Ace Attorney: Investigations

OBJECTION!

Is a word you will be hearing a lot when you play Ace Attorney: Investigations. While this information is barely relevant, yelling objection is something that I have always wanted to do.

'Why, of glorious Viking Gamer?' I hear you ask.

Well, dear friends, had the gaming gods not chosen me to write about their glorious bounty as only a Viking can, I would have become a Viking lawyer, defending the rights of oppressing and oppressed Vikings.

I had studied all the most Famous Viking cases, my favourite being Helmer vs Isak in the great "I'm sure he was the one who stole my axe before the raid" case which resulted in an entire populous being disowned from their native lands, the future generations of these people forced to endure hardships in a land inhospitable in all ways possible (the most friendly of the native fauna will, in the very least, mug you [look up Grednel Sheep: The worlds most hardened sheep]). An apology was sent when Helmer found his axe under his bed.

Because Viking court must be held in the middle of a battlefield, and the consequences can be disastrous (see above for disinherited populous [PS he's still very sorry]), Vikings must only take the MOST SERIOUS OF CONCERNS before the judge. The Viking lawyers arguing for or defending their clients then engage in battle, not with each other, but with the population of a village or town or city or metropolis depending on the seriousness of the case. The winner is determined either by their ability to logically deduce their cases into an informative and coherent argument which sways the judge into accepting their versions of the event, or their ability in decimating a village or town etc. It's not unusual that Vikings will argue whilst destroying the environment they're placed in as to gain the best advantage possible.

Imagine, if you would, the Viking Gamer as a lawyer. There are only two words I would need to win any case.

Dragon. Punch.


Ace Attorney is a series of investigative/lawyering games that has a range of characters and events you must use your wits, logic and intellect to solve.

While it doesn't exactly reach the professional, delicate and sensitive nature of the Viking law system, it does give us a lot of the experiences that most point and click games have not managed to achieve.

As all of my experience of point and clicks has been on the computer, the first thing I want to say is that the difference between the DS and the computer is amazing. The DS is able to give the player an immersion which is almost impossible to do with a computer. Maybe it's the fact you can travel with the DS, or the pen makes you feel smarter (I know it makes me feel smarter) there is a certain personalization and sense of importance attached to playing the game in this way.

With puzzle point and click games there are only three elements that I explore to determine whether its worth my time playing.

The first is the flow of the game. Some point and clicks I've played have taken so, SOOO long to play due to slow dialogue or clumsy untuned animation which makes experimenting and solving puzzles take as much time as it does for my beard to grow. This is approximately half an hour, and is in some ways not so bad as I need something to do to wait for my beard to grow, so I can plait it and turn up to the raid properly attired (beards are a very important part of attire [imagine your a peasant being raided and Viking WITHOUT A PLAITED BEARD killed you! You'd die of embarrassment and shame.]).

The flow of Ace Attorney is smooth and follows a traditional anime dialogue and action speed. Follows it to a T. I don't really get that saying, but the T it definitely follows.

Depending on how a character speaks and what they say will determine how quickly the less important dialogue appears, and in the case of Ace Attorney, it manages to mimic traditional anime dialogue almost perfectly. Even the ARRRGH's and NOOOOOO's and HOOOOOW?'s seem to last the right amount of time.

The important dialogue, on the other hand, appears at a pace that makes us realise we have to take note of what's being said without the added frustration of being so slow we tear out our eyes in frustration. While the speed and the flow of the dialogue may not seem so important, in a point and click it is of the utmost importance. There are lives at stake. Imagine if you yourself made a point and click that was excruciatingly slow, and someone, say, a Viking, found out where you lived and burnt your house to the ground with your family and gaming consoles inside, you'd feel silly wouldn't you? WOULDN'T YOU!?

The speed and flow of the different chapters of investigation are incredibly well done as well. Each one could be sped through quite readily if you already knew what you had to do. However, if you're not using a walkthrough (which would be stupid, why would you even waste your money? Its a point and click! There is no point [forgive the pun if that is one] to a point and click you know the answers to!) the case requires the player to come up with a reasonable rationale for their various assumptions and logic driven answers, which of course, takes up time, and in my case not that much time because I am a Viking AND a genius.

The second thing to judge is the difficulty+tools. The tools I speak of are not the likes of Kyle Sandiland, but rather refers to the ease and accessibility of important information in the game.

If a puzzle game is incredibly difficult to solve, then it doesn't matter if the tools are great and easy to use because they won't help you in any way can only end in frustration and the disinheritance of an entire population. If the game is very easy but the tools are complex, illogical and almost impossible to navigate, then it can only end with frustration, tears and me curled up in the foetal position in a land where I have just disinherited the local population.

Ace Attorney is only difficult if you don't pay attention and don't give it time, and if you don't it will punish you accordingly. Making mistakes take away from your 'truth' bar and once that reaches 0, you start again. This can be incredibly frustrating if you haven't saved for a while or you are in the middle of destroying a testimony.

The tools are always available for perusing and give you the information you need readily if you are actually prepared to take the time to look for it.

I think this is Ace Attorney's best attribute. It doesn't give you the answers in any way, but the information is always there. It helps you help yourself, like if you've lost your weapon, and you headbutt a peasant who was carrying a pitchfork. You now have a pitchfork for a weapon!

The last, and most important part of any point and click puzzle game is the storyline. You can forgive a shitty flow and speed, forgive difficulty and faulty tools if the storyline makes you really want to continue.

With Ace Attorney, I want to know what the hell is going on. A series of murders, a series of unlikely and extremely entertaining characters and a series of HOOOOOOOOW?'s make this game an interactive anime where the players dedication and achievements push the storyline forward. In effect, you are the awesome attorney Prosecutor Miles Edgeworth, and his arguments and deductive reasoning are your own.

I won't mention any of the story, because it will be up to you, amateur Prosecutor, HOOOOOOOOOOW you figure out who is behind the murders, robberies and suspicious circumstances surrounding the affairs.


I give this game four OBJECTIONS! out of five. This is a good thing. I'm not objecting to the game. Look, if I don't theme the scores to the game then I would just have to use regular numbers, and they're boring. Can numbers move my longboat? No! Can objections move my longboat? NO! So do you see what I'm saying?

Do you?

Til next time, the gamer with horns on his hat.