Playing A Game Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies 3DS

It's been over three years since Ace Attorney last stumbled into North America, and almost five since Phoenix Wright himself made an appearance. To wit, it's difficult for me to remember whether the series' trademark courtroom drama was always this verbose, or if that's a more recent phenomenon. But there's no doubt that, woven within the game's walls of text, Dual Destinies retains all the qualities that made its predecessors great: engaging characters, thoughtful case design, exciting cross-examination mechanics, and the thrill of unraveling a case's mysteries by the seat of your pants.

What Dual Destinies brings to the franchise table, aside from Athena Cykes's new emotion-detecting examination technique, is a wealth of production-quality updates. Just as Apollo Justice revamped its predecessors' GBA-era visuals with higher-resolution assets and touchscreen features, Dual Destinies has gone and refurbished the entire game engine with 3D models. Crime scenes can be explored from multiple angles, panning around the courtroom shows a fully-rendered environment, and all the game's characters are fully-modeled and animated. What's most remarkable is that this jump to 3D has preserved not only the franchise's eccentric art style, but its characters' exaggerated animations; these models jump in shock, cry in stress, and pound the table just as you'd expect.

The top screen's 3D effect is used really well, too, adding visible and realistic depth to scenes. (But I still leave it off most of the time, for a better viewing angle.)

The cases I've tried so far have been ... okay, but not really spectacular. It's obvious that Dual Destinies is building up a larger narrative, though I've yet to see where they're going with it. The story so far has placed a reduced emphasis on older characters - largely revolving around Apollo and Athena, with brief cameos from Phoenix, and no Edgeworths or Gumshoes in sight - so I hope that this seemingly-new arc can stand up against those that came before it.

Progress: Finished case 2.

Rating: Good