Board game for the lawyer in all of us...

The Ace Attorney games are known throughout the Internet for the “Objection!” and pointing and ridiculous prosecutor theatrics. Most of the fandom loves what takes on inside the courtroom as opposed to outside. The fact that the courtroom theatrics is what gets fans to talk about Ace Attorney, I would think that the hilarious comedy of this part of the game would make an interesting board game. But I would think that Phoenix and Edgeworth would have to be the main characters.

The board might be set up so that one person is the defense attorney (Phoenix), and the other is the prosecutor (Edgeworth). The art would look just like the court room in the game, with the lawyers (and pictures of them) on opposite sides and the judge (nonplayer) on the top. Witness stand in the center. Maybe colorform witnesses or something. Haha Remember colorforms?

The players would agree on a case from the beginning off the game, out of about five in the manual. One witness would come with each case, and the prosecutor would have twenty incriminating (but hilarious) witness statements to use against the defendant (HOLD IT! cards). On the defendant’s side, the player would be given fifteen evidence/people cards to use against the prosecution (TAKE THAT! cards). Each player would start out with a certain amount of points, and losing a round would cause the player to be penalized points by the judge (who is not actually a player, but he’s got a position on the board).

Each TAKE THAT card would have two different evidence weaknesses that would cause the prosecutor to lose points if the defendant uses one of those cards in the turn. The same goes for the defendant, although neither player knows of the other’s weaknesses. Round scenario: If the defendant rolls a higher number on the dice, then the defendant gets to pick any card from his deck of evidence. The prosecutor would have to guess which of his incriminating statements proves that evidence wrong (meaning, which statement is the weakness to that evidence). If the prosecutor guesses right, the defendant is penalized. If prosecutor wrong, than prosecutor is penalized. However, the defendant’s HOLD IT card gets to be recycled into hand if he loses the round, and discarded if he winds. The prosecutor must discard his TAKE THAT card if he wins the round, and recycled into hand if he loses. The game ends when someone loses all of their points.

Player is allowed three OBJECTION! cards each game. An OBJECTION forces the player who goes second in the round to rely on chance for picking either they TAKE THAT or HOLD IT cards. Also, if the players tie when they roll the dice, Maya and Detective Gumshoe have a burger and sausage eating contest that takes soooo long that Phoenix and Edgeworth are forced to decide who goes first in a rock-paper-scissors match.

Oh, and you have to shout OBJECTION! HOLD IT! and TAKE THAT! every time you use one of those cards. It’s an Ace Attorney thing, lol.

And now for the good parts..

Just kidding. Now it's time to talk about all I things that went oh so wrong while I was playing Apollo Justice. While the characters and plots were exciting and hilarious, I must admit that the interface wasn't what I would have chosen for a lawyer game where you also have to be a private investigator, body guard, and babysitter. I would think that the manual interface for something like that could be Gamecube or PS3. I say this because the DS does not work particularly well for games that require hours of extensive evidence investigation. I would personally be more comfortable sitting in front of my TV to figure these cases out. But that's just me. I like to play the quick and easy games on my portable handheld consols.

Speaking of handhelds, the DS touch screen was barely utilized for anything of importance. Getting the fingerprints and footprints and analyzing evidence would have been just as easy had I only had one screen and controls to mash. Reminds me of my latest favorite game (also for the DS): Pokemon Platinum. The touch screen is for lame applications that you could probably access and use without a dual screen.

Apollo Justice is a weird genre. It's not RP, because there's hardly any management over characters. It's similar to adventure, I suppose. But I wish this were a little more well defined. I can't control what Apollo says or does inthe situations I put him in. The story plays out like a novel, and the levels I get through act like keys to access the next page in the story. I would have enjoyed a little more choice in what I communicate to other characters. Presenting specific evidence in court does not account for the fact that there are many logical things I could be getting Apollo to understand.

Level design- the environment is not elaborate enough to be murder scenes. There are NEVER police, and there's just too much comedy. Unrealistic settings make for unrealistic actions needed to be done to finish the level and get one to the court case. The anime-like atmosphere and jokes may compliment the characters a bit, but certainly not the topic of the game. A courtroom is serious business. Why they let witnesses and potential walk in with knives and rotting fish...well it just doesn't make sesne for the game. I understand the comedy the developers were aiming for...but no. Just no.

