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Finished Phoenix Wright 3 last night. It’s not out in the US yet, but I’m not in the US am I? ![]()
Actually, I played the Japanese version, which like the first 2 games, has an English option. Perfect for those who don’t want to wait. And like the other 2, the English is great, or it would have ruined the game since the Phoenix Wright games are truly about its writing.
Here’s my review of the first game if you’re interested.
It’s only been year, and I’ve gotten to play 3 games in the franchise, very cool. Compare this to the Halo franchise, whose third game is coming in its 6th year.
I remember when I playing through the second game, Justice for All, I had a bunch of complaints: it was just like the first game, strengths and weaknesses. No improvements at all, was still engaging and fun, but somewhat (necessarily) tiresome in terms of the gameplay mechanics. A lot of trial and error, and even when you have guessed everything in terms of understanding what’s going on in the storyline/mystery, you still have to follow the logic of the game, which may take an extra couple of hours of gameplay.
No need to dwell in all the weaknesses, and strengths, the gameplay is exactly the same from Justice for All, which in turn was pretty much the same from Ace Attorney (the original). T&T may be the best of the three, though I’d have to play through the other games again to really make sure. It’s definitely better than the second game however, mainly because of its final case. I think the third game is able to make the individual game chapters/cases wrap into the game’s overall storyline much better than the earlier games, and the final case truly reflects why Phoenix Wright is worth playing. (Thinking back, I’m pretty sure the final case takes at least 7-8 hrs to finish, it took me a number of nights to get through it, The entire game could be in the 20 hr range).
Phoenix Wright is fantastical writing style. If you don’t like this type of quirky silly writing, well you’ll hate all the games, simple as that. Playing through T&T made me realize how good the writing is. It’s not like I didn’t know that before, but this was the first time I actively thought to myself, damn, how did they put this together. After all it’s not just writing a linear narrative as with a book, even though the gameplay is very linear. But there’s also all the optional dialogue that you can explore when you object to different things or ask characters about objects, there’s so much text and the writing is always good. Dialogue between characters is always goofy but witty and charming. I know that’s talking about writing on a technical level, but there’s also the way to build the mysteries, especially for this game. How Capcom was able to build the mysteries, keep them in-line with a central plot, incredibly impressive. The effort here seems much tighter, much more impressive versus the other two games, and like I’ve said, I really like the first two games.
Phoenix Wright: T&T is definitely something worth buying. Fun, long, and while I sometimes have said, “sheesh, when will this case/game end!?” while I’ve been playing, I’ll still be playing the fourth game whenever it’s ready.
Tags: DS, phoenix wright, Reviews, Video Games




