A masterpiece of old-fashioned humorous mystery sublimated into a game. Takushu san, there is no one reading Tsumao Awasaka※ in the 21st century.

When I played the GBA version, I remember how surprised I was at the last incident and how loudly I screamed. This may be my favorite game from Capcom. There have been many sequels and spin-offs, but there's not much more to say about it than this first one.

※ Tsumao Awasaka
Mystery writer. Famous for his "Aiichiro A" series.(only mystery maniacs.) The names of the important cases in this game come from this series.

EDIT: A list of works that were considered to be the original source of tricks and other elements in Ace Attorney was compiled. AA series fans, if you would like to have a look.

Objection!

It's hard to go around the gaming space without hearing the iconic "Objection!" line or seen a picture of the phrase stylized in game at least once in your life. Gyakuten Saiban or how the western world knows it, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney actually originated as a GBA title exclusive to Japan until 2005 with a re-release for the Nintendo DS was released for the west at the time. Managing to completely take over the "lawyer video game" genre despite in really being a visual novel with investigative elements, the first entry sets up characters with cases that are never what they are at face value.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is a game you can't find anywhere. The premise is that you're an up and coming defense attorney ready to make a name for yourself as you tackle cases that most normal defense attorneys wouldn't go through the trouble of doing. The stories vary from case to case but most of them are great here including the first case being a good way to settle in the player to the mechanics and the thought process of playing this game like how Phoenix Wright is also settling in with you as it's his first case as well. The characters are unique as well having their own quirks and charm whenever you see them in a new case with relationships with you developing across the cases. The biggest strength this game has is the ability to balance the intense seriousness of murder trials and the goofiness of how the characters are despite the circumstances. Despite the game only using sprites or animated pictures as the representation of the characters, the game does an excellent job of giving each character their own unique way of expressing themselves that manages to come off as humorous. This is also illustrated in the sound effects and soundtrack as well. Sound effects and the music whenever someone is surprised or shocked really immerse you in the story and drama that's unfolding in the courtroom, pondering sound effects come when the game gives you a question that makes you want to find the answer of immediately. The game consists of 2 gameplay phases: Investigations and Trials. In Investigations, you'll be out and about the world trying to find out what exactly happened and gather evidence in hopes of finding the truth of what really happened in the case and to your defendant. Trials is where it all comes to together as you use all the information and evidence you found to prove your defendant innocent and find out the truth of what really happened.

All cases are not created equally sadly. Some are more intense and personal and some of the cases while great in their own right don't have as many personal stakes as some of the other trials will have compared to it. I also wish to talk about Case 5 as well. While Case 5 is a great case, it's way longer than any other case and doesn't really belong in the first game from a gameplay perspective. I felt like Case 4 tied everything really well and while I enjoyed Case 5 after I completed it, it was sort of a jarring experience. Brand new gameplay elements are introduced into Case 5 and while I think the mechanics are cool, it just stands out even more from the rest of the cases as the length of the case itself probably takes half of the game runtime compared to the 4 original cases combined. Not to mention an abundance of evidence compared to the original 4 makes this one a more trial and error experience instead of finding the absolute one that contradicts and prove your claims. Despite my complaints, I wish to reiterate that Case 5 is a great case but with how it's structured completely different compared to the original game, it could've been a standalone experience instead of meshed into the original experience.

I usually have trouble paying attention to games that require a lot of reading and my initial curiosity for the series stems from seeing the setting for Great Ace Attorney Chronicles and finding myself fascinated on how the game will pan out but I wanted to play the original trilogy before diving into that game. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is a charming yet serious game that isn't afraid to make outrageous jokes to break the tension at times. Nothing is more iconic when a revelation comes out and a certain character gets their salary cut again.

Want to switch?

(Played via Ace Attorney Trilogy on PS4)
Still a mastapeece. It just gets better with every case. I don't care if Rise from the Ashes is too long, it's the best case with the most intriguing story in the game and many amazing twists. Also both endings (Case 4 and Case 5) gave me the feels just like the first time I played the game.
I have so much love for this game, man. It's amazing characters and their development throughout the game, it's amazing soundtrack and how it perfectly sets the tone to everything that is happening, it's amazing sense of humor that brings numerous hilarious and iconic moments. I think this is a game that everybody should experience, even if you don't like visual novels at least give this a try and I guarantee you're gonna find something about this game that you will like.
Also Edgeworth invented character development.

