Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice for All
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice for All is a visual novel adventure video game developed and published by Capcom. It was originally released for the Game Boy Advance in 2002 in Japan, and has since been released on multiple platforms. The Nintendo DS version, initially released in 2006 in Japan, was released in English in the West in 2007. The game is the second entry in the Ace Attorney series, following Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.
The story follows Phoenix Wright, a defense attorney who defends his clients in four episodes. Among other characters are his investigative partner and spirit medium Maya Fey, her cousin Pearl, and the rival prosecutor Franziska von Karma. The game is divided into two types of sections: courtroom sessions, where the player cross-examines witnesses and tries to uncover contradictions in their testimonies; and investigations, where the player gathers evidence and talks to witnesses.
The game was directed and written by Shu Takumi, as the second entry in a planned Ace Attorney trilogy. It was originally intended to feature the first game's prosecutor, Miles Edgeworth, in all episodes; Franziska was created when the development team learned that Edgeworth had become popular among players, and Takumi wanted to use the character more carefully and sparingly. They only introduced one new gameplay mechanic in the game; Takumi wanted to keep the game focused on the core concept of finding lies, and to keep it simple enough for his mother to play. The game was positively received by critics, who generally liked the writing, but criticized the lack of the Nintendo DS-exclusive gameplay mechanics that appeared in the previous game.
A high-definition version of the first three Ace Attorney games, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy HD, was released for iOS and Android in Japan on February 7, 2012, and for iOS in the West on May 30, 2013. Another collection of the first three games, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy, was released for the Nintendo 3DS in Japan on April 17, 2014, in North America on December 9, 2014, and in Europe on December 11, 2014. It was also released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on February 21, 2019, in Japan, and on April 9, 2019, internationally; a Windows version was released internationally on the same date. The PC version of the collection was among the best-selling new releases of the month on Steam.
Gameplay
Justice for All is a visual novel adventure game in which the player takes the role of Phoenix Wright, a defense attorney who defends people accused of murder in four different episodes. At first, only one episode is available; as the player solves a case, a new episode is unlocked to play. The episodes are all divided into chapters, consisting of courtroom sections and investigation sections.During the investigation sections, the player investigates the case to gather evidence needed for the trial; once enough evidence has been collected, the game moves on to the next chapter of the episode. During these sections, the player has access to a menu with four options: examine, move, present, and talk. By choosing "examine", the player can move a cursor around the screen and look at various things in the environment; by choosing "move", the player reaches a sub-menu with all locations they can choose to move to; by choosing "present", the player can choose to show a piece of evidence or a character profile to a character at the location; and by choosing "talk", the player is able to pick a topic to discuss with a character who is present at the location. As the player talks to a character, the topics they have already discussed get marked with a checkmark.
If the player chooses a topic the witnesses does not want to discuss, the player is shown locks and chains on top of the character, referred to as "psyche-locks"; additionally, a lock symbol is added to that topic in the talk menu. By presenting a magatama to the character, the player is able to start breaking the psyche-locks and unlock the topics; this is done by showing the character evidence or character profiles that proves they are hiding something. The deeper the secret is that the character is hiding, the more psyche-locks appear; by breaking all the locks, the topic gets unlocked and the player is given access to new information.
During the courtroom sections, the player attempts to get the defendant the correct verdict by questioning witnesses and presenting evidence to the judge and the prosecutor. Many witnesses lie or make errors during their testimonies; the player is able to move back and forth through the testimony to try to find any inconsistencies. There are two options available during cross-examinations: "press", which makes the player question a particular statement, which sometimes makes the witnesses change their testimony; and "present", which is used to show a piece of evidence or a character profile that the player thinks shows a contradiction in the witness's currently shown statement. In the upper right corner of the screen, the player's health bar is shown, representing the judge's patience. The bar decreases if the player makes mistakes, such as presenting the wrong piece of evidence; if it reaches zero, the defendant is declared guilty, and the player loses the game. While the player cannot lose the game while trying to break a psyche-lock, the bar will still decrease if the player presents the wrong evidence while trying to break psyche-locks. 50% of the bar is restored when the player manages to break all psyche-locks on a topic, and 100% is restored when an episode is completed.
