Phoenix Wright Dual Destinies Is The Best Thing Capcom Has Done In Years
(Spoiler Free Review)
The Phoenix Wright series started off as a small GameBoy Advance title released in 2001, so small in fact that it even didn’t make it outside of Japan. Capcom went on to make a trilogy and yet most of the world still didn’t know who Phoenix Wright was, it seemed that the series was destined to stay in Japan like so many quirky unique games before it. For whatever reason however Capcom decided to port the first game over to the Nintendo DS and actually gave it an international release although sales expectations were so low that it was printed in limited numbers.
Much to Capcom’s surprise the game had sold out and consumers demanded that more copies be produced. Capcom happily obliged and those additional copies sold out too which meant that a late GameBoy Advance port about a lawyer defending clients had suddenly become the talk of the internet. The charming sense of humour, loveable cast of characters, killer soundtrack, superb writing and crazy plot twists all combined to create an utterly engaging visual novel (presented as a ‘game’) that was perfectly suited to Nintendo’s handheld.
Since then we’ve seen the remaining trilogy be translated and reach a satisfying close with the third entry in the series, ‘Trials and Tribulations’. The fourth Ace Attorney shifted focus from Phoenix Wright to a new rookie lawyer in Apollo Justice before Capcom decided to create two ‘spin’offs’ staring Miles Edgeworth which dropped the court battles all together. They never bothered to bring over the second Miles Edgeworth title outside Japan which did cause some concern amongst fans since it appeared to the series was returning to it’s Japan only roots. Thankfully Phoenix Wright Dual Destinies HAS made it outside Japan (although a digital only release suggests JUST ABOUT) and brings the series back into more familiar territory.
Phoenix Wright Dual Destinies as the name implies features the return of Phoenix Wright, he’s no longer the piano playing bum he was in Apollo Justice but rather the full time lawyer from the original trilogy. Since his time away from the court, the legal system has entered a ‘dark age’ that’s filled with fabricated evidence and even false charges. This has caused people to drop their faith in the legal system and the story in Dual Destinies is centred around this aspect. Phoenix Wright is called into action and takes it upon himself to restore justice, and to hopefully undo some of the damage the fabricated evidence and false charges have done over the past eight years.
Whilst much of the hype surrounding Dual Destinies is indeed thanks to the return of Phoenix Wright himself, it’s also thanks to the return to the court battles. Not since 2008′s Ace Attorney Apollo Justice have we seen a ‘traditional’ Ace Attorney title and Dual Destinies is certainly a case of ‘out with the new, in with the old’. You’d think that after the forth Ace Attorney title focused on Apollo Justice almost exclusively that Apollo would be the centre of attention but his role is downplayed in Dual Destinies and he has to share the spotlight with both Phoenix Wright new comer, Athena Cykes. There’s nothing particularly wrong with this but it does feel a little strange to see the writers effectively throw away much of what Ace Attorney Apollo Justice had built up prior to Dual Destinies.
The ‘gameplay’ in Dual Destinies also takes a step back in an attempt to return to what fans enjoyed in some of the earlier titles. You’ll be spending a good chunk of time both in the courtroom defending clients and investigating crime scenes for clues. The courtroom aspect is just as a great as it’s ever been and that’s where you’ll find most of Dual Destinies’ most memorable moments at. The judge is still completely oblivious and Simon Blackquill acts as Dual Destinies’ main new prosecutor, he’s not as amazing as Godot from Trials and Tribulations but I liked him a lot more than Klavier from Apollo Justice.
Not much has changed in how court battles play out, you’ll still be cross examining witnesses and looking for inconsistencies in their statements by presenting evidence that contradicts it. Sometimes you’ll be on top of your game and have all the answers ready, other times Dual Destinies boggles the mind with all the different possibilities that could of taken place at the crime scene. It wouldn’t make for a very compelling experience if you had all the answers from the get go but sometimes it feels like you’re just part of the jury looking on as things play out rather than the ace attorney lawyer himself.
The other half that makes up the Dual Destinies experience are the investigating scenes where you’re tasked with the job of collecting as much evidence as possible for the upcoming court battles. Dual Destinies still maintains the linearity of the series so you’ll only ever progress to the court battles once you’ve seen, collected and spoken to everyone necessary beforehand. This time round however these portions of the game end up feeling like a missed opportunity as the CSI investigating elements are basically non existent. If you find an item in Dual Destinies, the characters will simply discuss it and then it gets added to your inventory. There’s nothing in the way of checking for finger prints by applying some powder and then blowing it off like in past games or even simply examining an item in 3D, it’s all been unnecessarily streamlined in Dual Destinies. The end result is that the investigating scenes don’t amount to being as interesting as they could or perhaps should be.
