Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies

Genre: Visual Novel / Graphic Adventure

Players: 1

.

Review:

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies, released on Nintendo 3DS in 2013 and ported to mobile devices in 2014, follows a long period of time after 2007’s Apollo Justice: Attorney where the only releases in the Ace Attorney series were the Miles Edgeworth spin-offs and the crossover game Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Dual Destinies is the long-awaited fifth mainline entry in the series, and like other games in the series this is a title that combines Visual Novel and Graphic Adventure elements, with a plot focusing on courtroom drama and crime investigation. Set one year after the events of Apollo Justice (albeit with a nonlinear plot that jumps back and forth in time), Dual Destinies has players following the courtroom antics and investigations of Phoenix, Apollo, and new attorney Athena Cykes.

This is the first release in the series made specifically for the Nintendo 3DS, and it shows when it comes to the presentation – all of the characters are now represented by anime-style fully-3D character models with phenomenal cel-shading and some of the best animation on the Nintendo 3DS. For backgrounds, Dual Destinies combines a few different elements in a clever way to give players the impression that they’re doing more than they are – while the backgrounds are mostly 2D, some minor 3D elements and some brief occasional 3D transitional videos blend into these backgrounds so well that it could be easy to be fooled into thinking there’s more 3D going on here than there actually is… and then you encounter some locations that are fully 3D and allow the player to see them from multiple angles. To top all of this off, the game punctuates its different scenes with anime-style animated cutscenes. The result is a game that looks absolutely great, but also feels a lot more fluid and dynamic than earlier games in the series.

All of this is backed by the series’ usual catchy synthesized soundtrack and occasional voice clips, although in the animated scenes you do get to hear a bit more character speech than you normally get in these games, which is nice (although it does highlight how much better this game would be if it was fully voiced).

The gameplay here is much the same as earlier games, although there are a few new twists. Once again, the gameplay alternates between a courtroom drama where players must search for contradictions in witness testimony while they work to defend their client, and an investigation that has them searching crime scenes for clues. This time around, the ability to see some crime scenes from multiple angles gives players more to work with, and in addition to Apollo’s ability to detect when someone is hiding a secret, now you have Athena’s ability to detect when someone’s emotions don’t fully match what they’re saying.

However, possibly more important than all of these elements is a number of new quality-of-life changes. You now have a full transcript of what characters have said that you can consult (a common feature of Visual Novels, oddly absent from this series until now). You can move to any location from any location, rather than having to go through each location to get to the place you need to be. And when you examine a crime scene for clues, the cursor not only tells you when it’s over a place you can examine, it tells you if you’ve already learned everything you can from looking at that spot.

I think that probably this game’s weakest point is its plot – not only do you not have the enticing overarching mystery of what happened to Phoenix Wright that Apollo Justice presented players with, but Phoenix himself is back to his old goofy self here, losing the wonderful mature and slightly mysterious nature he had in the prior game.

Still, despite my disappointment in the story of this game, overall I think Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies represents a huge step forward for the series, with the presentation in particular making a huge jump into the world of 3D that looks outstanding and really compliments the gameplay well. I should note that in the US, this game was only released in digital form, meaning that when the Nintendo 3DS eShop closes in March 2023, this game will become permanently unavailable (save for the mobile port). If you’re a fan of the series, do not miss your chance to grab this game while you still can!

tl;dr – Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies is the fifth mainline game in the Ace Attorney series of Graphic Adventure / Visual Novel games with a courtroom / detective theme. This game follows series protagonists Phoenix Wright, Apollo Justice, and new character Athena Cykes, in a non-linear story. While I don’t think this story is nearly as engaging as the prior game, the improvements made here to both the presentation are phenomenal, and quality-of-life improvements to the gameplay are much appreciated. The result is one of the better games in an outstanding series. This game is only available in digital form in the US, so if you’re interested, snatch it up quickly before the 3DS eShop is closed permanently in March 2023.

Grade: A-

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