Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is a visual novel adventure game developed and published by Capcom. It was released in 2001 for the Game Boy Advance in Japan and has been ported to multiple platforms. The 2005 Nintendo DS version, titled Gyakuten Saiban Yomigaeru Gyakuten in Japan, introduced an English language option, and was the first time the game was released in North America and Europe. It is the first entry in the Ace Attorney series; several sequels and spin-offs were produced, while this game has seen further ports and remasters for computers, game consoles, and mobile devices.

The story follows Phoenix Wright, a rookie defense attorney who attempts to have his clients declared "not guilty". Among other characters are Phoenix's boss, Mia Fey; his assistant and Mia's sister, Maya; and prosecutor Miles Edgeworth. The player controls Phoenix through two sets of sections: investigations and courtroom trials. During investigations they gather information and evidence. During trials they cross-examine witnesses, and answer questions from the judge, the prosecutor, and the witnesses. The story is split into five cases. The fifth was introduced in the Nintendo DS version to take advantage of gameplay elements using the handheld's touchscreen not available in the original Game Boy Advance version.

A team of seven developed the game over the course of ten months. Written and directed by Shu Takumi, it was originally planned as a Game Boy Color game about a private investigator. The game was designed to be simple; Takumi wanted it easy enough that even his mother could play. While the original version of the game takes place in Japan, the localization is set in the United States; this became an issue when localizing later games, where the Japanese setting was more obvious.

Generally, the game has been positively received by critics who praised its premise, writing, characters, and presentation. The game has been a commercial success both in Japan and internationally. The release sales in North America broke expectations, and as a result the software became difficult to find in stores shortly after its release. Other media based on the game have been produced. It has been credited with helping to popularize visual novels in the Western world, and has been cited as one of the greatest games ever made. A manga series premiered in 2006, a film adaptation of the game, titled Ace Attorney, premiered in 2012, and an anime series adaptation aired in 2016.

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.

Gameplay

thumb|left|A cross-examination in the DS version of the game, showing the witness on the top screen. The player can move between statements, press the witness for details, or present evidence that contradicts the testimony.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is a visual novel adventure game where the player takes the role of Phoenix Wright, a rookie defense attorney, and attempts to defend their clients in five cases. These cases are played in a specific order. After finishing them, the player can re-play them in any order. Each case begins with an opening cinematic cutscene often depicting a murder; shortly thereafter, the player is given the job of defending the prime suspect in the case. By using a menu the player can move to different locations, examine evidence, and present evidence to other characters.

A fifth case titled "Rise from the Ashes" was created for the Nintendo DS version (and included in all subsequent releases), which is a post-credits bonus episode that is unlocked when the main game is completed. In "Rise from the Ashes" the player is able to examine evidence more closely, rotating it to view it from all sides, and zooming in or out on it using touchscreen controls; they are also able to move a cursor to investigate specific parts of the evidence. The fifth case is significantly longer than the other episodes, and it also features forensics tests the player can use at crime scenes to find clues. The player can spray luminol by tapping areas they want to examine on the touch screen allowing them to see otherwise invisible blood stains. They can touch the touch screen to apply aluminum flake powder to search for finger prints. After applying it, they can blow into the microphone to reveal the prints. Once the player has gathered enough evidence, the investigation section ends.

During the courtroom trials, the player aims to prove their clients' innocence; to do so, they cross-examine witnesses. In the Nintendo DS version, the player can choose to press and present by using vocal commands. When the player solves a case, they unlock a new one to play.

Plot

In 2016, Phoenix Wright, a newly hired defense attorney at Fey & Co. Law Offices, agrees to represent his childhood friend Larry Butz who has been charged with the murder of his girlfriend Cindy Stone. With the help of his boss and mentor, Mia Fey, Phoenix proves that Frank Sahwit, the prosecution's eyewitness, is the real murderer.

