The law has been a passion of mine,
so Capcom’s Ace Attorney adventure game series is a franchise I pay close
attention to. North America did not get the last Ace Attorney game localized,
though, as they see the games as niche titles, and it was a spin-off anyway.
Recently Capcom released the fifth game in the main series, Phoenix Wright Ace
Attorney: Dual Destinies on the Nintendo 3DS eShop. I am happy to report that
new look is a return to form for the courtroom adventure, and I was pleasantly
surprised to see Phoenix Wright back in action.
The introduction of the game
literally starts off with a bang. If you played the demo available on the
Nintendo 3DS eShop, you know that Wright is defending a client against charges
of blowing up the courtroom. Capcom smartly changed the demo to put Wright in
the lead, so when watching the introductory cutscenes and sequences, you will
be getting new information that is foreshadowing later cases. For example, the
demo did not mention that this is indeed another murder trial, as a body of a
detective was found in the rubble following the blast. Once again you’re tasked
with getting to the bottom of the mystery, so Wright bluffs his way through
contradictions in testimony and evidence to accuse the real culprit. The new
partner Athena Cykes offers a new way to search for the truth, as she has a
computer interface that lets you check the emotional state of the witness
during testimony and point out any contradictions in what they are feeling.
Thankfully I was not penalized for missing what the game wanted in these
sections, but that may change later in the game.
The biggest seller is the seamless
transition to three-dimensional models. The Ace Attorney series started on the
Game Boy Advance, so the first few games needed to rely on the scenario and
character writing more than the graphical fidelity of the animations. Now that
Capcom can use the power of the 3DS, the characters stand out with plenty of
animation in addition to the great dialogue. I was stunned to see how well
Capcom captured the animations for Apollo Justice and Trucy Wright as compared
to their two-dimensional variants on the Nintendo DS. Trucy even gets a new
animation that I should have seen coming to add to the crazy courtroom drama
game that keeps you in suspense for the entire case until a key assumption is
turned on its head, and the fantastic music starts playing.
Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Dual
Destinies is, based on my initial impressions, worth paying full price on the
Nintendo eShop, especially if you are a fan of the series. I used my credit
from an earlier Nintendo promotion to buy the game, and I am looking forward to
where the story turns. The full review will need to come after I explore this
business about the dark age of the law. I expect to resolve at least one
playable character’s storyline, but based on my previous experience with Ace
Attorney, that conjecture could be turned around on a moment’s notice right
near the climax.
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