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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Phoenix returns to another famous victory, January 16, 2007
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
Phoenix Wright returns to the DS after a year's absence. This time round, he's no longer a rookie defense attorney. Instead, having achieved some seemingly impossible victories in the courtroom last time round, he's now quite a celebrity. Which is why, when a policewoman is charged with murdering his fiancé, she turns to Wright for help. Unfortunately, just before the trial, he was attacked by an unknown assailant. He wakes up with amnesia, and is then pushed straight into court to fight the case. An impossible case again, perhaps? Not exactly, because by examining every piece of evidence, pressing every statement from the witnesses, and pinpointing every contradiction that are present, the ace attorney has return to yet another famous victory.
The above basically sums up Phoenix Wright's premise. Justice for All, which begins soon after the end of last season's sleeper hit, employs primarily the same gameplay features from its predecessor. The game is still divided into two parts - investigation and trial. During investigation, you will still go from place to place, talk to NPCs, and gather clues. During trial, you will still press witnesses, present evidence and, more often than not, bluff your way through. Nothing really changes here when it comes to the basic nature of the gameplay.
Capcom does attempt to make things a little more varied though with the new, but rather tedious "Psyche-Lock" system. This time round, secrets that are guarded by NPCs (even your allies) are typified by on-screen locks. These prevent important conversations from happening. You will need to gather enough information before you can unlock these Psyche-Locks. A wrong deduction will expectedly lead to loss in health, even during the investigation stages. This is a change from the previous game, in which you could only get "hurt" in court. The system is not exactly bad, since it does make the game more challenging. But it also slows the game down, and adds more backtracking efforts to a game that is already filled with various backtracking requirements.
To complement the Psyche-Lock system, your health in Justice for All is also changed from the "Five-Exclamation Marks" bar to a more conventional health bar - something that you usually see in most action adventure games. Now, this is definitely a good move, even though the exclamation marks present more uniqueness. The good thing with this new health bar is that damage taken is varied. Some mistakes will hit you minimally; while others may totally wipe out your health (beware!). On top of that, you can also recover loss health by successfully unlocking a Psyche-Lock. Ah, now you know why I said that it complements the Psyche-Lock.
The fun in Phoenix Wright is not restricted to the gameplay, of course. Interactions with quirky characters are part and parcel of the investigation and court proceedings. In this instalment, you will take on clowns, magicians, and even a radio transceiver. Many of these encounters provide great comic relief. Especially the one with the clown, but I will leave that to you to find out. The game also features returning casts from the previous game - those interested in the Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth sub-plot will be happy to know that he has a major role to play in the intense finale of the game.
On the topic of intensity, you may also want to know that Justice for All has a much more compelling story than its predecessor. Even though it doesn't have a bonus case like the last game, the cases are generally longer here, which more or less compensate for the absence. Murderers are also smarter, more ruthless, and will continue to frustrate you through well-constructed lies. These generate a great sense of competitive tension - if you're the emotional type, you may find yourself totally immersed into the game's universe. The final case, in particular, will test your resilience as well as your conscience. The only gripe is that some parts of the game are a little too draggy. It's almost as if these moments are lengthened just for the sake of lengthening the game.
Justice for All doesn't provide any breakthrough when it comes to presentation. The graphics remain typical anime fare, and some sprites are reused from the previous game. Nevertheless, you will still find them charming, simply because of the various expressions on the characters. Each character has a fixed set of expressions, and many of them are simply hilarious if you spend time observing them. We particularly like the one with a flying puppet's head, so be sure to check that out when you play the game. Sound wise, some scores from the last game are used again, especially the ones played during court. As usual, they provide a sense of excitement, and sound really sweet when you're on the verge of victory. Some of the new scores are a little disappointing though, as they sound bland and uninteresting.