Positive changes have been made however to the investigating scenes, namely the ‘notes’. In prior games it wasn’t always clear where you needed to go, who you needed to speak to or even what you needed to present to certain characters. All this has been ‘fixed’ thanks to the ‘notes’ which is basically a checklist of what you need to do. It’s not going to tell you where to find clues or what to examine but it will tell you where you should go or to whom you should talk to. It’s a positive change in my opinion as it helps cut down on much of the aimless wandering around seen in past games. They’ve also added a feature in which a small tick appears on areas/items that you’ve already examined so you won’t be investigating the same things over and over again by mistake.
If there’s one thing than Dual Destinies absolutely nails perfectly it has to be the jump into 3D, I’ve given Capcom a lot of shit in the past over Street Fighter IV’s art direction but they deserve nothing but praise for how Dual Destinies handles the transition into the third dimension. Part of it is thanks to the hardware itself, going from the DS to the 3DS is like seeing a title jump into widescreen, 3D, stereoscopic 3D and HD (kind of…) all at once. The star of the show is easily the character models which are just as entertainingly animated as ever, seeing a culprit absolutely lose it in court as you continue to expose their contradictions is a sight to behold. There’s one in particular that had me crying tears of laughter but for the sake of spoilers, I’ll let you see that for yourself.
As always the visuals are delightfully charming and despite each character only having a handful of different animations, they are all extremely expressive and it’s easy to get an idea of what someone is like based on their appearance. The backgrounds stick to their hand drawn roots and they work just as well as they have in the past. Turning up the 3DS’s stereoscopic 3D helps give the game a sense of depth not previously seen and the effect is well done but I can’t imagine everyone being a fan of it. What’s interesting however is that turning off the 3D mode will honestly have you believing that the characters models are actually large 2D spites, they’re THAT good.
Also worthy of praise is the soundtrack which may not be the strongest in the series but it’s one of the better ones none the less. Since we’re on a 3DS and not a DS, Capcom have given the soundtrack a more ‘orchestral’ feel rather than the MIDI we’ve come to expect. Sure the ‘cornered’ theme here will never top the original but it’s suitably epic in it’s own way and it certainly makes it clear that shit’s about to go down in the courtroom. Let’s not also forget that most characters in the game have their own themes which go a long way into describing what that character is like without even saying a single word.
Speaking of words, Dual Destinies is the first time the series has featured voice acting. It’s limited to the new animated cut-scenes which seems like a great idea but is lacking in the execution thanks to horrible voice acting, it’s almost as bad as the stuff you see in SEGA games but at least SEGA’s efforts are comedy gold. The cut-scenes themselves don’t look very good either, everyone looks a bit weird in comparison to their in-game counterparts but at the very least the cut-scenes are a rare and don’t hurt the overall product.
Doing a review for Dual Destinies was never going to be an easy thing because how the hell do you describe the story without spoiling something? I know as a fan myself that we’re all touchy when it comes to spoilers in Phoenix Wright so what’s why I won’t be discussing the story at length here. What I can tell you is that Dual Destinies doesn’t feature the involvement of Shu Takumi who previously served as both the director and scriptwriter for the first forth Ace Attorney games and that alone should scare any fan but fear not. Dual Destinies may not be as well written as the Shu Takumi entries nor does it quite match some of the insane plot twists we’ve seen in the other Ace Attorney games but it’s still a damn fine entry in the series none the less.
Where does Dual Destinies rank amongst the series? Well for me personally it seems to sit somewhere in the middle alongside ‘Justice For All’, I enjoyed it more than ‘Miles Edgeworth Investigations’ and ‘Apollo Justice’ but I don’t think it matches the dizzy heights of the original ‘Ace Attorney’ or the legendary ‘Trials and Tribulations’. To be fair I can’t imagine any future Ace Attorney title ever topping Trials and Tribulations, that game isn’t just my favourite entry in the series, it’s one of my favourite games of all time.
We can sit here discussing where Dual Destinies may rank in the series but the important part is that Capcom have given us a quality entry in the Ace Attorney series even without Shu Takumi’s involvement. The series is in safe hands and even after the 31 hours and 12 minutes it took me to finish Dual Destinies, I was still left wanting more. If that’s not a sign of Dual Destinies being good, I don’t know what is.
Over the years my respect for Capcom has diminished thanks to shady business practices and an overall drop in game quality. I’m at a point where I think Capcom are basically dead and can never return to their former glory…
Not if Phoenix Wright Dual Destinies has anything to say about it.
Welcome back Phoenix, welcome back CAPCOM!
