today i finished [takes deep breath] “phoenix wright: ace attorney: dual destinies,” a nintendo 3ds game published by capcom in 2013. it's the fifth sequential game in the “ace attorney” series, a collection of “whodunnit” visual novels following phoenix wright, attorney at law, and his rag-tag group of spirit mediums, psycho analysts, and... well, lawyers!
i've long had an emotional connection to this series, but at this title's debut a number of things kept me from progressing: my undergraduate studies, the impending release of “the legend of zelda: a link between worlds”, and the seemingly continued departure from characters i had come to know and love in previous games.
anyway, with the covid-19 crisis being what it is, i had decided i wanted to shelve the games currently on my plate (“disco elysium,” and “outer wilds”) in favor of something more uplifting or benign. this took shape as “murder by numbers,” a tidy picross/visual novel by mediatonic, published earlier this month. while charming in its own right (we need more picross games (especially of the 3d variety!)), the style and tone were so referential to the “ace attorney” series (featuring a number of similar-if-not-exactly-the-same sound effects and boasting a catchy soundtrack by noriyuki iwadare, the self-same composer for the “ace attorney” series) that i couldn't help but pine for the source material.
pros: – the sound effects are snappy and classic, further cementing the foundation of this world's physics and welcoming previous fans back to, uh.. definitely “los angeles.” similar to the super mario coin sound effect, the emblematic “objection!”, crowd murmuring, and table slams are all just as iconic for the series. it is asmr to my world-weary ears. – there is almost an underlying language or series of cues that are masterfully set up by the sound direction for this game (the serotonin rush you get when, after presenting a piece of evidence, the music dies and you hear the “wip” of the evidence window open up... lord, put it in a pill!!) and visual presentation of things (character sprites having deep personality expressed via gesticulation and the occasional reward of: character crying... listen, if you've played the games, you know what i mean). – the music is still very, very good. – while corny at times, the theme of this entry to the series was the exact brand of brain-bleach i had been craving. the world exists in the shadow of the “dark age of the law”, where the public has lost faith in the justice system, and all manner of crimes are being committed from those in power. phoenix and company have made it their goal to bring the world out of the dark ages. as our own society grows increasingly antagonistic towards the operation of things (justly so), we are flirting with a kind of deconstructionism that can leave us hollow if we can't find structures to hold on to. this isn't the place for it, but i felt that engaging with this fantasy, that one could bring a society out of its dark ages and into the light by relying on truth and friendship, well... hey, that feels great, man.
cons: – social discourse being what it was (or wasn't) in 2013 and before, i wonder how the certain subplot of a character's gender-reveal would have been received today. it seems incredibly dismissive of the ramifications that it presents (this character's parents had forced their child to present as a “male” in order to... become a prosecutor?), but this isn't the first time that ace attorney games have hand-waved concerning elements. as these games move into more mature settings (this was the first m-rated “ace attorney”), i hope that they stick to their “fantasy los angeles” setting a bit more—not that i don't think games should tread this ground, but that this game universe is ill-equipped for any worthwhile dialogue. – animation house “bones” did some animated video clips for this game. they were, each and every one of them, miserable... what we have here, for the first time (not counting the phenomenal “professor layton vs. phoenix wright”), is the “ace attorney” world rendered in hot 3d. the last thing i needed was to see (and hear...) the newly established (hot) 3d world of this game undermined by seemingly low-budget ova's that make your hot lawyer teams seem like absolute doofs.
what i'm taking with me: in 2020, as my efforts seem a long succession of nothings, i am overcome with emotion to see, reified in a video game about anime-lawyers, that it's not unreasonable to trust, that the truth bears out, that a healthy society needs both mercy and justice. for a week, i was able to become a fantasy lawyer and fight for the sanctity of these truths.
