Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations
Developer(s)	Capcom
Publisher(s)	Capcom
Platform(s)	Game Boy Advance PC Windows Nintendo DS
Release	Game Boy Advance JP: January 23, 2004 PC Windows JP: March 31, 2006 Nintendo DS JP: August 23, 2007 NA: October 23, 2007 EU: 2008
Genre(s)	Adventure game, visual novel
Mode(s)	Single player

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations, released in Japan as Gyakuten Saiban 3 (逆転裁判3, lit. "Turnabout Trial 3") is an adventure/visual novel game developed by Capcom for the Nintendo DS video game console. It is the third game in the Gyakuten Saiban series (also known as the Ace Attorney/Phoenix Wright series), and precedes Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney for the Nintendo DS. The original version was released on the Game Boy Advance in Japan.

In the weeks leading up to the announcement, Capcom had launched an official contest to convince “Capcom to bring Ace Attorney 3 to America”. On the day the final winner of the contest was to be revealed, Capcom lifted the embargo on their upcoming titles revealed at their "Capcom's Gamers Day" event, which included Trials and Tribulations.

A DS edition of Gyakuten Saiban 3 was released in Japan on August 23, 2007; as with the previous Japanese DS releases, the game features both Japanese and English text. Trials and Tribulations was released for the DS in the United States on October 23, 2007. It has been reported on Capcom's official message board that the Japanese release's English Translation has many typos. However, a Community Specialist with Capcom stated that "...you will be quite pleased with the localization effort for the US version, versus the version you imported".

This game is the last of the series featuring Phoenix Wright as the main character, and through its course, gives more details on the past of important characters such as Mia Fey and Phoenix Wright, while tying up the loose ends on the storyline set up in the previous games.

Gameplay

See also: Gameplay in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All

The gameplay in Trials and Tribulations remains the same as both previous titles, including the use of Psyche-Locks introduced in Justice for All. A minor change is that the player will take on the role of different people other than Phoenix Wright for certain cases within the game, but this does not alter the game mechanics. The game does not use any of the additional investigation techniques that use features of the Nintendo DS as introduced in the first Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney game's fifth case (created specifically for the DS port).

Characters

Main article: List of Ace Attorney characters

This game features both characters from the prior two games and new characters.

Story

Three of the five cases in the game center around Dahlia Hawthorne. She and her twin sister Iris were born to Morgan Fey in a previous marriage that ended in divorce, with the husband taking both daughters away to join with their step-daughter, Valerie; Morgan went on to remarry and had Pearl Fey. Dahlia's father was a jeweler, and Dahlia faked her kidnapping with the help of both Iris and her boyfriend Terry Fawles in order to extort a large sum of money, but Dahlia turned on the two in the last moment, throwing herself over a bridge, resulting in Terry being arrested and accused of murder. While Dahlia was able to successfully get away unknown to anyone else, Iris became a sister at Hazakura Temple.

Six years later, Terry eventually escapes from jail, urged on by a note he received, and meets Valerie on the same bridge where the kidnapping occurred despite being hunted down. However, the meeting was a trap arranged by Dahlia and she ends up killing Valerie, setting the scene to place the blame on Terry. His case is taken up by Mia Fey in her first case, assisted by Diego Armando, the two also sharing a love interest for each other. Mia is able to nearly clear Terry of the recent murder and pin it on Dahlia, but Terry ingests a bottle of poison given to him by Dahlia and falls over dead. Diego catches up to Dahlia in the courthouse and tries to learn the truth, but she attempts to poison him as well, causing Diego to fall into a coma. Dahlia, knowing she had to get rid of the bottle necklace that stored the poison, turned to a student that happened to be in the courtroom at the same time, a younger Phoenix Wright, and feigned a love interest over him, giving him the necklace as a charm.

Over the next year, Dahlia asked her twin Iris to play as her to continue feigning her love for Phoenix in hopes of getting the charm back, but Iris could not, and in fact felt something for Phoenix. Dahlia then took it upon herself to try to poison Phoenix using cold medicine, but ended up killing another student by electrocution. Mia Fey, now with the help of Marvin Grossberg, successfully defends Phoenix and charges Dahlia with the murder. Phoenix is impressed with Mia's lawyer skills and vows to become a lawyer himself. Dahlia is sent to death row and eventually executed years later, but not before meeting her mother Morgan Fey, who is also in jail after attempting to frame Maya Fey for murder in order to allow Pearl Fey to become the Master of Kurain Village. Dahlia and Morgan develop a plan that relies on using Pearl's innocence to channel Dahlia's spirit after she is executed and to kill Maya, allowing Pearl to ascend as the Master. Dahlia is eventually executed.

