Sooner or later, I knew I was going to be doing at least one of the Phoenix Wright games for a game review. After all, next to the Pokemon games, Phoenix Wright is both my favorite standalone games and series for the Nintendo DS. It's also made by Capcom, the same people who made the Mega Man and Street Fighter series. Due to this being a series where all the games are more or less the same, I'd probably only review one of the games, (With the exception of the two Miles Edgeworth games, they're different enough from the main series I could do one of them.) so this review would be like many reviews for every game in the main series combined into one.
Graphics - 10
The Nintendo DS was released around 2004, so of course, the graphics for most of the games that are released on it are going to be at least worth a 7, maybe even more if they were made recently before the 3DS basically replaced the DS. By recently, I mean the years 2011 and up.
However, the first game was released the same year as the Nintendo DS itself, so it's actually really surprising that a game this early could have such good graphics that are even better than Undertale. It's bright, colorful, and the backgrounds don't hurt my eyes, like some DS games I know but won't name any names. What I have noticed, though, is that because this is a visual novel, the NPCs aren't really sometimes part of the background itself, like adventure games. I'm not complaining, though. I've seen this happens many times with visual novels, I think this might have set the standards for the genre.
Sound - 8
Before I discovered Undertale, I thought that the music for the Phoenix Wright series was the best music that a game could have. Of course, now I know better, but still. When I first discovered this game, it was around 2014. Back then, the only kind of music I was impressed by was Vocaloid music.
If the music for this game was enough to impress 2014 me, that says a lot. I loved it so much that, next to Vocaloid songs, I had downloaded some of the Phoenix Wright soundtrack onto my tablet to listen to when I'm in the car for things like road trips. I loved it for good reason, too! When you're in court and you're getting somewhere, this awesome song plays. A wave of excitement rushes through your body as you present evidence that eventually leads to the truth and reveals which one of the witnesses is the true murderer.
Not only that, when you first start cross-examining a witness, an important-sounding tune starts playing. It gives you the thought "Alright, let's stop fooling around, it's time to get down to business!" as you analyze every sentence that the witness says while looking at the descriptions for all the evidence you collected. There's no voice acting in the game, which makes it better when lets players play the game and do voice acting for it.
Addictiveness - 6
Each case takes about two hours to complete, depending on what case it is. For example, for the first case of every game, it's the beginning case, so it's easy for new players to pick up and play. For the final case of the game, it's the hardest in the game, so it's going to take a long while for you to complete it.
As you uncover more and more evidence and facts, you'll learn shocking twists that'll leave you hungry for more. You'll want to keep playing to learn more and finally figure out who the murderer is, and when you do, the feeling is one of the most satisfying feelings during each and every case.
When you finish the game, it's kind of sad. You finished all four (Sometimes five) cases, and there isn't any more in the game. It's not as fun replaying it, because you're expecting all the curve balls and twists that the game throws at you. When it's played the first time, you don't expect any of the twists.
Story - 10
A visual novel is basically a novel that's been created into an interactive movie. The story for a novel has to be good, or else you won't be motivated to finish it. Graphics and a setting isn't everything in a game, especially a game like this.
For example, the most unliked game in the main trilogy is the second game in the series: Phoenix Wright - Justice for All, even though case four is one of the most heart-wrenching cases if you mess up at the last second. Everyone says that case three is basically a filler case, and the twist on who the murderer is isn't that much of a twist.
For me, I feel like Justice for All is heavily overlooked, and it's my favorite game in the trilogy. When you really delve deep into the stories on the cases, you find that the stories are some of the best in the trilogy. Let's take the most hated case in the game for an example, Turnabout Big Top, or case three. People say that you could completely skip the case in the game (It's not possible to do that unless you hack it) and go on to case four, and the main story won't have a huge chunk missing out of it, unlike if you were to do that for the original game, in which it would have a chunk missing.
To me, I think the case is sweet. It has mixes of tragedy with a hint of romance thrown into the blender. Making the case take place in a big top is only a way of making it different than most of the cases in the game. The twist they took for the murderer isn't that much of a twist, they say, well I say Capcom had to try it sometime. Don't judge a case by what people are saying about it.
Depth - 6
You basically do three things in the game: Talk to people, look at the crime scenes and any related places, and you cross examine witnesses. However, the places are different enough that it feels fresh every time you go to a new place, and sometimes the characters can be quite comical to be around. This is what you would call a point and click game, like Five Nights at Freddy's.
There isn't much to say here, even though I've given this section of the game a pretty high rating compared to the depths of some of the other games I've reviewed.
Difficulty - 8
The cases can get extremely frustrating sometimes. Half the time I have to pull up a walkthrough for the investigation parts, becaue I have little to no idea what to do, or sometimes I forgot to do something that's essential on making progress, and I have to backtrack.
The trial parts are sometimes even harder than the investigation parts. About 90% of the time you look at every sentence the witness says, compare it to all the evidence you have, and you press every sentence, honestly trying your absolute hardest to not cheat and use the internet, and you find nothing. So, you pull up a walkthrough, and you realize you have to press certain sentences to revise testimony and then present evidence on the hidden testimony. If you had a dollar for every time that happened in the game, you'd probably have enough money to buy a bicycle, or about $50 in my case.
Overall - 8
First of all, this is the second highest overall score I've given a game, I just realized! As for my recommendation for the game, if you could find it cheap in your local GameStop or something, I'd buy it if I were you! If the game is Justice for All, that would be even better. It's the most overlooked game in the series, and is actually a hidden gem.
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