Tell me more: Gyakuten Saiban - Ace Attorney

So here's a thing. Please tell me EVERYTHING about it!

I only ever played the first game (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney), because it came out on IOS. It was awesome.



There is a LP ongoing for this right here.
Short summary in the case you don't know anything about this game:

I love this game, it is awesomely overacted, lots of drama, crazy plots, fabulous protagonists, all kinds of japanese anime shenanigans. Spirit mediums. Secrets from the pasts. Sophisticated revenge plots. Whooa.

If you don't play it on a crappy phone, but on a NDS, you can ACTUALLY SCREAM THE COURT COMMANDS to make everybody around you uncomfortable. OBJECTION!!!!!! The first game is also available on Wii Ware, so alternatively you can point your controller directly and meaningfully on the lying witness. HOLD IT!!!!!

Unfortunately, I've only ever played the first game, and the European release order of the other originals is somewhat wrong (part 4 came out before part 3?). There's also crossover appearances. And a manga. And a wonderful, wonderful movie (so wonderful!) by TAKASHII MIIKE (yes, that one). There is a thread for this movie right here.

And I really need help to find out which sequel and prequel games exactly are out, where, on which plattforms, which languages, which mangas are available, and generally speaking ALL of the things Gyakuten Saiban!!

Which is why I didn't put this in "Game Discussion" or the LP (as we now have a new forum for this, right?), because I really want to talk more about the everything, the fan art, the story, and all things around it as well. So this is the forum for it?

tl;dr: Please post awesome fan art and enlightening info on this game series here.

The game order is Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney -> Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice for All -> Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations -> Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney.
They're out in Japanese, English, French and German. Maybe also Italian and Spanish, but I'm not sure about that.
A fifth game staring Phoenix again is in the making at the moment. I believe it was already confirmed to get an American/European release, too.

Spin-offs so far are Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (released in Japan, America and Europe but ONLY in English)and a sequel called Ace Attorney Investigations 2. This one is only available in Japan, with no plans to bring it over.
There's also a Layton/Wright crossover game for the 3DS, called Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney. It'll be released in Japan tomorrow. Not sure if it was already confirmed for an international release, though.

The English language releases are all for the DS, the fifth game will be for the 3DS.

Edit
ALSO! The series spawned two Takarazuka Revue musicals. If you like crossdressing women and musicals, check it out.

A movie based on the first game recently came out. I think they showed it at a few conventions over here, but I'm not too sure if there are any actual plans to bring it over.There are subbed versions out there somewhere if you're looking for it. I've never actually played the first game, so I don't know how true to the source it is, but it is remarkably silly and the actors are cute.
Trailer:


edit: Also forgot that Pheonix appears in Marvel vs Capcom too!

I am tagging Ingmar in this thread because he has a crush on Edgeworth.

I'm in love with this serie although they could have refrained from spitting out that ridicolous apollo justice chapter. bleh.
The cases range from silly to brainwrecking, the characters have a good developement and there is some good plot going on that links the first three games (and to some amount also the gyakuten kenji episodes).

I will refrain from posting fanart because I'm a huge P/E fan *goes to hide*

Stupid sexy Edgeworth. I got the first game years ago and it was love at first sight. Only guy who can work the purple suit plus froofy cravat thing he's got going on.

To all new and old fans alike, I highly recommend checking out the LP of it going on in the Something Awful forums right now because it has translations of Capcom's AA dev blog and commentary on the localization, which are absolutely fascinating to read. Just scroll down to the second post to get to the index for all the extra commentary.

Pffft, who doesn't?

Oh hey there fellow P/E fan! Here's a soul-crushing take on how a P/E romantic relationship would realistically play out after the events of Apollo Justice!

(I highly recommend the rest of the author's AA fics, by the way. I haven't read fanfiction in years because so much of it is dreck but I really enjoyed how IC her characters are and the way she fills in the gaps in canon. For example:

)

A wild Anabanana appears! Where've you been, Ana?

Hey Nebty! I just got reallllly busy in the "real world" for a bit, so I tried to cut myself off from the internet (specifically, this place and Facebook) for a bit so I could focus. And then I got busy with even more stuff. But then I decided I missed this community too much so now I'm here again, yay! And just in time for some really spiffy forum re-organizations too, it looks like... *stares around shiny new subforum in awe*

I like Mia better. Oh, and Franziska.
Also - hi Ana, visit us in IRC as soon as you're done with NaNo!

Did I mention that PW:AA 5 will feature full voice acting? Because it will. The actors from the live action movie will provide the voices, if I'm not mistaken.
Also, here's a trailer

My favourite characters are Godot, Franzy's dad, Nick, Edgeworth, and Mia, roughly in that order depending on my mood. To go into detail about why would be spoilers, so I won't, haha~

Will do!

This and Fire Emblem: Awakening are really making me want to get a 3DS, even though I hate the 3D gimmick thing. Blech. Why can't all the games I like just come out on Steam?! That would make life soooo much easier...

What do the four different smileys all around the witness do in that trailer? Does anyone know?

I'm trying to get the second game (that should be "Justice for all", right?) for christmas to finally catch up with everything.

What is that "investigation series" all about?

Edit: Skipped Anxifera's post... but happy to hear the Layton/Wright-crossover is finally published!

The smileys are a new system that's going to be in the game. Depending on which one you pick, Phoenix will show a different emotion and the witness will react to that. In some cases, you have to be angry to get a statement out of them, etc.

The second game is Justice of All, yes.

