Those that love the Ace Attorney games tend to love games that are visual novels, particularly those rooted in the mystery genre. In terms of gameplay, puzzles are most suited for Ace Attorney fans as well.
While that story may sound quite different from Ace Attorney, its main commonalities are in its gameplay, mechanics, visual novel style, and memorable characters. Every time a student is killed, the player must solve the mystery of who among them is the killer.
First released in 2001, Ace Attorney is a series that influenced many games and other facets of pop culture after it. The series was beloved enough to get its own anime, manga, drama CDs, spin-off games, musicals, and even a live-action movie.
While it may seem like just a cute joke from its title, Aviary Attorney is a game well-loved by all who have played it. The game takes place in France during the 1840s. Players take the role of Jayjay Falcon, a lawyer.
Grim Fandango actually predates Ace Attorney, having been released in 1998. However, Ace Attorney players are still bound to love it. Set in the Land of the Dead, the game is rooted in film noir traditions and puzzles, and keeps the story very focused on conversation. The game won a ton of awards and it is not unusual to see it listed as one ...
Like Ace Attorney, the game has a lot of wit and charm. It turns out to be a lot of fun when you're the person actually trying to get away with murder . Gameplay includes planting evidence and framing others. The game is full of dark humor as well.
Like Ace Attorney, the games are visual novels with welcoming gameplay elements mixed in. For example, the DS touch screen was used a lot for the mechanics of this series.
For the purposes of this article, I have looked over each major Ace Attorney game and spinoff. Every game has its own details on when events take place, allowing them to be described on a case-by-case basis. If simply going through the games according to when they (mostly) take place, this would be the best order to go about it.
Trying to follow the games as they happen can be a little more than challenging, as you can see. Part of why the series is structured like this is to fill in some gaps, set up interesting plot threads, and provide simple tutorials that still allow fan-favorite characters to show up.
One of The Great Ace Attorney's additions to its gameplay is the joint investigation system involving Herlock Sholmes. Called the "Dance of Deduction," in these segments, Sholmes uses his logical reasoning to construct conclusions for events.
For example, one of the main characters is Herlock Sholmes and there's also someone named Iris Wilson, references to Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, respectively.
Here, instead of cross-examining one witness at a time, players take on a whole group of witnesses at once. The witnesses can alter their testimonies based on what they overhear the other witnesses saying, making for a chaotic and very fun time.
Once Sholmes reaches his conclusion, players have the opportunity to find contradictions in his reasoning and examine the situation further, possibly arri ving at a conclusion completely different from the one provided by Herlock. This deduction mechanism is new to the series and is full of charm and character.
One of the other new features that The Great Ace Attorney offers is its auto-advancing story mode. This feature actually involves two parts: autoplay and story mode itself. Autoplay might be familiar to you if you're a fan of text-heavy games or visual novels, where the text continues to scroll without you having to press a button for it to advance.
The last Ace Attorney game released worldwide was Spirit of Justice, back in 2016 for the Nintendo 3DS. The series is known for its clever writing and for being high-quality detective games with unforgettable characters.
One of the many reasons why The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is so hotly anticipated is because of its director, Shu Takumi . Shu Takumi is the legendary director and scenario writer for the original Ace Attorney Trilogy, as well as Ghost Trick: Phantom Device.
Let’s start things off with the newly-announced game, The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. This is actually a collection of two games previously released only in Japan for the 3DS and mobile devices, Dai Gyakuten Saiban and Dai Gyakuten Saiban 2 (now officially titled The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures and The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve in English). While the main series is set in the near future, these are far-distant prequels that take place in Meiji era Japan and star Phoenix Wright’s ancestor, Ryunosuke Naruhodo. After traveling to Britain in order to continue studying, he crosses paths with none other than Sherlock Holmes–or rather, Herlock Sholmes. Yes, Capcom decided that for the Western release of these games, it was safer to go with the time-honored tradition of renaming Holmes to Sholmes.
The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles will be out on July 27, bringing these prequel spin-offs to the West at last. If you’re a newcomer to the series, there is also a special bundle called the Ace Attorney Turnabout Collection that bundles The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles together with the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy.
Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth for the Nintendo DS starred the prosecutor Miles Edgeworth instead of a defense attorney. That wasn’t the only way in which it departed from series tradition, however.
Your first thought might be to credit Capcom with thinking up yet another wacky Ace Attorney name, but “Herlock Sholmes” actually goes all the way back to 1908, when author Maurice Leblanc decided to put his character Arsène Lupin up against Herlock Sholmes to avoid the legal trouble with using Holmes. Sherlock Holmes is mostly in the public domain now, but a few of the later stories remain copyrighted. That was believed to be one of the most likely issues keeping the Great Ace Attorney games from being localized until now, so it seems Capcom decided to err on the side of caution.
The Phoenix Wright Trilogy. Now let’s move on to where it all began. The series started with Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, a game released for the GBA in 2001 in Japan, and followed shortly afterward by Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice for All and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations. All three then came to the Nintendo DS, ...
While the main series is set in the near future, these are far-distant prequels that take place in Meiji era Japan and star Phoenix Wright’s ancestor, Ryunosuke Naruhodo. After traveling to Britain in order to continue studying, he crosses paths with none other than Sherlock Holmes–or rather, Herlock Sholmes.
A couple years later, it got a sequel… only in Japan. Sadly, Gyakuten Kenji 2 has never received an official localization despite being highly praised for its story (which includes a flashback case where you play as Gregory Edgeworth) and improvements over its predecessor.
Probably best play order would be 1-3, then the two Investigation games, then 4-6 and then the two TGAA games.
Ace Attorney 3 is a masterpiece. Play them all in order.
Bruh, you're in for a real treat. As others have said, the original trilogy is a great starting point!
Ace Attorney hypothetically can be played out of order, but you really shouldn't.
I mean I'm not sure how else you'd get into it? The base 3 games hold up better than the stuff after, with the exception of Investigations which is pretty neat. And the later games in the series expect you to have played the trilogy.
Blackquill might seem like a Godot ripoff because of their quirks, but he still develops through the game in character unlike Godot, who only softens and realises his folly at the end.
Athena being as incompetent as AA1 Phoenix makes sense as she has literally no court experience prior to this game. I felt that she does mature as a character over time.
DD isn't even the highest game in his ranking ... And while I personally prefer AJ to DD, the stakes in AJ's final case are significantly lower than the stakes in DD's final case.