Falling Stars

Posted 11 August 2010:

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

You graduate from law school. You become a defence attorney. You get to run murder trials! You get to question witnesses and investigate crime scenes and collect evidence! You get to fight for justice! Best of all, you get to bang on the table in court and shout "Objection!" Who wouldn't want to be a lawyer? XD

It reminds me of the Sierra adventure games I loved as a kid, where they knew how to tell a good story: one with characters who mattered, emotional highs and lows, and a deeply satisfying ending. Here the stakes are always high, with an innocent person wrongly accused, and the real murderer roaming free. The cases are like brilliantly plotted detective mysteries, with as many mindbending twists as Jonathan Creek. That is the real highlight of the game - the chain of revelations, each overturning all our previous assumptions, done to great effect in the courtroom confrontations. And then there is the continuity, character histories woven in so that the cases are personal, and this link between past and present makes it feel almost epic.

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Ahh, these games were so good! leenabeans got me hooked on them when she lent me the first three, and they consumed many enjoyable weekends. There seem to have been quite a few others released since then.

I've watched the live action movie, which was a pretty good adaptation. Apparently, there is also an animated TV series?

I still sometimes listen to the game soundtrack, and hearing the theme music takes me right back.

I was supposed to post this ages ago, but anyway.

leenabeans, I'm not sure whether to thank you or curse you for getting me hooked on these games. Possibly both. On the one hand, I didn't get much done for an entire month. On the other hand, I was delivering justice for all!

Maybe the first game has trained me well in lateral thinking and wild improbabilities. Becauses I think I'm getting better at working out whodunnit, it's just getting harder to find the evidence to pin it on the culprit. So, plotwise, there was less of the wow factor than the first game, but the characters continue to grow on me.

( Mild spoilers )

You graduate from law school. You become a defence attorney. You get to run murder trials! You get to question witnesses and investigate crime scenes and collect evidence! You get to fight for justice! Best of all, you get to bang on the table in court and shout "Objection!" Who wouldn't want to be a lawyer? XD

It reminds me of the Sierra adventure games I loved as a kid, where they knew how to tell a good story: one with characters who mattered, emotional highs and lows, and a deeply satisfying ending. Here the stakes are always high, with an innocent person wrongly accused, and the real murderer roaming free. The cases are like brilliantly plotted detective mysteries, with as many mindbending twists as Jonathan Creek. That is the real highlight of the game - the chain of revelations, each overturning all our previous assumptions, done to great effect in the courtroom confrontations. And then there is the continuity, character histories woven in so that the cases are personal, and this link between past and present makes it feel almost epic.

It seems impossible that it could get better than this. I am awed that it apparently does.

(Postscript 1: I am pleased that this is a very forgiving game, which simply doesn't allow you to clear the stage until you have completed all the necessary tasks. Unlike some other games where you can hit a dead end, because of a key you missed picking up six hours ago and have no way to go back for.)

(Postscript 2: Edgeworth was such an ass to begin with! Every time he smiled that supercilious smile and wagged his finger rebukingly, I wanted to punch him in the face. (Who the hell *does* order a second autopsy report anyway?) But, well, I guess it turns out he's a poor woobie after all.)