Phoenix Wright

Really, without Professor Layton and the Last Spectre, I probably wouldn't have played Phoenix Wright. Not because of the clear influence from the Phoenix Wright games, nor to be better able to understand the crossover game should it get a Western release, but because I'd started Phoenix Wright a while back, and decided that if I was going to play any other games on the original DS, I'd finish it first. And probably the only game to bring me back to the DS - rather than waiting in hope of a remake - is Last Spectre. So first, I had to finish Phoenix Wright - a fairly lengthy game.

I have to say it's an unlikely hit. A remake of a Gameboy Advance game, until its very final chapter (original to the DS) it really doesn't seem like it belongs on the DS at all. Mostly sprites with limited animation (albeit very nice ones) and some snatches of digitized speech, it most certainly shows its age. It's also a difficult game to translate, being ostensibly rather American but full of Japanese cultural references, from zentai shows to onigiri and very Buddhist-looking spirit mediums - not to mention everyone being out to work on Christmas Day without comment. There are quite a few spelling mistakes - the judge even at one point says 'trail' instead of 'trial' - and I got the impression this being a big hit was as much a surprise to the localization team as anyone else.

But it works because it is very silly and charming - and because of that nice sprite-based art actually being able to make some very attractive anime-style girls. Maya and Ema are two of the sweetest assistants a defense attorney/detective could ask for.

Phoenix Wright is a criminal lawyer who specializes in defense. Or so he aspires to be, at least - the game begins with his first-ever trial, and he's in at the deep end, defending his friend from a charge of murder. In fact, all his cases are defending someone accused of murder, which allows for much hilarious melodrama. His nemesis, Edgeworth, is keen to get his prosecutions, but Wright finds contradictions and clues and slowly the truth is unraveled - and each time, his client is of course innocent. All of the main characters of course have tragic pasts or other events in their childhoods that mean they have particular hang-ups about the law - including Phoenix himself, as well as Edgeworth - and lots of angst comes pouring out to temper the comedy in that very manga-esque way.

The game is really very easy. It's at heart a visual novel with an unusual play mechanic, and as such you are largely just led through the story with no real possibility of failure. Towards the end it becomes annoyingly necessary to press every single statement a witness makes, and sometimes it was very annoying to figure something out but to have it be called irrelevant until some intermediate point was made that allowed you to then proceed to the assertions you wanted to make minutes before, but it all usually gets to the crux at just the right speed to let you work things out. Simple, effective and full of great supporting characters, I had a very enjoyable time with it.

But I can't say I care to check out the sequels. I haven't yet encountered some of the series' more famous characters, like the masked Godot or the upstart Apollo, but nor am I in any great hurry to. If they are remade, I shall probably seek them out, or if I'm really at a loose end for handheld gaming, but likely not before. The world was fun, but I can only see it getting weaker in successive iterations.