Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations

Released2007
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney − Trials and Tribulations (known as Gyakuten Saiban 3 in Japan) is the third game in the Ace Attorney series. Players take on the role of Phoenix Wright, a defense attorney known for taking on seemingly impossible cases. While the game focuses on a few specific cases, the overarching story of the Phoenix Wright franchise spans the length of the series, involving obscure characters from large families and intricate webs of lies, plots, and murder. The nature of the series remains generally lighthearted, something that's reinforced by its playful, anime-inspired visual style, but the nature of the crimes committed can be cold and downright disturbing. While the game's legal acumen is highly dubious, its aim seems to be more about producing comedic or stereotypically dramatic courtroom moments. Ace Attorney 3 makes light use of the DS touch screen, allowing the player to examine crime scenes and inspect evidence and character profiles. The top screen is used more for storytelling purposes, displaying various dialogue and conversations between characters. During these sequences the lower screen becomes a selection menu, displaying a series of questions to ask witnesses and further your investigation in search of evidence to use in defense of your client in each chapter.
88Wit Score

Details

DeveloperCapcom
ReleasedAugust 23, 2007
StatusReleased
GenresPoint-and-clickAdventureVisual Novel
ThemesComedyMystery
PlatformsWii WiiPC (Microsoft Windows) PC (Microsoft Windows)NDS Nintendo DS
ModesSingle player

Wit-Index Intelligence

Community Score
Highly Recommended88/100

About This Game

The story reaches back to rookie attorney Mia Fey's very first trial, where she and her partner Diego Armando defend death-row inmate Terry Fawles against the charge of murdering policewoman Valerie Hawthorne. Squaring off against a likewise green prosecutor named Miles Edgeworth, Mia's persistence uncovers the truth: years earlier, Terry, Valerie, and Valerie's younger sister Dahlia staged a fake kidnapping to steal a priceless jewel, only for the treacherous Dahlia to fake her own death and let Terry take the fall for murder. When Terry, hoping to learn the truth, instead swallows poison Dahlia gave him long ago, he dies in court — forcing a mistrial and setting Dahlia free. Dahlia goes on to poison Armando, leaving him comatose, and insinuates herself into the life of university student Phoenix Wright, posing as his girlfriend to bury the evidence. Months later, when Phoenix is charged with the murder of his classmate Doug Swallow, Mia takes his case and exposes Dahlia as the true killer — and the woman behind Armando's poisoning, who had planned to kill Phoenix too. Dahlia is arrested, convicted, and sentenced to death, and Phoenix, already drawn toward the law, asks Mia to become his mentor.