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TopicThe Board 8 Discord Sports Chat Rank Their Top 100 Respective Video Games part 3
Naye745
02/08/21 1:14:38 PM
#27:


26. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy (DS, 2005-2007)

Like most of Board 8, I got sucked into these games in the mid/late-aughts, taking in all the memes and reacting in real-time. I think my Trilogy character ranking is still preserved with everyone else's who made a list on the B8 Wiki, so you can laugh at my terrible takes for all eternity. Because of the nature of the "PW fandom" and all three games themselves encompassing a complete story, it didn't really feel right to separate any of the three games from each other and try to figure out where on the list was right for JFA or T&T, or whatever. Despite any individual preferences between the three, they just belong together here. Plus, the game's sold as the whole trilogy now for Switch and 3DS, so I'm not even cheating. Hooray!
The premise of Ace Attorney is simple and novel - you take on the role of a rookie defense lawyer, helping clients by gathering evidence during investigations and calling out lies and inconsistencies during trial. Each game has 4 or 5 cases, with their own unique defendants, witnesses, and prosecutors that mix things up over the course of the series. Gameplay-wise, it's pretty straightforward; investigations play out like classic point-and-click adventure games - you navigate dialogue trees with other characters, look for things in the background of scenes, and try to give the right items to the right people (or give the wrong ones repeatedly looking for funny dialogue lines). The courtroom stuff is a little more creative; you're generally cross-examining a witness, trying to prod them for holes in their testimony, and (usually) showing some piece of evidence that contradicts a specific line of dialogue. It's neat, it's punctuated wonderfully by the games' beautiful soundtracks, and it clearly worked well enough to get the series 6 games and inspire several spin-offs.
What makes Ace Attorney more than just a charming novelty is its story. I'll admit, I was not sold on the game at first - I liked the premise, and the first few cases were definitely fun and (mostly) silly, but I still thought the game was kind of popcorn-y nonsense more than anything. Then, case 4 happens. The stakes get raised dramatically, the drama is ramped up significantly, and maybe most importantly, the game takes itself far more seriously and proves it can match that with its writing and gameplay.
While there's certainly room for the memey characters and goofy dialogue in the series, it's the ability to craft a compelling and continuing narrative throughout the trilogy that makes the series unforgettable. Your core characters - Phoenix, the sometimes-fumbling rookie lawyer; Edgeworth, the smug prosecutor; Gumshoe, the bumbling detective; and Maya, your childish kid-sister-like partner - all have layers of character developed over the course of there series to become something far greater than those basic summaries. Many of the series' characters confined to one game, or even one case, really stand out too. It's a testament to the writers of these games that so many of these characters are both fairly straightforward in terms of knowing "who they are" within a few lines of dialogue, yet they're full of complexity and depth.
And I even love how each game has its own narrative feel. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (1) introduces both the main characters and confronts you with their pasts and backstories, culminating in the case that brings the history of Phoenix, Edgeworth, and Maya to a head. Justice For All (2) agonizes over the meaning of justice and being a lawyer, reckoning with the weight of "bad guys" whose motivations are much more muddled and absolutely wrecking you with the best case of the series. The unforgettable finale puts Phoenix into an impossible situation at the start, squeezes you in the middle with an impossible moral dilemma, and tops it off with a climax that is full of twists and characters pulling out their best moments. Trials & Tribulations (3) digs into the past with two of its trials, while finishing off the series with a gargantuan finale that brings back most of the core cast and satisfyingly wraps a bow on the series.
It's impossible for me to go back and listen to the game's soundtrack, or watch a video of a huge PW moment, without getting choked up and emotional. It's a game that feels very important to a certain point of my life, and is just full of lovely characters and stories that I'll always remember. It's a difficult challenge to rank something like this on the list (yeah, okay, this is sort of a redundant comment by this point) where the gameplay is significantly secondary to the story itself (though the two work in tandem here to manage the game's pace) and so I'm just ducking it out of the Top 25 as a good finale to this portion of the list. If for some reason you haven't played any of these games, you genuinely owe it to yourself to at least play through the first one, up to case 4, because it's just so beautiful and great and special.
Top 5 Cases: 2-4 - 1-4 - 3-5 - 1-5 - 3-4
Top 5 Characters: Edgeworth - Phoenix - Maya - Gumshoe - Von Karma

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