It's strange how the characters and the plot can somehow still be okay despite the interface and other issues. One wold think that all of those things would need to compliment each other. There were so many unnessesary activities that the poor defense lawyer had to do (while being followed around by Phoenix Wright's dangerously annoying daughter I might add)...one such activity being fingerprinting. Since when does a defense lawyer have to go to the scene of the crime and do the police's job? Plus, there's really no strategy or skill involved in taking a fingerprint. I'm waiting for the game where Apollo gains x-ray vision from an ankle bracelet and suddenly can see into the minds of the witnesses. And of course, he'd get to ask all the questions. I would have to sit back and wach the novel play out.

What the heck was Apollo Justice good for?

The strengths of the Apollo Justice game, as with all of the Ace Attorney games, is in the characters and storytelling. I could not have picked a more hilarious and interesting group of characters for a court room if I tried. The hero's journey was well defined in all four cases, and each case had it's own tiny climax that helped build up the background storyline for the final case (which always personally involves main characters in the defendant's chair for some reason. Probably to intensify dramatic tension.) I loves how my attention got shifted constantly throughout the investigation, as the little character driven side quests were always fun and always helped me find evidence for the case.

The characters were my favorite element of the game. Absolutely fantastic. Of course, I've always been a sucker for amazing character-driven stories, so I might be a little biased here. A lot of people enjoy games that allow for good player interaction and gameplay. I, instead, go for the games that can give me the best story of my life without too much complicated controls and gameplay. Good thing there was no time limits either. I would never had been able to investigate everything and learn about all of the characters without doing things at my own pace. Fantasy characters and the anime-like artistic setting allowed for an anime fan like myself to enjoy such a "Visual Novel" type game as Apollo Justice. I did, in fact, learn to love Apollo as the game progressed. And this is important for the creation of a good hero character. If a player feels as though they hate the protagonist, or if the protagonist is not getting anhy better at whatever they do, then the player will feel detatched from the game. This was definietly not the case. Heck, I even started to appreciate the pretty boy rock star antagonist, Klavier Gavin. But mostly because the script's dialogue and character interaction kept me either laughing or on the edge of my seat. Yes, it's totally possible to be on the edge of your seat when playing a handheld videogame.

I would say that the interface for Apollo Justice was strong enough that at least it was worth playing on a Nintendo DS. The adventure-specific features and the ability to save any time were also very appropriate for the type of game. A handheld device is definitely the best platform for a lawyer game that requires the same concentration as a well-developed novel.

Winning the case

@_@ Wrote this post but completely forgot to post it last week in the midst of all my paper stress. Wow, I coulda sworn I posted it. So...I guess I lose the game of life, but at least I don't lose Apollo Justice.

Again, there's only one winner in Apollo Justice, unless of course you count the defendant as a winner along with you as the attorney. Getting a Not Guilty Verdict is the game's win condition. Hardly any strategy guides or explanations are needed to understand that. The game is a little odd in that you have to win 4 times in 4 separate cases in order to finish the game. However, what you do to win one case has virtually nothing to do with the cases that follow. They are separate episodes only linked together through characters development.

The game's victory conditions are mostly based on Apollo being competent enough at defending to get a Not Guilty verdict. There are four victories- and like I said, each case had the same win condition of getting a Not Guilty verdict for your client. Certainly, there are many things the player must investigate and unlock in order for this to occur...but in the end you are only trying to win the case as a defense attorney.

I wish there were multiple victory conditions, but the story doesn't really work any other way than defending someone in court. Implicit loss conditions are the same, of course: you lose if you get the Guilty verdict. You cannot run out of resources unless doing so is part of the storyline the game is taking you through. Basically, everything happens for a reason. You can't lose evidence and you can't die. The only way to fail is to lose points in court by presenting incorrect evidence or statements. The player is only interacting with the platform, and there is no competition between the player and other players. This means that it is only YOU who can make yourself win, and only YOU who can make yourself lose. If you fond everything and save your game before difficult court questioning, there should be no reason for your player to lose the case. But even then, you are only required to start again from the last place you saved.