Mia is killed in her office shortly thereafter, and her younger sister Maya, a spirit medium in training, is arrested on suspicion of Mia's murder after Detective Dick Gumshoe finds her name written on a note in Mia's blood. Phoenix takes her case, facing off against Miles Edgeworth, a skilled prosecutor Phoenix knows from childhood and who has yet to lose a case in his career. Phoenix manages to identify Redd White, a professional blackmailer, as the real killer, but finds himself charged with the murder after White pulls strings at the Prosecutor's Office. Representing himself, Phoenix works with Maya, who uses her spirit medium powers to channel Mia's spirit and Mia subsequently gets White to admit his guilt. In gratitude, Maya becomes Phoenix's assistant as he takes over Mia's law firm. His reputation established, Phoenix takes on another case, this time defending Will Powers, the lead actor in the Steel Samurai children's TV show, against accusations that he killed his co-star Jack Hammer. It is revealed that Hammer was being blackmailed by Dee Vasquez, the show's producer, who killed him in self-defense after he tried to kill her and frame Powers for her murder.

On Christmas, Edgeworth is arrested on suspicion of murdering attorney Robert Hammond. After relenting for Phoenix's help after an initial refusal, Wright faces Edgeworth's mentor Manfred von Karma, who has not lost a single case in his forty-year career. Phoenix discovers that former bailiff Yanni Yogi shot Hammond with a gun provided by von Karma. Fifteen years earlier, Edgeworth's defense attorney father Gregory ruined von Karma's spotless record when he got von Karma penalized for forging evidence. Unable to deal with a blemish on his record, von Karma murdered Gregory and manipulated Edgeworth into believing that he was responsible. At the same time, Yogi was publicly blamed and convinced by Hammond, his attorney, to plead insanity, which got him acquitted of all charges at the cost of both his fiancée and social standing, leaving the truth hidden until the present day. Von Karma suffers a breakdown in court and confesses to Gregory's murder, and Edgeworth is released. Following the trial, Phoenix explains that Edgeworth motivated him to become an attorney after he defended Phoenix from a false theft accusation as a child, to which Larry admits he was the true culprit. Edgeworth, however, decided to become von Karma's pupil following his father's murder due to his hatred of criminals; he decides to rethink whether or not he should continue prosecuting. Meanwhile, Maya returns to her home village to finish her spirit medium training.

In a fifth case added for the Nintendo DS and subsequent releases, Phoenix is hired by Ema Skye to defend her older sister Lana, the head of the prosecutor's office, who is accused of murdering detective Bruce Goodman. Together with Ema, Phoenix traces the origins of the murder to an incident two years ago, when serial killer Joe Darke allegedly murdered prosecutor Neil Marshall while trying to escape custody, but Phoenix also discovers a piece of evidence that implicates Ema as Marshall's killer. Police Chief Damon Gant attempts to force Phoenix into exposing Ema's guilt, but Phoenix figures out that Gant actually murdered Marshall and tampered with the evidence to frame Ema so that he could blackmail Lana into doing his bidding for the past two years; Gant subsequently confesses that he killed Goodman after he requested that the Joe Darke case be reopened, and forced Lana to take the fall. Although Lana is cleared of the murder charge, she will face judgment as Gant's accomplice. With Ema being sent to Europe to continue training as a forensic investigator, Phoenix looks forward to continuing his career defending the innocent. It is then revealed that Edgeworth has disappeared.

There is also a bad ending where Ema is implicated as Marshall's murderer and Lana is found guilty.

Development

thumb|upright=0.75|The game was written and directed by [[Shu Takumi.]]

A seven-person team developed Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney over the course of ten months. It was directed by Shu Takumi and produced by Atsushi Inaba, with music by Masakazu Sugimori. Kumiko Suekane designed the characters, with art by Tatsuro Iwamoto.

At first, the game was planned to be released for the Game Boy Color, but after the development team saw the Game Boy Advance system's screen and footage of Mega Man Battle Network, Takumi felt it would be perfect for Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. The game was designed to be simple, as Takumi wanted it to be easy enough for even his mother to play.

