At of the the time this is being written, there’s only a couple more weeks until Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth is released so I thought it’d be a great time to take a quick retrospective look back at the Ace Attorney series. Warning, there will be minor spoilers included in this article!
It all started with one name: Phoenix Wright. With Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, the developers somehow made being a lawyer cool. Using a first-person sort of perspective, you were able to gather clues, interrogate witnesses and confront suspects and once you’ve gathered everything you could, it was time to defend your client in the courtroom. It was unlike anything I’d ever played before. Somehow mixing old-school point and clicks with reading comprehension really brought a fresh type of style to video games, and honestly, I wish we’d see more of it these days.
Everything from Phoenix’s hairdo to the crazy characters you meet is over the top. That defining sense of craziness is what gives the Ace Attorney series such a brand identity. Each character is crazier than the last, and especially when you finally manage to figure out the guilty party, their reactions are hilarious. Some of them explode into a fiery blast of anger, others break down into a shell of their former personas and others well, seem to cause earthquakes. The presentation is hard to describe but always felt like a worthy payoff to constantly being the underdog.
As the series progressed with Justice For All and Trials & Tribulations, the Ace Attorney series brought with it some great characters. Over time their importance became critical and by the end of Trials & Tribulation (the last game featuring Phoenix Wright as the main protagonist) your idea of victory and pursuit for the truth were forever changed. Knowing it was the last time I’d regularly see a lot of characters from the Ace Attorney series made me sad.
Unfortunately, in an attempt to reboot or take the series in a new direction, a new protagonist was introduced named Apollo Justice. A rookie defense attorney finally gets his first client and it’s… Phoenix Wright. Apparently, when working on Apollo Justice, Sega asked the developers to include at least Phoenix Wright to tie the games together, or at least feature someone familiar. It seems the developers’ answer was to include Phoenix Wright, after he’s already been stripped of his defense attorney badge. Yeah. Despite losing his badge though, Phoenix remains incredibly important to the story while guiding and helping Apollo throughout the entire game. It’s great that they kept Wright in such high regards, but a lot of fans felt stripping him of his badge was a bad move, and some even go so far as to pretend Apollo Justice doesn’t even exist.
When the series was ported from the GBA to DS, the first Phoenix Wright game featured an extra chapter, which utilized a lot of the new DS features. Everything from dusting for prints, spraying for bloodstains and investigating evidence in full 3D were featured, but were never seen again until Apollo Justice. It was great to see those features come back, but again, they weren’t utilized to the same degree as before, and overall Apollo Justice’s gameplay was unsatisfying. I can see why a lot of people were disappointed with it.
But now, we’re finally getting a new Ace Attorney game and it’s based around Phoenix Wright’s old friend and rival: Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth. Not much is known about when it takes place or why Edgeworth is now an investigator, but we do know instead of “Objection!” his catchphrase will be “Eureka!” and that majority of gameplay will be based outside of the courtroom. I’m not sure what to think of it, but I am excited. I certainly hope the game makes better use of the DS, doesn’t ruin any more characters from previous games and provides us with that top-quality Ace Attorney game all the fans are craving.
Stay tuned for my review after the game is released in North America on February 16th.