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Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All (逆転裁判 2, Gyakuten Saiban 2; lit. "Turnabout Trial 2") is the second game in the Ace Attorney series, and is set about a year after the events of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Unlike the first game, there are no Nintendo DS-exclusive cases in the DS release of Justice for All. The game was brought to the Wii as a downloadable title via WiiWare, and was released in Japan on January 26, 2010 (priced at 1200 Nintendo Points), North America on February 15, 2010 (for 1000 Nintendo Points), and Europe on February 19, 2010 (for 1000 Nintendo Points). The game is also available on the Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One and Steam as part of the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy.

Episodes[]

  1. The Lost Turnabout: Just before entering court to defend police officer Maggey Byrde on the charge of murdering her coworker and alleged boyfriend Dustin Prince, Phoenix Wright is struck on the head and contracts amnesia. Despite having no memory of who he is or how to do his job, Wright must battle his amnesia to acquit Byrde.
  2. Reunion, and Turnabout (takes place before The Lost Turnabout chronologically): Maya Fey is once again accused of murder, with the victim this time being a doctor who was with her in a sealed room in her home village while attempting to channel a former colleague of his. Wright again defends her, only to face Franziska von Karma, the whip-wielding daughter of Manfred von Karma, at the prosecutor's bench. While investigating Kurain Village, Wright learns more about the family of his assistant and meets Maya's little cousin Pearl Fey for the first time.
  3. Turnabout Big Top: Wright defends Max Galactica, a flamboyant magician accused of murdering the ringmaster of the circus where he works.
  4. Farewell, My Turnabout: As a television star is found murdered, Wright discovers that Maya has been kidnapped. The defense attorney finds his morality tested as an anonymous caller demands that he get the prime suspect a complete acquittal, or else...

Main characters[]

Justice For All art

Clockwise from top-left: Franziska von Karma, Miles Edgeworth, Pearl Fey, Phoenix Wright, and Maya Fey.

  • Phoenix Wright - A defense attorney with several cases under his belt who is the main character and controllable protagonist of the game.
  • Maya Fey - Wright's assistant. She is the defendant in Reunion, and Turnabout, aids him in his investigation during Turnabout Big Top and is kidnapped in Farewell, My Turnabout in an attempt to blackmail Wright.
  • Pearl Fey - Maya's younger cousin. She helps Wright in his investigations during Reunion, and Turnabout and Farewell, My Turnabout when Maya is absent due to either being detained by the authorities or kidnapped respectively.
  • Mia Fey - Wright's former mentor. Though she is deceased, she can still assist Wright thanks to the spirit channeling abilities of Maya and Pearl Fey.
  • Franziska von Karma - The daughter of the feared prosecutor Manfred von Karma and a formidable prosecutor in her own right. She is Wright's main rival in the game.
  • Dick Gumshoe - A bumbling homicide detective who happens to investigate all of the cases that Wright works on. He works under Franziska von Karma during the game.
  • The unnamed judge presides over all of the cases in the game.
  • Miles Edgeworth - Wright's rival in the first game, but shortly after writing what appeared to be a suicide note, he disappeared and he has not been heard from since the events of the first game. He returns in Farewell, My Turnabout as an acting prosecutor.

Characters by episode[]

The Lost Turnabout[]

  • Winston Payne - The prosecutor.
  • Maggey Byrde - A police officer with terrible luck and the case's defendant.
  • Dustin Prince - Byrde's alleged boyfriend and the case's victim.
  • Richard Wellington - A self-proclaimed "Drifting Virtuoso" looking for the "right" college who is a key witness.

Reunion, and Turnabout[]

  • Lotta Hart - A photographer.
  • "Director Hotti" - A perverted patient at the Hotti Clinic who claimed to be the clinic's director.
  • Morgan Fey - Head of a Fey clan branch family, as well as Pearl's mother and Maya's aunt.
  • Turner Grey - A short-tempered doctor who becomes the case's victim.
  • Ini Miney - A college student and key witness.
  • Mimi Miney - Ini's deceased sister.
  • Ami Fey - Ancestor of the Fey clan and founder of Kurain Village.

Turnabout Big Top[]

  • Acro - A former acrobat who is now confined to a wheelchair.
  • Bat - Acro's comatose brother.
  • Regina Berry - Russell Berry's naive animal-tamer daughter.
  • Russell Berry - The Berry Big Circus ringmaster and the case's victim.
  • Max Galactica - A flamboyant magician and the case's defendant.
  • Moe - A clown who constantly makes bad jokes.
  • Money - The Berry Big Circus's monkey.
  • Regent - The Berry Big Circus's tiger.
  • Benjamin Woodman - A quiet ventriloquist who communicated mostly via his "ill-tempered" puppet, Trilo.
  • Léon - The Berry Big Circus's late lion.

Farewell, My Turnabout[]

Gameplay[]

All gameplay elements from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney are carried over for Justice for All. This includes the two phases of gameplay, investigations and trials. In investigations, Wright has the ability to move to or examine various locations, and talk or present evidence to witnesses. The player now also has the ability to present profiles to witnesses, a feature not included in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. In trials, gameplay mostly consists of witness testimony and cross-examinations. When a witness testifies, the player will then have to cross-examine the witness, which means either pressing a statement for more information, or presenting evidence that contradicts the testimony. Presenting evidence during cross-examinations is most often the only way to progress in trials.

