Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice for All

2002 video game

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice for All is a visual novel adventure video game developed and published by Capcom. It was originally released for the Game Boy Advance in 2002 in Japan, and has since been released on multiple platforms. The Nintendo DS version, initially released in 2006 in Japan, was released in English in the West in 2007. The game is the second entry in the Ace Attorney series, following Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. The story follows Phoenix Wright, a defense attorney who defends his clients in four episodes. Among other characters are his partner Maya Fey, her cousin Pearl, and the rival prosecutor Franziska von Karma. The game is divided into two types of sections: courtroom sessions, where the player cross examines witnesses and tries to uncover contradictions in their testimonies; and investigations, where the player gathers evidence and talks to witnesses. The game was directed and written by Shu Takumi, as the second entry in a planned Ace Attorney trilogy. It was originally intended to feature the first game's prosecutor, Miles Edgeworth, in all episodes; Franziska was created when the development team learned that Edgeworth had become popular among players, and Takumi wanted to use the character more carefully and sparingly. They only introduced one new gameplay mechanic in the game; Takumi wanted to keep the game focused on the core concept of finding lies, and to keep it simple enough for his mother to play. The game was positively received by critics, who generally liked the writing, but criticized the lack of the Nintendo DS exclusive gameplay mechanics that appeared in the previous game. A high definition version of the first three Ace Attorney games, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy HD, was released for iOS and Android in Japan on February 7, 2012, and for iOS in the West on May 30, 2013. Another collection of the first three games, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy, was released for the Nintendo 3DS in Japan on April 17, 2014, in North America on December 9, 2014, and in Europe on December 11, 2014. It was also released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on February 21, 2019, in Japan, and on April 9, 2019, internationally; a Windows version was released internationally on the same date. The PC version of the collection was among the best selling new releases of the month on Steam.

[[File:Justice for All psyche locks. png|thumb|left|Justice for All introduces psyche locks, representing witnesses' secrets. The player breaks the locks by presenting evidence to get access to new information. in which the player takes the role of Phoenix Wright, a defense attorney who defends people accused of murder in four different episodes. During the investigation sections, the player investigates the case to gather evidence needed for the trial; once enough evidence has been collected, the game moves on to the next chapter of the episode. During these sections, the player has access to a menu with four options: examine, move, present, and talk. By choosing "examine", the player can move a cursor around the screen and look at various things in the environment; by choosing "move", the player reaches a sub menu with all locations they can choose to move to; by choosing "present", the player can choose to show a piece of evidence or a character profile to a character at the location; and by choosing "talk", the player is able to pick a topic to discuss with a character who is present at the location. As the player talks to a character, the topics they have already discussed get marked with a checkmark. If the player chooses a topic the witnesses does not want to discuss, the player is shown locks and chains on top of the character, referred to as "psyche locks"; additionally, a lock symbol is added to that topic in the talk menu. By presenting a magatama to the character, the player is able to start breaking the psyche locks and unlock the topics; this is done by showing the character evidence or character profiles that proves they are hiding something. The deeper the secret is that the character is hiding, the more psyche locks appear; by breaking all the locks, the topic gets unlocked and the player is given access to new information. During the courtroom sections, the player attempts to get the defendant the correct verdict by questioning witnesses and presenting evidence to the judge and the prosecutor. Many witnesses lie or make errors during their testimonies; the player is able to move back and forth through the testimony to try to find any inconsistencies. There are two options available during cross examinations: "press", which makes the player question a particular statement, which sometimes makes the witnesses change their testimony; and "present", which is used to show a piece of evidence or a character profile that the player thinks shows a contradiction in the witness's currently shown statement. In the upper right corner of the screen, the player's health bar is shown, representing the judge's patience. The bar decreases if the player makes mistakes, such as presenting the wrong piece of evidence; if it reaches zero, the defendant is declared guilty, and the player loses the game. While the player cannot lose the game while trying to break a psyche lock, the bar will still decrease if the player presents the wrong evidence while trying to break psyche locks. 50% of the bar is restored when the player manages to break all psyche locks on a topic, and 100% is restored when an episode is completed.