In conclusion, Justice for All is another great entry in the Phoenix Wright series. It doesn't rock too much of a steady boat, and prefers to focus on its strength of delivering a deep and compelling murder mystery. Fans of the adventure genre would better gear themselves up for another round of sleepless nights as they engage to solve these murders. As for those who haven't played the previous game, I'd suggest picking that up first to fully appreciate the story in this one.
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24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Concept - Some Minor Problems, February 9, 2007
Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars
If you enjoy thought-involving puzzle games, Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney - Justice for All might be perfect for you. You have to pay attention to the clues and know when to trip up the witnesses to get to the truth.
First off, understand that this isn't about fast clicking or bright colors. This is a game of patience. There is a LOT of dialogue to page through and read. You have to keep track of the situation that's going on, just like in a case of Law & Order. When did the murder take place? What was located at the crime scene? You get penalized for presenting wrong evidence, and you only get so many failures before the judge gives up on you. You have to pay attention and know what stands out as being wrong.
There are only four cases here, but each one is fairly long - even the first one that helps to train you on how the system works. You start out with amnesia which gives your team excuses to help you out. Of course, it's *really* unbelievable that when you try to tell the judge why you're having problems, he won't even listen! Surely no judge would say "Oh you have amnesia? Too bad, present your case."
There are also situations where it's clear what you *want* to say, but because you're stuck clicking on little icons, you get told that you put in the wrong piece. I don't want to give away game clues of course, but in one early situation you are trying to present evidence that someone was afraid of police. There are two different items that can do this, but only one of them "counts".
It seems unlikely that a real judge would say "Well you didn't wave the right thing at me the first time, so I'm setting a killer free". Other games like Law & Order or CSI handle this quite differently so it's still a puzzle, but not quite as "gamey". I guess what bugs me a bit is that it's *great* that so many people are learning about how the legal system works, it's important that we all understand our rights and our legal protections. But where games like Law & Order help us learn the system and test our intellect, the Ace game is much more random and makes it seem like the court system is incredibly fickle. It seems a real shame that it is missing out on a valuable opportunity. Even young gamers - or maybe most especially young gamers - could really benefit if they did these games well.
I enjoyed this, and I look forward to more sequels. But I really hope they start crafting these to be more realistic - not in a gory way, but in a logical thought process way.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Game With Tons of Future Potential, February 26, 2007
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
It took my having to read a half dozen gaming reviews before I decided to buy this game. I'm not in any way disappointed.
The entire plot device for each of the four cases is text based, but the humor and anime inspired graphics support a style of gampeplay that can grab your attention and keep it.
There is some mental adjustment you might need to make. The first case is meant to help you understand the gameplay, and the difficulty doesn't truly get to full steam until about 1/4 of the way through the second case.
Once you've adjusted, you're in for a treat. Every clue you come across, every name mentioned, and every minute detail presented will make you want to store it in your long-term memory in case it turns into a vital clue during the court proceedings.
There were times where I would get frustrated with how the "legal process" played out, with the overly submissive judge and backhanded actions of the prosecution, but this just speaks to how impressive the script writing is. I never felt they were just being lazy, it was just a part of the Phoenix Wright world.
You are able to quick save, with only a few points where you are not allowed. I would find myself randomly saving, since you are unable to speed through dialogue the first time you are presented it. Therefore, if you lose your case near the end of the proceedings and are forced to go back to the beginning, you're looking at a lot of time being forced to sit and wait for dialogue to finish scrolling. While this can indeed be cumbersome, it makes you learn to take your time and think through everything instead of just randomly guessing at what the key piece of evidence is.
While the four cases will take up plenty of your time, the re-playability is definitely limited. I would love to see future installments have some way of actually downloading new cases, either through Wii24Connect or even going to a local download point.
Phoenix Wright shows just how amazing a game can be without having to worry about high octane graphics or seeing how many enemies the developers can fling at you. I fully plan on going out and buying the first Phoenix Wright game after I complete this one. As far as I'm concerned, this is a DS must have.
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