Plot
A year after the events of the previous game, Dr. Turner Grey, a private surgeon who lost his reputation due to malpractice that resulted in the death of several patients, requests Phoenix Wright's help in contacting Maya Fey, Phoenix's former assistant who had gone home to Kurain Village to finish her spirit medium training. While performing a spirit channeling on Grey's behalf, Maya apparently kills him under the influence of the channeled spirit. While defending her in court, Phoenix faces prosecutor Franziska von Karma, the daughter of his old enemy Manfred von Karma and the foster sister of his old friend Miles Edgeworth, who is presumed to have committed suicide. Teaming up with Maya and her young cousin Pearl, Phoenix uncovers a conspiracy between Mimi Miney, a disgruntled nurse who was the true culprit of the malpractice incident and had been posing as her deceased sister Ini, and Pearl's mother Morgan Fey, who holds a deep hatred of Maya's mother Misty Fey. The two plotted to kill Grey and frame Maya, ruining her chances of succeeding her mother as the leader of Kurain Village, and replace her with Pearl. Miney confesses to both her real identity and the murder, Morgan is sentenced to solitary confinement for her crimes, and Phoenix decides to take Pearl in as one of his assistants.After Maya's trial, Phoenix is hired by policewoman Maggey Byrde, who is accused of murdering her boyfriend, policeman Dustin Prince. However, he is attacked with a fire extinguisher before the trial and suffers amnesia as a result. Gradually regaining his memory during the trial, Phoenix exposes Richard Wellington, a con artist testifying for the prosecution, as both the murderer and Phoenix's attacker. Later, circus magician Maximillion Galactica is accused of murdering his employer Russell Berry following a salary dispute. Despite Franziska's interference, Phoenix proves that Acro, one of Max's fellow performers, framed him after mistakenly killing Berry, having intended to kill Berry's daughter in revenge for an incident that left his brother comatose.
During an awards ceremony after the new year, Maya is kidnapped by assassin Shelly de Killer, who threatens to kill her if Phoenix does not win an acquittal for actor Matt Engarde, who has been arrested under suspicion of killing his rival, Juan Corrida. As a "present", de Killer shoots Franziska, rendering her unable to act as prosecutor. At the last second, Edgeworth arrives and steps in to replace her. While in court, Phoenix points to evidence that proves that Engarde's manager, Adrian Andrews, planted evidence to frame Engarde, suggesting that she is Corrida's murderer; Andrews exercises her right to remain silent. However, Phoenix is horrified when he later discovers that Engarde is the one who hired de Killer to assassinate Juan to prevent him and Andrews from revealing a scandal at the awards ceremony that would have destroyed Engarde's reputation. Phoenix subsequently has an internal dilemma over whether to convict Engarde at the cost of Maya's life, or acquit him, which would save Maya but have Andrews take the fall for Corrida's murder. With help from Edgeworth and evidence obtained by Franziska, Phoenix reveals to de Killer that Engarde betrayed his trust and planned to blackmail him with hidden camera footage of the murder. Furious, de Killer cancels his contract with Engarde and declares him his next target; fearing for his life, Engarde pleads guilty. As thanks for Phoenix revealing Engarde's betrayal, de Killer releases Maya, who reunites with Phoenix and Pearl.
Edgeworth explains that his absence was spent soul-searching for "the answer" as to what it means to be a prosecutor; he and Phoenix reconcile, while Franziska leaves. Edgeworth confronts her at the airport, where Franziska breaks down and admits her jealousy of Edgeworth and desire to prove herself superior to him, but now feels that she cannot with such huge losses on her record. Recognizing that she needs to find the same answers he did, she returns to Germany. There is also a bad ending where Engarde is found not guilty, and Andrews is subsequently convicted; as a result, Phoenix gives up practicing law and, despite being certain that de Killer released Maya, he never sees her again.