Dr. Turner Grey, a private surgeon who lost his reputation due to alleged malpractice that resulted in the death of several patients, requests Phoenix Wright's help in contacting Maya Fey, Phoenix's former assistant who had gone home to Kurain Village to finish her spirit medium training. While performing a spirit channeling on Grey's behalf, Maya apparently kills him under the influence of the channeled spirit. Forced to once again defend her in court, Phoenix faces prosecutor Franziska von Karma, the daughter of his old enemy Manfred von Karma and the foster sister of his old friend Miles Edgeworth, who is presumed to have committed suicide. Teaming up with Maya and her young cousin Pearl, Phoenix uncovers a conspiracy between Mimi Miney, a disgruntled nurse who was the true culprit of the malpractice incident and had been posing as her deceased sister Ini, and Pearl's mother Morgan Fey, who held a deep hatred of Maya's mother Misty Fey. The two plotted to kill Grey and frame Maya, ruining her chances of succeeding her mother as spiritual leader of Kurain, and replace her as successor with Pearl. When Miney publicly confesses to the murder and her real identity, Morgan is sentenced to solitary confinement for her crimes, and Phoenix decides to take Pearl in as one of his assistants. After Maya's trial, Phoenix is hired by policewoman Maggey Byrde, who is accused of murdering her boyfriend, but is attacked with a fire extinguisher before the trial and suffers amnesia as a result. Gradually regaining his memory during the trial, Phoenix exposes Richard Wellington, a con artist testifying for the prosecution, as the true murderer and Phoenix's attacker, saving Maggey. Later, circus magician Maximillion Galactica is accused of murdering his employer Russell Berry in a dispute. Despite Franziska's interference, Phoenix and his team prove that Acro, one of Max's fellow performers, framed him after mistakenly killing Berry, having intended to kill Berry's daughter in revenge for an incident that left his brother comatose. During a party, Maya is kidnapped by assassin Shelly de Killer, who threatens to kill her if Phoenix does not win an acquittal for actor Matt Engarde, who has been arrested for killing his rival, Juan Corrida. As a "present", de Killer stages an assassination attempt on Franziska by shooting her, rendering her unable to act as prosecutor. At the last second, Edgeworth arrives and steps in to replace her. While in court, Phoenix points to evidence that suggests that Engarde's manager, Adrian Andrews, killed Corrida and planted evidence to frame Engarde. However, Phoenix is horrified to later discover that Engarde is actually a cruel psychopath, who admits to hiring de Killer to assassinate Juan to prevent him and Andrews from revealing a scandal that would have destroyed Engarde's reputation. As a result, Phoenix becomes increasingly pressured over deciding whether to convict Engarde at the cost of Maya's life, or acquit him and let Andrews take the fall for his crime. With help from Edgeworth and evidence obtained by Franziska, Phoenix reveals to de Killer that Engarde betrayed his trust and planned to blackmail him with hidden camera footage of the murder. Furious, de Killer cancels his contract with Engarde and declares him his next target; fearing for his life, Engarde pleads guilty and is convicted of Juan's murder. As thanks for Phoenix revealing Engarde's betrayal, de Killer releases Maya, who reunites with Phoenix, Pearl and the others. Edgeworth explains that his absence was spent soul searching for "the answer" as to what it means to be a prosecutor, and he and Phoenix reconcile, while Franziska pledges to renounce her profession in disgrace. Edgeworth confronts her at the airport, where Franziska breaks down and admits her jealousy of Edgeworth and desire to prove herself superior to him, but now feels that she cannot with such huge losses on her record. Recognizing that she needs to find the same answers he did, she returns to her native Germany. There is also an alternate ending where Engarde is declared innocent, and Andrews is subsequently convicted; as a result, Phoenix gives up practicing law and, despite her release, never sees Maya again.

