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Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy is a collection of three visual novel and adventure games -- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice for All, and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations.
You play as Phoenix Wright, a defense attorney who works to gather evidence, question witnesses, and present his argument in a courtroom to defend his client.
SpecsUpdate
Pros
Pro Engaging choice-based gameplay
The Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: games are all about choosing your own adventure through living the life of a defense attorney. It's up to you to do a good job for your clients, meaning you have to make the best choices when going through the case. When you interview witnesses and suspects, there's a dialogue tree where you choose what you want to ask them, and then during the trial, you carefully choose the best evidence to support your argument.
The stakes are high during court cases, since if you pick the wrong evidence during a cross-examination, for example, the prosecution's side will hammer you on it and you'll suffer a loss. There's more incentive this time to get everything right and do your best, otherwise you may lose the case outright for your client. You get to the bottom of each investigation and trial on your own terms, either by following your instincts or listening to helpful suggestions from other characters.
Pro Great collection of three games in one
This trilogy is a bundle of three games in one package -- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice for All, and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations. While each game is still available to buy individually, you can usually find the whole trilogy for about the same cost as a single game. This is perfect for playing the games in order as well, so you don't miss out on the emotional impact of the story in the third game, Trials and Tribulations.
Pro Polished character designs
As these are character-heavy visual novel games, it helps a lot that the art for the characters are all really well-done. Full of expressive personality, they look just like the ones in the series' anime. Their exaggerated humor shows through their designs and animations, helping the games to stand on their art and writing without more complicated animations or even much voice acting. Experiencing the stories through the character art doesn't get tiring, since it does such a good job of carrying the whole legal drama.
Pro Charming music
Since this is a collection of ports of older games for the Game Boy Advance, the music still has a rather old school sound to it, but this only adds to the charm. It's great at setting the tone in any given scene, sounding more serious with lower instruments for when you're collecting evidence, and then again when presenting that evidence to the court, while it's of course much lighter during funny conversations with silly characters. There's always a computerized sound throughout that makes it charming to listen to, like going back in time before the more modern orchestral music in gaming today.
Pro Accessible learning curve
Even if you don't know anything about legal cases and courtrooms, the Ace Attorney games are easy to grasp and learn. The first case is usually more of a tutorial for how each game works, and it does a great job at getting you used to the mechanics with collecting evidence, questioning witnesses, and going through the motions of presenting your argument before the judge. You don't need to know any special legal language or anything like that; you can still have fun with this trilogy while getting to feel like a defense attorney in an entertaining way.
Cons
Con Trials and Tribulations doesn't offer enough new changes over the first two games
During the third game in the trilogy, you get to play as different characters from time to time, like Phoenix's rivals Edgeworth and Mia, but that's about it. The rest of the gameplay is fundamentally the same as the other two games in the series. If you play all three games, you may find that things are pretty samey by this point. The Ace Attorney games do have a good formula, though it would have been nice to have more innovation throughout the trilogy.
Con Not for players who want more involved gameplay
Since these are visual novels without much voice acting, that means there's a lot of reading. You won't find typical gameplay here with responsive controls and freedom of movement. The gameplay is all about being an attorney and an investigator, through gathering evidence and presenting evidence to defend your client. If you're not used to these types of games, this trilogy may not be for you unless you're willing to try something new.