Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice for All

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice for All
The main characters in Justice for All, from left, Edgeworth, Franziska, Phoenix, and Pearl
Developer(s)	Capcom
Publisher(s)	Capcom AUS Nintendo Australia
Distributor(s)	AUS Nintendo Australia
Director(s)	Shu Takumi
Producer(s)	Atsushi Inaba
Artist(s)	Tatsuro Iwamoto
Writer(s)	Shu Takumi
Composer(s)	Naoto Tanaka
Series	Ace Attorney
Platform(s)	Game Boy Advance Microsoft Windows Nintendo DS Wii (via WiiWare) iOS Nintendo 3DS
Release date(s)	October 22, 2002 Game Boy Advance JP October 22, 2002 Microsoft Windows JP March 31, 2006 Nintendo DS JP October 26, 2006 NA January 16, 2007 EU March 16, 2007 AUS September 6, 2007 WiiWare JP January 26, 2010[1] NA February 15, 2010 PAL February 19, 2010 iOS JP January 18, 2013 NA May 30, 2013 Nintendo 3DS JP April 17, 2014[2] NA December 9, 2014 EU December 11, 2014
Genre(s)	Adventure, visual novel
Mode(s)	Single-player

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Justice for All, released in Japan as Gyakuten Saiban 2 (Japanese: 逆転裁判 2, Hepburn: Gyakuten Saiban Tsū, lit. "Turnabout Trial 2"), is a visual novel adventure video game developed and published by Capcom for the Nintendo DS video game console. It is the first sequel to 2005's Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. It was released in Japan on October 26, 2006 and in North America on January 16, 2007.^[3] The game was also released in Europe on March 16, 2007 and in Australia on September 6, 2007. The Japanese release features a Japanese/English language toggle at the main menu.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Justice for All is an updated port of the Game Boy Advance game Gyakuten Saiban 2. Like Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, it features touch screen, microphone, and dual screen support, but does not have any new cases.

A Microsoft Windows version under the title Gyakuten Saiban 2 PC was released by the Japanese company SourceNext on March 31, 2006. Similar to the Microsoft Windows port of the first game, this is an emulation of the original Game Boy Advance version to be played on Microsoft Windows, rather than an enhanced remake like the one that was released afterwards for the Nintendo DS. Again, it was only released in Japan.

A Wii port of the game was released in Japan on January 26, 2010, via the WiiWare system, according to the November 2009 issue of Famitsu.^[1] It saw a release in North America on February 15, 2010 and in the PAL region on February 19, 2010.^[4]

Gameplay

Justice For All plays similarly to the first Ace Attorney game as a virtual novel game. While the game has been adapted from the GBA version to use the DS touch screen, none of the special investigation techniques introduced in the "Rise from the Ashes" case from the first game reappear.

A small but significant change is that a player can now present the profiles of people involved with the case, in addition to the evidence in the Court Record. The player can present them either during the court room or investigative phases. For example, the player can present a profile to ask a person about that person.

Justice for All features a new gameplay concept called "Psyche-Lock". Phoenix Wright has to unlock several locks that have been placed over a witness' heart in order to reveal the truth. The Psyche-Lock occurs only during the Investigation phase, and is observed when trying to follow a line of questioning with a person involved in the case. When it is revealed that the person has one or more Psyche-Locks, the player can then initiate breaking of those locks. Typically, the player will be asked to point out evidence or a location to complete a question being asked; if the correct evidence is used, it is likely one Psyche-Lock will be broken or may lead to an additional question. If the incorrect choice is made, the player takes health damage (described below). However, unlike courtroom questioning, the player can cancel the breaking attempt if he feels he doesn't have the right piece of evidence without any penalty; all of the locks will reappear the next time the breaking attempt is made, though these will break in exactly the same manner as previously discovered. Also, a certain amount of health is restored on successfully unlocking all the Psyche-Locks of a person. Breaking all the Psyche-Locks of a person will allow the player to question that person further on more details.

In the first game, the player had five marks of health; if he or she made a mistake during the courtroom proceedings, the judge took one off, and losing all five resulted in a guilty verdict for the client. Justice for All changes these marks into a life bar; when the bar is completely depleted, the game ends and the player's client receives a guilty verdict. The amount of health lost will vary depending on the magnitude of the error; a mistake in a serious area may result in the loss of the whole life bar.

Plot

Setting

The setting for the game takes place roughly one year after the events of the first game (based on the ages of the returning characters), and again in Los Angeles, California in the English localization.^[5] The player controls the protagonist of its predecessor, Phoenix Wright, as he defends clients in four court trials. Primary characters from the predecessor that appear in this title include Maya Fey, Miles Edgeworth, Mia Fey, and Dick Gumshoe. Two new primary characters include Pearl Fey and Franziska von Karma. Characters from the first title have supporting roles in this title, including Lotta Hart, Will Powers, and Wendy Oldbag.

Story

The first trial of the game involves Phoenix getting amnesia after being hit on the head by the trial's flamboyant and arrogant witness, Richard Wellington. Thus, he is forced to defend Maggey Byrde, a policewoman who has been accused of murdering her boyfriend, with no memory of the case. However, with help from Byrde, and later Maya Fey, Phoenix regains his memory and deduces that Wellington is the true murderer.