The game was originally going to be a detective game, with Phoenix as a private investigator who finds a body at his client's office and is arrested. As the lawyer who is assigned to his case is useless, Phoenix takes up his own defense. One staff member suggested that Phoenix should be a hamster; while this didn't happen, this early version of Phoenix did have a pet hamster. It was decided early during development to refer to the game as Surviban: Attorney Detective Naruhodo-kun, with "surviban" being a portmanteau of "survival" and the Japanese word . Among other names considered were Boogie-Woogie Innocence and Bingo Bengo, with "bingo" referring to answering correctly and being Japanese for legal representation. Takumi soon realized that finding and taking apart contradictions was not related to detective work. He felt the main setting of the game should be courtrooms. At one point the game was in danger of being cancelled when two staff members left the company, but Takumi's division leader and Inaba enlisted a member of the Resident Evil development team to help them part-time. The voice acting expressions "Objection!" and "Hold it!" were added to the game midway through development when Atsushi Mori joined the team as the co-sound effects designer.

Writing

Takumi felt the best way to write a mystery with a good climax is to reveal various clues, then pull them together into one conclusion, and not have multiple possible endings. He said the biggest challenge with this is making the gameplay and story work together. The goal is to make the player feel they have driven the story forward themselves, with their own choices, even though the game is linear. In general, each scenario was finished before anything else was done. Then characters were designed based on the scenarios, and Takumi adjusted the dialogue as needed to make sure it fit the designs. At this point, the scenes that were to have specific cut-in illustrations made for them were decided. Takumi drew rough sketches of them and also drew the storyboards for the episodes' openings,

In Takumi's first draft of the story, the second episode, "Turnabout Sisters", was the first episode of the game. The development team decided because of its length, among other factors, it did not work well easing players into the game. As a result, he wrote a shorter episode, "The First Turnabout", which was used as the game's first episode. He wanted players to focus on the thrill of "nailing the culprit", especially for the first episode. For this reason, the culprit in the first episode is shown in its opening. This was the most direct way Takumi could think of doing it. Takumi said it was a challenge to write the episode. In addition to keeping it short, he had to set up the world of Ace Attorney and the types of characters players would meet. The third episode was written for the sake of the character Miles Edgeworth, and the theme of the fourth episode was "rekindling the relationship". In it, Takumi tried to portray an intensively strong friendship between Phoenix and Edgeworth. He did wonder if that was what people got from it, saying that some people interpreted the bond between Phoenix and Edgeworth as "intensively passionate". Because of these two episodes, Takumi considered Edgeworth to be the game's protagonist in a way. The classroom trial in the game's fourth episode is based on real events: when Takumi was in second grade, he had found a 5 yen coin and put it in his pocket; his teacher accused him of stealing it from another student and made him apologize to her. Originally, she was going to be a lawyer-in-training, preparing to take the bar exam. For the scrapped fifth case, Takumi had an idea that the client, Edgeworth, who Wright agreed to defend for the fourth case, would've ended up as the real murderer. However, this was scrapped due to Takumi not wanting to kill off Edgeworth in the first game.

Music

The game's original soundtrack was entirely composed by Masakazu Sugimori. It was his first video game soundtrack, he worked on. Sugimori used PCM to create the music. However, the music was originally meant to be composed with programmable sound generator (PSG), He had never made music using a PSG as he was used to PCM for two years with PCM not being allowed to be utilized for development. Despite, one of the game's programmers being angry at him, he credits Mori, for allowing the music and sound effects, claiming that if it weren't for him, it would've sounded completely different and the game wouldn't have been as popular. However, Shu Takumi gave out instructions to him to make sure the music didn't interfere with the thinking process of the player during the deduction scenes of the game and wanted every scene to have completely different sounding music.

