Retro Spotlight: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Retro Spotlight: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
On the eve of the release of a long-awaited, new Ace Attorney, let's look back at where the franchise all began.
This column is “Retro spotlight,” which exists mostly so I can write about whatever game I feel like even if it doesn’t fit into one of the other topics you find in this newsletter. Previous entries in this series can be found through this link.
Earlier in 2021, I appeared on Trevor Strunk’s podcast, No Cartridge, to discuss the top 101 Nintendo games project I was publishing on this here newsletter. At one point, Trevor asked me “What counts as a good game in your mind? What is the reason the game gets ranked higher? What has to be there, the aesthetic or gaming or note that has to exist?” My answer, to save you the time of digging for it in the podcast itself:
I feel like it has to hold my attention beyond my initial playthrough. Which does not mean that a very narratively-driven game, like a visual novel, could not make it, for example. I have probably played the original Phoenix Wright trilogy… half-a-dozen times? So I’ve probably put 300 hours of my life into those fucking three games. I know what happens. I still do it! There is no mystery left in those games for me! And yet, I’m drawn in by the world, by the characters, and the experience of replaying those games and revisiting them.
Sure, the Phoenix Wright games are Capcom properties, not Nintendo’s, but there is a reason they immediately came to mind as an example to answer the question. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney was one of the first games I picked up on my Nintendo DS (Lite) back in college. I tore through it — mostly while minding the calendar store mall kiosk at my old retail job at the now-defunct Borders Bookstore, thank you to the DS for being easily closed at any moment and hidden before a customer or superior could see it — and then walked to the Gamestop in that same mall while on a break to grab the second game, and then the third.
I have since played the trilogy on the Wii, and then on the Switch. I’ve played all of the (localized) spinoff games, and the two 3DS releases that brought Phoenix back into the fold as a playable character. I have a 14-year-old cat named Miles Edgeworth — hey, his white hair on his chest looked sort of like a cravat, ok? — and I’m writing this as I listen to Turnabout Jazz Soul, the soundtrack with jazz arrangements of songs from the first three games in the series. Like I said on No Cartridge: a game has to hold my attention beyond the initial playthrough, and the Ace Attorney games are certainly guilty of that, visual novel/adventure or no. I have revisited the original games many times, but beyond their mechanics, there is the strength of the characters, the game world, the writing that has me coming back not just to the games I’ve already experienced, but to a place where I’m welcoming new additions to the franchise with open, excited arms, in the hopes of seeing the world I love grow just a little bit more.
Which brings us to why the original Ace Attorney has been on my mind of late. On July 27, two Ace Attorney games that have, to this point, not been released in North America will finally be available there. The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is a package of two prequel titles featuring Phoenix Wright’s ancestor: they’re well-regarded, but I haven’t played them yet, so this isn’t a “Past Meets Present” entry for that reason: I don’t know what the present is like just yet! So we’ll focus on the past, for now.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is an exceptionally well-written game. The localization is superb, at the same level of care that allowed something like Earthbound’s script to shine through despite the original text deploying more Japanese-minded jokes and puns and gags. Every character you meet has an enormous personality: they’re all cartoon characters living in what is supposed to be a reflection of the real world. Albeit a real world where your assistant is a spirit medium in training who can channel her dead sister, a former defense attorney who also has spirit medium powers, in order to help you solve your cases. Cases which, with one entertaining, diversionary, mid-game exception, are all tied together into one much larger story.
There are five cases in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. The first four are original to the Game Boy Advance release and tie together, as stated, while the fifth was added when the game re-released on the DS, with touch controls and screen optimizations that took advantage of the setup that having two screens allowed. That fifth one works as a way to show you what Capcom was considering doing with their new Ace Attorney game that would be native to the DS, introducing not just a character you’d see all grown up in a few years, but also touch-screen-based gameplay mechanics with a bit of a CSI bent to them. It’s also the lengthiest case in the game, which works to balance out what was once easily the shortest game in the series: five episodes (or Turnabouts, in the game’s parlance) is the norm for Ace Attorney titles, but that wasn’t the case with the very first game’s release.
