Phoenix Wright: Justice For All is very much like the original, but with a few added tricks. Released in North America January of 2007, Current fans salivated over the new game. Featuring slightly improved graphics, – maybe I’m nuts but I don’t recall moving mouths in the first game – slightly better music, an expanded cast, and a new feature to aggravate the player, Justice For All provides hours of entertaining Lawyer-y fun.
The downside to the game right off the bat is that there are only four cases, unlike the original version which had five. Other than that, this game features many subtle improvements that should not be overlooked. For starters the cases featured are much longer, and in my opinion have better overall stories in comparison to the first one. I didn’t find myself agonizing over useless conversations as much in this addition to the series, though that still continues to plague the series. On top of that, this one did feature more decision points where you are literally grasping at straws as to what the hell to present to what person to progress the story. As a result, you will end up saving and reloading. A lot.
The major feature added to this game are called Psych-locks. Basically, a Phych-lock (which are introduced fairly well, given the outlandishness of the game) allow you to know when someone is lying, and provides you with a sort of mini-game where you break people down. It’s like cross-examining, but ouside of the courtroom. Fun and painful all at the same time I can assure you. The flip side to the game is that every time you screw up, your health is injured and so it forces you to be very sure of what you’re saying first.
The other feature added into this game was an HP bar of sorts. This generally makes the game harder, because there are many ways to lose your HP, but very few ways in which to gain it back (successful Psych-lock breaks, and moving onto the next day). This does add a bit of an edge to the play, because there is more at stake then before and your health does not refresh between court sessions.
The stories get a bit more out there, and I’m personally wondering how many times they can personally include Mia in the cases. Thankfully these Turnabouts were far more engaging than the first installments’, and I look forward to playing the third to see where they go with the writing. Having said that, there are grammatical and spelling errors to be found in this translation but I didn’t really notice that many, and so I personally didn’t care. This really comes down to how much of a Nazi you are for it. The characters seem a bit more animated (and violent) which helped with the grueling task of having to interrogate everyone.
Totally worth playing, and doubly so if you’re a fan of the first one. My only problem is that there really isn’t much in the ways of replay value. As a result I would say rent it, but unless you plan to do nothing but play this game, chances are you wont have enough time to do so.
Buy it and keep it on your shelf like a good book. You can always replay it way down the road when you’ve forgotten everything!
8/10
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