I've developed a love-hate relationship with Capcom's Ace Attorney series.
I first got my toes wet with surprise (to Capcom, at least) hit Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, which marked the first time the series showed its face outside Japan, in the form of a remake of the first title bringing the series from the GBA to the DS. I remember being enthralled by the series' trademark, the "turnabout" courtroom battles. Marked by thrilling music and rapid pans between the defense's and prosecution's benches, you play out these sequences by cross-examining witness testimony to expose the holes and uncover the truth, using items in the "Court Record"—effectively, your inventory—as evidence to bludgeon the hapless witnesses into submission. It's great, and the tension has gotten my heart going more than a few times... when it works, at least.
Trials and Tribulations has an identical system to the last release in the series, Justice for All; you carry a life bar with you throughout each of the game's episodes, and you'll lose a portion of it when you present the wrong piece of evidence or make some other flawed statement in court. This setup is meant to prevent you from exploiting the age-old point-and-click "try everything till something sticks", but Trials' (and, for that matter, the whole series') religious devotion to the script makes it pointless by forcing the player to save and restore to try to figure out what the game expects instead. You, controlling the hapless protagonist, must in several instances present evidence that the story expects you to next—even if you hold the card that could get the trial over quickly.
It's one thing for me to be stumped because the trial is taking a turn that I didn't expect, like a theory raised by the prosecution that I'd have to then address. Unfortunately, that experience wasn't nearly as common; I had to jump through the game's hoops first. Trials, as well as the rest of the series, would have been a far more entertaining experience had its dialogue trees been constructed in a way that rewards forward thinking rather than assume every player is going to blunder through the same way. Once, I was even required to present a completely useless theory—quickly shot down by the prosecution, and thoroughly embarrassing to boot—in order to progress to the next testimony, where I could actually present the correct evidence, the correct theory, and move on!
What makes the chore of saving every time I go into a cross-examination and poking through online FAQs when I'm at the end of my rope worth it, though, is the story. Every Ace Attorney game has had a colorful cast of characters, and Trials is no exception—in fact, I'd go so far as to say it's got the best yet, front-loaded with a few returning characters from earlier entries and supported by several new entertaining souls. The story itself is "ace" as well; the last case in particular was a particularly worthy finale that kept me up well into the evening to see how it would turn out.
Trials and Tribulations is the last game that Phoenix Wright will be the protagonist of; future titles will feature a new lead and a largely new cast. I'm probably saddest that Phoenix and Co. are leaving their roles, because they're definitely my favorite part of the series. I could get over this sadness pretty quickly, though, if the newer games clean up the flaws in the courtroom sequences. They'll be brought over in English very soon now, so we'll see. In the meantime, Phoenix fans can't really go wrong with Trials; it's a solid entry for the series and right up there with the first entry in the series. Just make sure you have a lot of patience for figuring out how you're expected to play. It's not so much your brilliance in uncovering the truth of the trial, but your aptitude in uncovering the progression of the story that will serve you well in this game.
I first got my toes wet with surprise (to Capcom, at least) hit Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, which marked the first time the series showed its face outside Japan, in the form of a remake of the first title bringing the series from the GBA to the DS. I remember being enthralled by the series' trademark, the "turnabout" courtroom battles. Marked by thrilling music and rapid pans between the defense's and prosecution's benches, you play out these sequences by cross-examining witness testimony to expose the holes and uncover the truth, using items in the "Court Record"—effectively, your inventory—as evidence to bludgeon the hapless witnesses into submission. It's great, and the tension has gotten my heart going more than a few times... when it works, at least.
Trials and Tribulations has an identical system to the last release in the series, Justice for All; you carry a life bar with you throughout each of the game's episodes, and you'll lose a portion of it when you present the wrong piece of evidence or make some other flawed statement in court. This setup is meant to prevent you from exploiting the age-old point-and-click "try everything till something sticks", but Trials' (and, for that matter, the whole series') religious devotion to the script makes it pointless by forcing the player to save and restore to try to figure out what the game expects instead. You, controlling the hapless protagonist, must in several instances present evidence that the story expects you to next—even if you hold the card that could get the trial over quickly.
It's one thing for me to be stumped because the trial is taking a turn that I didn't expect, like a theory raised by the prosecution that I'd have to then address. Unfortunately, that experience wasn't nearly as common; I had to jump through the game's hoops first. Trials, as well as the rest of the series, would have been a far more entertaining experience had its dialogue trees been constructed in a way that rewards forward thinking rather than assume every player is going to blunder through the same way. Once, I was even required to present a completely useless theory—quickly shot down by the prosecution, and thoroughly embarrassing to boot—in order to progress to the next testimony, where I could actually present the correct evidence, the correct theory, and move on!
What makes the chore of saving every time I go into a cross-examination and poking through online FAQs when I'm at the end of my rope worth it, though, is the story. Every Ace Attorney game has had a colorful cast of characters, and Trials is no exception—in fact, I'd go so far as to say it's got the best yet, front-loaded with a few returning characters from earlier entries and supported by several new entertaining souls. The story itself is "ace" as well; the last case in particular was a particularly worthy finale that kept me up well into the evening to see how it would turn out.
Trials and Tribulations is the last game that Phoenix Wright will be the protagonist of; future titles will feature a new lead and a largely new cast. I'm probably saddest that Phoenix and Co. are leaving their roles, because they're definitely my favorite part of the series. I could get over this sadness pretty quickly, though, if the newer games clean up the flaws in the courtroom sequences. They'll be brought over in English very soon now, so we'll see. In the meantime, Phoenix fans can't really go wrong with Trials; it's a solid entry for the series and right up there with the first entry in the series. Just make sure you have a lot of patience for figuring out how you're expected to play. It's not so much your brilliance in uncovering the truth of the trial, but your aptitude in uncovering the progression of the story that will serve you well in this game.