Pheonix Wright: Justice For All

So, we’re a spiky-haired defence lawyer in a sharp blue suit, and we’re on the trail of a killer. The criminal in question is a member of the circus, accused of the murder of the ring master. Your client is a multi-millionaire magician, and you’ve still got a burger-munching spirit medium as your assistant.

Looks like not much has changed from the first game, then.

Well, a fair bit has changed, but at core, the game’s identical to before. Now instead of five ‘!’s, you’ve got a ‘Life Bar’, so Capcom can change the penalty you get a will, and then there’s another major new Gameplay mechanic, but we’ll get to that later.

If you enjoyed Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, (And if you didn’t, you’re dead inside.) then you’ll find more of the same here. There’s four new cases, and while it’s not as many as either of Wright’s two other titles, (They both have five. Apollo Justice, on the other hand, has four, yet their longer.) their almost defiantly more enjoyable than the first game’s cases.

The title opens with a new case entitled ‘The Lost Turnabout’, which kicks it off with a surprising turn of events, before leading onto ‘Reunion, and Turnabout’, which has Phoenix visiting Maya’s hometown, as he’s put on trial for murder. This case also introduces two things, new for Justice for All.

First of all, there’s Pearl Fey- Maya’s cousin, who acts as a “Second Assistant”, but more importantly, you first gain the Magatama right there, right then. This is the ‘Major new Gameplay mechanic’: It allows Phoenix to see when a witness is lying (But only outside of court), and pick apart their lies through presenting evidence. It works well, and is actually rather rewarding, even if it’s occasionally annoying when you smash your way through all of the Psyche-Locks (The name of the things that show their lying) only to find that you don’t have the evidence for the last one, and have to re-do it at a later date.

You'll also face the daughter of Manfred Von Karma from Case Four of the original. Franziska Von Karma is never seen without her whip-Even in court. While this may sound funny or whatever to some players, she gets tiresome after a while, yet the ending brought us to like her.

The court presedings are as good as ever, and writing is far funnier this time round. (There’s a couple of references to various films, books and other games hidden, including High School Musical, Sherlock Holmes and Legend of Zelda) There’s no DS-Exclusive case, but you’re best off playing this one anyway. The final case is utterly superb, and ‘Big Top Turnabout’ is better than the original’s equivalent, ‘The Turnabout Samurai’.

There’s also a number of returning characters, so we’d really not recommend it unless you’ve played through the original. Afterall, Number 3 is just round the corner, and you’ll want to have seen it all before trying out those Trials and Tribulations…

Again, watching a Witness' faces as they break is fantstic. However, there are more bland backgrounds than ever here. Boo.

Do Do, dah dah dah! Dah dah dah, dah dah, dah dah, dah.. daaaaah!! Dah do do dah dah do do, dah do dooo....