It originally came out on the Game Boy Advance in Japan, and Capcom didn’t do much of anything to dress up the graphics with the move to the DS, but there really wasn’t any need to do so, either. The pixelated GBA look was fine in 2005, and it would be fine now, rather than the smoothed-out visuals the mobile port (which would also be the base for the port to the Switch and such) utilized. There’s nothing wrong with those smoother graphics, either — this isn’t a Final Fantasy VI Mobile situation — I’m just saying that pixels would have been fine, too. The amount of style put into the characters — in their looks, in their animations, in their many, many facial expressions — makes them shine regardless of what resolution or level of pixelation they’re being presented in.
As for the larger story: Phoenix Wright is on a mission to save his friend, Miles Edgeworth, who he believes has fallen to the dark side by becoming a prosecutor rather than a defense attorney, like Edgeworth’s father was. Edgeworth wants to win by any means, as there is no guarantee that someone claiming to be innocent is such, and Phoenix wants to know how this change in his old friend came about. Phoenix himself was inspired to become a defense attorney because of the actions of Edgeworth when they were kids: Miles defended him in school when no one else would, and Phoenix swore to become a protector for those who no one else would protect, just like his buddy Miles. Through defeating Edgeworth in court, Phoenix can get him to open up, bit by bit, until finally, he’s able to save his friend like he was saved years ago, which in turn changes the trajectory of the relationship between these two from here on out. It’s a pretty sweet story, honestly, as this game — and all of these games, really — have heart to spare. Which is also necessary as a balancing act given how zany and cartoonish they can be otherwise.
The gameplay itself is split between your time in the courtroom and in investigations. Each trial can last a maximum of three days, and the system is designed so that essentially everyone is found guilty, and fast. Phoenix fights back against this with every scrap of evidence, contradiction, and bluff that he can, powered by the belief that his client is telling the truth, and if he can just find the right hole in the prosecution’s attack, then it can be proven that this belief is more than just idealism. Phoenix is always, always, fighting from underneath: even victories that might seem huge can be almost immediately deflated by Edgeworth, and it’s up to you to piece together your evidence in order to continue to find the contradictions and conjecture that will allow you to continue arguing, and in finding the true culprit of each crime.
The courtroom portion of things is, of course, where the part of Ace Attorney that even people who haven’t played the games are aware of comes from:
Objecting to the witness or to the prosecution’s argument leads to moments that make Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney feel like a high-powered action game. How can you not be pumped when this music starts playing as you poke holes in a testimony full of lies, as Edgeworth fires back with counterarguments that Phoenix can lob back his way in the courtroom equivalent of a volley, as you bring yourself and the court closer to the truth of what transpired?
Capcom is a master of action games and composing brilliant music for them, but you could argue that the greatest, most intense theme they’ve ever made along those lines is in a visual novel/adventure title about a lawyer. And it fits.
Outside of the court is where you find the evidence that will help you bring the truth to light inside of it. Phoenix will visit the scene of the crime, the detention center, and various associated locations to meet anyone who might know even a little bit about the crime in question, or the supposed perpetrator of it. He’ll uncover vast conspiracies, the true source of crimes committed due to some long-held grudge, and the truth of why Miles Edgeworth veered from the path he did. Along the way, you will meet an absurd cast of characters, from CEO Redd White of Bluecorp, to the bellboy obsessed with fame for his hotel at any cost, to the 1337-speaking Sal Manella, the director of live-action children’s show The Steel Samurai. A parrot plays a very significant role in your ability to unravel the lies of a long-unsolved murder. I’ll leave it to you to spoil just how significant for yourself.
You will find yourself caring about your clients, about this game world they live in, and about Phoenix and his friends themselves. There’s a reason I went straight from this first entry to the second and then the third, and then waited for the release of Apollo Justice (and every subsequent release in the series) with excitement. It’s the same reason that Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney gets a lot of credit for popularizing visual novels outside of Japan: it’s great. It’s fun, it’s funny, it’s great to go back to even when the questions of whodunnit and how can be answered by your memory. If you somehow haven’t played through Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney yet, then you should: the original trilogy is available on the Switch’s eShop, as well as the PS4 and PS5 Playstation Network store, for $30. That’s $10 per game, which, let’s be real, more re-releases of games as old as these should be aiming for as a price point. Maybe you, too, will begin naming your pets after major characters from this universe, if you just give it a chance.
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