The success and longevity of the series speaks to the quality of this first game more than I ever could. Still, I'll give my best go. AA 1 is a game that consistently impressed me the first time I played it two years ago. Its mysteries are mostly well thought out, its cast is delightful, and it balances tone exceptionally well. It was clearly a labor of love for those involved in its development. And while it certainly could've been an excellent one-off, that cast combined with the game's innovative approach to meshing story and gameplay in its trial segments were clearly too good to stop at one. Thankfully players and Capcom agreed with me on that front, as Ace Attorney has become a staple among their franchises. But there's one particular reason I haven't touched on yet that I think was essential to the series success, and that's the way it makes the player feel like an underdog.
So how does it do this? Well, that's simple. It casts you as a defense lawyer in one of the worst legal systems possible. In this world, defendants are presumed guilty until proven innocent, trials are held while the crime is still being investigated, there is no jury of your peers, and the prosecution regularly gets away with acts that would result in a mistrial if not disbarment in the real world. Trials are also limited to three days maximum, although that limitation stops mattering after this game. Suffice it to say, this system is terrible and incredibly biased against defendants. The only way it could be worse was if it was a literal witch trial (which Phoenix would actually participate in during the Professor Layton crossover). But in stacking the deck so thoroughly against you, it does two good things for the series. First, it makes the player character, in this case Phoenix, more likable because he's helping the helpless. Most of the defendants in this game have no one else on their side, which makes Phoenix appear all the more noble. Second, it makes every victory you earn as a player feel more satisfying because you know that you're beating a rigged system. You aren't handed victory, you have to claw and scrape for it. So when you finally get that victory, it's all the more meaningful because of the hardship you endured getting there. The underdog fantasy is a powerful one, and this series excels at fulfilling it in a way that few other games are able to do.
That said, this game isn't perfect. I've touched on it several times in the later cases, but the pacing really needed some tightening. There are several points during the investigation sequences that are padded out with fetch quests, and it's not helped by the game's primitive movement system. You pull up a menu to choose where you want to go, but rather than being able to visit anywhere you've already been you have to move from spot to spot in a somewhat logical order. This makes the fetch quests all the more tedious. Most of the cases also just don't have the content to justify spending three days on them. The first trial days of the last three cases can be rather drawn out when some snappier pacing would've been more effective. There were failures as well as successes to learn from here.
Overall, I'd say that this is the most consistently good of the five main series games I've played. While not perfect, it gets so much right on the first try that it's no wonder it spawned a series. Stopping with this one would've been a waste of the wonderful work the development team put into this game. AA 1 is a great game, and it deserves to be regarded as one of the best mystery games out there.
First Closing Statement
The success and longevity of the series speaks to the quality of this first game more than I ever could. Still, I'll give my best go. AA 1 is a game that consistently impressed me the first time I played it two years ago. Its mysteries are mostly well thought out, its cast is delightful, and it balances tone exceptionally well. It was clearly a labor of love for those involved in its development. And while it certainly could've been an excellent one-off, that cast combined with the game's innovative approach to meshing story and gameplay in its trial segments were clearly too good to stop at one. Thankfully players and Capcom agreed with me on that front, as Ace Attorney has become a staple among their franchises. But there's one particular reason I haven't touched on yet that I think was essential to the series success, and that's the way it makes the player feel like an underdog.
So how does it do this? Well, that's simple. It casts you as a defense lawyer in one of the worst legal systems possible. In this world, defendants are presumed guilty until proven innocent, trials are held while the crime is still being investigated, there is no jury of your peers, and the prosecution regularly gets away with acts that would result in a mistrial if not disbarment in the real world. Trials are also limited to three days maximum, although that limitation stops mattering after this game. Suffice it to say, this system is terrible and incredibly biased against defendants. The only way it could be worse was if it was a literal witch trial (which Phoenix would actually participate in during the Professor Layton crossover). But in stacking the deck so thoroughly against you, it does two good things for the series. First, it makes the player character, in this case Phoenix, more likable because he's helping the helpless. Most of the defendants in this game have no one else on their side, which makes Phoenix appear all the more noble. Second, it makes every victory you earn as a player feel more satisfying because you know that you're beating a rigged system. You aren't handed victory, you have to claw and scrape for it. So when you finally get that victory, it's all the more meaningful because of the hardship you endured getting there. The underdog fantasy is a powerful one, and this series excels at fulfilling it in a way that few other games are able to do.
That said, this game isn't perfect. I've touched on it several times in the later cases, but the pacing really needed some tightening. There are several points during the investigation sequences that are padded out with fetch quests, and it's not helped by the game's primitive movement system. You pull up a menu to choose where you want to go, but rather than being able to visit anywhere you've already been you have to move from spot to spot in a somewhat logical order. This makes the fetch quests all the more tedious. Most of the cases also just don't have the content to justify spending three days on them. The first trial days of the last three cases can be rather drawn out when some snappier pacing would've been more effective. There were failures as well as successes to learn from here.
Overall, I'd say that this is the most consistently good of the five main series games I've played. While not perfect, it gets so much right on the first try that it's no wonder it spawned a series. Stopping with this one would've been a waste of the wonderful work the development team put into this game. AA 1 is a great game, and it deserves to be regarded as one of the best mystery games out there.