A sequel that, while not being quite as good as the first, still manages to captivate the heart in the same way.
This time, Phoenix Wright and associates become entangled in four cases. The first case is largely an introduction that is geared in such a way that even first-time players can feel comfortable here. The remaining three cases are considerably longer and involve investigation sequences. Perhaps what really makes the series work is the stories, and there's many interesting twists and turns that happen as the cases are unraveled.
This game innovates in a few ways from the first game:
First, through the introduction of "psy-locks," which are basically just a way Phoenix Wright learns to magically determine people he speaks to during his investigations are lying. Once enough evidence is uncovered, these locks can be removed, getting the real story out of the person. Second, you can now present people as evidence. Third, there's a persistent health bar that persists through the entire chapter. It depletes when you make a bad guesses in court or make missteps in removing psy-locks and replenishes when you have completely removed the psy-locks from somebody. Predictably, an empty health bar is game over, and that results in you having to repeat the chapter from the last major point.
My lead critique from the first game remains in tact: It's sometimes hard to guess which piece of evidence needs to be presented. I'm not saying the game is too hard, I'm saying that sometimes you want to say something by presenting evidence and several pieces of evidence could work to say it but the game expects one. Fortunately, the game's overall charm is enough to overlook this.
When I say this is not quite as good as the first game, I'm mostly referring to the last case from the first game. That one had all sorts of neat touch features and even a rendered 3D sequence video at one point. I wish all the cases in Justice For All were like that, but instead they're like the second to fourth case in the first game with the little innovations I mentioned a couple paragraphs ago. It feels like a step backwards, technically. Fortunately, the overall game is still good enough to be a worthy enough Phoenix Wright sequel.