The Series Up for DiscussionRecently, there had been an announcement of an ESRB rating for The Great Ace Detective (aka Dai Gyakuten Saiban) getting released which caused some people to speculate and wonder if those entries may finally be coming westward. It sparked up some discussion of the Ace Attorney series on Discord so the series has been in the back of my mind the last couple weeks. I say it is about time we hash out this whole series once and for all here on the forums! And now we've have a thread to encapsulate discussion for the whole series as well which we can also come back to in case we don't end up settling it once and for all.
The Ace Attorney series started on the GBA and the first three games were released on that system in Japan. However, it was during the era of the DS that the games were translated and brought over at that time and for that system. As such, in the West, the Ace Attorney series seemed to get regular entries almost every year or two. However, it was after the release of the first game in the spinoff series of Ace Attorney Investigations that new releases in this franchise began to slow down in the west with only three new titles released on this side of the Pacific over the past 11 years.
The idea of taking on a role of a defense attorney to prove your clients innocence by sifting through the testimonies of witness and the evidence at trial is a great hook. When I first heard about this series, I was very interested to try it and wonder how it might work. 12 Angry Men is one of the top ten films of IMDB'S top 250 Film list and pretty well liked by the vast majority of people that watch it. The film goes through the evidence of a trial where most of the jurors have already arrived at a guilty conviction but one juror holds out and, going through the objections and testimony, begins to change the understanding the other jurors have of the case thereby changing their opinion on it. In the same way, cases usually begin with the circumstances and evidence of why the client is guilty and the player must start looking for any inconsistency they can to mount a defense for the defendant and the real truth behind the crime. Of course, the series is more outlandish and crazy then 12 Angry Men. While one recognizes that this is nothing that will ever happen in real life, it doesn't hinder one from still enjoying the story and feeling like the stakes don't matter.
For many players, this series was probably their first introduction to a style of game referred to as a visual novel although it is classified as part of the Adventure genre. When playing my first game of this series, I was sometimes frustrated because I could see a clear contradiction but when presenting evidence the game would rule it as incorrect. That's because the game wanted me to focus on different piece or evidence or testimony dialogue first. Usually after a couple steps in that direction it would then lead back to the contradiction I could see earlier and wanted to point out. I began to see how limited the game was in player choice. I also made the connection in my head that it wasn't really a game but more of a novel before hearing the term visual novel. I summed it up in my head as a book that would quiz you at time to time to make sure you were keeping up and following along with the mystery. The creator of the series, Shu Takumi, wanted the game to be simple enough so that even his mother could play it and had wanted to make adventure and mystery games. With the game mainly consisting of text to read with just a bit of button pressing to select an option on a screen or cue the next bit of text, the biggest barrier of entry is just being able to read. While it may not be everyone's cup of tea, if you enjoy a wild mystery yarn then Ace Attorney may be up your alley.
Why Are These Games Part of the Series?While the series does already have a spin-off with the Miles Edgeworth Investigations and the Professor Layton one-time crossover, I've just included all games together here under the Ace Attorney moniker. There's not that many games to cover to make it worth dividing the series up into different branches. Plus, in the end, they are still mystery visual novels and play pretty similar to one another. The major difference is just who the main character might be in leading the search for the truth. Thus, all the games that have been released in the West have been included.
And we also have a first of sorts for Run The Series. Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is included as part of this series and marks the first time a game has appeared twice over two different series. I didn't think the game could really be classified as an entry for only of the franchises being crossed over so it gets to appear here as well.
What Games Weren't IncludedAs just mentioned, the entries that have been officially released in the West are the ones being counted as part of the series and up for discussion. While there are some fan translations of Investigations 2 and the Dai Gyakuten Saiban entries, they do not count as they are unofficial and Capcom's translation department could put a different spin and take on things. Still, I hope that they do eventually get an official translation since Investigations 2 deals with a loose plot thread going back to the second Phoenix Wright game and when reading about the Dai Gyakuten Saiban entries they seem to have gone in the direction I thought was going to happen after Apollo Justice with jury trials.
Also not included is the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy collection. It just encompasses the first three games and they are already included individually on the list for all entries of the series. No need to duplicate them as it were.
So, with that quick little rundown, let's open it up to the rest of you forum users and let's see how well NWR has Run the Series!
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Topic: Run the Series 10: Ace Attorney (Phoenix Wright, Apollo Justice, Investigations) (Read 37495 times)