The first song composed for the game was the game's normal investigation theme, "Investigation ~ Opening 2001". Sugimori found making music for the game and development in general was difficult due to Capcom not having any Game Boy Advance hardware for development for a period of time, only having access to "bare" motherboards, The team was angry at him due to the volume being too low despite the volume being set to its highest. Sugimori himself considers the song to be the game's main theme, he wanted the song to come across as " the strongest, 'Aren't I the coolest?' impression" despite the song's short length, he wanted it to be impactful. The Steel Samurai theme song was the only song that was praised by the game's producer Atushi Inaba. During the making of "The Steel Samurai", Sugimori downplayed the melody or sequences in some of the game's other tracks, with some of songs being downgraded to use bass, so the melody of "The Steel Samurai" stood out amongst the game's soundtrack. Sugimori's favourite song that he composed for the game was "Investigation ~ Core". Naoto Tanaka composed new music pieces for "Rise from the Ashes". Because the episode is not included in the 2001 Japan-only GBA release, it takes advantage of various Nintendo DS features such as use of the touch screen to examine evidence, among various other technical improvements that are missing from the other episodes / original game. The idea to include the use of the Nintendo DS system's microphone came from American Capcom staff members. The Japanese staff did not like the idea of adding unnecessary features, but Takumi thought it was important to make the American audience happy, so it was included as an optional feature.

Most of the game's soundtrack sound quality was also enhanced on the Nintendo DS version, with an extra audio track that would complement most of the game's melodies.

Release

The game was originally released for the Game Boy Advance on October 12, 2001, in Japan. The Nintendo DS port, which was titled , was released in Japan on September 15, 2005, and included a new episode and an English language option. The hope was the English language option would be a selling point in Japan, and that Japanese people studying English would play the game. North American and European releases followed on October 11, 2005, and March 31, 2006, respectively. A PC port of the Game Boy Advance version, developed by Daletto, was released in Japan in an episodic format, beginning on March 18, 2008. Yomigaeru Gyakuten was later released on Wii via WiiWare in Japan on December 15, 2009, in North America on January 11, 2010, and in Europe on January 15, 2010. The fifth episode was released separately on WiiWare, on March 16, 2010, in Japan, in May 2010 in Europe, and on May 24, 2010, in North America. An iOS version of Yomigaeru Gyakuten was released in Japan on December 21, 2009, and in the West on May 24, 2010.

Localization

The localization of the game was outsourced to Bowne Global, and handled by writer Alexander O. Smith, who was unfamiliar with the Ace Attorney series before working on it, and editor Steve Anderson. While the Japanese version of the game takes place in Japan, the localized version is set in the United States. Normally the setting would be left vague while cultural differences the target audience would not understand would be adapted. Because one of the episodes involves time zones, however, they had to specify where the game takes place and chose California without thinking a lot about it. This became an issue in later games, where the Japanese setting was more obvious.

Smith faced several problems related to the game's use of puns. In the Japanese version, each character has a name that relies on Japanese wordplay. While Smith and Anderson had a lot of freedom when it came to localizing the names of minor characters, they had to discuss the names of the main cast with Capcom. Smith came up with a list of first and last names for Phoenix. The first suggestion was "Roger Wright"; "Phoenix" was also on the list, but further down. Smith felt that "Wright" had to be the character's surname, because Phoenix's surname in the Japanese version—"Naruhodō", meaning "I see" or "I understand"—was used many times in the game's text as a joke. The reason for the suggested first name "Roger" was alliteration; and "Roger" was a good source for jokes. A staff member of the development team, however, thought that "Roger Wright" was too similar to "Roger Rabbit". Other suggested first names included "Pierce", "Xavier", "Marcus", and "Zane". In the end, "Phoenix" was chosen for its heroic sound.

As the game's dialogue consists of a lot of wordplay and misunderstandings, Smith would analyze scenes before writing them: he would determine what the scenes were trying to accomplish, and where their beats were. After he had the structure of a scene in his head, he would write it. At times he was able to make use of the original Japanese dialogue, but most of the time he had to come up with new ideas himself. At several points, the English wordplay was inspired by the wordplay in the Japanese version. At others it was not possible to have wordplay in the same places as in the Japanese version, so Smith would change the structure of the scene slightly. Sometimes Smith came up with a joke or funny line and changed the scene to make the joke work. About half the jokes were rewritten based on the characters present in the scene, rather than using translations of the Japanese jokes.<br />80/100 (iOS)<br />67/100 (Wii)

| EuroG = 8/10 (Wii)

| GSpot = 8.8/10 (DS) Craig Harris of IGN felt the main issues with the game were its linearity, and how the puzzles are simple because the player can stop witness testimony at any time. Gouskos said the graphics, while simple, work well to show each character's mood and personality.

