So I imported the third game, cos the Japanese Version has the game completely in English already, and I figured if I was going to irresponsibly forego a lot of homework to play a game, it’d be better to do it two weeks into the semester than two months (late October).
Anyways, it’s pretty good, but it’s really long; all the cases seem to be comparatively longer than the ones of the previous games. I would say that in terms of consistency, it’s the best; in other words, there are no particularly BAD cases. On the other hand, I think they all have a tendency to either start off really slow, and pick up later, or start off strong and end on an underwhelming note.
In the end, I think I like JFA best of all three. If anyone has any questions about the game, or if someone besides me has actually PLAYED it, I’d love to discuss it.
There are a ton of reasons why I personally don’t like the first one better:
In terms of a polished script, I’m gonna say you were either talking about the writing, or the amount of typos…The typos don’t bother me very much, and I personally liked the style of writing in the second game much better.
Investigations in the first game are ridiculous. Without Psyche-Locks, it feels like you’re just walking around, showing every piece of evidence to everybody, without any particular goal in mind.
The music is mostly better in JFA, in my opinion, because it captures the whole ‘courtroom drama’ aspect much better.
A lot of the plot points in the first game come out of thin air, and as a result, it felt really dumb. I played JFA first, which helped a lot in that aspect; but, I was still caught off guard when I saw certain plot points unfold - ones that I KNEW were going to happen - as abruptly as they did.
Most boring cases overall…
The first case is meh; however, I’ll grant that people who played PW:AA first probably thought the same thing about the first case of the second game, which I really liked.
The second case is good; but, I think it ended on a REALLY dumb note. Also, the biggest plot point of the case - the one that starts the case, felt like it came out of nowhere.
The third case is the epitome of mediocre. The story was mediocre. The mystery was mediocre. The ending was very underwhelming. The only thing that pulled the third case out of the fire was that it happened to be the funniest case.
The ‘last’ (fourth) case was good, no doubt. I think I enjoyed the last case of the second game the best, though. In fact, I think the last case of the second game is probably the best case in the series.
The fifth case…? Well, fans of the series tend to either absolute love it, or absolutely hate it. …I absolutely hate it. It went on wayyyy too long, the mystery wasn’t all too mysterious, it altered some canon in the game which was just weird, and finally, a lot of the characters in the fifth case were just easy to dislike.
Overall, I think that if I’d played the first game first, I might not even be very into this series.
In terms of a polished script, I’m gonna say you were either talking about the writing, or the amount of typos…The typos don’t bother me very much, and I personally liked the style of writing in the second game much better.
The typos drive me crazy, and I just felt that the jokes were far funnier in the first game, and more aimed at a North American audience. As for writing style in the second one, Francisca sounded like a four-year old. “You foolish fools with your foolish foolish foolishness!”
Investigations in the first game are ridiculous. Without Psyche-Locks, it feels like you’re just walking around, showing every piece of evidence to everybody, without any particular goal in mind.
I’ll definitely give you that one.
The music is mostly better in JFA, in my opinion, because it captures the whole ‘courtroom drama’ aspect much better.
I found the first one to be much more memorable and suspenseful in this respect, actually.
A lot of the plot points in the first game come out of thin air, and as a result, it felt really dumb. I played JFA first, which helped a lot in that aspect; but, I was still caught off guard when I saw certain plot points unfold - ones that I KNEW were going to happen - as abruptly as they did.
Oh, the first one’s definitely more abrupt, but that was part of why I liked it.
The first case is meh; however, I’ll grant that people who played PW:AA first probably thought the same thing about the first case of the second game, which I really liked.
Yep. I honestly don’t remember much about the other individual cases, so I can’t really respond to the other points, but I actually loved the length of the fifth case; it was very complex and interesting. Required a huge suspension of disbelief, but frankly I like the “puzzle-solving” of mysteries more than the verisimilitude. And I couldn’t dislike anything about “canon” then since it was the first game in the series; be fair. 8p
Yeah, Franziska was pretty lame. Other than that, though, I don’t think it was bad at all.
Yeah…most people seem to disagree with me on this one…oh well.
I suppose. I think it would have been hard for me to, say, care about Mia’s death for example if I hadn’t played the second game first. It added a lot of buildup and suspense, and it gave me time to actually give a damn. If I had played the first game first, I would have just been like “uhhh well okay.”
It’s not even that, I just like the pure mystery of the games - Not so much the question of ‘who’ (cos it’s usually obvious), but ‘how’ and ‘why’. Although I admit that I like it when there’s always a little doubt as to whom it could be. I felt like in the fifth case, I almost immediately knew it was Gant.
