Ace Attorney 5: Dual Destinies Review

The story of the Ace Attorney series is one full of triumph, despair, turnabouts, and shocking twists, much like the narratives it contains. It originally began as a GBA series, having a 3 game, Japan-only run before sputtering to a halt. When the first game finally resurfaced as a Nintendo DS port with an extra case, diehard fans went nuts, but it was a limited North American release that sparked the series back to life. As more people heard about it, more Ace Attorney memes started showing up on the internet, from sites like Mr. Dictionary’s Objection creator to Ace Attorney parody movies. The game became a beloved cult classic and it wasn’t long before the rest of the games were released in the states. Soon after, Ace Attorney 4 was released bringing with it a bold spectrum of changes, including replacing the lead character Phoenix Wright with Apollo Justice, a red-vested shout monkey who could never capture fans’ hearts.

Until he did.

Afterward, a new game following the first game’s lead Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth called Ace Attorney Investigations was released. Following the same “collect evidence, try to prove they’re guilty, repeat until they admit it” formula, but in a sort of sidescroller mode without the familiar court setting. The response of these two games was lukewarm stateside, leading to the second Ace Attorney Investigations game to never be released in NA. Fans were distraught, doing everything from internet petitions to objection videos, but to no avail. Wind of a Layton x Wright crossover game came, bringing with it hope, but also the depressing defeat of a non-international release. Fans’ spirits were at an all-time low.

Then news of a new game hit. One that returned to the basics. To court. To Phoenix. Ace Attorney 5 would put our favorite blue-suited spiked-mane smug-mugged lawyer back in the driver’s seat. Fans clamored for a stateside release with such fervor, Capcom must have been able to justify a release. The game just barely got a digital-only release (one employee informed me that it was going to have a limited edition boxed release, but this was cancelled a few months before the game’s release). But finally, it was time. No more angsting, no more pirating subtitled movies, no more reading walkthroughs, just playing through the series the fans have come to love.

Prepare yourselves. This is Ace Attorney 5.

Story

Following Phoenix’s disbarment, it seems he’s back behind the bench. Joined by Apollo and a new lawyer named Athena Cykes, they’re battling for their clients’ lives at every turn. Using every trick they know and a few they don’t, they relentlessly pursue the truth against Simon Blackquill, a convicted murderer prosecutor who has a thing for the old samurai ways.

 So yes, a formerly disbarred lawyer and killer are now practicing law. Awesome.

The cases in this game are wildly reminiscent of previous ones. The high tension, red herrings, massive twists, and freak outs are all still here. Getting back behind the bench feels as exciting as you’d imagine it would. The overarching story deals with a serious subject rarely breached by the previous games –winning cases by any means necessary, from phony convictions to falsified evidence. Each of the cases ties into this theme somehow, forming a more cohesive narrative than I’ve seen in any previous Ace Attorney game.

Gameplay 

 

And what would Ace Attorney be without some strange new gimmick to get at the truth? For Phoenix it was Maya’s magatama which showed the locks on peoples’ hearts formed by their lies. Apollo had a bracelet that let him know when someone was lying, allowing him to perceive their tells. Now Athena has a computer system named Widget which can analyze audio patterns in a person’s voice for their emotions. When you see a strange reaction to a particular statement, you press on it and eventually clear up their testimony by reducing the discord in their heart. I like the system more than Apollo’s if only because it has more of a pseudoscience explanation behind it. It was kind of hard to swallow a magic bracelet that tightened when people lied. The magatama isn’t much more plausible, but at least it was given to Phoenix by a spirit medium; the bracelet is from Apollo’s mom who’s a decidedly non-magical <SPOILER>.

Other additions to the gameplay include being able to examine a room in 3 dimensions by examining each of the 4 walls that make up a space. That in and of itself may make your heart sink if you’ve played previous games, since you know how frustrating investigation can be. Constantly clicking squares and examine for half an hour tends to do that. But Ace Attorney 5 has solved that too with a nifty feature that puts a little check mark on your indicator if you’ve already investigated something, and a pulsating circle if you can investigate something, but haven’t yet. Absolutely genius (i.e. should have been added a long time ago).

