Review by Gianluca “DottorKillex” Arena
After many years of success, achieved on the golden shores of the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS, the Phoenix Wright series has gone almost on autopilot, offering two releases on the current portable console of mother Nintendo, one of which is unpublished and in digital only version, or Dual Destinies.
Just following this path, Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Spirit of Justice has just arrived on eShop, which re-proposes one of the cast most loved by fans in a completely renewed setting, without however revolutionizing the mechanics and rhythms of the game.
Will it still be worth examining evidence, questioning witnesses, and most importantly, shouting "objection!"?
We just have to find out.
Spirituality beats law
Imagine a world where there is no need for lawyers, where cases, from the most futile to those of murder, are resolved through the divinatory skills of mediums capable of reliving the moments in which the crime took place through the eyes of the victims.
Having access to all five senses of the murdered, mediums can easily unmask the murderers by bringing the guilty to justice without the need for a jury and a lawyer.
This is, more or less, the modus operandi of the judicial system (if we can call it that ...) of Khura'in, a country in East Asia where Phoenix Wright had decided to take refuge to escape the daily monotony.
Soon, however, heavy accusations are made against his tour guide, and our tireless defender of the innocents promptly takes his side: a thorny case (the first of five total) is expected, above all because of the prejudices that ours will find to face before the court, given that the figure of the lawyer is viewed with distrust and considered superfluous.
To the usual cast of characters, such as Apollo, Athena and Maya, who returns after a long absence, new ones are added, such as Princess Rayfa, exponent of the clan of mediums and main opponent of ours.
Between jokes at gunpoint, references to past episodes of the series and Japanese humor, the center of the scene is once again the bizarre but effective characterization of the characters and the excellent writing that supports the dialogues which, however, as for Dual Destinies , are not translated into español, adding a blanket of impenetrability to the product for all those who do not chew the Albion language.
To tell the truth, the vast majority of exchanges are easy to understand even for those who have only a scholastic knowledge of the language, but, for the future of the series, we hope to go back to the times of localizations in español.
In the groove traced
The playful skeleton of Spirit of Justice almost slavishly follows that of Dual Destinies, and of all the episodes of the saga since the beginning: if this is a merit or a defect, it will be up to the public to decide, but certainly the lack of substantial news (al outside of divination) is largely counterbalanced by the quality of the dialogue, a very well-matched cast of characters and stimulating cases, which will set the player's gray matter in motion.
Divination is a phase in which Princess Rayfa shows the court the last moments of life of the victim of the crime, during which, superimposed, words appear that correspond to the sensations, noises, smells perceived, whose careful observation allows to get a clear idea of ​​how things went.
The reconstruction of the facts that the princess will do will not always be truthful, and the player's aim is precisely to put the right arguments in Phoenix's mouth to refute what is considered a lie: more than a real novelty, this mechanic constitutes a reinterpretation of the classic interrogation phases.
Certainly it does not hurt, of course, but it does not distort the gameplay, also because, probably, this was not the intention of the development team: here, then, the investigative phases at the crime scene continue to alternate with those in court, and paying attention to witness statements still remains one of the keys to resolving cases.
We found the latter to be a bit more complex than those of Dual Destinies, playing which we had never stumbled upon the game over screen in over twenty hours of gameplay.
During the time spent in the company of Spirit of Justice, however, it happened to us in at least a couple of circumstances, and this, whatever newbies may think, is a positive aspect, because the flattening of the resolutive phases risked becoming a problem. burdensome for the saga.
The two abundant tens of hours needed to get to the end, in short, slip away pleasantly, even if the veterans of the series could accuse a minimum of tiredness at the end of the adventure, due to the low degree of innovation that it brings as a dowry.
Everything already seen
Very little has changed from a technical point of view, except that the new setting of Khura'in, also indebted to others already seen (it reminded us a lot of the one in which Far Cry 4 was set), brings a breath of air fresh compared to those to which the series had so far accustomed us.
The character design is maintained on the (high) standards of the franchise, proposing historical characters and allowing the unpublished ones not to detach too much from them, forming a very cohesive unicum on a visual level.
Compared to the last title in chronological order, we seemed to notice a greater amount of movies, always made with a pleasant and clean anime style.
It is unlikely that we will see changes worthy of note from this point of view, partly due to the playful characteristics of the product, partly due to the success achieved so far: as it is, Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Spirit of Justice does not fully exploit the 'host hardware, nor some of its key features (especially 3D), but it remains a more than respectable exponent of the franchise, and brings exactly what fans expect.
We are on the same wavelength as the recent past also from the point of view of overall longevity, which can be quantified between twenty and twenty-five hours, depending on the player's ability.
Final comment
Capcom plays it safe with Spirit of Justice, and the result is another chapter not to be missed for all fans of the brand, who will find the usual humor, ingenious puzzles, investigative phases with great attention to detail.
Probably, with a little more courage, we could have created the best episode of the series, but we do not feel like penalizing the development team for not having strayed too far from the main road, given the solid foundations of the series and the feedback from the public. , both in Japan and in the West.
If you are new to the game, you may want to try the trilogy of the three games for the Game Boy Advance (published years ago always on 3DS), but if you are already familiar with the franchise this new chapter will give you twenty hours of fun, quotes and cameo of well-known faces.