Magatama[]

Main article: Magatama
BigggggMagatama

Wright's magatama, imbued with Pearl's spiritual power.

During Reunion, and Turnabout, Wright obtains a tool called the magatama as a gift from Maya Fey. Pearl Fey gives spiritual power to the magatama, imbuing it with the ability to see secrets. During an investigation, if a witness is hiding a secret, the magatama will activate, revealing a certain number of Psyche-Locks. These Psyche-Locks are manifestations of how guarded a witness is, and represent how difficult it will be to get the witness to reveal their secret. The player will need to break each Psyche-Lock by presenting the correct evidence to the witness. If the player presents wrong evidence, they will receive a penalty. If the player receives enough penalties as to completely deplete the credibility bar, the player will have to restart the interaction completely. Once all locks are broken, the witness will reveal their secret, and some of Wright's credibility bar will be restored.

Development[]

JFA logo

The Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All logo.

After the end of the development of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Shu Takumi took a sizable break from the company. When he returned, development for a sequel was greenlit, and Takumi was required to write the game's entire script within three and a half months, which included adding one more case compared to the four in the previous game. Takumi estimated he took about a month to create the scenario for one episode of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, meaning he'd have to drastically speed up the process to complete the game's script. After thinking it through, he realized that he could get it done if he spent one week coming up with the scenario of each episode.[1] To help with the process, Takumi often drank alcohol while writing the script.[2] He eventually managed to finish all five episodes within the three and a half months.[1] Draft notes revealed by Takumi in 2017 show that story ideas for each episode were being written in the summer of 2001, before Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney had even been released.[3]

After Takumi had started writing the scenario, a producer called him up to discuss the elements of the game. The producer asked Takumi to add a new element to the investigation parts. Takumi describes coming up with the idea of Psyche-Locks right then and there, describing it as simple enough for his mother to play it, while staying true to the idea of seeing through lies. While the idea came naturally, actually implementing the idea into the game was more difficult, as Takumi had trouble coming up with a visual representation of Psyche-Locks.[4]

During the development of Justice for All, the team was faced with what Takumi described as two major problems. The first was that Miles Edgeworth became exceedingly popular. Due to this, Takumi scrapped the idea of Edgeworth coming back for each case in the second game. This was due to Takumi not wanting Edgeworth to lose to Wright constantly, and bringing his abilities into question. To avoid that problem, Takumi developed a entirely new rival, who would end up becoming Franziska von Karma.[5]

The second large problem was the lack of memory on the Game Boy Advance cartridge. The game was originally envisioned to have 5 episodes, but due to lack of space, this was cut down to only 4.[5] This led to a massive restructuring of the game's plot, and the scrapped case being repurposed as Recipe for Turnabout for the third game, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations.[6]

Justice for All is notable for being the first game to have Janet Hsu head localization. Since then, Hsu has been head translator for every mainline Ace Attorney game. When they began localizing the Ace Attorney series, the first game had already been localized and released. Because of this, the setting of the games was already set, taking place in Los Angeles, California. At the time, Justice for All was not planned to be released to the West, so Takumi wrote explicitly Japanese elements into the game, such as Kurain Village and expanding the Fey clan as an ancient Japanese family of spirit channelers.[7] This left Hsu with a dilemma for translating the game for the West. To justify the non-western elements, Hsu envisioned an America where the California Alien Land Law of 1913 was never passed, so Japanese immigrants could still own land in California.[8] This has led to the world of Ace Attorney being unofficially called Japanifornia by fans and Hsu.[9]

Staff[]

Uncredited[]

Motohide Eshiro was the producer of the Nintendo DS releases of Justice for All and Trials and Tribulations.[10]

Gallery[]

[]

Promotional artwork[]

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Takumi, Shu (2002). "Gyakuten Saiban 2 Blog Entry 3: Battlefield (1) (2002)". Retrieved 2021-06-04.
  2. Takumi, Shu (2002). "Gyakuten Saiban 2 Blog Entry 4: Battlefield (2) (2002)". Retrieved 2021-06-04.
  3. Ash (2017-10-11). "Twitter: Box of Memories (2017)". Gyakuten Saiban Library. Retrieved 2022-11-16.
  4. Takumi, Shu (2002). "Gyakuten Saiban 2 Blog Entry 5: Psyche Locks (2002)". Retrieved 2021-06-04.
  5. 5.0 5.1 Takumi, Shu (2002). "Gyakuten Saiban 2 Blog Entry 11: Farewell, My Turnabout (2002)". Retrieved 2021-06-04.
  6. Takumi, Shu (2004). Gyakuten Saiban 3 Blog Entry 11: Turnabout Recipe. Retrieved 2021-06-05.
  7. Hsu, Janet (2017-11-18). "The Making of Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, Feat. Shu Takumi". Retrieved 2021-06-04.
  8. Hsu, Janet (2014-11-21). "Localization and Ace Attorney". Retrieved 2021-6-4.
  9. Hsu, Janet. (2014-10-31). "Ace Attorney Trilogy – Surprising Tidbits You Never Knew!" Retrieved 2021-06-04.
  10. Ash (2016-09-12). 3DS Gyakuten Saiban 5 Special Long Interview (2013). Gyakuten Saiban Library. Retrieved 2022-10-13.

External links[]

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