On April 9, 2019, the critically acclaimed and loved “Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney” series will be making the leap to four separate platforms, those being: the Nintendo Switch, the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and on Steam as a trilogy.
Featured in its release will be the first three games, “Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney,” “Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice For All” and “Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations.”
This is not the first release of a trilogy for the series, however. It came out on iOS in 2012 in Japan (2013 in the West) with the same name but with HD tacked on at the end. The name for this collection was used earlier in 2014 when it was released for the Nintendo DS.
Developed and published by Capcom, “Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney” has been a landmark series for the company since it was originally released back in 2001. Since then, it has sold over 6.7 million copies worldwide.
The game is a visual novel adventure for one player. At some point post-launch, language support will be added as free DLC for French, German, Korean, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese.
The first three games follow the defense attorney Phoenix Wright and his assistant spirit medium Maya Fey. Both are joined in the third game by Maya’s sister, Mia.
Along with them are rival prosecutor characters with the ones in this trilogy being Miles Edgeworth (who is Phoenix’s childhood friend), Franziska von Karma and Godot.
“Ace Attorney” games have their playtime split into two different sections: investigations and courtroom trials. Both are self-explanatory in that the former allows you to explore the environment and pick up evidence, testimonies and the like to defend your client better for the upcoming three-day trial.
Upon entering the trial, the player has to play their cards right in order to get a not guilty verdict and move on with the story. They can cross-examine witnesses and particularly aim to find lies and holes in testimonies. Evidence can be presented to shoot down an inconsistency and press the culprit or other opposing parties into further giving details or relenting.
“Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney” was released for the Game Boy Advance in 2001 in Japan. In 2005, it was released for the Nintendo DS, Microsoft Windows in 2008 and the Wii and iOS in 2009.
“Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice For All” came out for Game Boy Advance in 2002 in Japan; it has also been released for the Nintendo DS in 2006, Microsoft Windows in 2008 and the Wii in 2010.
The final game in the trilogy, “Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations,” has one stand-out in its release schedule. It was released for Windows in 2006, prior to both of its predecessors.
In December 2009, “Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney” was Capcom’s 9th best-selling series of all time. October of the next year had Capcom calling it one of their “strongest intellectual properties” when sales neared 4.0 million units worldwide.
Praise has been given for keeping a solid balance of light-hearted comedy and the seriousness behind the cases that go to trial. Bob Mackey of USgamer said that the games have some of the most well-written stories and that they always manage to build up to a “stunning and satisfying finale.”
The music for each game has generally received the highest marks across the board and has even been called the strongest point within the series consistently.
“Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney” has managed to receive high ratings from Famitsu and Metacritic since release. All marks have been essentially a solid C or, more often, a letter grade or so above it.
At the end of it all, there will likely be no objections to future new installments or re-releases in this franchise.
Erika Brandenburg
Arts and Entertainment Editor