Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies is a tightly linear detective game that focuses strongly on dialogue and mild problem solving. These games are renowned for their interesting and convoluted stories, colorful cast of crazy characters and undeniable wit that seeps in everything you see. This is easily one of the most impressive games to come from the franchise, with stunning visuals and interesting plot. If you are looking for something interesting that can sweep you up in its story, this is without a doubt for you. Let’s dive on in.

Gameplay

So, the gameplay to this title is a bit straightforward. Arguably its more straightforward that many of the other games in the genre. Much like Professor Layton or The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, this game focuses largely on the story and much of the gameplay itself is just pressing the ‘A’ button to progress through conversation.

But don’t let that trick you! The conversations are important, its where a considerable amount of the information is and if you zone out for half the game you and miss out on some key info that helps you crack a case, you may have to replay the whole case.

There are a few other investigation scenes throughout that provide a little bit of gameplay variety, but these are small parts that mostly exist to assist in the point you are trying to make. That point is devised from what you have learned from conversation. As you can see, it all comes around into how much you can learn and what you can deduce. There is, as there normally is, something strange and mystical introduced in this game that assists in you learning more things. In previous games it was a psychic ability, in this one, there is a technological ability called “mood matrix” which lets the player view testimonies with the ability to spot conflicting emotions. It adds a new dimension to the gameplay and lets you catch people out in a new way.

Visuals

Good lord, the visuals in this are fantastic. As it was released as a 3DS title, there is a 3D aspect to the game that lets the characters pop out from the backgrounds in a way they never have before. Also, the cutscenes are simply fantastic. Anime level scenes that look like they have been pulled straight from a show, that make the whole production value of this game feel like it never has before.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack to this game is a bop. There is a fantastic amount of music that carries you throughout all the scenes and really fit the mood and accentuate whatever you may be seeing. A lot of catchy little ditties in this game are nice, high-energy music that keeps you on your toes. I’m a firm believer that if you barely notice the music is there, it’s doing a good job. But when you do notice and you think “hey this is pretty good,” It’s going a great job.

Pros

• Great Visuals
• Interesting Writing

Cons

• A bit too linear