Phoenix Wright is basically a visual novel with some interaction which mainly consists of logical and deductive reasoning to choose the correct option/object. There's lots of reading, so it is a slow-paced, casual game.
The game was originally released on the Nintendo DS, so this PC version (as part of the Ace Attorney Trilogy) contains new artwork suitable for a larger monitor. In terms of audio, there’s simple music, and beeps for scrolling text, thuds and simple sound effects for the animé reactions. The only voice acting is the simple exclamations like “hold it!”, “objection!”, and “take that!”.
The game is mostly still images with limited animations for the characters. The visual style is very much based on Japanese anime; so expect exaggerated reactions, demonic rage expressions, and sexualised characters.
There's a small aspect of the game that is fantastical which is that Mia appears as a spirit to help Phoenix, often channelled through your assistant Maya or her cousin Pearl.
The game is set in a world where the trial happens a few days after the murder. I’m sure the game doesn’t portray the job accurately either. Do lawyers do detective work? Phoenix seems to pry and do his own investigation. I also don't think you can just present evidence in court without it being declared up front, but suppose it is more dramatic. You are up against different prosecutors based on the story, and in this game, you battle against Franziska von Karma (daughter of Manfred from the first game), the mysterious Godot, and main rival (but now friend) Miles Edgeworth.
There’s recurring characters from previous games and some new characters showing up across multiple episodes. Detective Gumshoe is the main character from the police that you interact with and he seems to be written dumber than usual.
There's two styles of gameplay locations; the courtroom and outside the courtroom. Outside the courtroom, you will be searching a few locations by clicking a few objects in the scene to trigger some dialogue. A magnifier icon shows what you can click in the scenes. Usually this triggers a bit of banter but can find useful objects that Phoenix will refer to in court. Most objects are irrelevant but there's some that will become evidence, or trigger dialogue options with other characters. You need to find key items or trigger key dialogue in order to progress. Sometimes this aspect can be frustrating as certain characters will only appear once you find information; so you might visit a location to find that no one is there, but simply by speaking to someone unrelated means you can then go back and someone is now there. It means you end up just trial-and-erroring through the locations rather than logically going somewhere.
The locations are just static scenes, and some are over multiple screens so you select the option to "slide" over one screen. Navigation is clunky because you navigate from one location to another using the menu, but can't go directly to a specific location. For example, if you are in a kitchen and want to go to the Detention centre, then you have to go to the restaurant, then the Detention Centre.
Once you have found all the key info, then you then play the next part of the story in the courtroom. Here you hear the witness testimony. Witnesses are often vague and miss details. Witnesses love lying to cover up often trivial matters. After their testimony, you can revisit the dialogue line by line and either "Press" them for more information, or "Present" them with evidence to point out a contradiction. Sometimes you need to really think to present evidence, but there can be times where you think you have found a contradiction or discrepancy but the game hasn't allowed for that.
There isn't a penalty for pressing the witness on every line they say, even though the prosecuting attorney will often accuse you of badgering their witness. You have to use the option to find the line that will trigger more detail out of them because it really could be any of them. There was one part where I thought I had pressed on each line, but there was one that I missed, then I got frustrated trying many evidence objects to find something. Once you have found a discrepancy, then they will revise their testimony, and you can press further on their new statements.
As well as evidence, you can present people’s profiles (introduced in the previous game). This can be to select who you believe is involved, or to present some detail you have learned about them.
The Psyche-Lock feature also returns where people outside the trials will withhold information, and you have to present evidence like you do in the trials to prove you know they know something. This usually involves multiple evidence. These aspects can be quite vague on how you solve them; where you may present strong evidence that you know something but it’s not the correct item to use yet (but will probably be used for the next question).
One criticism I had with the previous game is that there wasn’t really an overarching plot. This game does a much better job and focuses on the mystic Fey family. The stories are often long, very convoluted murder plans, with very suspicious witnesses. It does get a bit mind-bending trying to work out if the stories actually make sense, especially the final chapter. I’m pretty sure the whole drama could have been avoided if someone would have explained the situation to Pearl.
The times where you work something out and correctly present the correct evidence on the correct line is very satisfying, but it’s not always possible when the story is convoluted.
It would be useful to have an in-game notepad for non-evidence clues. Sometimes Phoenix refers to someone's dialogue that you read 20 mins ago and could have easily forgotten or skipped the text when you first came across it. What happens if you put the game down for days? there's little chance you would remember. At least when the evidence has a text description with the contradiction you need, you can at least solve that section yourself rather than relying on trial and error.
There’s a lot of clunky aspects to the game which haven’t been improved from the first game, which makes it drag out for a bit longer than it should. It took around 25 hours to get through it as well, so it’s not something you can rush through.