of the touchscreen, the game never quite manages to escape from the shadow of its classic predecessor. Even so, the memorable characters and events intertwine to create a quality lawyering experience worthy of the Phoenix Wright name.
