By John Walker on January 16th, 2008 at 5:42 pm.
I love Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney games so much. SO much. But despite some embarrassing efforts, I obviously can’t write about the DS adventure series here. But surely there should be an exception! Surely there are some DS-only Japanese lawyer-em-ups that transcend the boundaries of platforms, and should be discussed on every gaming site, hell, every site on the internet? Have I mentioned that I LOVE Phoenix Wright games?
So it was with a confused heart that I met last year’s news that the next game in the series would not feature Nick at all, but a new cast including lead character Apollo Justice. Oh, how can you stay mad with that name? And now, I’ve recently heard rumours from People On The Inside that Ace Attorney 4 is better than any of the three Wright games. OHMYGOD!
How do I justify this? Well, a demo for Apollo Justice has been released… on PC! A Flash incarnation of the beginning of the game can be found, well, further down this page as it happens.
16/01/2008 at 18:10 The_B says:
Hurray!
Or should that be OBJECTION?!
16/01/2008 at 18:25 Tikey says:
I had never tried one of these games, and to be honest I’m not sorry. I spent most of the game clicking to advance through the dialog without chance to interact, and when the chance came I had little to do actually do. Perhaps later in the game it gets more interesting, perhaps I’m used to the classical good ol’ adventure games.
16/01/2008 at 18:44 Wroth says:
The demo is a bit too text-heavy with not enough interaction, there’s only one objection for pete’s sake!
I love the PW games but I don’t think this demo will convince newcomers.
16/01/2008 at 18:52 Meat Circus says:
DS has two letters. PC has two letters.
THEREFORE,
You can talk about DS games on a PC site.
QED(S)
16/01/2008 at 18:58 Lou says:
“I had never tried one of these games, and to be honest I’m not sorry. I spent most of the game clicking to advance through the dialog without chance to interact, and when the chance came I had little to do actually do.”
Capcom themselves have called the PW games “interactive novels” – although it does of course get more interesting than in this demo, which is the tutorial.
They’re great though, you’re missing out.
16/01/2008 at 19:15 Pidesco says:
It’s like an hentai game with less boobies, but about the same quality of writing.
16/01/2008 at 19:22 Jae Armstrong says:
I believe that roaring sound is the entire internet bearing down on you.
Would sir care to leave via the back door?
16/01/2008 at 19:30 Pidesco says:
Also, the “Objection!” and the “Hold It!” screams made want to bash the speakers in.
16/01/2008 at 19:42 Meat Circus says:
Dear Mr (or Mrs) Pidesco.
It has come to our attention that you besmirched the good name of the Ace Attorney games. According to our records, this makes you A SILLY SAUSAGE and must die.
Instructions for terminating your wrong existence will be couriered to you in due course.
Regards,
Mrs Barry Petulans,
Department of Not Wrong Things
16/01/2008 at 19:48 Meat Circus says:
Who’s that in the blonde? Is he Appollo’s gaylove? He’s HAWT.
Um.
16/01/2008 at 20:13 Lou says:
It’s like an hentai game with less boobies, but about the same quality of writing.
Great. No idea about Hentai games, would you mind linking to a few with similar writing?
16/01/2008 at 20:24 Geoff says:
HOLD IT!
Are you saying the PC game will be implemented in Flash, and will have that DS-lite frame around it?
Yeah, interactive novel is a good label. I’m most of the way through the first one, and while I’m really enjoying it, it’s just barely a “game” at all. “Click everywhere in the scene until you get the right items. Click through to the right chunk of dialog, then use the right item” is a narrow formula even by the standard of adventure games.
But that doesn’t seem to actually stop it from being a lot of fun, or interesting and entertaining.
16/01/2008 at 20:37 Lucky says:
“Yeah, interactive novel is a good label. I’m most of the way through the first one, and while I’m really enjoying it, it’s just barely a “game” at all. “Click everywhere in the scene until you get the right items.”
Then again, that was Gabriel Knight 2 in a nutshell, and that was an awesome game. AA-series is even better since you don’t have to listen to Grace’s actor yell angrily all the time. In any case, I’m still angry at Capcom for not verifying any European release date for AA3, when they’re claiming that AA4 is coming out in March.
On another note, it would seem that I have made a grim mistake by avoiding hentai games all these years.
16/01/2008 at 20:42 BrokenSymmetry says:
Why don’t RPS just give up this PC-only front? You should simply become the EDGE of the internet.
16/01/2008 at 20:51 Pidesco says:
Seeing as my “hentai” post was so successful, I’ll say instead that this “game” is like really crappy anime with less frames of animation but, about the same quality of writing.
It’s always great to find something that everyone loves, yet is so easily attacked. Yes, I’m a jerk.
16/01/2008 at 20:54 Matthew Gallant says:
I love the Phoenix Wright series, I’m sure this flash game will expose a whole new audience to his adventures.
I second BrokenSymmetry’s motion. All in favor, say die.
16/01/2008 at 21:00 Kieron Gillen says:
Broken: We’ll never be Edge on the internet. We make jokes.
KG
16/01/2008 at 21:02 Kieron Gillen says:
(More serious answer to the multiformat thing: If we went multiformat, imagine all the fun obscure PC stuff just disappearing. Because there’s only so many posts we can do in the day, and something would have to give. Personally, I’d rather do something in depth.)
KG
16/01/2008 at 21:06 Solario says:
How the hell do I present evidence? I know what I’m suppose to do, but there’s no button for it.
16/01/2008 at 21:13 John Walker says:
I’m going to suggest the button marked “Present”.
16/01/2008 at 21:14 Xagarath says:
Fair enough, you lot should generally stick to the pc, but this is such a wonderful game series it seems a shame not to see you write a little more about it.
