For some reason, the Nintendo DS as of late has become a bit of an occupation simulator platform, with the releases of games like Trauma Center: Under the Knife and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. While the excitement of playing as a surgeon under pressure with a patient’s life on the line might be easy to imagine, the fun involved in a lawyer’s daily work of writing briefs and reading large dusty tomes isn’t immediately obvious. However, Capcom accomplishes the feat of making a lawyer’s work fun, bringing us one of the more original games to grace the Nintendo DS with Phoenix Wright: a title that blends drama and humor with classic graphical adventure game play. Long a cult favorite amongst importers, the Gyakuten Saiban series was only found in Japan on the GBA, but now it finally has an English translation. The first several chapters of Phoenix Wright are taken from the first game in that series, while the final chapter features an all-new case made specifically for the DS.
The game is divided into several chapters, each with several turns of evidence collection and trials. Generally, in each chapter you investigate different areas to dredge up clues that you can present in court during your battle of wits with the opposing counsel. The investigation phase follows the standard Japanese graphical adventure model, where the player moves from location to location, engaging in conversations with characters you meet and examining various objects along the way. If you unearth something pertinent to the case, you collect the piece of evidence into your inventory to use later in court. This kind of adventure format has historically suffered from familiar recurring problems, and this game is no exception. Often, if you can’t find the one thing you need to move the story forward, you end up wandering though the same locations multiple times, talking through the same lines of dialog with characters over and over again hoping to glean something critical that you missed. At the most frustrating points, it merely becomes a "hunt for the clump of pixels" kind of game, which would’ve seemed dated over a decade ago. Most of the game is not subject to this kind of drudgery, but it happens enough where almost everyone playing it will notice it as a problem at some point. Also, while the character dialog is entertaining on the whole, there does seem to be a lot of idle chit-chat thrown in that could only be classified as time-wasting filler.
Afterward, when the player has collected enough evidence, the game progresses to the trial phase where most of the game’s dramatic moments play out. During each trial, various witnesses testify, and it’s up to you to find the contradictions in their testimonies to exonerate your client using both logic and your collected evidence.
"It plays like an interactive court drama straight out of a television show..."
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It plays like an interactive court drama straight out of a television show, and while there may be a lot of reading and poring over facts, it leads to some great "ah ha!" moments. Despite the fact that you have an unlimited amount of time available to examine the evidence and make your claims, there is still a palpable sense of tension. You have a maximum of five mistakes allowed per trial, and the pressure is definitely on if you’re scrambling to figure something out while on your last leg. Each trial has at least one surprise moment: some of them are plainly ludicrous and some are incredibly satisfying. The only problem in the trial mode is that sometimes thinking ahead gets you in trouble; if you attempt to present a contradiction that the game isn’t ready for quite yet, you will end up getting penalized for it. Still, when you finally take down some of the game’s villains by finding the crucial mistake in their testimony, you can’t help but have a triumphant smile on your face.
The first four chapters of the game are uniformly excellent, culminating in the very enjoyable fourth act which served as the ending for the original GBA title. In contrast, while it is quite dramatic, the final fifth DS-only chapter feels bloated and overstays its welcome by several hours. The quality of the writing in this story is noticeably off from the previous chapters, and there are more moments of frustration seeded within it. In all, the game is surprisingly long, and offers more hours of play than most would suspect; on the other hand the replay value is almost nil for the obvious reason that the facts that "solve" the cases won’t change.
Looking back, the most immediately striking characteristic of this game is its zany colorful characters
"...the translation keeps the laugh count intact..."
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and their exaggerated costumes and mannerisms. You’ll quickly feel affection for your sidekicks’ personalities and become intrigued by the hidden pasts of the other characters. The main character’s personality, while intentionally a bit muted, rapidly grows on you. Frankly, a story-based game with bland characters isn’t worth playing, and luckily Phoenix Wright’s cast entertains and keeps the player emotionally involved. The twists and turns on some of the stories’ roller coaster rides would ring hollow without the game’s great characterization.
A large part of the appeal of the character dialog, and the game as a whole, is the generous helping of humor that is spread throughout the stories.
"Rather than feeling like a traditional videogame, it feels more like an interactive novel..."
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The original script was chock full of Japanese puns and cultural references, and fortunately the translation keeps the laugh count intact, albeit with some major reworking for western audiences. Sure, some of attempted pun translations are a bit tortured, but humor is one of the hardest things out there to translate. The translators should be commended for keeping the jovial spirit of the original material.
As far as the control system goes, aside from adding standard push buttons on the touch screen panel, there are a few extra innovations over the old GBA version’s controls. Amusingly, the player can literally shout objections into the microphone port to get the judge’s attention. During the final DS-tailored chapter, more interesting control interfaces are presented, including intuitive three-dimensional examination of objects, fingerprint dusting, and even VCR type controls for the review of video evidence. While these advanced controls only appear near the very end of the game, players can likely look forward to more control innovations in future DS installments.
Indeed, any DS sequel of this game should combine the cool touch screen features of the last chapter with the superior writing and pacing of the first chapters. As the game stands now, it’s a title that rewards the patient player looking for some good mystery stories to unravel. Honestly, the more typical gamer will likely get bored of this game quickly. Rather than feeling like a traditional videogame, it feels more like an interactive novel that reveals itself at a more leisurely pace than most games out there. That qualifies it as a niche product to be sure, but intrigued parties should certainly take a chance on this unique title.
