Ace Attorney
| Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney | |
|---|---|
 "I object to this game case!" | |
| Developer(s) | Capcom |
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
| Release date | 2005 |
| Genre | Japanese Text Adventure |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo DS |
| Port | Courtroom No.3 |
| Rating | T |
| Would Jesus Christ play it? | An objection he/she/it can't refuse. |
Ace Attorney (in Japan: Gyakuten Saiban (逆転裁判), is a series of adventure/visual novel games created by Shu Takumi, published by Capcom and Nintendo, in which players assume the role of a sharp-haired, sharply dressed lawyer who does a lot of pointing and yelling and tends to defend oblivious clients whose behavior is indefensible. Fortunately for him and the player, Justice is blind as always, and more specifically in Japanese Los Angeles, California.
Phoenix Wright: The "Ace" Attorney[edit]
Phoenix Wright, or better known as "Correct at the Latest Possible Circumstance" (loosely translated with help from the from the Otaku Archives), is your player character through out the series. His real name is Nick for some reason, probably just to make the game further appear as if it's taking place in America. Throughout the series, Nicky boy Phoenix Wright is a somewhat modest man with real, actual qualities you may find in a lawyer in real life, except he actually feels emotion.
Phoenix is a Prosecuting attorney, but not just any prosecuting attorney. He's a prosecutor hired by the defendant. The defendant needs a prosecutor, because it's impossible to prove his innocence without first convicting someone else. If you fail to prosecute someone other than your client, your client is found guilty.
Phoenix is not really a good lawyer, because you aren't a good lawyer. However this is okay, because when you fuck up every single case and innocent people are convicted, they re-hold the case anyway so you can get a little further before fucking up again. However, it's not that hard, because Capcom knows you aren't a good lawyer, so they decide to throw out every single concept that makes for a fair and unbiased court system, and replace it with a bunch of shiny digital art, that makes it easier for the feeble-minded individual.
Gameplay[edit]
Perhaps the most crucial aspect of any text based adventure is how you can manipulate the story. As a lawyer, you wish to prove the innocence of their client because you get paid the big bucks to do so. However, you don't get to do anything. Phoenix is actually smart enough to know you're not a lawyer, so therefore he does the talking for the most part. You just gotta do the hard part for him, and that's interrogating the witnesses and proving your client innocent. In this case you aren't being paid anything, you're just expected to buy the next game for more of your favorite lawyer, however, don't worry—Phoenix isn't paid either, in fact I don't think he's ever been paid. (How does he even pay the bills, I assume some of his friends front the money, like some kind of high-end cartel?)
Testimony[edit]
Several witnesses can be found throughout the series, as if America already didn't have enough freaks, the courtroom witnesses in the Ace Attorney Universe is full of them. However, despite how rudimentary these witnesses are, they contribute to the story is more case plotholes their own statement of the incident and slight comical relief.
Witness testimonies are essentially what they believe to be the culprit, what they know about other people involved in, or affiliated with the crime, or to accentuate how awful their backstory is. Regardless, each witness is a key to actually being able to prove your oblivious client innocent. You don't act right away, you just get to look at that dialogue and think to yourself (you could be thinking, "Well gosh diddly darn, why did I spend $15 on a game where I'm looking at text all the time?", but that's rude, so don't think that.)
As they finally stop talking bullshit, it's time for you to crack down on them.
Cross-examination[edit]
It's time to call their bluff, each of these witnesses has a glaring contradiction (as quoted from the Ace Attorney himself, every fucking time he's about to cross-examine a witness) and you gotta find it (of course). Scrolling through each of the separate bubbles of the witnesses testimony doing either of the following:
Pressing[edit]
At the Press of the Press button you can pressure your already pressured witness to press them for more information, straight from the press. If you aren't satisfied with your pressing, the pressure is then pressed on your to present based on what you've pressed. Got it...? Uh...No...?
If you press them you get to hear a little more about their statement. Sometimes they leave something out, so they include it into their statement. Simply put, they're lying to you.
Presenting[edit]
Like during preschool, except someone is dead and your teacher is some grumpy old dude with a black robe, you have to present what you know to the class court. In this case, you're presenting a piece of obtained evidence, something usually found during the previous investigation, leading to the court case. However, you gotta really make sure you know what you're doing, or else the Judge just ain't havin' that shit. Yes, if you present something that makes absolutely no sense to the court, the Judge is going to give you a penalty, fortunately it isn't a Yellow Card and nobody gets a Power Play opportunity.
The Prosecution[edit]
Phoenix Wright isn't trying to defend his client from only jail, he's also defending them from the unrelenting grip of the Prosecution. Also having great hair and stylish appearances, and equally filled with the desire to point and yell, the Prosecution is a league of badass motherfuckers who are trying to enforce the law on people because that's what they get paid average bucks to do.
Ironically, in the real world, prosecutors are lawyers that people actually like. However, Capcom wants you to think otherwise, making prosecutors look cold, heartless, and downright deceptive. Whether it be falsifying evidence, or violent bursts of rage, Prosecutors are simply the worst kind of people because they are told to uphold justice, and that's bad.
By contrast, the defense will be a total doormat who stammers, stutters, and just wants the prosecution to think they're cool and ask them to the homecoming dance. Luckily, the ghost of your dead mentor tells you to man the fuck up and grow a pair, leading the defense to stand up to the prosecution while still winning them over with unflappable kindness and the power of friendship.
There is not one prosecutor who is constant throughout the Ace Attorney series, they're constantly changing from title to title. Do not be fooled, they are smart and they will stop you from proving your client innocent until you win them over with your unflappable kindness and the power of friendship. And even after that, i-it's not like they like you or anything, baka!
The exception to the rule is in the 4th game, where the prosecution not only thinks more like the defense but is already blatantly gay for them. This proved so confusing to players that they promptly replaced him with another douchebag in the following game.