Looking back I'm super fond of Ace Attorney 1, I think overall the game is really solid and it can standalone greatly. I love all the cases in this game. Maya Fey is one of my favorite partners in video games. I love how weird and goofy she is. Phoenix is a pretty good protagonist, And Edgeworth is pretty good in this game.

Ace Attorney is my favorite video game series as a whole, It has Amazing Music, Charm, Goofiness, and a lovable cast of characters. It gets really great and touches on some serious things at the peaks of its plots while keeping it lighthearted always which I genuinely appreciate.

Honestly, the mainline Ace Attorney games REALLY nail a slice-of-life feeling that Investigations and DGS really didn't.
My favorite case would have to be Case 5. It still really sticks out to me today.

god i love ace attorney and this first game is a great start to the series.

i think think the first 2 cases can be a bit slow mainly thanks to the game feeding you answers the whole time but its a good setup for the rest of the game

turnabout samurai is very underrated in my opinion and i would much rather play it than a lot of the other 3rd cases in this franchise

turnabout goodbyes is a wonder "final" case to end the game on and i love how it brings all of the loose threads from the first couple cases together in one neat little package

lastly is rise from the ashes which is very long but god i love it. gant is such a well written villain and final few trials go so hard as you are piecing together everything that took place in this very convoluted murder

overall i think this game is great and really comes into its own in its final few cases
case

It’s an interesting experience to jump into a series you feel like you know when your familiarity is entirely through memes. Phoenix Wright isn’t nearly as fast paced as I thought it would be, or QUITE as zany. What I got instead was a pretty sharp Perry Mason simulator with shockingly few outrageously impossible-feeling logical leaps in puzzle solutions (which makes the two or three times that did happen stand out a lot more).

20 years on, I’m really impressed with the game in general, especially given the knowledge of its shoestring budget, tiny staff, and quick dev time. It’s a little creaky in places - investigations are frequently longer than I’d like given how often you’re just reiterating redundant information in them, and there’s not a single case in the game that couldn’t be a day shorter than it is and be better for it, but what we have here is a really charming and solid foundation for a gameplay system and a cast of characters I really like and I’m excited to play more of them.

Thematically I feel like this game does a lot of table setting, mostly more concerned with establishing characters and the setting over broader themes until 1-4 tries to drive home some of the philosophical differences in Phoenix and von Karma’s attitudes towards justice and the law but given how much more intensely case 1-5 gets into that stuff (my understanding is that 1-5 was added to the DS version and written after the rest of the trilogy) I’m excited to see later games push the politics of the setting more to the forefront.

I’m pretty positive that I’m never gonna get more out of this series than a very lukewarm liberal take on what justice looks like in this series but I guess I should just be grateful that it wasn’t made by like Abe style neo fascists. Excited to be disappointed.

The game is simply very fun to play

A game that throw me into a rabbit hole that changed me forever.

One day a relative of mine gifted me a nintendo 3ds. It was my first nintendo console and I literally didn't know what to do with it. Because I was mostly a pc and playstation gamer so I shelved my 3ds yet it keep bugging me out that I had nothing to play on that thing. One day I decided I will play on it to experience it fully and decided to look upon the internet what games can interest me to play on it. I bought couple of games from looking up to the most liked games. Mario 3d land, zelda 64 remakes, fire emblem etc. I had fun with them but one game from a list that I don't remember really interested me. Description said experiencing a lawyer's troubles at the court or something similar to that. Also it's cover image reminded me an capcom collection image I vaguely remember seeing when I was looking up about the capcom games. I liked capcom so that was a plus. Also I said experiencing a lawyer story sounds wacky but why not? And I tried it.

AND I FELL IN LOVE WITH IT.

