By Eu
Game Info
Title: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Same old Ace Attorney. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice contains colorful characters, comedic scenes, and plot twists within plot twists. It has a good story but lacks the punch to make it the best.
Nick travels to the Kingdom of Khura’in to visit Maya where the latter as training for her mystical abilities. Being the trouble magnet that he is, Nick is dragged to a case right away.
The game is set alternatively between Khura’in and States. The Kingdom of Khura’in is a highly religious country. They also have a fucked up legal system where the lawyers die alongside their clients when proven guilty. They all hate lawyers. Everyone in this country is standoff-ish that it is fun dragging them off their high horse during trials.
With Ema back in the game, so are her forensic tools. If you add this to the abilities of the main characters. The game is packed with a lot of things you can do. The downside is that it can be overwhelming for new players while they are a welcome addition to old ones.
But if you are still craving for some more gameplay variation, the prosecution uses Divination Seance. As required by their law, Rayfa performs the Seance in every trial. The Seance shows the last moments of the victim and then she will interpret it as the so-called Insights. Other than Apollo’s bracelet stuff, this is probably one of the most difficult to do. You’d have to find inconsistency between the Insights and what the victim sees. It sounds easy when I say it, but in practice it is challenging. Not to mention that it cost life when you pointed out the wrong inconsistency.
Logic leaps aside, my main concern is how there seems to lack enough punch for a gripping story. I find the mid part a little slow. And there’s this episode where it feels like it is a filler episode after all the momentum built in the previous one. It is such a shame since once of my gripes in Dual Destinies came true here. Plus, I really love the characters. But it just falls flat.
It seems like the Justice in the Spirit of Justice can also be taken literally. I was not bent on having AJ2, but after playing this, I want one so bad. Don’t you think that there’s still a lot of unsolved things about Apollo’s background? AA6 feels like a prelude to something even bigger and I can’t wait for it!
Just when I thought that Dual Destinies have good animation, wait till you play AA6. Before, the games are mostly sprites with a few animated cutscenes. They moved on from that to 3D. They still use the anime style cutscenes which looks better than before. But hands down to the animated 3D. It is so slick and smooth. The gorgeous designs they used are further emphasized by the animation.
Spirit of Justice is a pretty good game and a nice addition to a long range of Ace Attorney games. Not the best among the bunch, but it is still entertaining. With the addition of some new features, the game becomes a lot more interactive and enjoyable gameplay-wise.