In the second trial, set before the first trial, Phoenix goes with an irritable man named Dr. Turner Grey looking to request a spirit channeling from Maya Fey, Phoenix's friend, former assistant, and spiritual medium, at the Kurain Village. However, the doctor is murdered during the spirit channeling, and Maya is arrested on suspicion of murder. While defending her, Phoenix faces the prosecutor Franziska von Karma, the daughter of the legendary Manfred von Karma, who has never lost a case and has come to America to defeat Phoenix in court. Phoenix discovers that the doctor's death was plotted by a nurse who once worked under him and Maya's aunt, Morgan Fey, who sought to displace Maya as the Master of Kurain Village to allow her own 8-year-old daughter, Pearl Fey, to take the title instead. After the case, Maya and Phoenix decide to take care of Pearl.

During the third case, a popular magician of the Berry Big Circus named Maximillion Galactica is charged with the ringmaster's murder. During the investigation, Phoenix encounters some unusual witnesses, such as a clown who has difficulty making people laugh, a ventriloquist whose puppet bosses him around, and the daughter of the ringmaster, who seems to live in her own little world. Phoenix successfully defends Max against Franziska von Karma, and it turns out that the actual murderer was one of the circus's trapeze artists, who accidentally killed the ringmaster while trying to murder his daughter as revenge for his brother.

In the fourth trial, Maya is kidnapped after a huge TV star, Matt Engarde, is suspected of murdering his media rival, Juan Corrida, and the kidnapper, the infamous Shelly de Killer, promises to let Maya go if Phoenix can get a complete acquittal for Engarde. As Phoenix investigates, he finds that Engarde, Corrida, and their managers had a complicated romantic relationship, and Engarde, a man with a secret dark side, has hired de Killer to force Phoenix to defend him in court. During the case, de Killer shoots Franziska, wounding her and forcing a new prosecutor in the case to step in: Miles Edgeworth, who had just returned to the country in time. Miles picks up on Phoenix's unusual behavior in court and recognizes that Maya is in trouble, and helps to extend the case to give the police more time to rescue Maya. When Phoenix reveals to de Killer that Engarde has blackmail evidence on de Killer's actions, de Killer reneges his loyalty to Engarde, promising to kill him next. Engarde, terrified by de Killer's promise, pleads guilty in order to escape his wrath. Maya is freed and reunited with Phoenix and Pearl, while Franziska, recovering from her wounds, decides to return home now that Miles has returned. If the player presents the wrong evidence towards the end of the trial, an alternate ending will ensue, in which Engarde is freed and his manager is tried and convicted of Juan's murder, causing Phoenix to be shunned forever by Maya and abandon his profession. In the good ending following Engarde's conviction, Edgeworth follows Franziska to the airport. Franziska says that she had planned to take revenge on Phoenix but failed. With Edgeworth's encouragement, she vows to return as a better prosecutor.

Development

Game Boy Advance version

Justice for All was originally released for the Game Boy Advance as Gyakuten Saiban 2. It was released on October 22, 2002, in Japan only. It uses the same engine as its predecessor, Gyakuten Saiban.

Nintendo DS version

Gyakuten Saiban 2 was remade for the Nintendo DS as Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Justice for All using the same engine as Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. It was released on October 26, 2006 in Japan. It was later released in other countries, including North America on January 16, 2007, Europe on March 16, 2007, and Australia on September 6, 2007. The localization in this release remains almost unchanged from the previous release, which contains some errors in spelling, grammar, punctuation and word usage. These have generated complaints in some reviews.^[6] The English translation of the game includes many references to TV shows, movies, other video games, and pop culture references, placed in the dialog by the localization team.^[5]

Wii version

Justice for All was later released on the Wii as a downloadable WiiWare game on January 26, 2010 in Japan and February 15, 2010 in North America. The game is virtually identical to the DS version, but allows use of the Wii Remote as either a pointer device or as a more traditional controller. Several text errors from the DS version were also corrected.

Audio

The music was composed by Naoto Tanaka, under the pseudonym Akemi Kimura.^[7]

Reception

Reception

Aggregate scores Aggregator Score GameRankings 77.59% (55 reviews)[8] Metacritic 76/100 (51 reviews)[9] Review scores Publication Score 1UP.com B+[10] Adventure Gamers [11] AllGame [12] Eurogamer 8/10[13] Famitsu 35/40 (GBA)[14][15] Game Informer 8/10[16] GamePro [17] Game Revolution A[18] GameSpot 7.7/10[19] GameSpy [20] GamesRadar [21] GameTrailers 7.9/10[22] GameZone 8.0/10[23] IGN 7.8/10[24] ONM 72%[25]

Although Justice for All received generally favorable reviews, it ends up being the least acclaimed of the series' titles. It was criticized mostly for lacking certain DS exclusive features available in the first installment in the series (if only during the final case).

References

External links

• Official U.S. site
• Official Japanese site