Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is a flavorful ole game that I enjoyed, all in all. I played this game when I was very young and never really revisited it since, so I remembered very little as I set out to play a couple trials of the game, particularly the second episode, Turnabout Sisters, as the first is a bit of a tutorial/intro trial.
From the get-go, the art matches the game’s tone well, and despite the game’s age and overall simplicity, it remains pretty good by being comical and charming. April May is clearly cute, suspicious, written on a rested trope, but let Ace Attorney be an example of execution making it count. The characters are a big part of the game’s joy. I also like how it really does focus on tackling a case from an attorney’s POV–no death games or shenanigans, just a plain old court case (stylized and unrealistic as it might be haha). I think Ace Attorney makes several interesting design decisions compared to others of the genre. You essentially know the culprit/outcome going in, you’re not really questioning who did it and who is/isn’t guilty. But how did it go down and what logic/evidence do you need to put together to prove it? Another fun choice is how you play as Phoenix, a pretty separate and full character of his own. He’s not a blank slate nor an amnesiac. He has his own backstory, of which you discover like any other through a random alluding moment or two.
I will say, some of the other aspects of the game don’t quite stick and maintain the landing. I don’t really blame the game for this–again, it’s rather old and made by a small team!–but I wanted to note a few gripes I had. The soundtrack is simple but good, but I found the sound design grating, and it took some time for me to get used to it enough for it to not hamper my experience. The incessant beeping for dialogue progression and random phone ding sounds was funny but oh boy, pretty rough. I also felt the mechanics outside of the trial were pretty clunky–click choosing to just teleport to different locations to talk to people and figure things out didn’t quite immerse me! And some QOL decisions like clicking a flat image with no indicators for examining. Ace Attorney also has a pretty linear storyline, so sometimes I would have rather had the game just take me through the narrative segments with a few VN-like decisions to make here and there. Instead of dividing a lot of actions into sub-action-clicks to simulate player agency when, it really doesn’t matter.
That all said, the actual mystery and trial and lack of hand-holding on these elements–just jumping right into it!–was quite fun. The writing is quick, engaging, and despite the technical limitations, I was able to immediately feel interested in the characters. It didn’t take long to engage with the story, and I feel that really speaks to the quality of the dialogue and visual designs/animations present. As mentioned, Phoenix is a distinctive character rather than a self-insert, and he’s clearly observant, goofy, (a straight male lolol), and downright sheepish a lot of the time. It’s funny, and the game has generally got great humor.
The tools you are given in the trial are fairly linear–its very fun to find the contradictions which I thought were designed well, in that they were pretty clear and made sense, but could be relatively subtle. You are sort of forced into the story beats for playing Phoenix, as aside from looping a few failures, you can’t really play as ultra correct or ultra wrong and Phoenix sort of, narratively speaking, fumbles into the right path a lot.
More funny things–Edgeworth slam dunking you with updated evidence out of nowhere. Edgeworth being an absolute dipshit. I gotta mention again the use of these little limited animations. It’s so hilarious that the trial room has a bunch of default jury heads shaking left-right and going hmMMM when you bring up a good point. Or when Edgeworth does a condescending 3-frame headshake smirk as he one-ups you when you don’t.
Overall, Ace Attorney is a fun game for its highlights: matching correct contradictory evidence in engaging trials, good writing, and a colorful cast. Some bits outside these elements are a bit cumbersome or choreish, aging well with some cracks nonetheless. But in the end, how can you not laugh at the back-and-forth with your very own nemesis attorney? OBJECTION OBJECTION OBJECTION TAKE THAT
First of all, excellent choice of highlight images. I’m glad you understand that Missile is the most important character. Second, I love the point you made about knowing the outcome of the mystery going in– it really is an interesting design choice for a mystery/detective game to essentially hand you the culprit upfront and focus entirely on making you prove their guilt. In the abstract sense, rather than giving you a series of clues to discover point B from point A, they give you point A *and* point B and task you with linking them together, which is a different sort of reasoning, but one that I personally greatly enjoy… I think it somewhat functions to subvert a player’s potential ability to “spoil the reveal” by simply guessing the mystery’s outcome through sheer genre familiarity; it doesn’t matter if you have a correct hunch about the outcome because you still need to justify that hunch every step of the way.
It’s great to hear you revisited Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and found joy in the quirky and engaging mechanics of the game, especially after such a long time since your initial playthrough! Your reflections on the game’s enduring charm, despite its age, really resonate with anyone who appreciates nostalgic gaming experiences.
I totally get what you mean about the game’s simplicity and the charm of its well-executed character tropes. April May and the other vibrant characters definitely help make each case memorable. And diving into a case from the perspective of an attorney, focusing on the logic and evidence needed to unravel the story rather than the mystery of the culprit, is indeed a fresh take compared to other games in the genre.
It sounds like the game’s sound design and some of its more dated mechanics didn’t quite hit the mark for you, which is understandable given its age and the technological limitations at the time of its creation. Yet, it seems the core gameplay—the trials, the detective work, and engaging with the characters—still provided a compelling experience.
Phoenix himself is a standout, and it’s cool how you highlighted his distinctive character traits, which add so much to the game’s narrative depth and humor. The dynamics between Phoenix and Edgeworth bring a lot of life and laughs to the trials, keeping things lively even when the gameplay mechanics show their age.
Your points about the game’s linearity and some of the clunkier aspects are well-taken. Those elements can indeed feel a bit restrictive or tedious after a while. But it sounds like the essence of what makes Ace Attorney enjoyable—solving cases through sharp wit and careful attention to detail—still holds up.
Thanks for sharing your insights! It’s always interesting to see how a game stands the test of time, and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney seems to still capture hearts with its unique blend of humor, mystery, and courtroom drama.