Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (A Retrospective)

So I’ve been looking for articles about the most recent Ace Attorney game, the one where I get to play the prosecutor Miles Edgeworth. I just finished it a few weeks ago, and though I’ve made up my mind about it, I still wanted to hear what various people in the net thought about it. To my disappointment, all I could find were reviews that could only give the plot a cursory mention, while stating that the game is so much better than its predecessor (is it really? I’ll let you know what I think in a few posts). There’s a disappointing lack of scrutiny about its characters, its plot, its mystery - pretty much everything one would expect to discuss with a fellow gamer of that series.

Something about this does not sit comfortably with me. We have Ace Attorney, one of the most story driven gaming series since the history of story driven games, and yet somehow not a whole lot of people got up to task writing about it. Anybody who frequents gaming forums can see that story is the most discussed and ranted and raged-on topic of any videogames ever. There are all these articles and extended discussions moaning about Final Fantasy being overly emo and melodramatic, Call of Duty being loud and jingoistic, Resident Evil being stupid and arguing if its stupidity is stupid or clever (really! I’ve seen this happen!). There has even been a lot of gamers railing against Super Mario Galaxy for even bothering to tell a story. Even the less popular, less blockbuster-y titles like Space Quest and Leisure Suit Larry get enough attention for gamers who like stories. Why then are we not seeing enough analyses of Ace Attorney games? I really don’t get it. And, you know, I got this idea: I’m gonna fix this!

So on we go with the whole Ace Attorney blog series. Find a comfy chair and wear your reading glasses, this is gonna take a while.

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No One Messes With The Batman! (a chat log)

(in reference to the tweet below)

(3:08:41 PM) nightdreamer: so this is what happened
(3:08:58 PM) nightdreamer: remember that thing i posted about my coworker getting his internet disconnected because he didn’t like batman the animated series?
(3:09:12 PM) peanut_butter: hahah!
(3:09:13 PM) peanut_butter: yes lol karma
(3:09:17 PM) peanut_butter: why
(3:09:22 PM) peanut_butter: did he tell?
(3:09:33 PM) nightdreamer: and i thought it was really funny, so i decided to chat up with my college classmate about that
(3:09:44 PM) nightdreamer: still following so far?
(3:09:52 PM) peanut_butter: yes
(3:09:54 PM) peanut_butter: go on
(3:09:57 PM) nightdreamer: so this is how the conversation went
(3:10:05 PM) nightdreamer: me: I just heard a coworker say “I’m not a fan of Batman Animated Series”. One minute later his internet got disconnected. POETIC JUSTICE!
(3:10:11 PM) nightdreamer: guy: what’s so poetic about it?
(3:10:17 PM) nightdreamer: me: coz my coworker is dissing batman. no one messes with the batman
(3:10:22 PM) nightdreamer: guy replied: that’s in the eye of the beholder
(3:10:27 PM) nightdreamer: *facepalm express*
(3:10:35 PM) peanut_butter: uh right obviously he’s not fond of batman
(3:10:48 PM) nightdreamer: cripes what an unsolicited coffeehouse pseudophilosophical garbage
(3:10:56 PM) peanut_butter: haha
(3:11:02 PM) peanut_butter: nwy
(3:11:03 PM) nightdreamer: the only thing i hate more than unsolicited advice is unsolicited philosophic talk!
(3:11:13 PM) nightdreamer: you know, forcing pseudo-intellectualism in a casual conversation!
(3:11:18 PM) peanut_butter: yeah i know me too!
(3:11:31 PM) peanut_butter: sigh
(3:11:39 PM) nightdreamer: it’s like I want to tell him “dude you’re not impressive! you sound stupid!”
(3:11:50 PM) peanut_butter: haha!
(3:11:55 PM) peanut_butter: why don’t you put that in your status message
(3:12:02 PM) nightdreamer: i’d rather not
(3:12:14 PM) nightdreamer: sheesh remind me never to start a chat again with someone who can’t take a joke. hate that so much.
(3:12:31 PM) peanut_butter: haha
(3:13:00 PM) nightdreamer: but what is hate and is hate in the eye of the beholder?
(3:13:16 PM) peanut_butter: dont start XD