Okay, I just finished Chapter 1, and I have never played the first game. So! For anyone who HAS played the first game (and at least the first chapter of the second game, please answer me these questions:
Am I supposed to know why Phoenix Wright calls himself Phoenix, and not Nick, which appearantly is his name?
Am I supposed to know who certain people are? I.E. Dick Gumshoe, The Judge, Maya, and Payne from the first game? And if so, can you be so kind as to NOT tell me anything too important? If I wind up really liking this game, I want to go back to the first one and play it, and I’d like it not to be spoiled for me.
I suppose, as a tangent of that question, will I need to have played the first one to thoroughly enjoy the second one? As in, are there a whole shitload of cameos from the first game?
Please use spoilers, and if you’re talking about ANYTHING besides those questions, could you please INDICATE that, as I don’t want to read anything else? Thanks
1: Phoenix is his real name, Nick is a nickname Maya and other friends close him.
2 and 3: Yes, all the people you mentioned are from the first game. And yes, there are quite a few of returners. It would help to play the first game, since there are quite a few referrals back to several past cases.
Yes a lot of stuff comes back from the first game.
Edgeworth is a prosecutor that worked against you in a couple cases and Von Karma was your last case. Dick Gumshoe, Lotta Hart, Maya, Mia, are all people that played roles in the game at some point. I’m in chapter 2 now and these are all the references I understood up to now. Not having played the first one sucks for you because you’re going to miss a lot of references, like the Steel Samurai, which was a case in the first game. Nevertheless, its not vital for you to have played the first game to play the 2nd. But you really should. I like the music there better personally.
I was actually really lucky and found the first game over the summer for $20.
This game is very fun, and I really like the few gameplay adjustments they made (the life bar, the psyche-locks), but it ultimately doesn’t match up to the first one. Or more accurately, the four cases in JFA don’t match up to the five cases of its predecessor.
But the fourth case in JFA makes it all worth it. It brings back a ton of characters from the first game, ties in people and places from the previous two cases, and gives us some of the best “what it really means to be a lawyer” discussion that the series has ever made. I really hope they make a DS port of Gyakuten Saiben 3 now, because it’s supposed to be the best of the three Phoenix Wright games.
Case 4 JFA spoilers: Apparently what it really means to be an attorney can involve taking over the prosecutor’s job and arguing against evidence that was in favor of your client! Some of that stuff didn’t really make too much sense.
Finished the game last night. I regret steering clear of the series for so long. I really enjoyed this game, and can’t wait to try and find the first game.
