Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (2013)

Most unserious game I had ever played until it became dead serious

Ace Attorney is good stuff. This game is super funny and has an amazing cast of characters all while having interesting storylines throughout each of the episodes. I feel like there isn't much I can say positively that hasn't already been said countless times by so many people, but there is a reason why this game is so well regarded.

Playing through the Ace Attorney Trilogy was also a good experience. All the art is fantastic and I thought it was neat how the soundtrack was still the chip-tune style like the DS/GBA would be. I mostly played post the November 19th 2025 update as well which added some very helpful QoL features, but that being said I have a few gripes... mostly the lack of a backlog feature for when I accidentally miss a line.

Gameplay wise this is mostly just a visual novel. The investigation parts can get quite tedious if you miss something tiny since then you end up wandering around aimlessly without knowing what to do. (This is especially apparent in Episode 5 and to a lesser extent Episode 4) Somewhat minorly, being able to save whenever you want kinda kills a bit of the tension of the court segments since you can just... reload if you choose incorrectly. I think I'd rather take the QoL over being forced to play until the next segment, and I know that some would just say to not use it if you don't like it... but it's tempting okay it's not that easy...

I think my main criticism for this game would be Episode 5. Episode 5 feels more like an Ace Attorney 1.5 than the final episode in the game... and well that's cause it pretty much is. The 5th Episode adds a lot of elements to add spice to the gameplay, but that's also kinda the problem with Episode 5. The storyline is fantastic but it's bogged down by the game clearly just trying to throw gimmicks at you to show off (and well since I'm not on the DS these extra gimmicks also lose some of their flare it feels like). This in addition to quite a long story in general ruins the pacing quite a bunch as a result. The only time I felt tired of this game would be in the middle of that episode.

Overall though, this game was a joy and it was really nice to just boot up this game and relax a bit. Thank you Gumshoe & Maya & Edgeworth & Phoenix & everyone else!

Review taken from my Backloggd page.