I love this game. Still my favourite in the whole franchise. Yeah the first game. You can think I am strange but I think compared to the later titles it's simplicity with steady progression makes it the best in the franchise.

Story is...

It's about a beginner attorney that tries it's best to honor his mentor and your friends while everything is in your way to stop you from achieving that. Rise to the challenge and defeat those perky lying murderers that made your friends' lives hell! And take them down with finding the truth using your brain against all the odds and do the impossible even your mentor couldn't do and WIN.

This is truly a story about overcoming all odds against the impossible, rising to the top. But this isn't enough to make it great. What makes it truly awesome is it's collection of fun fellas you really want to save. Once you decide to save them and step into the court room, There is no going back.

I can't say too much about the story more but case wise I love all of them even it's third case(yeah fight me) and even it's finale bonus case(even tho I have massive issues with it's pacing, it's last day is simply nothing short of amazing)

Gameplay wise...

It's about finding evidence in the field, then using them in the court to pinpoint lies. Simple but enough to make it engaging with variety of situations you are thrown in.

But it's a long game, then how does this game holds it engaging the gameplay? It's with using every different type deceptions, lies, wrong information and pushing it's difficulty to the end.

In the start you have just a couple of clues to pinpoint lies, in the end you have lots of clues that connects to same event but also only one of them holds the truth, so challenge becomes not just pinpointing the lie, it also becomes what clue will truly take the tides to my side?

AND IT'S HECKING ADDICTING.

Unfortunately it doesn't do that for finding evidence part tho. It feels samey throughout in the journey with you end up clicking to every pixel. I kinda get why people hate them because of no challenge and also inclusion of a bit of obtuseness thrown inside. But on my end I am fine with them. Why? Because they have optional conversations.

You will ask, why does that matter? It does matter. They matter to me a hell of a lot. Because I genuinely love it's writing from the top of my heart(and especially on this entry and the reason it's my favourite with it's pure commitment on enjoyment and emotional drama).

While people roll their eyes upon every second that you spend outside of the court, I myself having a genuinely fun time with just reading every conversation what our main leads will say to daily things and this part is important to get the full enjoyment. I am gonna ask you a question, Do you still have your childhood funny guy inside at you? If so, then you don't have to worry because you will truly enjoy this game and all of it's offerings and even can be your favourite game of all time.

Because it's one of my all time favourites as well.

-Also a funny story, I didn't know I could save with the start button until the end of the game. I suffered a bit is an understatement

truly one of the greatest visual novels ever released if not the best. it has a memorable, lively, unique and lovable cast of characters (though miles edgeworth is obviously the one who shines the most), which is not something we usually encounter in a visual novel. the cases gradually got better and better and the last case was a literal masterpiece. the fourth case was my favorite though since the character development in this is just so heartwarming. the dialogue in this game never ever bored me, i did not skip ONE dialogue in this game and this is the first time this happened to me in a visual novel. everything is just so well written, the story is always exciting and makes you curious about what will happen in the next testimony and you also always wonder how the things will turn out while investigating. the soundtrack and the character sprites are also very well done and both of these play a big role in this game's charm.
to summarize all of the written above, phoenix wright: ace attorney has the most fun you can have in a visual novel and is overall a phenomenal video game.

Played via the Trilogy collection on Xbox.

I found this game to be mechanically unpleasant to the point of being nearly unplayable. One game design element I have never understood is the practice of animating text boxes, where instead of giving you all the text at once, you have to sit there and watch each letter appear one after another. I have no idea what this is meant to accomplish, but for me its effect is extreme irritation. How is making me read the text piecemeal, at a sluggish pace, supposed to help me enjoy the game?

I'm a pretty slow reader, but I still read faster than the text appears. The designers must have known this is a horrible feature that everyone will hate, because they gave us a workaround. You can hit the "continue" button while the text is animating to make the text animate faster. This mostly works, except that Ace Attorney is full of filler lines like "..." and "Hngh?!" and it's easy to get out of rhythm and accidentally skip a line because you're trying to get through at a normal reading speed. And of course, there's no way to go back and check your log to see what was said previously. To top it all off, the text animation is accompanied by a piercing, hyper beeping sound like a mosquito with a jackhammer. This is a game where dialog is a central mechanic, and they seem to have gone out of their way to make it maximally irritating.