Investigations is you playing as Edgeworth. There are no court scenes, but you're still doing cross examinations. Is pretty much playing the part before a case is brought to court, if that makes sense.
And Layton vs Wright doesn't have an international release date yet.

Apparently, it's some kind of emotion manipulation system. No clue about the details though.

That's right!

It features Miles Edgeworth as the protagonist and is focused on investigating crime scenes instead of courtroom shenanigans, hence "Investigations". Basic game mechanics are pretty much the same - you're still interrogating witnesses, just in the field instead of in the courtroom - and they added and tweaked some minor stuff that ultimately doesn't really change the feel of the gameplay.

No clue about the Professor Layton cross-over. I'm under the impression that it'll definitely be localized though, so there's that.

EDIT: Anxi is a ninja! *dodges shurikens*

So here is a question I have, I play a LOT of video games but for some reason this series has slipped by me. So if I want to play these should I start with the first one? Are there any I should skip? Does it matter which one I start with and which order I play them in?

I've heard conflicting things, some are good that one wasn't etc, so now there a a bunch of them and I don't know where to start. Any help would be appreciated both from me (who wants to play these) and from my husband (who needs christmas gift ideas).

Thanks!

I would recommend to start with the first game and then play them in order. You will enjoy the games a lot more that way.

The fourth game (Apollo Justice) is often considered to be the weakest, because it breaks with the traditions. It's still a solid game, though.
A lot of people also don't like Justice for all, because it had a few weak cases. However, at the same time the last one is regarded as one of the best in the whole series.

It ABSOLUTELY matters.

Playing these games out of order would be like watching Goblet of Fire before Philosopher's Stone, or something like that. You can definitely do it, but it'll take a lot of the enjoyment out of it. You wouldn't start reading a trilogy with the second book, would you? (I've actually done that before and regretted it immensely *sob*)

I would say that the first three games, Phoenix Wright, Justice for All, and Trials and Tribulations together form one complete story arc, or the Phoenix Arc, as fans like to call it. You can choose to play Apollo Justice (which features a different main cast) if you want, but it's not necessary unless you really like the series and you really want more of it (unless you're planning on getting the upcoming AA5, in which case playing AJ is probably a good idea). I would recommend that you NOT play Apollo Justice before the Phoenix Arc.

Ace Attorney Investigations is a spin-off featuring a character from the original games. You should probably give them a go if you're a fan of the character in question (Edgeworth). (That is, if Capcom ever decides to localize them...)

Just get the first game, Ace Attorney: Phoenix Wright, and finish it. If you like it, get Justice for All and Trials and Tribulations and play them in that order. After that you should be able to decide for yourself whether you want to try any of the other games in the series.

More like on Kay Faraday and Franziska Von Karma. /eyebrow waggle

ok and Edgeworth too

That sounds like a challenge.

THIS THREAD GOT AWESOME, THANKS NEBTY <3

Anyway, speaking of the actual games, I would agree that the Apollo Justice game is the worst of them, though it isn't bad and has some neat systems in it. The plot is pretty well full of holes and it does a totally insufficient job of explaining the setup at the start; specifically it just doesn't pass my sniff test that

It just feels like major plot fail. If you can accept the backstory the rest of it holds together fine-ish, I guess, more or less. The other major strike against it is watching that goddamn music video 32 times (damn you, Lamiroir!)

I also really, really liked Ace Attorney Investigations, and it chaps my hide that #2 isn't getting an English localization.

There's a decent amount of love going into fanprojects like PyWright, which a game engine built to emulate the series so you can make your own cases.
Additionally the first game has been made into a musical which is kind of fun. http://www.pwmusical.com/

About that:

Oooooh yeah.

There's a partial LP of it on Youtube somewhere which translates the game as it goes. Unfortunately, it seems like it's been abandoned for now. /sigh

Ace Attorney is really awesome! I wound up playing the third game first by accident (I got it as a birthday present) and I understood it fine.

I will soon have the offical Takarazuka DVD of their first Phoenix Wright musical (there are at least 2, and I think they're doing one based on Investigations as well).

Also I ship Franziska/Adrian (from the second game) and Klavier/Apollo (from the fourth. I liked the fourth game quite a bit, actually. I don't think I had the same attachment to Phoenix everyone else seemed to because I played the games out of order...)

I think the emotional impact of the third game is really lessened if you play that game first, sadly. It IS the grand finale of Phoenix's story, after all.

Nick's character development is amazing if you play the games in order. I didn't think I'd like him at first, but he really grew on me over the course of the games. AND HE LOOKS SO COOL IN AA5!

I still refuse to believe anyone except Edgey can pull off that look. Prove me wrong. ;)

*thumbsup* No problem. I expect pictures.

I'm assuming everyone's already been here, right? For people less familiar with the series, it's an excellent gateway drug.

Closing my eyes and scrolling to the bottom just to say: I WILL JOIN later! I've been too busy to take the time to write out and post on the thread, but I AM playing, and there should be an update soon since I write a little bit each time I have 10 minutes, and it's not long until I have enough to make some posts (at least I'll try to get to the court day).

GUYS

I HAVE PW TAKARAZUKA

IT IS AMAZING

Edgeworth is 100% perfect. Maya doesn't do much, though, and no channeling. =(

Both, the first one or the second one? I've only seen the first one so far, I don't have money to buy the second on DVD. And now they're working on a third one. My love for crossdressing women will be my ruin.

Only the first one. I couldn't understand much (read: almost none of it) but it was amazing!

There are fansubs out there. Search for user kiyoshimitsu on Livejournal.