The only complaint I have about the gameplay is that it almost seems too easy. At first, I thought it was because I was a truth-seeking, justicephile who has been in the courtroom one too many times to be bamboozled by Capcom, but upon talking to other fans, I’m finding the same thing. They all agree that it’s not as difficult. I suspect it may be due to things being easier, but it’s more than likely mostly caused by the reduction in frustration. Streamlining investigation alone makes cases take far less time and have much fewer headaches.  Also, though the game features cameos from some rather large characters, there aren’t enough to meet the usually high Ace Attorney quota. Though those calmed down in later games, I still miss catching random glimpses of old suspects once in a while. On the upside, it means less lore to look up for newcomers.

Aesthetics

The art in the new game is phenomenal in comparison to previous titles. Never before has there been an Ace Attorney game with 3D character models, but all the characters made the transition well. Everyone looks great static, but even better when animated since there’s actual movement and not just jumping pixels. The art style is about as close to the original pixelated style as they could get and it comes off great. And fully animated and voiced cutscenes are also spliced throughout the game to convey story when the character animations won’t cut it. The music is also impeccable, meeting a relatively high standard from fans of a soundtrack that fits the drama of the court. All Ace Attorney soundtracks can be measured by their take on Pursuit Cornered, the track that plays when you’ve got the crook on the ropes, and AA5 holds up well. Nothing beats Ace Attorney 2’s version, but 5 gets close. (Quick side note, I just checked a poll on GameFAQs and it turns out most people most people disagree with me are wrong.)

Verdict

I love Ace Attorney, maybe even more than Kingdom Hearts. It’s one of the few series I support in every form I can. From figures to shirts to imported movies to the musicals and beyond, I’m a fan to my core. Though that usually bodes well for a series, this case is a hard one. After being scorned for so long from Capcom, this game had to not only meet the standard, but exceed it just to get a passing mark. Luckily, they did just that with wonderfully updated graphics, a quirky new investigation system, overhauling the frustrating parts, and bringing back characters we love without destroying the wacky continuity we’ve also grown fond of. If you’re new to the series, you may want to go back and play the first few games before getting started on this one (or at least Ace Attorney 4), but if you’re a fan of the series wondering if it’s worth the hype – it is. It so is. Trust me, once you nail your first ne’er-do-well in a lie and this song comes on, you’ll agree.

Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs Review

J delves into the highly anticipated Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs. Will it live in the shadow of its predecessor or send J wee wee weeing all the way home?

Beyond: Two Souls Review

It’s been three and a half years since the release of Heavy Rain, Quantic Dream’s murder mystery experience on PS3. Since then, the company has been a go-to source for the latest in emotional storytelling visuals, including last year’s tech demo Kara. It’s with much anticipation that the company’s next game, Beyond: Two Souls, is released. Is it truly the next evolution of interactive storytelling, or has Quantic Dream pushed the medium in an undesirable direction?

To get something out of the way right off the bat – yes, this is a game. The discussion about whether experiences like Heavy Rain are games is one that’s been done to death.  Games as a medium have been ever expanding in the roles they fill in our lives, their definitions being rewritten and resembling something more like board games in which the medium is no longer defined by the rules of its individual components. You can argue that the experience doesn’t have much player interaction or is bogged down with narrative, but that does not disqualify it as a game.

Story

Story is the main focus with this game, as it has been with other Quantic Dream titles. This time we follow Jodie Holmes, a girl gifted/cursed with the ever-looming presence of a spirit named Aiden. You relive her life story in disjointedly through time, slowly piecing together her sad life. Her journey from a little girl conflicted about what makes her different to a woman who’s accepted and embraces it is as compelling as it is interesting. Along the way, you find paternal figures in Dr. Nathan Dawkins and Dr. Cole Freeman, researchers investigating paranormal happenings. Through the course of your life, people come and go, but these two seem to be the pillars of stability most children have when growing up. As we follow Jodie through her disjointed life, piecing together the overwhelming tragedy and small victories that lead her down a road of self-discovery, you become attached to both her and her spirit partner Aiden.

And here we have Aiden killing a guy. Neato.

The story of Beyond: Two Souls is as wide reaching as it is interesting. Following Jodie’s interactions with the government, people she meets, and situations she finds herself in with her spirit to help her, the game explores the idea of what it means to be truly dissimilar to everyone else. The way Quantic Dream handled Aiden’s character was also impressive in that he has no lines of dialogue, but you really care about your unseen protector. By having Jodie interact with Aiden and seeing his motivations through his action, you’re able to piece together a rather detailed feeling about who this spirit is even if you’re not really sure what it is.

Why is she not sunburnt if she's been walking in the desert for days?