Diego eventually recovers from his coma, but his vision has been significantly hampered by the poison, requiring a special visor to function. He learns of Mia's death, and though he blames Phoenix for not protecting Mia enough, vows to protect Maya from such harm. To this end, he becomes the prosecutor Godot. Because of his status, he is able to learn of Dahlia and Morgan's plan, and contacts Maya's mother, Misty Fey, who had long since disappeared after the DL-6 case several years ago. The two concoct a strategy to stop the plan, forcing Misty to take on the persona of Elise Deauxnim, a children's book author.

The plan is set in motion when Maya decides to visit Hazakura Temple for channeling training. Misty, as Elise, also goes to the temple. During the first night of Maya's training, Pearl attempts to follow the instructions from her mother, but before Pearl can channel Dahlia, Misty channels her first. Dahlia, in control of Misty's body, attempts to kill Maya, but Godot is there, and ends up killing Misty to protect Maya. During the incident, Phoenix is injured and is forced to rest up in a hospital. Iris is ultimately charged with the murder of "Elise", and Maya has gone completely missing. Phoenix enlists the help of Miles Edgeworth to initially defend Iris as he recovers. The trial eventually reveals that Iris is actually Dahlia, who was channeled by Maya into her body to prevent Dahlia from being channeled by anyone else while protecting herself. Dahlia is excised from Maya's body, and the real Iris is found safe, cleared of murder charges but responsible for other act committed as an accomplice.

Two other non-related cases are presented in the game. In case two, he defends a man named Ron DeLite, who is accused of stealing a treasured artifact (Sacred Urn) from a museum. Wright manages to get an acquittal on the charge of theft only to find DeLite be charged again, this time for the murder of Kane Bullard, the CEO of KB Security. DeLite worked at KB before being fired a year before the current case. Wright gets his "not guilty" verdict for DeLite and proves that detective Luke Atmey was the real killer. Later, he takes up and appeals a guilty verdict on behalf of Maggey Bryde. Detective Dick Gumshoe shows him an article that says that he lost a court case. Byrde was convicted for murdering computer programmer Glen Elg. Wright does not remember ever taking up that case. By investigating the crime and finding relevant information, he implicates loan shark Furio Tigre for the murder and demonstrates Tigre's motive. Elg was in debt $100,000 to Tigre, while Tigre owed $1 million to the Cadaverinis, the mob boss family. Elg wrote a virus called "MC Bomber" worth millions to pay off his debt, but at the last moment won a lottery that would have paid off his debt. Tigre, needing the money, killed Elg for the MC Bomber virus, then impersonated Phoenix Wright to ensure that Maggey Bryde was blamed.

The five cases within the game are:

Case 1: Turnabout Memories (思い出の逆転, Omoide no Gyakuten)

Mia Fey's second case as a defense attorney, in which she defends Phoenix, a college student at that time, for the death of another student.

Case 2: The Stolen Turnabout (盗まれた逆転, Nusumareta Gyakuten)

Phoenix defends Ron DeLite, accused of being a famous thief, and later for the murder of Kane Bullard, the CEO of KB Security.

Case 3: Recipe for Turnabout (逆転のレシピ, Gyakuten no Reshipi)

Phoenix defends Maggey Bryde once more, this time for the murder of a client at the restaurant where she works.

Case 4: Turnabout Beginnings (始まりの逆転, Hajimari no Gyakuten)

Mia Fey's first case as a defense attorney, in which she defends Terry Fawles for the death of Valerie Hawthorne.

Case 5: Bridge to the Turnabout (華麗なる逆転, Kareinaru Gyakuten, "Magnificent Turnabout")

Miles Edgeworth and Phoenix defend Iris for the death of Elise Deauxnim.

Music

See also: Gyakuten Saiban 3 Original Soundtrack

Gyakuten Saiban 3 features music composed and arranged by Noriyuki Iwadare.

Trivia

• In one part of Case 3, A woman named Lisa Basil(a palindrome), if she is given something not relevant to glen or others, there will be a dialog in which it breaks the fourth wall:

Maya:Umm, would you take a look at this?

Lisa:I am sorry. That data is Super Admin Restricted Desktop Access password-protected.

Maya:Super Admin Restricted Desktop Access password-protected?! What?! This is madness!

Phoenix: No Maya, that is SPARDA.

Reception

Eurogamer awarded the game an 8 out of 10. Press Start Online were also positive, awarding the game a Silver Award. The game was also rewarded an 8.25 from Game Informer issue 175. IGN awarded the game a 7.7.

Initial sales of the game in the United States exceeded Capcom's expectations, as total online orders through Capcom's store was more than double their pre-sale estimations.

External links

• IGN Preview including first English shots and trailer