When comparing Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney vs The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, the Slant community recommends Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney for most people. In the question“What are the best murder mystery video games?” Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is ranked 2nd while The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is ranked 3rd. The most important reason people chose Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is:
As this is a character-heavy visual novel game, 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](http://www.polygon.com/2015/9/17/9345909/ace-attorney-anime-april-2016). Their exaggerated humor shows through their designs and animations, helping the game to stand on its art and writing without more complicated animations or even much voice acting. Experiencing the story through the character art doesn't get tiring, since it does such a good job of carrying the whole legal drama.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Polished character designs
As this is a character-heavy visual novel game, 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 game to stand on its art and writing without more complicated animations or even much voice acting. Experiencing the story 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 port of an older game 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, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is easy to grasp and learn. The first case is more of a tutorial for how the 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 game while getting to feel like a defense attorney in an entertaining way.
Pro Engaging choice-based gameplay
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is 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. 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 Challenging and rewarding puzzles
The puzzles require great observational skills with many clues being found only after thoroughly exploring the location in which the puzzle resides. Oftentimes, these clues are very discreet, well hidden, and integrated into the environment in creative ways. Piecing everything together can be quite a challenge at times as the puzzles provide no instructions, but also very rewarding as bits of the story are revealed after each successful solve.
Pro Heavily exploration based
With the exception of a few storyline gated or locked areas, you have the freedom to explore the entire game world from the very beginning. From the dark forests to the run down old houses, you can wander and go wherever you please, stopping to enjoy the scenery or investigate locations at your leisure. There are no linear story paths to follow and most of the puzzles can be completed in any order. This unhindered exploration allows you to explore the world and unravel the mystery completely at your own pace.
Pro Immersive atmosphere
While wandering the landscape, it's easy to believe you are exploring an old forest and town lost to time. The buildings are run down and decrepit, the roads and railroad tracks are overgrown with grass, and save for the chirping of birds or the river babbling, it is eerily silent. Exploring around and poking into every dark corner of the vast wilderness, one can't help but feel a complete sense of awe and become fully immersed in the mystery.
Pro Very surreal and mysterious storytelling
While the game starts out with the premise of a detective trying to solve the disappearance of a young boy, the story quickly takes a sharp turn and begins mixing in some very surreal, strange themes. These themes border on the paranormal and supernatural, and it quickly becomes apparent this is not a clear cut missing persons case. During the course of the game, the story keeps you guessing and invested as you try to figure out exactly what's going on. Additionally, due to the way you explore the nonlinear world, you might be witnessing events out of order which makes it even more mysterious.
Pro Gorgeous, state-of-the-art graphics
During development, real objects were photographed, scanned, and put into the game world using a process called photogrammetry. As a result, everything in-game renders as photo realistic without jagged lines or appearing pixelated. Everything from buildings and trees down to the smallest details like rocks and blades of grass look great.
Pro Runs at 1080p and 60fps
The game runs at 1080p and 60 FPS.
Cons
Con Not for players who want more involved gameplay
Since this is a visual novel 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 may not be for you unless you're willing to try something new.
Con Puzzles are not always balanced
Puzzles in the game are not evenly balanced in difficulty, which can be frustrating when one of the more difficult to solve puzzles come up. It would be one thing if the more difficult puzzles were found at the end of the game, but more often than not they are found in the middle and scattered around.
Con Weirdos
Almost every character is some kind of weirdo.
Con Repetitive puzzle solving
Without revealing spoilers, almost every major puzzle in the game is solved using the exact same logic. While the puzzles themselves are thematically different, the way you approach them and the mechanics they use are the same. After you've figured out how the first one works, you'll be applying the same basic principles to every puzzle in the game thereafter.
Con Simplistic gameplay
There is very little direct interaction with the world outside of solving puzzles and reading notes. Much of the game is simply walking around and exploring. From time to time, you will stumble upon a location in which you can manipulate items to solve the various puzzles, read notes, and watch story cutscenes play out.
Con Horrible character models
They are very plain and look almost cartoonish in nature, which is a stark contrast to the photo realistic environment they inhabit. The same level of work that went into the game world didn't quite make it into the character models, and as a result, they are disappointingly bad.
Con Not much dialogue
For a game that is heavily steeped in storytelling, there is a surprisingly low amount of actual dialogue and spoken lines. While it doesn't detract much from the experience, some people might be expecting a lot more writing for a game that boasts its story as a selling point.
Con Pacing feels unbalanced
There is one notable part of the game where the player spends an uneven amount of time in that the environment is lackluster as well as holds many frustrating puzzles. This makes for what feels like unbalanced pacing and is an aggravating section of the game.
Con Framerate drops from 60fps
There are framerate drops in the game but they never go below 30fps and do not tear due to the progressive vsync.