I probably could have gotten past this if I could find anything else to enjoy. Nothing about the gameplay grabbed me at all. The investigation phase is a pure checklist; there are no skill checks or mechanical tension of any kind. The trial phase is essentially a trial (ha) and error affair. They want you to select the prompts that reveal inconsistencies in the witness's stories, but the prompts are so vague and unrelated to the dialog that I found blindly clicking options to be more effective than actually trying to engage with the story in any way. Pretty much everything that came out of Phoenix's mouth in response to my own commands was a complete surprise to me, which seemed like a pretty bad sign considering this is a game ostensibly about winning arguments through logic. At least the trial phase has a way to fail so there is some kind of tension. However when I learned that losing at trial meant simply restarting the entire case from the beginning and having to trudge through every stupid dialog again, I basically stopped wanting to play the game.

And then, of course, are the character designs and writing. This looks like yet another one of those games that's obsessed with sex, but can only manage to engage with it at the level of a poorly-educated pubescent boy. The first woman you meet is your boss, some kind of super lawyer who seems to be wearing a bustier as both an undergarment and overgarment. She hilariously accessorizes it with a suit coat, you know, because she's a professional.

The next woman I met continued the inevitable trend line and that pretty much killed the game for me. The character is a by-the-numbers trope; the sexually liberated woman who won't fuck you so of course she's evil. She's also cartoonishly stupid (of course). I've played too much of this crap lately and my patience for it is thoroughly exhausted.

I didn't even get to the end of the second case in this game. This was a huge disappointment as I've heard so much praise for it but I couldn't find a single redeeming quality.

The First Turnabout
É só um tutorial e pra tu passar mais tempo com a Mia. Mas sério é tão fodase e não tem valor algum pra mim.

Turnabout Sisters
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

Turnabout Samurai
Esse caso vai para um lado muito mais cômico, e é legal por isso. Entretanto tem muitas partes boring na investigação e as reviravoltas são meh.

Turnabout Goodbyes
Puta merda como eu amo o Edgeworth e o Phoenix. Caso absurdo de bom tanto textualmente quando no quesito inteligência, me surpreendeu demais.

Rise from the Ashes
É um caso muito bom, mas sério é MUITO GRANDE. As investigações são um saco de fazer principalmente por ter um ponto que eu ja tinha entendido o caso.

Great game! You will need some logical thinking and analysis, and be happy to finally stop listening the music after a right OBJECTION!

Even if you're not a visual novel fan, you should try it.

Of course, lacks on replay factor. But it's nothing a few years of forgetting will not resolve.

I've beaten/read this 3 times now (emulated, DS, and most recently as part of the remastered PS4 collection), so it has to be doing something "Wright".

Fun stories, wacky characters, and great music. I recommend this for those that like visual novels, especially those that are infused with a lot of humor.

Also, as the cases develop, it is fun to unravel the mysteries presented bit by bit...for a game set primarily in a courtroom and dealing with legal cases, it surprisingly has many "hype" moments throughout. Highly recommended.

Case Ranking: 4 > 5 > 2 > 3 > 1

The first Ace Attorney game is timeless in its charm, and generally what it's known for is exactly that plus the concepts it sets up for the rest of the trilogy. Some of it holds up to scrutiny, but there are certainly cracks and dusty structural issues in the writing mold.

Primarily, AA1's biggest issues are pacing and the investigations. It's endemic to all but the fourth case, that the pacing will be bloated in ridiculous filler that adds nothing, and goes far too slow working on red herrings and trivial information that most people could easily glean to be falsehoods or fucking about. The investigations are also just never fun, the railroading structure is fine but having such obtuse event triggers that don't make sense or just information drips that only end up making a difference at the trial kind of leaves it with a hanging half that could use trimming.

