The hotshot defense attorney Phoenix Wright is at the helm once more, and, although we would like to stick to progressive tradition and say he faces up to his “biggest challenge yet”, it’s not exactly true. The cases in the first game eventually culminated with taking down powerful legal and criminal masterminds, and uncovering lengthy plots and conspiracies. The fourth and final case is the only real powerhouse experience, and the first serves as an introductory sequence of sorts, to get new players accustomed to the unique Phoenix gameplay. This is a little condescending for those who have played the first game – we didn’t need to start off small, just hit us with the big guns right from the get-go. It’s advisable for new players to begin with the first title anyway (which, incidentally, has only recently seen an Australian release).
Each case revolves around a murder, and Phoenix is always quickly persuaded to defend the poor victim of an unfortunate circumstance to uncover the truth. Many characters are recycled from the first game, which isn’t exactly a good thing. Two particularly annoying characters, Lotta Hart and Wendy Oldbag, are back to get in the way and impede your progress by offering up testimony after testimony – all with their signature speech style. Most characters are distinctly different, and the dynamic conversations keep the reader guessing what’s going to happen. The English translation is top-notch aside from a few spelling mistakes, and any game with a Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reference is an automatic winner.
The Village People make a comeback.
The gameplay comprises of two main sequences - roaming a select number of pre-rendered areas looking for clues and investigating leads, and the subsequent trials to hear witness testimony and fight lawyerly battles. Earlier cases are much shorter, but by the end you’ll be amazed at the number of twists and turns that can be uncovered from a seemingly open-and-shut case. Phoenix collects pieces of evidence in the Court Record, and these are used to show contradictions in witness testimony and persuade others to talk during investigations. In a new addition since the first game, character profiles can also be presented in the same way as evidence, which literally doubles the possibilities to explore.
Investigations have three main options in each area – Talk, Present, and Examine. Talk is exactly that; talk to whoever might be standing in front of you, with a maximum of four conversation choices. Present involves showing said character a piece of evidence or profile to uncover some new revelation, and Examine lets you scroll the background with your stylus to pick up pieces of evidence. The progression is extremely linear, and it’s pretty much required to talk to everyone about everything and pick through every scene to complete the investigation. Sometimes, you’ll need to present one particular piece of evidence to one particular person in order to move on, and although the game does give you clues concerning who to talk to, sometimes it just isn’t enough, and you’re required to simply present piece after piece to a bunch of different people until you stumble upon something relevant.
Sometimes Phoenix will realise a character is lying, and comprising the biggest gameplay addition, you’ll need to break mystical Psyche-Locks on their mind to uncover the truth and get them to talk. The idea is cool, but the execution is pretty uninspired – ask them questions and present evidence to prove their lies and deceit. The entire game is presented in a quirky anime style, which is fantastic, but the characters will literally say something along the lines of “Haha! You’ll never break my Psyche-Locks and uncover my lies, Phoenix Wright!” Well, perhaps not quite so blatant, but there is no subtlety to the process – both Phoenix and the characters are aware of these Psyche-Locks, and both know that specific pieces of evidence will break them.
Nobody is happy when murder is involved. Except the murderer.
Presenting evidence to contradict testimony in trials is great fun, especially when completely obliterating the biggest lies. Unfortunately, the logical problems of contradiction remain from the first game. A real court case is dynamic, and allows for discussion – and although there may be several pieces of evidence that relate to the situation and could be brought to the court’s attention, there is only ever one piece of evidence to contradict one line of testimony at a time. If you hit a snag and can’t figure it out, it becomes trial-and-error, resetting the game many times until the correct combination is stumbled upon. The five penalties in the first game have been replaced by a life bar, which depletes if the wrong evidence is presented. The amount of life depleted also varies depending on the importance of the situation. After the conclusion of the trial, the life bar status carries over to the investigation stage, and is also used when attempting to break Psyche-Locks. It’s a decent system, if a little unforgiving at times.
This is not a highly interactive game. If reading text isn’t your idea of fun, then Justice for All is like watching paint dry. It’s more of a “choose your own adventure” book than a game; there’s barely a few minutes you’ll spend investigating without talking to someone. The original Ace Attorney featured a fifth case not originally in the GBA title, designed specifically for the DS hardware. This case was very long and included video footage, touch-screen and microphone interactivity, and sharper animation. An extra case hasn’t been added this time around, which is a big disappointment, but we can only hope the efforts are now focused squarely on Phoenix games built for the DS from the ground up.
Justice for All is a tough game to score. There are so many areas in which the formula could be improved, and yet it still dishes up a very compelling experience. What happens when they get it all right? Perfection, probably. After suffering through no less than six Resident Evil games with little to no advancement in core gameplay, it seems overly harsh to condemn Justice for All for not being particularly revolutionary with only the second installment. Sure, as the series receives more additions (and it damn well should), we can gradually expect bigger and better things in the lawyer landscape. Until then, it’s safe to clear up the backlog of GBA ports and give the DS fans what they’re screaming for after the first game – more amazingly unique Phoenix Wright gameplay. No objections here.
), once it goes onto the DS with the fourth game, I would certainly expect some serious evolution, seeing as the DS is a lot more capable than the GBA.
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