Spencer McIlvaine of Nintendo Life was disappointed in the Wii version that had only a single use for the motion controller, and how the low-resolution graphics in handheld versions of the game were used. IGN Craig Harris called it "incredibly lazy", wishing it had included improved art and sharper text.

Accolades

The Game Boy Advance release was one of three titles to win the Special Award at the sixth CESA Game Awards. Eurogamer ranked the game as the 18th best video game of 2005. It was also a nominee for GameSpots 2005 Best Adventure Game award, which went to Fahrenheit. Destructoid named the game the 48th best video game of the 2000s, citing the courtroom gameplay and characters, and calling it "one of the most unique and surprising games" of the decade. They said the third game in the series had the best story, but it relied too heavily on story events in previous Ace Attorney games; meanwhile, they found Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney to be fresh and have challenging cases, making it the best in the series. Game Informer named it the 178th best video game of all time in 2009. Adventure Gamers named it the 29th best adventure game of all time in 2011, citing its story, characters, and creative gameplay. In 2015, GamesRadar+ named it the 55th best video game of all time, citing its music, story and look, calling it "Shu Takumi's masterpiece". In 2016, Famitsu readers voted Gyakuten Saiban as the second best Game Boy Advance title, behind only Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire. In 2017, Famitsu readers voted Gyakuten Saiban the third best adventure game of all time, behind only Steins;Gate and 428: Shibuya Scramble.

Sales

The Game Boy Advance version was the 163rd best selling video game of the year in Japan in 2001, with 62,169 copies sold. Another 37,143 copies of the budget-priced Game Boy Advance re-release were sold in Japan in 2003, making it the country's 277th best selling game of the year. The Nintendo DS version was the 127th best selling game of the year in Japan in 2005, with 101,902 copies sold. Between 2006 and 2011 the game sold an additional 419,954 copies dropping from the 133rd to the 650th best selling game during that period.

Demand for the North American release of the Nintendo DS version was higher than expected. The game was hard to find in stores shortly after its release; the third printing sold out in around a week. As of February 2007, 100,000 copies had been shipped in North America, which Capcom's vice-president of marketing found surprising.

Legacy

After the release of the game, sequels, spin-offs, and a crossover have been made. The second and third games in the series, Justice for All and Trials and Tribulations, were released in 2002 and 2004. The fourth game, Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, which features the new protagonist Apollo Justice, was released in 2007. The fifth game, Dual Destinies, was released in 2013, and a sixth game, Spirit of Justice, was released in 2016. Two spin-off games starring Miles Edgeworth, Ace Attorney Investigations and Investigations 2, were released in 2009 and 2011, and two featuring Phoenix's ancestor Ryunosuke Naruhodo, The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures and The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve, were released in 2015 and 2017. A crossover with the Professor Layton series, titled Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, was released in 2012.

A manga based on the game, written by Kenji Kuroda and drawn by Kazuo Maekawa, premiered in 2006 in Bessatsu Young Magazine. Kodansha released it in North America in five volumes from June 2011 to July 2012. The third and fourth volumes both ranked No.2 on The New York Times Manga Best Seller List for one week each in 2011 and 2012, respectively. A live action film adaptation of the game, titled Ace Attorney, produced at Toei Company, and directed by Takashi Miike, premiered in Japanese theaters on February 11, 2012. An anime series adaptation based on the original trilogy premiered in April 2016.

Phoenix Wright has been credited with helping to popularise visual novels in the Western world. Vice Magazine credits Phoenix Wright with popularising the visual novel mystery format, and notes that its success anticipated the resurgence of point-and-click adventure games as well as the international success of Japanese visual novels. According to Danganronpa director Kazutaka Kodaka, Phoenix Wrights success in North America was due to how it distinguished itself from most visual novels with its gameplay mechanics, which Danganronpa later built upon and helped it also find success in North America.