But, I'd still say AA1 is goodish, and that's primarily because of my feelings with Case 3 and 4. Case 3 may be a terribly paced, contradictory plot mysteries (the head blocks everything BUT THE VAN???? what??), and frontrunner for worst event triggers, but it offers such a strong message on deconstructing idol culture tied to a goodish villain, interesting motive, and humanized people surrounding the villain. Case 4 on the other hand builds off the previous by working on "dealing with the past", with multiple characters all stemming from one incident that are characterized by their relationships between each other. It really works best to the entire game, and while 1-3's final day is my favorite moment, 1-4 is genuinely the best constructed.

The charm as I said is also really beneficial, with each emotional hype moment resonating probably due to how much condensed Capcom energy it is. The music is also excellent, with each time something like Cornered playing firing on all cylinders, getting me giddy every time.

Overall, it's a goodish start that I still recommend trying if you can get past the blech stuff. The series (to my memory) gets better from here anyway. (6.5/10)

For years I've been saying I would play Ace Attorney and for years I just kept not doing that. That ends today!
As I write this, I have literally just finished the last chapter. What better time to write something on it as now.
I don't think I've ever realized just how much I enjoy mystery games and it just hit me while playing Ace Attorney. The joy of being right every time you say someting just gets me going.
The characters are very charming and I found the writting to be very nice. Where else am I going to bring a parrot to court and also make it make complelte sense for it to be there.
I had tons of fun playing, the last chapter was longer than the rest but I did not feel like it dragged at all it was a very well written case.
I'm looking forward to playing the rest of this series!

Here I am, I'm about to talk about this small game about lawyers. Well not the full game, just one single case that little did I know would influence my future career.

Shortly after Phoenix proves Edgeworth innocent in court and Maya leaves for her home village, we see our favorite ace attorney clientless and caseless. Turns out he hasn't been taking any cases despite getting numerous offers. That is until a brown haired highschooler comes knocking on his door and begs him to take a murder case. Phoenix eventually decides to take the case because the girl reminds him of Maya.

The girl's name was Ema Skye by the way, and Phoenix's client is her sister, Lana Skye (who just so happens to be the chief prosecutor). Not sure why I started this review like I was gonna recap everything that happens in this case BUT now I can talk about how this dumb ass game inspired me to go into forensics.

I absolutely love Ema, her passion for forensics, her funny little quips, and of course the dumb little minigames she makes you do. The fingerprinting minigame, and testing every little area for luminol reactions had me hooked. Of course this barely scratched the surface of forensic science but it still caused that spark of interest within me. And this was just around the time where school was asking me what classes and future career path I wanted to take so I decided to really get into chemistry to pursue forensics.

I probably would've gone into the medical or engineering fields if I didn't play this game, would I have been better off financially if I didn't? Yes, would I be happy? No. It's really interesting how this silly game about lawyers being bad at their job has inspired people to pursue career paths they wouldn't otherwise. I know people who got into law just because of this game, and for me it got me into criminal investigations. The amount of people I've gotten to bond with because of this series and the amazing people and teachers I've met because of the classes this game encouraged me to take is insane. I don't really know where I'll be in 10 years, whether or not I'll still be talking to the same online friends, whether or not I'll still be hanging out with the same in person friends, but I do know that I'll always be able to come back to this series and be able to go back to a much simpler and happier time in my life.

Sendo o primeiro jogo da trilogia, eles claramente não planejavam levar o projeto para frente, é uma história fechadinha com personagens divertidos e alguns casos legais, porém nada de mais. A melhor parte do jogo é o caso 4, que mostra o passado do Spada/Edgeworth e é um dos melhores casos da trilogia.
Logo de cara o que mais me prendeu foi essa premissa de ser algo mais descompromissado, fazendo piadas o tempo todo, ainda mais com as traduções que deixam tudo ainda melhor.
Mas esse jogo merece o tocantins inteiro por conseguir manter uma linha tênue entre o sério e o ridículo, de modo que faz você aceitar algumas ações e personagens só por conta de ser aquele jogo, sabe?
É como um: Ok, a testemunha esqueceu de mencionar um detalhe que é ESSENCIAL para o caso, mas logo em seguida você se lembra do jogo que você ta jogando e o perdoa.
E sinceramente, eu amo isso.