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No new postsAren’t Phoenix Wright games a bit childlish?
I’d say that after the initial trilogy the themes shifted a bit and things became more nuanced, but there’s always a sense of an uphill struggle for truth in a corrupt system.
* In Apollo Justice and Dual Destinies you’ve got the “Dark age of the law” arc where disillusioned defense lawyers turn to shady practices themselves with figures like Kristoph Gavin and Aristotle Means able to rise to the top by abandoning all ethics and with substantial suspicion being thrown against Phoenix Wright himself early on.
* In Spirit of Justice the Defense Culpability Act of Khura’in explores what can go wrong if you take anti-lawyer sentiment too far.
* In the Miles Edgeworth spinoffs (especially the untranslated second one) a prosecutor with integrity has to contend with the limitations of the legal system from the other end as well as with corrupt higher-ups plotting to keep him from becoming too influential.
* (The Professor Layton crossover isn’t as readily applicable but has a couple of fascinating with trials where you have to defend against accusations of witchcraft while working in a framework where magic is considered to be real.)
* In The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, we’re in an earlier time where the system isn’t as far gone yet, with the most competent and reasonable judges of the series and with an effort to take perjury seriously. But even now the system can be gamed with fabricated evidence, political interests weigh heavily and agents of the state are willing to see innocent people get convicted to protect government interests.
This is simply amazing. I could not have said it better myself. It’s amazing to think this series started on the GBA so many years ago. I wonder what the series has next for it for releases. One of the rare series in that all the games are quite good.
It’s one of our best AA adventure game series with Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney being number 29 of our all time best adventures list.
I enjoy playing adventure games on my Alienware M17 r4 and my Nintendo Switch OLED.
The Phoenix Wright games started out as an indictment of the Japanese court system, with every case highlighting things like the police interrogating suspects for hours on end without a lawyer present, the prosecution having special access to the investigation while being able to hide evidence from the defense, and lazy and incompetent judges giving way too much leeway to the prosecution during court. It’s less about whodunit than about the struggle to get justice in a corrupt and lopsided system. The first game in particular highlights how the absurdly high conviction rate (99.9% in real life in 2019!) leads to narcissistic prosecutors more concerned with their winning streak than the truth. Some of the satirical exaggerations are not as absurd to the target audience as they are to people used to better systems.
The series loves its puns and gags too, but when you get deeper into a case the dark truths will engross you enough to stop caring that characters have silly names. In my opinion, the way it’s able to combine successful drama storytelling with an amount of humor that rises above mere comic relief is a mark of genius, but you mileage may vary.Wow, that’s a really good perspective. I’d still argue daniboi has a point, which maybe has more to do with what is considered comedy and the “proper” way of doing satire. @daniboy: still wonder what you do like about the games. Someone here might be able to suggest a game that’ll blow your mind.
back to @Harald B: I’d contest the idea of being used to better systems. The specific issues might be lost on people unfamiliar with the Japanese justice system, but I’d say the best way of thinking of state justice as working properly is to never experience it at all.
Would you say the series maintained that original concept, did it evolve, drift way or just chose different theme’s to explore?
Thanks for asking, @vegetable party. I loved the first Longest Journey and the classic LucasArt adventures, but it’s a bit like saying one likes the Beatles, right? I really enjoyed Broken Age, which wasn’t that well received, if i remember correctly. And the newer Wadget Eye ones, especially Primordia. I do enjoy my share of silly humor, but there’s always this cultural issue with Japan, with the sublimation of everything “girlish” as cute and deserving of attention. The young witch character in Phoenix Wright, forgot the name already. She smiles, she pouts, she is innocent but se has a character. It seems so cliché and uninteresting to me, but that’s me and my culture prejudice, probably.
I do like the investigative bit where you have to match what’s happening in court with the evidence you have. Travelling back and forth between locations is a bit boring, but I get this is a GBA game from 2001 and a dialogue based game.
In any case, it’s nice to see all the exchanges from the users. I now know that the series has a large following so there must be something to it and after reading comments here I think I understand it better :-)
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