Friday, May 3, 2013

Video Games: Ace Attorney

Nerdy Writer here,
My first post is going to be about a little game series that is uncommon to find, Ace Attorney.
It started out life in Japan under the name Gyakuten Saiban, Turnabout Court in English, on the Game Boy Advance back in 2001. It was popular enough to spawn two more games before going back and rereleasing them onto the DS in 2005. At this time they released it to the other regions as Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. This release included an extra case made to take advantage of the 3D and touchscreen capabilities of the DS itself.
It was an instant cult classic with its punny names for the characters, the hilarious animations when a witness would 'breakdown' and the way it would go from serious to silly in the exact same sentence.
The trilogy had become so popular that Capcom decided to make another game in the series with a new attorney named Apollo Justice.
At first there was going to be no connections to Phoenix and company but higher ups decided to include Phoenix, this time disbarred for the false conviction of presenting falsified evidence, and a couple other characters.
It wasn't as well liked as the first three games because of how they turned Ace Attorney Phoenix Wright into Hobo Phoenix. Other cited reasons include the wacky clothes of the characters practically being caricatures of themselves (Guy Eldoon, the owner of a noodle stand, wore a noodle bowl for a hat), the new Percieve system for trying to find witness' nervous habits and that Apollo never solved the trials without help. The last is silly to me since Phoenix got help lots of times during his tenure so I have no idea what the problem is.
In 2009 a spin-off game featuring Miles Edgeworth, the prosecutor of the first game, called Ace Attorney Investigations, Gyakuten Kenji in Japan. It brought new life into the series by taking the court drama, and antics, out of the courtroom and out into the real world. Instead of trying to find people's nervous habits and unlocking the secrets in their hearts, Edgeworth used Logic to figure out the truth behind the cases.
The game sold well enough for a sequel to be released in Japan. Unfortunately for NA and EU fans the game didn't get released due to poor sales for the first game.
Last year a fifth game was announced for the main series with Phoenix back in the hero seat. It'll be released this summer for the 3DS with unknown dates for NA and EU. Personally I can't wait for this game to come out. In the meantime fans are 'patiently' waiting for the HD release of the original trilogy on the IOS which keeps getting pushed back.

If you are a fan of Wright, Edgeworth, and Justice, what are you hoping for in Gyakuten Saiban 5? Do you think it'll sell enough to warrant releasing Gyakuten Kenji 2 overseas?

Until next time and remember... OBJECTION!!!

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