Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All

Justice for All in the second game in the saga, and seemingly everyone agrees that its the misstep of the trilogy. Well I cant comment on the third game, but I certainly didnt feel that this was so inferior to the first entry, that I have beaten a few years back. Its still a game full of court melodrama and comedy, and it works really well most of the time. I like the new characters introduced, and how well they meld with the ones introduced in the first game.

I think the real misstep is that it failed to adress how slow the pacing gets dragged down by the investigation sequences, that are definitly the weakest parts of the game. The cases themselves also have a few instances of non-sense logic, and sometimes you also get too far ahead of the game and present wrong evidence, even if logically it would support the contradiction.

I played the HD version on this one, and after the inicial adjustment period I say that it looks really well for the type of comedy its going for.

It got me genuinely laughing more than a few times, and it got me caring for its fictional characters, so I would say that as a ADV it didnt fail what really matters at the end of the day.

Introduz bons personagens e, em geral, mantém a qualidade do primeiro jogo com a pequena mas significativa adição dos psyche-locks. Tem pelo menos um caso excelente, o do circo. Nele, o ritmo flui bem, as respostas não são mirabolantes ou simples demais.

Quem me dera, porém, se todo o jogo fosse tão bem construído. O último caso em especial me tirou completamente a paciência: roteiro MUITO mal escrito, um porre de tão longo e com uma solução final que tira completamente o peso das audiências, que deveriam ser o ponto alto do jogo. Terminei com um gosto bem amargo na boca.

The weakest of the trilogy. The cases are not as consistent as the other two games, but the addition of Pearl and the new soundtrack are welcome changes.

The main thing I play the Ace Attorney [逆転裁判] games for is the ability to solve the mysteries of the cases, and I liked the twists that arose in cases two and three, but the other two I did not enjoy. The fourth case has a fantastic premise, but I didn't like the twists introduced in the trial parts. I would describe the fourth case as being "unnecessarily convoluted". The first case irritated me as it had too much dialogue.

As for the rest of the game, the soundtrack in this game is by far my favorite of the trilogy. I like the cross-examination theme and the pursuit theme here better than their previous versions.

Oh, and the addition of Pearl to the Phoenix/Maya duo is a welcome sight. Mays's constant chattering annoyed me a little in the first game, but Pearl is a different beast entirely. Pearl is one of those unintentionally amusing characters. She is a child, but a remarkably aware and inquisitive child. She is also of a culture completely of her own, and her unintentionally hilarious questioning of mundane things adds a huge amount of depth to the group's chatter.

Consider this exchange between the three of them about how Pearl managed to arrive at the courthouse from Kurain Village, unaccompanied:

Maya: Wait, Pearl, did you walk all the way here from Kurain village by yourself?

Pearl: Of course not, I ran!

Wright: (Oh my. If it took two hours to get there by train, then...Oh my.)

Maya: But Pearly, what about the train?

Pearl: What's a "tray-ain"?

...

That hilarious sequence would not be possible without Pearl.

Overall, hard to rank this game in the trilogy, but probably the least good of the three.