The story is engrossing a large portion of the time, but many moments exist in its storytelling in which I’m reminded less of a blockbuster film and more of a SciFi original movie. This steep decline in believability happens rarely, but it is enough to suck you out of the moments the game worked so hard to create. Some of these happen because of choices you have when exploring or the controls, but most of them are because the game felt like parts of it were removed or dots that weren’t connected needed to be out of necessity. For example, you get trained to be a covert agent, but only use the skill twice, once for a very small portion of time. Why even dedicate an hour to that in the game when you could get the same message across in less time? Also, certain characters make rather dramatic changes in their personality in the last bit of the game, seemingly out of nowhere. Almost as if the game had a number of endings, but they could not pick just one. Though Beyond: Two Souls’ story overall is interesting and more thought provoking that its spiritual predecessor, it doesn’t feel as high quality as Heavy Rain.

Narrative Choices

As with the previous title by Quantic Dream, your choices and actions have an effect on the story, outcome of situations, and characters’ lives. This feeling of permanence and the importance of thinking things through was pervasive in Heavy Rain and is even more pronounced here.  More characters have their lives and wellbeing put into your hands and just as in real life, though certain scenarios only seem to have one solution, creative thinking and patience present you with new options if you’re willing to explore. Though the perfectionist in me wants desperately to go back and change things, like life, you must live with the choices you’ve made.

You've got something on your face. Let me get it.

Two notably large names have been attached to this project – Ellen Paige and Willem Defoe. Hands down, these two deliver solid performances throughout the entirety of the game, and seeing them interact with one another adds richness to the story. Their relationship is one of the most human and believable ones of the game and seeing the characters brought to life through them is great. The only bad thing about this collaboration is that though performances this high quality are rare, they do exist, and when they do you believe the character more because you cannot put a face, backstory, or previous context to them. When I look at Booker DeWitt and Joel from The Last of Us, I have no idea what Troy Baker looks like and I didn’t even know he portrayed both until I looked it up. In contrast, anytime Jodie Holmes and Nathan Dawkins interact, somewhere in your mind, you can easily imagine Juno and Norman Osborne just based off of the visuals. This unfortunate disconnect isn’t nearly as distracting as this paragraph length may believe you to be, but it is something to note.

Gameplay

Homeless Jodie is my favorite. Her chapped lips are such a nice touch

The gameplay is almost identical to Heavy Rain with quick-time events driving high-intensity parts of the game and the right joystick lets you interact with things during the exploration parts.Interacting with your environment often worked well, but felt clunky at times. When walking around, getting around objects was often a chore because of camera angles and when bumping into walls or just wanting to turn around quickly, the immersion was broken by how sluggish the controls could feel when you wanted quick, precise movements. Sometimes, the game would even stop altogether for a second as if it hadn't quite loaded everything and needed just a second more to catch up, another annoyance that broke immersion. Another frustrating aspect of the controls came during quick time events. When time slowed down in a scene, it’s your cue to use the right joystick to make Jodie interact with her environment. Though the tutorial says to push the joystick in the direction Jodie’s body is moving, often times that direction isn’t clear and resulted in our protagonist getting in far more scrapes than she should have.  Also, there’s an incredibly tacked on 2 player mode in which one person controls Aiden, but you can only switch controls between people when pressing a button, resulting in a subpar, frustrating experience for both parties. Just keep it single player, Quantic Dream.

You'll make Ellen Page sad if you don't buy this game

Verdict: For all the critiques I’ve given the game, I still thoroughly enjoyed the ten hour experience and was gripped by the story all the way through. If you love story driven games, this one is for you. Even if the plot can get ridiculous at time, the controls can feel sluggish, and the immersion is broken, not unlike Aiden, Jodie’s always there to pull you back in.

October 2013 Podcast

Colby and Daniel discuss the recently released Pokemon X/Y, the sad news of Watch_Dogs being delayed, and the launch lineup for PS4 and Xbox One.



Subscribe to us on iTunes

Or download here directly

Pokemon X/Y Review! An Old Formula - Remastered!

Pokemon is a 17-year old franchise, and flagship of Nintendo's first party titles, that has relied on the same formula since its inception. While the policy to "not fix what isn't broken" has certainly been successful for the Pokemon franchise, each new generation has brought with it new wishes from fans on how to make the Pokemon experience more personal, and how to improve the overall presentation. After 17 years, X and Y are now the quintessential and refined entries in the Pokemon franchise. Although the formula remains the same, this new experience is absolutely unparalleled.