After development of the original Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney was finished, the writer and director Shu Takumi's boss, Shinji Mikami, told him that they should make an Ace Attorney trilogy, with a grand finale in the third game's last case. Development of the game began immediately when Takumi returned to work from his vacation: the producer, Atsushi Inaba, called him in to a meeting, and told Takumi that he wanted him to write the script for five episodes before the game went into full production, with a deadline of three and a half months. Takumi thought that this was "completely insane", as it had taken him an average of more than a month to write each of the four episodes for the first Ace Attorney; additionally, he felt that he did not have any "tricks" left to use for mysteries or any story threads to work off of. He wanted to protest, but still ended up having to do it. As soon as he returned to his desk, he drafted a work schedule: he scheduled two and a half month to write the dialogue, with half a month per episode, leaving him with a month to create the first prototype and figure out the "tricks" to be used in the mysteries. He doubted that he would be able to do it in time, but managed to write the whole script by the deadline. However, due to issues with memory on the game's cartridge, one episode ended up having to be cut from the game; it was later used as the third episode of the third game. Takumi also drew storyboards for the episodes' openings, He also drew rough sketches of cut in illustrations; it was only decided after all the text had been written what scenes would have illustrations made for them. While the game's opening features the judge, it was originally supposed to have featured a demon instead; this was because Takumi was playing Devil May Cry at the time, and had liked its opening. The game's music was composed by Naoto Tanaka under the pseudonym Akemi Kimura. As the dialogue integrated "tutorial" in the first Ace Attorney was well received, the inclusion of one in Justice for All was considered a "major point". While the first game's tutorial involved Phoenix being helped through his first trial by his mentor Mia and the judge, this could not be used twice, which led to the idea of giving Phoenix a temporary amnesia from a blow to the head.

The game was originally released for the Game Boy Advance on October 18, 2002, in Japan; a Nintendo DS version followed on October 26, 2006, in Japan, on January 16, 2007, in North America, and on March 16, 2007, in Europe. A PC port of the Game Boy Advance version, developed by a company called Daletto, was released in Japan in an episodic format, starting on April 15, 2008. A Wii version was released through WiiWare on January 26, 2010, in Japan, on February 15, 2010, in North America, and on February 19, 2010, in Europe.

Starting with Justice for All, the series localization direction has been handled by Janet Hsu; While Hsu thought that this was the right choice to make, as it made the characters and dialogue more relatable and made for an emotional experience closer to what players of the Japanese version experience, it resulted in issues with each following game. One of the first decisions Hsu had to make was how to localize Maya's hometown and the mysticism of the Fey clan. They came up with the idea that the localized versions of the Ace Attorney games take place in Los Angeles in an alternative universe where anti Japanese laws like the California Alien Land Law of 1913 were not passed, anti Japanese sentiments were not powerful, and where Japanese culture flourished. This dictated what should be localized and what should be kept Japanese; things relating to the Fey clan and the Kurain channeling technique were kept Japanese, as that was Maya's heritage, while Japanese foods that were not widely known in the West were changed. For some other characters, the names had to be altered heavily from the Japanese originals. Due to the dramatic feeling of the last episode, the characters in it were given names that sounded more like real names, while still making use of deeper meanings. Takumi personally approved all the English names; for one of the names, Takumi and the localization team had a discussion for days, as Takumi did not think the English name conveyed the same feeling as the Japanese one.

Justice for All holds a score of 76/100 at the review aggregator Metacritic based on 51 critics, indicating generally favorable reviews. Both Harris and Thomas wished that the game had been less linear, with more possible wrong paths to take or more endings. Villoria and East said that the game does not last very long; Walker did not consider it short, but found it to not last as long as the first game. Vore said that the game is lacking in "advanced graphics and interface", but felt that it makes up for it through its charm and intrigue. Thomas called the character designs outstanding, but thought that the reused art assets for returning characters and locations from the first game made it feel like Capcom had "cut some corners". He called the music "uniformly outstanding and used masterfully", both for conveying various moods throughout the story, and for characters' personalities. Harris found the music "moody and appropriate", but wished that there had been a full voice over as an option. He said that the game's art was nice, but not more than that. Thomas called the localization outstanding despite finding some errors, finding it impressive how smoothly Capcom was able to localize such a text heavy game. Harris liked the game's localization, saying that the localization team's writing was what made the game design work so well. Walker called the localization incredible, and said that while there are a few spelling errors and grammatical errors in the text, it did not bother him much as the localization was included in the Japanese Nintendo DS release.