Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney First Impressions
First impressions seems slightly misleading, as I've been through the whole game in about a week.
So I played through Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney in the last week. Ultra short review: Quite enjoyable, though definitely one of the most linear games I've ever played. Though you can save at anytime, there are certain parts where it says "To be continued" and brings up the save menu, so more than an interactive movie it feels like you're in an interactive mystery manga or anime with a few dozen chapters/episodes. Much of the game is text, so luckily the localization is good and the characters enjoyable.
(When asked for more information from a friend):
There are two main parts to the gameplay. One is investigating. You navigate through whatever areas are pertinent to the case, examine the scene for evidence, and try to get information from people. Sometimes you'll need to point out a piece of evidence to them to get them talking about it.
The other part is the trial. The witness will give their testimony, and then the defense will have their chance for cross-examination. Essentially this goes through the testimony again, but for each block of text you have the ability to either "Press" to ask them to be more detailed about what they've said, or point out a contradiction with evidence by way of "Objection". By discovering and pointing out the contradictions, you eventually work through the inaccuracies or lies of the witnesses and come to the truth of the situation. If you make too many incorrect Objections it's Game Over (or Guilty in this case), but if you come to something you're not sure about you can just hit Start and save so not much time will be lost.
The court system would be really screwed up for reality, but works for a game. After being arrested for a crime, trials start the next day. Trials can only last 3 days. Witnesses tend to think being a witness is glamorous, and they'd be betraying justice if they actually tried to help the defense. So for the longer cases it will go back and forth a few times from investigation to trial, with the judge eventually agreeing that more investigation needs to be done, though it can't go beyond 3 days. It seems more like "guilty until proven innocent", because even if you've spent 2 days of trial pointing out reasons why the defense couldn't have commited the crime, if you only half show that someone else is the likely culprit, once you've screwed up enough the defendant will still be found guilty.
That's how the game plays, but an equally big part is just the text. If the characters were all boring, so would be the game. But it remains entertaining enough to hear what stupid thing Detective Dick Gumshoe has done, or to try to get information from the cranky security guard Ms. Oldbag. Possibly the weirdest witness is one Sal Manella, who speaks in l33t.