I suppose it is sort of unfair. I do think that Edgeworth suddenly being under heavy scrutiny for tampering with evidence, etc. is weird, and especially when it’s largely implied that he didn’t, when you can see a clear 180 in his courtroom persona in the middle of the first game. As for JFA, The fact that it’s implied that the evidence tampering stuff is nothing more than rumours simply contradicts too many things about Edgeworth being in JFA in general. I will admit, though, that it was probably more obvious to me because I played JFA first.
I suppose. I think it would have been hard for me to, say, care about Mia’s death for example if I hadn’t played the second game first. It added a lot of buildup and suspense, and it gave me time to actually give a damn. If I had played the first game first, I would have just been like “uhhh well okay.”
However, when playing the first game, the very first case sets the tone. We think that Phoenix is going to be Mia’s protege for the rest of the game. He’s got a rapport with her and she’s his mentor. Then suddenly, she’s killed right off the bat. It was pretty shocking.
It’s not even that, I just like the pure mystery of the games - Not so much the question of ‘who’ (cos it’s usually obvious), but ‘how’ and ‘why’. Although I admit that I like it when there’s always a little doubt as to whom it could be. I felt like in the fifth case, I almost immediately knew it was Gant.
Oh, sure - but I couldn’t figure out either how he did it or why he did it - which, as you said, is a big deal in the intrigue.
I suppose it is sort of unfair. I do think that Edgeworth suddenly being under heavy scrutiny for tampering with evidence, etc. is weird, and especially when it’s largely implied that he didn’t, when you can see a clear 180 in his courtroom persona in the middle of the first game. As for JFA, The fact that it’s implied that the evidence tampering stuff is nothing more than rumours simply contradicts too many things about Edgeworth being in JFA in general. I will admit, though, that it was probably more obvious to me because I played JFA first.
I’m not quite getting what you’re saying here… I don’t remember the first game that well. Are you confused that Edgeworth was suddenly under scrutiny when before he wasn’t? Or that they turned out not to be rumors? Or that they turned out to be true but he was duped?
[SPOILER]I suppose I never looked at it like that! Ha! I guess that does give it some sort of merit.
However, I still think that playing JFA first gave it much more impact, because you had time to learn about Mia, and interact with her, and then learn that she died, in essence, due to upholding her ideals.
Another one I didn’t like was Phoenix’s relation to Edgeworth, because up until the end of the game, there was virtually no implication that Phoenix KNEW Edgeworth - except as a ‘demon prosecutor’ that allegedly forges evidence, etc.[/SPOILER]
It’s definitely important - I just am always a bit miffed when they make it obvious in the very beginning. Like, in most cases, you don’t find out until you’re about to go to the last day of the trial, or even DURING the last day of the trial. This is a trivial point for me to harp on, though. In the end, I think that JFA pulls off the ‘whodunnit’ aspect the best out of all three games.
[SPOILER]In PW:AA, Edgeworth is subject to rumours of evidence forging, and preparing witnesses to withhold parts of their testimony. In JFA, he admits to this being true, but began to question himself upon seeing Phoenix and his methods applied against his in court. This is why he took a long leave of absence. None of this dialogue takes into account the added fifth case of PW:AA.
However, if the final case is considered…The final case reveals that Edgeworth is under constant scrutiny because of the SL-9 incident, in which he was given fake and incomplete evidence to make his case. In essence, the fifth case largely implies that Edgeworth has never been guilty to evidence tampering.
This creates a huge problem: First of all, you can plainly see Edgeworth change his attitude in the middle of PW:AA - a direct result of him questioning his less-than-honorable tactics in court. Why would he do that, though, if he in fact never DID mess with evidence and witness testimony in the past?
The second problem is Miles’s long leave of absence after the first game, up to the end of JFA. He left because he felt that he had been wrong about ‘what it means to be a lawyer’ and left to do some soul searching. Now, never mind the fact that it doesn’t make sense for him to continue prosecuting for a few months after his own murder trial if he really was having these doubts…Why would he even have these doubts? According to the fifth case, he was never a party to anything like that! Sure, he feels immensely guilty about having been a part of the hoohah of SL-9, but that’s not why he left, anyways. Were that the reason, he would have not left to do any soul searching on the meaning of being a lawyer, and the last case of JFA would have probably been a lot different.