It also feels like a pc game.
16/01/2008 at 21:21 BrokenSymmetry says:
Yes, shouldn’t gaming journalism’s finest writers be writing about the finest games overall?
16/01/2008 at 21:31 Phil H says:
But… But… I’m not done with Phoenix Wright 3 yet! I have finally gotten back to it now(bricked PSP = No Disgaea = sadness), and Apollo’s closing in fast. I’ve still got to pick up the Harvey Birdman game as well, as I can’t get enough of the comedic lawyering.
As I recall, at least one or two of the Wright games had these flash demos as well.
16/01/2008 at 21:34 Meat Circus says:
Kieron,
It strikes me that there’s a lot of crossover between the Indie-PC-gaming segment and the DS: they are both the home of small, quirky, unusual gameplay concepts that appeal to a broader range of neural organelles than the usual fare.
You could be mostly PC and a little bit of whatever else fills that quirkyspace sufficiently. No need to be artificially bound by some arbitrary “we only do PC” Chinese Wall. If you stumble across something you think will be interesting to write about and think we might like, then tell us, using not more than your own words.
16/01/2008 at 21:38 Slappybag says:
That game was rather funny the judge was like “Wait a second? Isn’t gambling a crime?”
Dude, you’re a judge, shouldn’t you know?
An loller @ chords of steel.
Didn’t enjoy it too much, was just reading bad writing.
16/01/2008 at 22:51 Richard says:
The Judge is clueless and spends most of his time being intimidated by the prosecution. It’s a running gag in the series.
16/01/2008 at 23:45 Jonathan says:
“Sweating” bullets?
“Grape juice”?
How did such a squeamish country invent octupus rape?
Really, really hate anime over exageration. It was originaly done to save money on animation and to convey emotion in manga. There’s no need for it here though.
17/01/2008 at 01:19 Dorian Cornelius Jasper says:
Really, really hate over exaggerated hate against Japanese pop culture, despite how silly said culture (frankly) is. You’d think people would get over it by now and move on.
And to say that the Ace Attorney series has poor writing is to deny the wit, charm, and flair that the translator–Alexander O. Smith–brings to the table. I mean, it ain’t The Longest Journey, but *honestly now.* It’s impossible to play through an Ace Attorney without a big grin on your face. Even the most vile, hateful critics can’t help but smile. If they actually play it, that is.
For shame! Bad kitty! Bad!
17/01/2008 at 01:41 Masked Dave says:
Here it’s done *because* it looks silly though. It’s taking the piss.
17/01/2008 at 04:57 KruddMan says:
Now I want to play this but I don’t want to buy a DS :|
17/01/2008 at 10:51 Mr Pink says:
I absolutely love the Phoenix Wright games. I don’t care that they’re silly, I don’t care that they’re not all that challenging (apart from the odd moment of obscure logic, which can be rather frustrating). They’re just so damned fun! Like Dorian said above, it’s just impossible to play them without an idiotic grin on your face. It’s all about the characterisation in my opinion. So many memorable characters…
Does anyone know when Phoenix Wright 3 gets a UK release?
17/01/2008 at 12:18 Iain says:
I stopped playing the first Phoenix Wright game halfway through the last case. Not because I didn’t like it, but because couldn’t face completing it and not having a reason to play the game again.
I didn’t want it to end. And I can’t abide the genre.
Seriously, you’ve not lived until you’ve put the willies up an entire train carriage by yelling “OBJECTION!” at the top of your voice in the general direction of your DS at rush hour…
17/01/2008 at 12:37 Nallen says:
Are you f***ing serious? If I bought a game with this many god damn dialogue boxes I’d snap the DS in half. I’m tempted to snap my monitor right now.
17/01/2008 at 12:47 Iain says:
“Nurse! This patient needs some Ritalin… STAT!”
Oh, sorry, wrong game. :-p
17/01/2008 at 13:16 Aquarion says:
I’ve been halfway though PW2 for about three months now. The problem with the series is that every so often it degenerates into “How the [fable] was I supposed to know that, you stupid [purple] [lemming] game” bits. After three of those in a row (With appropriate delays as I find the nearest local internet and download a walkthough) I give up on the entire concept for a week.
On the one hand, it does mean for my £25 I get months of play time…
17/01/2008 at 13:26 Lucky says:
“’ve been halfway though PW2 for about three months now. The problem with the series is that every so often it degenerates into “How the [fable] was I supposed to know that, you stupid [purple] [lemming] game” bits. After three of those in a row (With appropriate delays as I find the nearest local internet and download a walkthough) I give up on the entire concept for a week.”
That’s why I played throught both games while on a vacation, and as such, lacking an access to a walkthrough unless I searched for a web cafe and paid for the fun.
Of course that is not to say that the experience was rife with feelings of success as occasionally I just randomly presented evidence until getting lucky.
17/01/2008 at 19:21 Icarus says:
I played it a while, but stopped. I’m going to get the DS game anyway, and I don’t want to have to reply the entire first chapter.
You might not like the series, the premise or the characcters or the anime-style or whatever, but the writing is so far from bad, I consider the idea laughable.
18/01/2008 at 08:21 Nick says:
WTF, you mean I actually have to read? This is clearly the worst game ever.
*sigh*
23/01/2008 at 22:00 Jonathan says:
The game might have well written dialogue. But that is not the same as good game dialogue.
Like Levine has repeatedly said, clicking reams of text does not a fun game make. Game dialogue should be punchy and skippable. I just think it would work so much better as a cartoon series, if only so they could get voice actors in and it wouldn’t be a mediocre choose your adventure book.
Still at least adventure games are still selling well. Maybe we’ll get a new “Longest Journey good” adventure game.