[Thoughts] Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

I might do a full review later on in the actual review section, but today I just wanted to document my thoughts on the individual cases in the first game of the Ace Attorney series.

Spoilers galore, but only for the first game (though I'm terrible and I'll make references you won't get until you play all the games). Case descriptions by the lovely people at Court Records.

Episode One: The First Turnabout: Phoenix takes his first case as a criminal defense lawyer to defend his long time friend, Larry Butz, in the murder of Cindy Stone.

Ah. There it is. The first one. The first ever Ace Attorney case. Though not, er, the first ever case in the Ace Attorney timeline, but, uh, moving on.

This case wasn't particularly noteworthy, and the thing is, it's not really supposed to be. This case has exactly two jobs to do, and it accomplishes both: teaches the player the game mechanics of the game, and introduces us to characters we'll be seeing over and over again.

The murder itself isn't particularly interesting; a model is killed by the man robbing her house when he panics. It's nothing elaborate like later cases involving retrained parrots and whatnot. But, as a tutorial case, The First Turnabout also introduces you to what makes Ace Attorney so fun! When you have to incorporate Larry's clock, bizarre as it is, into your defense, even I thought, "What are they doing?" The brilliance of Ace Attorney is nothing makes sense at first--until, you slowly, painstakingly assemble all the pieces together and you're left with a satisfying truth of what really happened. It would have been so so easy for the Ace Attorney team to make it a simple man kills person, man destroys evidence, man fabricates evidence to frame other person case. Instead, we have to try and figure out why the times in the two stories contrast in order to get Larry declared innocent.

As a villain, Sahwit is boring and predictable. Which, again, is not a bad thing seeing as he is the first ever "villain." We're introduced to Larry, a character I don't actually mind, Phoenix's mentor Mia, and Phoenix himself all in one case.

Final thoughts: While nothing remarkable, this case succeeds at what it's supposed to accomplish. Characters: 2/10 Story: 1/10 Case: 3/10

Episode Two: Turnabout Sisters: While participating in a dangerous investigation, one of Phoenix's co-workers is murdered, and it's up to him to prove Maya Fey innocent.

I feel like I should say before I go any further that this was not my first Ace Attorney game (it was Dual Destinies), so many the feelings I should have felt at this point are a little different from people who started out with PW:AA.

Seeing Mia get killed was absolutely chilling. Also, Redd White looked really creepy in the opening scene, not gonna lie. I love that when Phoenix finds Maya, he doesn't blindly trust her right off the bat. No, he rightfully wonders if she could be the killer. In the end, only his instinct and feeling of responsibility for this girl make him take the case.

On another note, I like how realistic Maya's reaction to Mia's death is. A lot of people say they don't believe the relationship between Mia and Maya to be all that developed, and I agree that the story didn't dwell on it for as long as they could have, but Maya's reaction to Mia's death made my heart hurt. Before I even knew who Maya was, I sympathized with her and her loss. A lot of characters in Ace Attorney have severely unrealistic reactions to loved ones dying (there are quite a few that are sad for about two seconds before cheering up again), but Maya felt raw and real. The story showcased her grief at the loss of her older sister, but you could also see how she understood that she looks guilty of the crime, and she even accepts that Phoenix probably thinks that she killed her only sister. It's a very nice realistic line between uncontrollable emotion and assessing the situation that I feel not a lot of media gets right.

But that's enough about that. The more we push away Mia's death now, the less pain later. This case gives us something very interesting from the get-go; believe it or not, this is Phoenix on his own for the first time. We get to see how he himself would solve a case without the help of his mentor. Even though the choices are made by the player, it's Phoenix who puts together the details of DL-6 even when given very little information, and manages to startle every opponent/terrible witness he deals with. We see that he is intelligent and driven; well, up until the part where he went to a clearly powerful man and accused him of murder.

[insert shrugging]

Redd White as a villain... is disappointing. "But he killed Phoenix's mentor! And you think he's worse than Sahwit!" Yeah, but, put into consideration the expectations of each case. Sahwit isn't meant to be anything special. Redd White, however, feels lackluster for such a big, important villain. It makes me kind of angry to be honest--that such a ridiculous, weak man could be the reason for why Mia can no longer breathe.

My biggest problem with White is his presentation. He is made to feel unstoppable. His design is glittery; sparkling diamonds all over, eccentric bubblegum pink suit, and that awful hair. He oozes "I'm better than everyone." Maybe that was intentional. Maybe they wanted him to be ridiculous. But for someone who killed off Mia, an amazing and beloved character, he is pathetic. The saddest thing is, he wasn't even all that bad at the start. You could see the extent of his reign of terror; Grossberg can't say a word against him (he can't even help the sister of one of his students), and for a brief line, April May reveals that she is scared to death of him. He's killed so many people indirectly, ruined so many lives, that when he punched Phoenix and had him arrested, I felt excited. I was going to ruin a man that had caused so much pain.

But on the stand, Redd White is defeated so easily that I'm still reeling. This man has so much power, but I didn't even particularly struggle to get past his defenses. What makes it even worse is that in the end, Mia bails you out. It wasn't nearly as satisfying as it could have been. While I'm happy that I can still talk to Mia, and it's nice to see her sort-of take down her killer, I just feel like this case didn't end as strong as I wanted it to.

Does Redd White's character do anything right? Yes. Before he ends up in the court, he's fun to interact with because he's so awful. He's irritating to deal with, and that leads to what should have been a fun showdown.

[shakes fist at Deux ex Machina]

But as far as a case goes in terms of post-courtroom... man, I teared up. Seeing Maya and Phoenix start their legendary partnership (and for Maya too, keep in mind that she's been alone all this time) and seeing Mia bless them brings a tear to my eye. Doesn't help that Turnabout Sisters is literally godly.

Other characters? Grossberg is solidly introduced and I actually enjoyed his character in this game. He was so clearly torn up over his mistakes. April May was actually fun for me to interact with, and she provides a challenge in court, unlike her boss. The bellboy was cute and didn't lie to me (@ every other witness in existence).

Final thoughts: A case that cuts deep, but could have been stronger. Characters: 5/10 Story: 4/10 Case: 5/10