When Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney hit North America on the DS in 2005, it gained a rabid fan base and the love of critics everywhere with its conglomeration of interesting characters and engaging storyline. Of course, the fact that the premise of the game is a courtroom simulator gives it some additional merit. With that kind of popularity, and considering that the series is very popular in Japan where there is a fourth game in the works, it would come as no surprise that a sequel would be far behind.
The focus of the games are on Phoenix Wright, who aside from being the series namesake, is a rookie defense attorney who finds himself neck-deep in over-the-top and seemingly impossible cases while defending equally over-the-top characters. Justice for All plays like a text-heavy adventure game where you'll explore exotic locales such as a circus and a village full of spirit channelers. When you're not in the courtroom, you'll have to explore areas by examining the environment and pointing at areas with your stylus to reveal clues or gather information.
Of course, equally over-the-top casts of characters are on hand for you either to milk information from or to collaborate with. Those familiar with the first game will recognize returning characters like Mia and Maya Fey and Lotta Hart, but new characters like the entire troupe of circus performers or the stout Franziska von Karma mostly upstage them. Not all of the new players are great however. With the game being so text-driven, the quirks of certain characters will most likely get on your nerves, like the ditzy Iny Miney in the second case, especially if you have to replay certain portions of the game more than once.
While Justice for All plays identically to the first game, there is at least one new feature present called the psyche-lock. Keeping true to real life, certain witnesses have ulterior motives or know something they don't want you to know. Once a character is presented with a special item, you can see if they're hiding something as represented by a number of chains and locks. Pressing a person for info and presenting certain pieces of evidence will break the locks and lead you to the truth. On the other hand, if you fail to break the locks, you'll lose part of your life bar each time you fail to present that right piece of somethin'-somethin'.
Once you've collected enough evidence, you'll eventually end up in court to argue your client's innocence. You'll be able to listen to testimony from the prosecution, and then cross-examine witnesses. You'll be able to scan the court record at anytime if you find something that contradicts the facts and can object at almost any time to present evidence that supports your case. You can also press witnesses to get a little more information out of them. Once you're in court, if you fail to present the right kinds of evidence, you'll lose a portion of your life bar. Once you're out of life, the judge will render your client guilty and, you guessed it, you're starting from the beginning of the chapter again. This is where Justice for All can get frustrating. Oftentimes, a contradiction will come up where you'd know that you should object and what specific evidence you need to present. Occasionally, however, you'll be asked to reference something so vague that it essentially turns into a process of elimination as you attempt to present different pieces of evidence in hopes that your life bar doesn't run out before you finally get it right. If you lose a trial and have to load your game from the last save point, you'll be expected to read through all of the witness testimony again complete with pressing the witnesses and objecting at the right times all over again. At times, this proves took anywhere from ten to twenty minutes just to get back to where I messed up. It all becomes very time consuming. Still, this game encourages you to think, know your case, and know your evidence even more. Despite the frustration of losing, nothing really beats the rush of going on a roll, turning a case in your favor, and ultimately feeling smart about it in the process.
The visuals of Justice for All are nice considering their GBA roots. None of the artwork looks grainy and low-res and characters have a wide variety of animations and reactions. With such an outlandish band of characters, there's a lot of comical dialog and visuals to go along with them. The best part is that the background of each case is intelligently written and makes sense when you finally get to prove your argument in court. Then again, it seems that you're always fighting an uphill battle and the judge never seems to be on your side no matter how well you're doing. Environments are mostly static drawings and mostly void of life. The developers seem to take notice of this and even point it out in their own way, like when you examine the guard at the door of the detention center for instance.
The soundtrack to Justice for All is a mixture of old and new where you'll find music reused from the first game in addition to new tunes. The music seems appropriate for each situation, especially when trials reach pivotal points and finally turn in your favor. You'll get some spoken dialog during trials like "objection!" and "hold it!" but aside from that, you'll find yourself pouring through numerous lines of text.
In the end, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Justice for All is an intelligently written text adventure game with moving pictures. If you have the patience for it, there is an intriguing game to be played here. For those in search of a twitch fix, you might want to look elsewhere. While the high-priced life of a young attorney may seem glitzy, the hours of reading and interviewing make it out to be not all it's cracked up to be. If you think the perfect night at home is curling up with a good mystery novel, Justice for All is right up your alley.
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