Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies

Ace Attorney has returned and it’s wackier than ever. Bringing us new characters as well as the old ones and of course our old favorites are there too. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies is an awesome come back with totally new updated art-style and wonderful 3D effects. Court is back in session!

For those who are unfamiliar with the series’ gameplay, it’s based on simple button pushing to advance the text, flick through evidence and search environment for clues. Even with this simple gameplay, the story more than makes up for it. I found myself hanging around every word the witness says, checking for details in every pieces of evidence, and trying to connect the most of it in my head before the characters themselves find it out in the game. Moreover, when you see that you are right and the witness in front is lying you truly understand what the game is all about.

Dual Destinies has five separate cases, with each case a new character appears, brings out more information from what you have encountered in the previous cases in the courtroom and also gives that epic feeling when you finally end the case.

This game has stood out from its previous predecessors. Helpful dialogue has been added, so you can go back and read past conversations. One of issues with the past game was being stuck at some parts and not knowing what location to go next. This issue has been addressed in Dual Destinies with the investigation memo, a checklist of everything that you need to look into. Previous players of the game you would totally appreciate these improvements.

So let’s see what else has been improved, Dual Destinies is in 3D!!! It has taken the advantages of 3DS hardware and gave us full 3D models for Phoenix, Apollo, and everyone else, which is a first for the series! The animated cut scenes helped me relate more closely to the story, since I’m an avid Anime fan. The new designs were really well done, you can finally see Phoenix raise his hand and show us his epic pose.

I have said many things that are in favor of the game yet still not every game is perfect. There are some cases that are boring to go through, you feel like it’s a drag to play them. The parts that get me most excited in the game are in the court room facing everyone, while the parts investigation segments were terribly boring.

Dual Destinies is another excellent game to the series of Ace Attorney, bursting humor and new personalities, Phoenix Wright fans would enjoy it. It’s story and character development makes the whole game an amazing experience that’s worth playing even for newcomers to the series.