[E3 Impressions] Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies

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The Ace Attorney makes his return to court.

System: Nintendo 3DS
Release Date: Fall, 2013
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom

Author: Laura

Our beloved Phoenix Wright is back in whopping 3D, along with Apollo Justice and a new sidekick named Athena Cykes, out to find justice for the wrongly accused. I am very excited to talk about “Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies”, mostly because it was the most fun I had playing a game at E3.

In the demo I played we are told the starting plot, in which a bomb went off during a past trial, and former-protagonist Apollo Justice was injured saving the life of a little girl. That little girl is now Phoenix’s newest client after being accused of setting off said bomb. The witness, a creepy, robotic bomb expert whom we know to be guilty, claims he saw her commit the crime.

It plays just like any other Ace Attorney game where you have a treasure trove of evidence that can be presented during a cross examination, with a few new exciting features. For example, there’s now a backlog function where you can read all of the previous dialogue at any time. It really comes in handy since I tend to click the ‘A’ button too much.

I honestly didn’t think you could demo a game of this genre very well because of how specific the puzzles are and how lengthy they can be, but they pulled it off well and even stuck in jokes that break the fourth wall such as the Judge mentioning we only have 10 minutes since demos aren’t very long. I loved seeing that they kept that humor and charm in the game, it brings back nostalgic feelings of playing the older games.

Another new feature goes alongside other gimmicks such as the “Psyche-Lock” in previous games. It’s called the “Mood Matrix”, and it allows you to read the witness’s emotions– such as them getting angry when mentioning a certain event– and spot contradictory emotions during their statements. I really enjoyed this new game play function, although it does seem a bit on the easy side since you can only pick between four different emotions: Sad, Happy, Angry, and Surprised. In the demo, the defendant explained what happened during the courtroom explosion. We watched her emotions and saw she was scared while describing almost being crushed by falling rubble, but what was interesting is that she also showed signs of being happy during the description. Since that is a “contradictory emotion” we can “pinpoint” it and use it draw out more testimony. In this case she seemed happy because she had been saved by Apollo Justice before being crushed by rubble. It’s a cool addition to the game, but not a very challenging one.

The 3D really enhanced how it looked and felt, almost to the point where I wouldn’t want to play in 2D, which has never happened to me before. It really emphasised the new animation technique they used for the characters and their surroundings, and it filled me with a sense of wholeness. The depth it created really drew me into the game.

Honestly this was most excited I have been all of E3 since this game series has been a favorite of mine for a while now, and I’m so impressed that I no longer have any objections (he he) to it only being available digitally. I predict it will be a perfect addition to the series, bringing Phoenix Wright into the 3D world.