Is Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations Worth It?

[@BQD_Central]

Objection, your honor: I started with the 3rd game because at the time I didn't know that it was the 3rd game, as it just says "Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations". Not my fault that it wasn't numbered :) I have to say that made Ace Attorney 1 pretty boring and Ace Attorney 2 enjoyable but predictable (as they told me in 3 what happened in 2). I really didn't like the strike system in 1. And I enjoyed the music in 3 so much that I missed it in 1 and 2. Capcom just could have numbered the titles. But no, me from 2009 didn't know it better and bought it Trails and Tribulations first. I remember the last case particulary well, especially the very, very last choice, as the old "Cornered" theme from Ace Attorney 1 played there. And I also remember, that Mias first trail (the second time in the game we play as Mia) was actually quite difficult for me at the time. I had some real problems reconstructing what happened based on the evedince I had. This was a league more difficulte than the first trial in AA1 for example. And you brought back a memory I already surpressed: Ace Attorney sometimes played like an old Adventure game from the 1980s and 1990s. "Just try everything on everything, and go everywhere after you talked to someone if you are stuck". Sometimes the story just stops just because you didn't talk to someone and asked the ONE question. If you didn't do that, then the flag for the next scene (usually your client in prison talking to you) isn't set. I seriously don't miss these times. The anime is honestly hillarously awful, its really just the cases from the DS/GBA ported to an anime. It just doesn't really work this way. It is nice fanservice, but try watching it as someone who didn't play the games. Pretty impossible.

[@Lytane]

I can fully understand getting the games in the order wrong. I only ever knew Ace Attorney was the first one and in my original take of that review I said "Join me next week as we play Trials and Tribulations" thinking it was the second game but not looking it up properly. So even today, the order is stupid. In Japan they use numbers!! That's the problem with playing the third game first it is the best in the trilogy so going backwards makes the other games a little less appealing. Especially 1 with it's more stunted story telling and some of the mechanics like Psyche-Locks being missing. Which is why you need to play them in order, they aren't bad games they just get better as the series goes on. I purposefully didn't talk about that third case because of how crazy it was, and yeah when Cornered played I LOST MY SHIT hahahahaha Mia's trial is the most complex of the three starting ones and it makes sense if you'd been playing from the first game, starting here it's hard though. Also trying to get on the train of thought of the characters is one of the few downsides of the games. Sometimes I figure out the plot or twists but can't present that evidence due to Phoenix not knowing, so silly but I get it. All three games play like have that try everything mentality. In the second game with the circus I got so frustrated trying to navigate around and get to the next story section, probably the most annoying case in the trilogy! I'm also glad that style of gameplay is a lot less common now but I wonder how the second trilogy of games handles the investigation sections. I'm about half way through the first season, just into the first case with Von Karma and I've been having a blast watching it. Sure it's different from the games and the clues and stuff have been changed due to timing but it's still fun. I have been enjoying the extra parts like the out of court parts, seeing Phoenix's home life and stuff to be the best part of the show. I've been watching with my wife who (through me) only has a tiny knowledge on the games and she's been liking it and is also having fun with how silly it is, so I think even people that haven't played the games can enjoy it.