I don't think it's any surprise to call Phoenix Wright a great game, and Ace Attorney by large a great series. Gripping mystery series, fantastic writing, terrific characters (there isn't a single major character I don't love here), great music, super fun gameplay... a lot of Ace Attorney, and the first game in particular, are easy recommendations from me.
The first game probably ends up being my second favorite in the series overall. In some respects it feels the most "average" experience you'll have with the series, with a great early finale in "Turnabout Goodbyes" and no real clunker cases ("Turnabout Samurai" runs a little long, but I can't hate Wendy Oldbag and Sal Manella). The offset is how simple it is, with "The First Turnabout" and "Turnabout Sisters" resolving themselves so quickly. Not surprising, since they're introductory cases, and later games have little need for that sort of thing by contrast. If anything, it's all the better for the series to start on such an approachable tone. It's made the series super super easy for me to introduce to people, be they casual gamers or (in the case of this replay - my third time through the game) a friend group of experienced gamers.
"Rise from the Ashes" tends to be pretty divisive, being both a radical gameplay shift (incorporating mechanics from the then-in-planning Apollo Justice - remember that the first four cases represented the original GBA release, and Cacpcom wanted to throw in something extra to help justify the DS port) and far and away the longest case in the series. I think the game would've benefitted greatly from labelling it a bonus episode or something, since that's really what it is, as much as an attempt is made to neatly slot it into the themes and timeline of the first game. I also definitely fall into the camp of calling "Rise from the Ashes" pretty great, essentially being an entire Ace Attorney 1½ snuck into the scope of a single episode. Sort-of why I'm not completely opposed to it occasionally being paid DLC in later releases/compilations, since I think that at least better conveys the intent of the case. Plus, hey, this has to be a contender for one of the best breakdowns in the series.
Case rating, I probably go 4 > 5 > 2 > 1 > 3, with none bad and 3 being a'ight at worst.
NOTE - I wrote this misremembering that I'd played this myself back in 2017, only confirming in my notes afterwards that I'd only watched a friend play it at that time. As a rule, I only log stuff on Backloggd if I have a confirmed or approximate date to represent a playthrough, which is why I mostly focus on games I (re)played after 2015 (the year I started recording dates for my video game playthroughs). I didn't want this write-up to go to waste, and I've played through the game twice on my own, so I just took my best guess on a date here.
The first game probably ends up being my second favorite in the series overall. In some respects it feels the most "average" experience you'll have with the series, with a great early finale in "Turnabout Goodbyes" and no real clunker cases ("Turnabout Samurai" runs a little long, but I can't hate Wendy Oldbag and Sal Manella). The offset is how simple it is, with "The First Turnabout" and "Turnabout Sisters" resolving themselves so quickly. Not surprising, since they're introductory cases, and later games have little need for that sort of thing by contrast. If anything, it's all the better for the series to start on such an approachable tone. It's made the series super super easy for me to introduce to people, be they casual gamers or (in the case of this replay - my third time through the game) a friend group of experienced gamers.
"Rise from the Ashes" tends to be pretty divisive, being both a radical gameplay shift (incorporating mechanics from the then-in-planning Apollo Justice - remember that the first four cases represented the original GBA release, and Cacpcom wanted to throw in something extra to help justify the DS port) and far and away the longest case in the series. I think the game would've benefitted greatly from labelling it a bonus episode or something, since that's really what it is, as much as an attempt is made to neatly slot it into the themes and timeline of the first game. I also definitely fall into the camp of calling "Rise from the Ashes" pretty great, essentially being an entire Ace Attorney 1½ snuck into the scope of a single episode. Sort-of why I'm not completely opposed to it occasionally being paid DLC in later releases/compilations, since I think that at least better conveys the intent of the case. Plus, hey, this has to be a contender for one of the best breakdowns in the series.
Case rating, I probably go 4 > 5 > 2 > 1 > 3, with none bad and 3 being a'ight at worst.
NOTE - I wrote this misremembering that I'd played this myself back in 2017, only confirming in my notes afterwards that I'd only watched a friend play it at that time. As a rule, I only log stuff on Backloggd if I have a confirmed or approximate date to represent a playthrough, which is why I mostly focus on games I (re)played after 2015 (the year I started recording dates for my video game playthroughs). I didn't want this write-up to go to waste, and I've played through the game twice on my own, so I just took my best guess on a date here.
4 Comments
I definitely recommend TGAA2 as it's my personal favorite (though it might be best to replay TGAA1 first, as they're highly connected).
Definitely eager to get back to Great Ace Attorney, as I've liked what I've played of 1 so far!
willn46
2 months ago