Now sure, there are other minor plotholes caused by the fifth case - like, when Redd White arrests you, he calls the “Chief Prosecutor” and refers to him as a male, when the Cheif Prosecutor is Lana Skye…but these aren’t a big deal. Pretty much everything ABOUT Edgeworth becomes a big contradiction when you take the fifth case into account.[/SPOILER]
Another one I didn’t like was Phoenix’s relation to Edgeworth, because up until the end of the game, there was virtually no implication that Phoenix KNEW Edgeworth - except as a ‘demon prosecutor’ that allegedly forges evidence, etc.
There was plenty of that. Phoenix lets drop several times that he became a defense lawyer due to Edgeworth.
[spoiler]
However, if the final case is considered…The final case reveals that Edgeworth is under constant scrutiny because of the SL-9 incident, in which he was given fake and incomplete evidence to make his case. In essence, the fifth case largely implies that Edgeworth has never been guilty to evidence tampering.
This creates a huge problem: First of all, you can plainly see Edgeworth change his attitude in the middle of PW:AA - a direct result of him questioning his less-than-honorable tactics in court. Why would he do that, though, if he in fact never DID mess with evidence and witness testimony in the past?[/spoiler]
OBJECTION! sound of hands slamming on desk big hand pointing right at you
The fact that Edgeworth did not tamper with the evidence in the SL-9 case…
…does not mean he NEVER tampered with evidence!
Or that he didn’t do other, less egregious tactics. In fact, he admits to doing everything he possibly could to get a conviction (IIRC, in both games). Otherwise what would he be regretting?
And one more thing:
Now, never mind the fact that it doesn’t make sense for him to continue prosecuting for a few months after his own murder trial if he really was having these doubts…
The doubts perhaps started in case 4 - but they took time to solidify. The whole SL-9 incident might very well have brought them out into the open - in fact, being presented with corrupt officials who were complicit in bringing him inadvertently down to their level might have been the very thing that caused him to cement his decision to leave.
The defense rests, your honor! (Damn, that was fun. 8p)
Darnit, because I was too darn curious about this conversation I ruined the fifth case for myself about who did it. Ah well, that’s usually given so far.
I wish I had played the other games first, because maybe then Mia’s death would have mattered some more. As it stands, I was expecting it to occur at some point. I liked her, despite the short amount of time she was shown. Still…it was kind of hard for me to be attached to her.
I’m on the third case so far, and it’s shaping up to be the best. I thought the second case dragged on and I considered it to be too over the top, especially considering how serious the first case was what with it overtones of corruption and the presence of Mr. White, who, while an entertaining character, wasn’t so over the top that it ruined the plot of the case. Besides the final twist with how the Samurai died which actually threw me for a loop (more with the fact that it was an accident than malicious) and Sal Manella’s hilarity, it was…kind of out of place.
Edgy’s case so far is particulary…“edgy” so far, I hope the last two cases are just as good.
It didn’t happen til the last case. That’s why I call it abrupt.
Hmm…I’ll bite, at least once.
OBJECTION!
You’re forgetting one, important fact, Cid…
slams desk The fifth and final case of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney on DS was made in 2005; in other words, AFTER all of the first three Ace Attorney games had already been completed! Furthermore, none of the scripts from the first three games were altered to reflect this case being admitted into canon!
Ergo! Even though the fifth case is, in fact, canon…
speedlines Nothing mentioned outside of the fifth case pertains to the fifth case, as it was written separately from the other three games!
It didn’t happen til the last case. That’s why I call it abrupt.
HOLD IT!
Yet the very first time Phoenix meets Edgeworth he seems surprised and distracted. I don’t recall every second of the game, but it was evident he at least knew of Edgeworth.
[quote]slams desk The fifth and final case of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney on DS was made in 2005; in other words, AFTER all of the first three Ace Attorney games had already been completed! Furthermore, none of the scripts from the first three games were altered to reflect this case being admitted into canon!
Ergo! Even though the fifth case is, in fact, canon…
speedlines Nothing mentioned outside of the fifth case pertains to the fifth case, as it was written separately from the other three games!
OBJECTION!
You are assuming that the creators of the game never thought beyond their immediate storyline! In addition, the creators of the game created the fifth case and inserted it in place in the first game, knowing full well the story of the three existing games!
speedlines Ergo, even if the case is not originally canon, it was “retconned” into being so!
(Sorry, Glenton, I intend on playing AA4 when it comes out, so no spoilers for me. ^^;)
That’s awesome. 8p That’s the same person who did the anime Simpsons, right? And she has a webcomic that was pretty darn interesting until she went on hiatus. ^^;
