A fantastic conclusion to a fantastic trilogy -- and a must play for fans of Phoenix Wright!
If, for some reason, you've not already played at least one of the Phoenix Wright games (and you should play them all before picking up Trials and Tribulations, by the way), let me quickly explain how the game plays out. As with the past games, it's divided up into two main sections: investigation and trial. During the investigation, you'll travel around various different locales, all with a relationship to the crime committed, and there gather clues, question witnesses, and attempt to build a case to defend your client. This aspect of the game is where the real point-and-click action comes into play -- one of the biggest actions at your command is "Examine", which lets you use the DS touch screen to point out things that might be clues in each area. However, the biggest problem with this half of the game, and one that has not gone unnoticed by many gamers and reviewers, is that it's way too linear. You've got to trigger certain events to progress, and often doing so relies on presenting a relatively obscure piece of evidence to a random person.
The court scenes, however, is where the game really gets rolling and is, at least to me, the more fun part of the game. The set-up is simple: the prosecution will call witnesses to the stand, who will then testify regarding what they saw at the crime scene. But there's a basic premise that you've got to keep in mind when playing Phoenix Wright: everybody lies. Everybody. The witness on the stand, for one reason or another, will always lie, and therefore (obviously) obstruct your attempt to find the truth. The solution? Prove them for liars (sometimes it's accidental, I might add) by presenting evidence that contradicts a specific statement of their testimony. It's really satisfying to finally blow open a whole in a witness's testimony, and it can get quite difficult as witnesses get craftier and more subtle and the court record (where all your evidence is stored) grows to several pages.
Also, I'd like to point out before I get any further that Trials and Tribulations is significantly more difficult than any other Ace Attorney game to date. The first and second games, while fun, were pretty easy (at least until the end of the game). Trials and Tribulations, however, is noticeably more difficult even from the very first case. I'm not one to complain, because I really appreciate that we're no longer being given obvious hints as to what the "answer" is to disproving a certain witness's testimony. And for this reason, along with others, it's important to know that this is not a good place to jump onto the Phoenix Wright bandwagon. The learning curve is less gentle than in past games, and there are far too many references to past games to really enjoy this title without knowing what happened in the original Ace Attorney and Justice for All.
The thing is, Trials and Tribulations, along with the rest of the Ace Attorney games, is one of the rare titles out there where the game play is not the central aspect of the game; instead, the entire experience revolves around the plot and the game's fantastic writing. The game features 5 cases, two of which feature Mia (Phoenix's mentor) as a novice DA, and the remaining three starring Phoenix. One really awesome subtlety regarding the first game was that the later cases where very much related to each other, a feature that wasn't present in the second game. But it's back in Trials and Tribulations, and now all the cases, minus the second really, are intricately connected and essentially tell one long story drawn out over 11 years and several different characters.
Speaking of which, the many people that you'll encounter in Trials and Tribulations are fantastically written and really come to life thanks to the monumental work Capcom's development team bestowed upon the game. The translation is fantastic and there are some really hilarious pop culture references there for people to pick up on (some are downright obvious, such as "This is SPARDAA!). There are a lot of familiar faces, like Gumshoe, Maya, Pearls, and several others that I won't say for fear of spoiling some of the later cases. The characters come to life and as a result really bring the game to life, as the translation staff seems to have a great knack for writing that is both realistic but at the same time downright hilarious.
As you may have guessed if you've played the first two Ace Attorney titles, the graphics and sound (for the most part) have been recycled. The visuals, anyway, are identical to what we've seen in past games -- don't forget that this is, after all, a GBA title ported to the DS. Sprites are ripped directly from past games, and each character has the same set of animations that are used over and over again depending on the situation. The music, on the other hand, doesn't really suffer from being reused, as it's absolutely awesome. There's some new content but most of it is from past games (for example, character's themes). It's a rare game that really takes advantage of music to do something with it and make the game better, but Trials and Tribulations does just that -- in particular, each character's theme does a surprisingly good job of developing that character, or at least giving you a huge heads-up as to what he or she is like.
Psyche Locks are also back from Justice for All, and they are a game play mechanic that have actually grown on me. Based off the idea that everybody has something to hide, Phoenix posses an item that allows him to see when somebody is telling a lie -- it shows them in chains with varying numbers of locks holding them in place. To find out the truth, you'll have to break the locks by presenting specific evidence that answers a prompt given to you by the game. For example, if you're trying to figure out what so and so was doing on the night of the crime, you may be prompted: "I think this person has something to do with what you were doing…" and you'll have to present the correct person. Once you shatter all the locks by presenting evidence and essentially coming to the conclusion yourself, your interogee will finally spill the beans.
There's no real new content, but what it has Trials and Tribulations does very well. If you're a fan of past games, like myself, purchasing this game is a no-brainer. The plot is probably the best in the series, and while the novelty has been long lost, there's no denying that the game play mechanic is still fun, addicting, and more challenging than ever. The last case, in particular, is absolutely incredible and wraps up a ton of loose ends that are thrown around throughout the entire game. It's a satisfying conclusion to an awesome trilogy starring one of my favorite video game characters ever. And while it may not be perfect, it sure is a heck of a lot of fun.