With the 25th anniversary of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney approaching, I couldn't help but think of all the messages I've gotten throughout the years from people who've told me that my unadulterated passion has nudged them toward the series. Many of them understandably don't know where to start, and so I decided to make a little post to lay out how incredibly accessible the world of Ace Attorney truly is.
If you've ever found yourself on the fence for any reason, this post is for you. Even if it's not, please reblog it! I would love to get more people into the series that rather unexpectedly changed my life and gave me brain slugs.
LET'S GO
Okay, so like, what is Ace Attorney? Like, it's a game, but wtf do you do?
It's a visual novel, actually, with gameplay elements.
Classic whodunnit murder mystery style VN. It inspired the likes of Danganronpa, which you may or may not remember was huge on tumblr back in the day. You play as a rookie attorney as he finds his wings in the world of criminal defense, and the gameplay loop consists of investigation-style point-and-click segments, and logic puzzle/debate segments in the court room.
You know way less about Ace Attorney's story & characters than you probably think you do.
You have no doubt seen bits and pieces of the story, or at the very least you have seen fanart of the blue one making out with the other guy (he looks like a dragonfruit smoothie covered in half-used kleenex), but I cannot stress enough how unprepared I personally was for the story. AA is one of those fandoms where the anoying fujo shipping culture greatly overshadows the canon and the depth of its characters.
I famously grew up on an internet that loved Ace Attorney and centered it greatly in the cultural zeitgeist, but despite only following lesbians I only found out five years ago that there are women in this game. Not only are there women in this game, but they are the central characters, and some of the best and most realistically written I have ever seen.
Did you also know that there are supernatural elements to AA? Spirits and magic feature heavily and are inextricable from the story. This is not just a boring legal drama!
Most of this is overshadowed by the Hawt Yaoiz because fandom is famously misogynistic, but unfortunately their frothing obsession over the dragonfruit smoothie man is not entirely misplaced. I will say with my whole chest here that Miles Edgeworth is one of the best characters in the history of fiction, and he is the reason I developed brainworms over AA.
BUT DID YOU KNOW HE ALSO HAS A HOT, MEAN SISTER WHO'S TEN TIMES COOLER AND MORE COMPELLING?
Yeah, me either. D-Don't look at my icon, don't worry about it.
Are the lawyers actually gay?
No. But I can't stress enough how little that matters, because they are actually in love, and the fact that they are in love is by far the least interesting thing about them as people.
Trust me.
Okay, so how do I play it?
Pick a system.
No, legiterally. What's your preference. The entire trilogy is bundled on it.
Here it is on Steam. Here it is on xbox. Here it is on playstation. Here it is on switch. Here it is on the fucking app store. Android too.
It regularly goes majorly on sale on all these platforms. I've seen it get as low as nine dollars, which equates to 3 bucks per game.
Are you broke? A rom for PC is probably not hard to find.
Do you have a modded 3DS? Download it for free off the homebrew store.
I cannot stress enough how easy it is to play Ace Attorney.
Wendy, that's great, but I hate this genre. Is there any way I can... avoid playing it?
Hey, me too!
No, really. I hate playing Ace Attorney! I do not like Ace Attorney-likes, either!
I hate logic puzzles, I hate using my brain in this specific way, and I hate trying to figure out murder mysteries.
"But Wendy, you are still insane about Ace Attorney. You have written over 300,000 words of Ace Attorney fic and run an Ace Attorney-themed youtube channel."
YES!!!!!!! IT IS THAT GOOD!!!!!
I got into Ace Attorney because I was lucky enough to have a friend who offered to stream their playthrough. But there are so many good youtube LPs you can watch. I personally recommend:
Press Buttons and Talk (a HUGE favourite of mine)
RTGame (mostly good, though he does listen to his chat a bit too much RE: forming opinions on the game)
Pixel Partners (haven't watched the whole thing, but my friends can vouch)
Lucahjin (same as above)
My favourite LP of all time, the one I am BEGGING you to choose above all else, is Crystaahhl's. She does not allow her chat to sway her play style/opinions. She is earnest, emotional, passionate, and unapologetic. She frequently starts streams with "okay so I was thinking about this case all night and here's my notes." And you get to watch her fall in love with the characters and story, feel openly, cry and laugh and scream, and become a genuine fan. I watch her LP whenever I need to be reminded of why this is my favourite series ever. Please watch her playthrough.
(avoid The Game Grumps' playthrough at all costs. please.)
What if I don't want to watch some youtube joe play the games?
Watch. The. Anime.
Listen to me. LISTEN TO ME.
Many people, some of them likely in the reblogs of this post, will tell you the AA anime is bad. They will tell you it is supplemental, and that it is not a replacement for the games, and under NO circumstances should you ever like or appreciate it. They will tell you that watching it as a new fan is the worst thing you can possibly do.
DO NOT LISTEN TO THEM. EVEN IF THEY ARE IN THE REBLOGS OF THIS POST. I, OP, AM TELLING YOU TO REJECT THEIR ADVICE AT ALL COSTS.
I like the AA anime more than the games, and I will proudly flaunt that fact whenever I am given the chance. I like AA for the characters, not the gameplay, so the anime is my favourite of all. It is not bad, it is not ugly or poorly animated, and it is not a sad imprint of the games it is based on. Immeasurable love and care has been poured into the anime, and it is true to every character it portrays and expands upon.
I know many, MANY people who started with the anime and got into the games later on out of sheer need to consume everything AA they possibly could. If you are like me and you don't place a lot of stock in figuring out the mysteries yourself, WATCH THE FUCKING ANIME.
And seriously, don't check the notes of this post. There will no doubt be hundreds of people debating why I am wrong. But I have never, ever been wrong about Ace Attorney <3
It's on CrunchyRoll. It's probably on whatever bootleg anime streaming site you prefer. You don't have any? Message me.
Subs or dub?
Personally I prefer the dub because I think Yuki Kaji is a weird pick for Phoenix / Ryuuichi (despite my love of him), but the script is tighter in Japanese and you miss out on Aoi Yuki as Maya / Mayoi in English. That said, I do mainly watch the dub and stream it for friends, I think it's one of the better dubs out there for sure.
Anything else?
Yes. If this post gets you into Ace Attorney, you must do two things for me.
Please reblog it!
PLEASE TELL ME ALL YOUR THOUGHTS. MY ASK BOX IS OPEN. PLEASE. PLEASE BLOW IT UP. PLEASE TALK TO ME ABOUT ACE ATTORNEY. I'M SCREAMING.
"why do lesbians complain so much that huge amounts of people don't consider stories about two women to be interesting when they aren't even personally interested in being writers" - extremely measured and fair critique coming from someone who is definitely huge woman enjoyer
i love ghost trick because you'll click on any item like a book or something and sissel's sprite with the stupid smile pops up with the dialogue box saying "i don't remember what books are 😎"
I love my top two favorite pokemon. one is a mythical space virus alien who is a looming threat in space-time that takes a legendary dragon who quells the fury of the land and sea legendaries and my top favorite is a pink mermaid friend who loves singing and making balloons when they were younger
if you geniunely believe all the assistant characters are the same or have the exact same personality idk what to tell you besides the fact you weren't paying attention. they're so intrinsically different and distinct from each other from design to personality it geniunely baffles me how people think kay acts the same as trucy who acts the same as Maya. like idrc if you like them as a character or not, but saying their characterization is identical is like.
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