Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice Review by: Furret - 10/10
Ace Attorney: Spirits of JusticeOmg is that Furret writing a review? Yeah it is. Figured I might as well give it a shot.
Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice is the latest game in the Ace Attorney franchise. It was made for the 3DS and as such looks and functions a bit differently than most other Ace Attorney games. Now Ace Attorney is my favorite franchise of all time, and I was super excited to get this game. And it did not disappoint.
GraphicsNow like I mentioned, this game was made for the 3DS. It's the second game in the franchise (third if you count a Japanese-only release) to be made for a console other than the Nintendo DS. And a new console means new and improved graphics, which was certainly the case here. The sprites and backgrounds are so much cleaner and pleasant to look at compared to the older games in the franchise. Edges are smoother, character sprites look more realistic and the menu looks a lot better as well.
Returning from Dual Destinies, the first game made for the 3DS, are the cutscenes. They honestly look like they could be picked right from an anime. I was shocked at how well they were made considering that you're playing on a handheld console.
I'm giving this game's graphics a 9/10. My main reason for not giving it a 10/10 is that I find the sweat animation to be unrealistic and quite disgusting. Pretty petty but it was a bother of mine playing through the game :P
SoundNow the sound is where I think this game absolutely shines. Every soundtrack is a winner. I would not be able to give you any OST that I dislike. They all fit their character/location so well. I actually paused the game for like 2 minutes every time I visited a new area or met a new character just to appreciate the music. A lot of people don't pay any attention to background music and I find that a shame really, because so many people made such an effort to create a beautiful soundtrack and they never get enough credit.
I hate giving out 10's but if I really can't say anything negative about an aspect of a game then I feel like it's deserving.
Story The big banger for any game like Ace Attorney, or Visual Novels if you want the official term, is the story. A visual novel is basically like interactively reading a book. The story is already written down, it's up to you to find the way to switch the page and progress it. Thus, without a good story, it won't work. Luckily the Ace Attorney games are known to have great stories and plot twists.
In this game you play as a lawyer at the Wright Anything Agency (which is really a law office but nobody dares to acknowledge it). Unlike most Ace Attorney games, there is no set main character. Throughout the game's 5 different chapters you play as 3 different characters. -The slightly older but still as spiky- Phoenix Wright, -the scary two horned demon with an even scarier voice- Apollo Justice, and -the yellow monkey with some 2350-technology toys- Athena Cykes. Just like any traditional Ace Attorney game, you somehow find yourself in a sticky situation every chapter and you have to save someone from being wrongfully convicted.
What's interesting about this game is that there are two story lines taking place at the same time. In the first chapter we learn that Phoenix is on a vacation to a country called Khu'rain to visit his old friend Maya Fey. As expected, he somehow finds himself in the middle of a murder and has to clear a young boy of murder charges. Now the people in Khu'rain take murder a bit more seriously than the people in Phoenix's country. If a defendant is found guilty of murder, both them AND their attorney will be given the death penalty. How lovely! You will also notice that religion is very important in Khu'rain and will play a big role in the game.
As you finish case 1 and move on to case 2, you will be playing as Apollo Justice. If you pay attention, you'll see that this case takes place at the exact time that case 1 took place in Khu'rain. This will continue alternating between the storyline in Khu'rain with Phoenix and Maya and at home with Apollo and Athena. So any seemingly useless info you learn in Khu'rain might play a huge role in a different case!
For long time fans of the franchise it was also refreshing to see some old characters return or get a mention, including my favorite character of the entire series :3 Because of the many twists and crazy turns, I'll give the story a 10/10 as well.
DepthNow the game isn't incredibly long. There are 5 cases total, each getting progressively longer and crazier. There's also a DLC bonus case that you can purchase. That's pretty much the standard for Ace Attorney games and I can't really complain about it too much, especially since this was probably the second largest Ace Attorney game ever made. However I wouldn't mind a few additional cases :P
Addictiveness I guess it's difficult to replay an Ace Attorney game if you're just looking for the twists. Because once you know who the culprits are, all the suspense will be gone. That's why I'm giving it an 8. However, you need to be able to look past that. Instead of complaining that you know who did it, you should look for things you missed or forgot about. Some jokes or answers that slipped by. Heck, you could even do the opposite and zoom in on the culprits while replaying the game, to watch their every move from the start. I will personally never get tired of this game or any Ace Attorney game for that matter. Sure there are some characters I'd rather never see again, but I'm willing to listen to them again to get the big picture.
DifficultyIt's hard to rate the difficulty on this game, because everything is given to you. You have all the answers to all the problems, but the challenge is to connect the dots and think outside the box. There were some later problems that I found the solution for very easily, and some early ones that took me 30 minutes or more to figure out. It's strictly personal and varies from player to player.
I will say that you should never look up a guide for this game. That takes away the immense satisfaction you get when you finally do get it. That pride knowing that you figured it out. That's why you should play this game.
I think that wraps up most of the points I wanted to talk about. I probably rambled a bit at times, my apologies for that. I just love this game so much <3 It's my favorite 3DS game hands-down. Definitely recommend it if you like reading stories or want to test your brain. Not much action involved so not a good choice if you're just a CoD fan boy, unless you want to try something new.
Feedback would be greatly appreciated! It's been years since I last wrote a review so I probably could have done countless things better. Feel free to call me out on it.
Graphics
9 Sound
10 Addictive
8 Depth
7 Story
10 Difficulty
7
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