… but still fantastic. Probably the biggest let down is that the excellent music from the first game has been changed, and the new themes just aren't as good. The ‘reversal’ theme in particular is much less powerful than in the first game. Positive changes include the new Psych Lock system, which makes the investigation phases much more enjoyable, although they're still not as much fun as the courtroom sequences. As for the story, it continues that of the first game nicely, with some good new characters and the welcome return of some more familiar faces. Although overall the story isn't quite as strong, it's still a lot of fun and contains some memorable moments and great cases. It's also a little longer than the first game (if you don't count the bonus case), with one short introduction case and then three long ‘full cases’. The difficulty is also slightly higher than the first game's, and the progression of clues slightly less logical. However, this doesn't hamper the fun of the game at all. The translation is similar to the first game's, in that it attempts to ‘localise’ the game by placing it in America rather than Japan (not very ‘local’ for us New Zealanders, but oh well). In my opinion a lot of the changes don't make much sense, but all in all it's a decent attempt at translating a very Japanese and ‘punny’ game for a Western audience, and it uses Western pop culture references to good effect.

All in all, a good follow-up to the excellent first game, and a nice precursor to the (in my opinion superior) third game. Recommended to all adventure fans, or anyone looking for something a little different and very engaging.

This game is unusual mix of visual novel and quest, second in series. I love quests in general, but this game series is one of my favourite: solid characters, storyline with twists, bits of mystics, fun situations – very enjoyable experience with huge emotional attachment to characters. You play as Phoenix Wright who defends innocent (or sometimes not that innocent if case is twisted) persons in court, he objects statements, presents evidence and somehow progresses in order to deliver justice as for him court and lawyers roles are not just to defend or prosecute. He meets a lot of unique, but somehow very familiar, characters you can easily remember after playing the game. Games in trilogy are related, but each can be played independently, though I recommend to play them all from first to third in the correct order. Game mechanics are similar with slight changes between games. Game is very popular and have anime and manga adaptations (however, adaptations are not really outstanding, so can be ignored). If you like this game, check “Apollo Justice” and “Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth”, which are follow ups with with new characters and similar gameplay in court, but with new game mechanics and somewhat detached from trilogy storyline .